The 60 Day Pillars in BaZi:
How to Read Yours

Someone builds their chart, finds the Day Pillar and sees two characters, say 甲子. From there, two roads. You can open any site with "meanings of the 60 days" and read that "Jia Zi is a leader with a sensitive soul." Or you can ask where a phrase like that comes from and what actually stands behind those two characters. The first road takes a minute and teaches nothing. The second takes an evening, but afterwards you can read any of the sixty pillars the same way.

In Korea this genre is called 일주론 (iljuron, "the study of the day pillar"): a huge body of writing where each of the sixty pillars gets its own description. In Japan, pairings of "day pillar plus life stage" are popular (for example, a 日柱 in the 帝旺 stage). We won't retell sixty ready-made portraits here. We'll take apart what any of them is made of, and then you can read your own pillar yourself. The full table of all sixty (calculated by the site's engine) sits in the middle of the article.

You can find your Day Pillar in the BaZi calculator: it's the third pillar in the table, with the Day Master on top.

1 What the Day Pillar is, and why there are exactly sixty

The Day Pillar (日柱, rì zhù) has two characters. On top is the heavenly stem: this is the Day Master (日主, rì zhǔ, which sounds the same as 日柱 but is written with a different character), the element and polarity (Yang or Yin) through which the rest of the chart is read. The ten Day Masters are covered in detail in a separate article. Below is the earthly branch of the day (日支, rì zhī). Classical tradition calls it the "Spouse Palace" (夫妻宮, fū qī gōng) and links it to close relationships and everyday support.

Why sixty and not the hundred and twenty you'd get by freely combining ten stems with twelve branches? Because Yang stems pair only with Yang branches, and Yin stems only with Yin branches. That gives the cycle 六十甲子 (liù shí jiǎ zǐ, "the sixty Jia Zi"): it starts with 甲子 and ends with 癸亥. It moves one step each day, and after sixty days it starts over. So you have exactly one Day Pillar, and people born sixty days apart share it.

2 The three layers behind every pillar

For each of the sixty pillars you can work out three objective features. They're calculated mechanically and need no intuition. One caveat: schools differ on the life-stage rule for Yin stems and for Earth, and below we say which rule the site's engine follows. These three features are what stands behind most "day meanings"; ready-made texts just don't explain it.

Layer one: what the Day Master sits on

Classical texts call this 坐下 (zuò xià, "what you sit on"). Take the day branch, find its main hidden stem (more on these in the article on 藏干, cáng gān), and see what it is to the Day Master in the system of the Ten Gods (十神, shí shén). If the main hidden stem gives the Day Master a resource, it is said to "sit on a Seal" (印, the Resource stars). If it holds the Day Master's own element, it "sits on a Shoulder." If it holds what controls the Day Master, it "sits on an Officer" or on "Seven Killings." This sets the theme a person comes home to every evening.

Layer two: the stage in the twelve-stage cycle

The Day Master's element passes through twelve stages, 十二長生 (shí èr cháng shēng, "the twelve stages of the life cycle"): from "birth" through the "peak" to the "tomb," then "extinction," "conception" and back to "birth." That means every stem has a branch where it's firmly rooted and a branch where it barely holds on. For Yang stems the cycle runs forward around the branches, for Yin stems backward. The site's engine follows the classical rule: 戊 follows 丙, and 己 follows 丁. The stage names are symbolic. 病 ("sickness"), 死 ("death") or 墓 ("tomb") say nothing about health or lifespan: they're a metaphor for the element's strength in that branch, nothing more. Everything about the stages is in a separate article.

Layer three: how the elements of stem and branch relate

Ordinary five-element logic applies here. There are five possibilities:

• same element: the stem stands on "its own ground";
• the branch produces the stem: the person sits on a resource and has something to draw on;
• the stem produces the branch: strength flows downward, a theme of giving and expression;
• the stem controls the branch: below it is something it manages, a theme of wealth;
• the branch controls the stem: it sits under pressure, a theme of authority and discipline.

Layers one and three always point the same way: the main hidden stem of a branch has the same element as the branch itself; layer three just doesn't distinguish Yang from Yin. Only the stage can argue with them. When it agrees, the picture of the pillar comes out sharp. When they disagree, it comes out with depth, and that's exactly where a real reading begins instead of a horoscope label.

