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What Is My Day Master?

Your Day Master is the Heavenly Stem of the day you were born: the character that stands for you in a BaZi chart. Enter your birth date to find it, then read about your stem.

Born within about an hour of midnight, or far from your time zone's central meridian? True solar time can move your birth to the neighboring day. The BaZi calculator checks this for your city.

What is a Day Master?

A BaZi chart (八字, "eight characters") describes your birth moment with four pillars: Year, Month, Day and Hour. Each pillar has a Heavenly Stem on top and an Earthly Branch below. The stem of the Day pillar is called the Day Master (日主, also 日元). It represents you, and every other character in the chart is read by its relationship to it, through the Ten Gods.

There are ten Heavenly Stems, so there are ten Day Masters: a yang and a yin form of each of the Five Elements. The Day Master is a starting point rather than a full portrait. Two people with the same Day Master can have very different charts, depending on the season they were born in and the other seven characters.

Your Day Master is not your Chinese zodiac animal. The animal comes from the branch of your Year pillar; the Day Master comes from the stem of your Day pillar, which changes every day in a 60-day cycle.

The 10 Day Masters

甲Jia WoodYang Wood · a tall tree乙Yi WoodYin Wood · vines and flowers丙Bing FireYang Fire · the sun丁Ding FireYin Fire · a candle flame戊Wu EarthYang Earth · a mountain己Ji EarthYin Earth · fertile fields庚Geng MetalYang Metal · raw iron or an ax辛Xin MetalYin Metal · fine jewelry壬Ren WaterYang Water · a great river癸Gui WaterYin Water · rain and dew

Questions

Do I need my birth time to find my Day Master?

Usually not. The Day Master depends on the date, so the date alone is enough for most people. The exception is a birth close to midnight: by the common convention the new day starts at 23:00, and true solar time for your birthplace can move a birth near midnight to the neighboring day. The BaZi calculator handles both.

Which Day Master is the best or the strongest?

None of them. Each stem is a different kind of element, not a ranking. Whether a Day Master is well supported depends on the whole chart: the season of birth, roots in the branches and the other stems. A Day Master that is lightly supported is not weaker as a person.

Is the Day Master the same as my Chinese zodiac sign?

No. Your zodiac animal is the Earthly Branch of your Year pillar, shared by everyone born that year. Your Day Master is the Heavenly Stem of your Day pillar, which changes every day in a 60-day cycle. In BaZi the Day Master is treated as the center of the chart.

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