食神 · Eating God

shíshén · the element your Day Master produces, of the same polarity

食神 Eating God, shíshén, is one of the Ten Gods of BaZi: the name for a stem of the element your Day Master produces, with the same polarity. For a 辛 Yin Metal Day Master, that stem is 癸 Yin Water.

The Ten Gods are not deities. They are the ten possible relationships between your Day Master and any other stem, named for what that relationship does.

What flows out of you easily. Traditionally read as expression, craft, enjoyment and output that comes without strain.

How it is worked out

Metal produces Water, and 癸 is Yin against a Yin Day Master, so the relationship is Eating God. Had the stem been 壬 Yang Water, the same relation with opposite polarity would be 伤官 Hurting Officer instead.

Where you meet it

• Above each pillar in the Pro chart view, naming that stem’s relationship to you.
• On Luck Pillars and annual years, where each decade and year brings its own stem.
• Inside branches, through their hidden stems.

No Ten God is good or bad on its own. What matters is whether the element it brings is one your chart wants, which is a question about the whole chart and not about the label.