3 One branch, five different pillars

The scheme is easiest to see if you fix the branch and change the stem. Take 午 (Wǔ, the Horse): it holds 丁 and 己, and the main one is 丁, Yin Fire. Now see what it turns out to be for different Day Masters, using the table below:

• 庚午: for 庚 (Yang Metal), 丁 is 正官 (zhèng guān, Direct Officer): order, rules, discipline;
• 甲午: for 甲 (Yang Wood), 丁 is 傷官 (shāng guān, Hurting Officer): self-expression, a sharp tongue;
• 丙午: for 丙 (Yang Fire), 丁 is 劫財 (jié cái, Rob Wealth): the same element in the opposite polarity;
• 戊午: for 戊 (Yang Earth), 丁 is 正印 (zhèng yìn, Direct Resource): support, backing, study;
• 壬午: for 壬 (Yang Water), 丁 is 正財 (zhèng cái, Direct Wealth): what one manages and holds on to.

The branch is the same Horse every time. A person with 庚午 and a person with 壬午 sit on completely different things. So "the character of the day branch," taken apart from the stem, decides nothing. You have to read the pair.

4 The table of all sixty day pillars

How to use it: find your pillar in the second column. From left to right you then have the Day Master, the branch with its hidden stems (the main one first), the role of the main hidden stem among the Ten Gods (layer one), the stage in the 十二長生 cycle (layer two), and a mark for a special pillar if it belongs to one of the four classical groups (see section 6). Layer three you'll see for yourself by comparing the elements of stem and branch.

5 Five examples: reading from the table

We go through the three layers, with no ready-made descriptions. All values come from the table above.

甲子 (Jiǎ-Zǐ): sitting on a Seal

The Day Master is Yang Wood, the branch 子 (Rat) with a single hidden stem, 癸 (Yin Water). For 甲, Water means 正印: resource, support, study. Layer three agrees: Water feeds Wood, so the branch produces the stem. The stage 沐浴 ("bathing") is transitional: neither the element's peak nor its decline. So this Day Master has something to draw on from below, but it isn't rooted in its own element: it lives on water while the water lasts. That's a condition. How it plays out in life depends on the birth month and the other pillars.

丙午 (Bǐng-Wǔ): the element sitting on itself

Yang Fire on the Horse; 午 holds 丁 and 己, the main one 丁. For 丙 that's 劫財, the same element in the opposite polarity. The stage is 帝旺 ("peak"). All three layers say the same thing: the Day Master's element is at full strength here. The table gives this pillar the mark 日刃 (rì rèn, "blade of the day"), more on it below. What the chart does with that strength depends on the rest. If the birth month also feeds Fire, the chart will have a great deal of one element. If the month cools or drains it, it's the same strength put to a different use. These questions are covered in Strong or Weak Day Master.

辛亥 (Xīn-Hài): giving downward

Yin Metal on the Pig; 亥 holds 壬 and 甲, the main one 壬. For 辛, Water is 傷官. Metal produces Water, so the stem gives its strength to the branch: layer three confirms layer one. The stage is 沐浴. The theme this pillar leads to is self-expression and the spoken word. It's useful to compare it with 甲午 from the previous section: that one also "sits on Hurting Officer," but its stage is 死 ("death"), meaning Wood is weakened in the Horse. Same god, very different footing.

戊戌 (Wù-Xū): the storehouse

Yang Earth on the Dog; 戌 holds 戊, 辛, 丁, the main one 戊. For 戊 itself this is 比肩 (bǐ jiān, Shoulder to Shoulder): the same stem, a second copy of itself. The element is the same, so layer three is about "its own ground." The stage is 墓, labeled "tomb/storage" in the table: for Earth, the Dog branch is where strength is put away in reserve. That doesn't mean weakness: 戌 contains 戊 itself, so the Day Master's root is solid. The mark in the last column is 魁罡 (kuí gāng): a classical name for the pillar, covered in detail in Kui Gang. The name sounds fierce, but it's simply the name of a group of pillars.

癸卯 (Guǐ-Mǎo): giving while gaining strength

Yin Water on the Rabbit; 卯 holds a single stem, 乙 (Yin Wood). For 癸 this is 食神 (shí shén, Eating God): Water produces Wood, so the stem gives to the branch, as with 辛亥. But the stage here is 長生 ("birth"): the element is gaining strength. The mark is 日貴 (rì guì, "noble of the day"): for 癸, the star 天乙貴人 (tiān yǐ guì rén, "Heavenly Noble") falls on 卯 and 巳, and the Rabbit is this day's branch. More on the star itself in 天乙貴人.

