Geng (庚) is the seventh heavenly stem and the yang form of Metal. If Geng is your Day Master, it is the stem above your day pillar, and the whole chart is read in relation to it.
Geng Metal is the Yang form of Metal, one of the ten Day Masters. New to this? Start with what a Day Master is and how it is calculated.
Geng is unrefined metal — ore, axe, blade. It is the most direct of the ten stems and the least interested in softening its delivery. Where other stems negotiate, Geng decides, and it usually decides first.
This is genuinely useful. In a mess, Geng moves while others are still assessing, and its loyalty is unsentimental and dependable: it will do the unpleasant necessary thing for people it has committed to. Confrontation costs it less than it costs almost anyone else.
An edge cuts indiscriminately, which is the difficulty. Geng charts often show damage done at speed and without intent — the decisive remark, the burned bridge that was not worth burning. The classical requirement is that Geng be tempered by Fire: the stem needs refining pressure, not blunting, and knowing when to sheathe is the practice of a lifetime.
Metal is produced by Earth and controls Wood; Fire controls it and Water drains it. For Geng this means Earth is support and learning, Wood is wealth, Fire is authority and pressure, and Water is output and expression. Fire is the key relationship: classical texts hold that Geng without Fire stays ore, so pressure in a Geng chart is frequently the thing that makes it valuable rather than the thing damaging it.
These relationships are the Ten Gods (十神). They are not personality labels — they describe what another stem does to your Day Master when it appears in your chart. This table is generated from the same function the chart tool uses, so it matches what the calculator would tell you.
| Stem | Relation to Geng Metal | What it does to Geng Metal |
|---|---|---|
| Jia Wood 甲 | Indirect Wealth 偏財 | blade and ore works Wood in lumps — windfalls, not salary. |
| Yi Wood 乙 | Direct Wealth 正財 | blade and ore works Wood steadily — earned in proportion to effort. |
| Bing Fire 丙 | Seven Killings 七殺 | Fire cuts at blade and ore — pressure that asks no permission. |
| Ding Fire 丁 | Direct Officer 正官 | Fire shapes blade and ore — structure you accept. |
| Wu Earth 戊 | Indirect Resource 偏印 | Earth feeds blade and ore unevenly — sideways insight. |
| Ji Earth 己 | Direct Resource 正印 | Earth feeds blade and ore steadily — support and schooling. |
| Geng Metal 庚 | Friend 比肩 | A true peer for blade and ore; a rival for the same ground. |
| Xin Metal 辛 | Rob Wealth 劫財 | Metal of the other polarity beside blade and ore — money leaves through people. |
| Ren Water 壬 | Eating God 食神 | blade and ore outputs Water easily — talent that flows. |
| Gui Water 癸 | Hurting Officer 傷官 | blade and ore outputs Water sharply — brilliance that cuts. |
What each of the ten relations means in general — Direct Wealth, Seven Killings, Hurting Officer and the rest — is set out in the Ten Gods glossary.
Classical BaZi grades a stem by the season it was born into — the 旺相休囚死 scale. Metal peaks in autumn, is supported in the Earth months, and is at its weakest in summer when Fire rules.
| Birth season | Grade | What it does to Geng Metal |
|---|---|---|
| Spring (寅卯辰 · Feb–Apr) | 囚 Confined | Cutting Wood without seasonal support. Every result is earned; nothing arrives easily. |
| Summer (巳午未 · May–Jul) | 死 Weakest | Fire melts ore. The hardest season for Geng and classically the most transformative — this is where it becomes a blade rather than rock. |
| Autumn (申酉戌 · Aug–Oct) | 旺 Peak | Metal rules. Sharp, rooted and self-sufficient — and most in need of Fire, since unrefined strength has no shape. |
| Winter (亥子丑 · Nov–Jan) | 休 Resting | Metal spends itself producing Water. Clear and clean, but cold and outward-flowing. |
Metal corresponds to White / gold, the numbers 4, 9, and the direction West. These are traditional correspondences for the element itself. They are not a prescription — whether Metal is helpful to you depends on your whole chart, not on your Day Master alone.
2 September 1986, born in Seoul — day pillar 庚申 (Geng Shen).
The day stem is 庚 sitting on 申, its own Metal branch, in early autumn when Metal rules. This is Metal at full strength and fully rooted — sharp, self-sufficient, and in classical terms in need of Fire rather than more support. A strong Day Master is not automatically a good chart; it means the useful elements are the ones that give it work to do.
How the day pillar is derived — solar terms, true solar time and the late Zi hour — and what a Day Master cannot tell you on its own, are covered on what is a Day Master.
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