6 Special pillars: four classical names

Some rows in the table are marked. These are classical names for groups of pillars that have settled in the tradition; there are no verdicts in them.

7 The Spouse Palace: reading the lower half of the pillar

The day branch is traditionally the partner's place, and its main hidden god colors the theme of close relationships. An example for a man's chart: if the main hidden stem in the day branch is 正財 (the wife star in a man's chart), the table gives 戊子, 壬午, 己亥 and 癸巳. For a woman's chart, 正官 (the husband star) does the same: 丙子, 庚午, 丁亥 and 辛巳. The result is "the partner star in its own palace." That's a condition: partnership lies close to the surface for such a person, but how it turns out isn't decided by this pillar. How BaZi reads marriage is covered in detail in Marriage in BaZi.

There's a second side too: the day branch can interact with the branches of years, covered in detail in the article on branch clashes. A fresh example: 2027 is 丁未, and the branch 未 (Goat) clashes with 丑 (Ox). So the day pillars 乙丑, 丁丑, 己丑, 辛丑 and 癸丑 get a clash on the Spouse Palace this year. Tradition reads it as a year when home life and close relationships come to the fore and ask for attention. "Divorce on schedule" doesn't follow from it. At the same time, 未 forms a combination with 午: for 甲午, 丙午, 戊午, 庚午 and 壬午 the day branch "binds" with the year. For the year's general picture, see the 2027 forecast.

8 What the Day Pillar doesn't tell you, and how to find yours

A common mistake is to think the Day Pillar describes a person entirely. It gives a theme and a starting footing, but not the Day Master's strength. That's set first of all by the birth month (月令, yuè lìng; covered in detail in Month Command), and only then by the rest of the chart. Example: two people with 壬子. One born after 立秋 (lì qiū, "Start of Autumn," around August 7–8), already in the autumn month 申, gets Metal from the season, and Metal produces Water. One born in July, in summer, finds the same Water in a much less supportive environment. Same pillar, different charts.

The Day Pillar also doesn't show the Luck Pillars (大運, dà yùn), the years or the periods. For that you need the whole chart and a calculation from the month and year. One more thing: the Day Pillar depends on the date of birth; it doesn't need the hour. The exception is a birth around midnight (23:00–01:00): schools disagree on when the new day begins, and then the exact time matters. If you don't know your birth hour, 日柱 is the part you can read anyway.

How do you find your Day Pillar? The quickest way is the site's free chart, which shows the Day Master, the four pillars and the balance of the five elements. If you'd like to calculate it by hand, the method is in How to Calculate a BaZi Chart by Hand: it relies on the fact that January 7, 2000, was a 甲子 day, and from there you count the days between dates modulo sixty. For a comparison with the Korean approach, see Saju. If you already know your Day Master, read more about it, for example in the article on 甲 and the nine others.

The Day Pillar remains one of the most convenient ways into a chart: two characters that are easy to check, and three layers that are easy to name. Strength, years and Luck Pillars come from the whole chart.

9 Frequently asked questions

How do I find my Day Pillar?

The Day Pillar depends only on your date of birth. The site's free chart shows it, and by hand you can count it from a reference day: January 7, 2000, was a 甲子 day, and from there you take the difference in days modulo 60.

How many day pillars are there in BaZi?

Sixty. The ten heavenly stems and twelve earthly branches combine only when their polarity matches: Yang with Yang, Yin with Yin. That gives a cycle of 60 that repeats every 60 days.

What is the Spouse Palace in the Day Pillar?

It's the earthly branch of the day (日支). Tradition links it to close relationships and everyday support. The branch's main hidden stem shows which theme colors this area, but it's a condition, not a forecast of events.

Does the Day Pillar define your whole character?

No. It sets a theme and a starting footing, but the Day Master's strength is decided first of all by the birth month and the chart as a whole. Two people with the same Day Pillar and different birth months have different charts.

Do I need my birth hour to find my Day Pillar?

No, the Day Pillar comes from the date; the hour is needed for the Hour Pillar. The exception is a birth between 23:00 and 01:00: schools decide differently when the new day begins, so the time matters there.