Xin (辛) is the eighth heavenly stem and the yin form of Metal. If Xin is your Day Master, it is the stem above your day pillar — the point of reference for reading the rest of the chart.
Xin Metal is the Yin form of Metal, one of the ten Day Masters. New to this? Start with what a Day Master is and how it is calculated.
Xin is metal that has already been worked: jewellery, a blade with a finished edge, jade that has been carved. The defining quality is refinement rather than force, and Xin's influence comes from precision and taste rather than from pushing.
Xin notices things. It has standards it did not choose and cannot easily lower, applied first and most severely to itself. This produces genuine quality and a certain amount of private misery, since the gap between what Xin can perceive and what Xin can currently execute is always visible to Xin.
Jade needs carving to become jade, but there is a difference between carving and grinding. The characteristic Xin failure is applying its own standards as punishment rather than direction — a Xin chart often belongs to someone whose harshest critic has never been anyone else.
Metal is produced by Earth and controls Wood; Fire controls it and Water drains it. For Xin this means Earth is support, Wood is wealth, Fire is pressure and authority, and Water is expression. Xin's relationship with Fire differs sharply from Geng's: finished metal does not need re-forging, and heavy Fire that would refine Geng can simply damage Xin — one of the clearest cases where the same element helps one Day Master and harms its yin counterpart.
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 Xin Metal | What it does to Xin Metal |
|---|---|---|
| Jia Wood 甲 | Direct Wealth 正財 | jewellery and jade works Wood steadily — earned in proportion to effort. |
| Yi Wood 乙 | Indirect Wealth 偏財 | jewellery and jade works Wood in lumps — windfalls, not salary. |
| Bing Fire 丙 | Direct Officer 正官 | Fire shapes jewellery and jade — structure you accept. |
| Ding Fire 丁 | Seven Killings 七殺 | Fire cuts at jewellery and jade — pressure that asks no permission. |
| Wu Earth 戊 | Direct Resource 正印 | Earth feeds jewellery and jade steadily — support and schooling. |
| Ji Earth 己 | Indirect Resource 偏印 | Earth feeds jewellery and jade unevenly — sideways insight. |
| Geng Metal 庚 | Rob Wealth 劫財 | Metal of the other polarity beside jewellery and jade — money leaves through people. |
| Xin Metal 辛 | Friend 比肩 | A true peer for jewellery and jade; a rival for the same ground. |
| Ren Water 壬 | Hurting Officer 傷官 | jewellery and jade outputs Water sharply — brilliance that cuts. |
| Gui Water 癸 | Eating God 食神 | jewellery and jade outputs Water easily — talent that flows. |
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 Xin Metal |
|---|---|---|
| Spring (寅卯辰 · Feb–Apr) | 囚 Confined | Confined. Finished metal cutting living Wood is awkward work, and Xin feels the mismatch. |
| Summer (巳午未 · May–Jul) | 死 Weakest | Heavy Fire damages worked metal rather than refining it. The season Xin most needs Earth and Water to buffer. |
| Autumn (申酉戌 · Aug–Oct) | 旺 Peak | Peak season. Xin is precise and self-possessed here, and at risk of standards nobody else can meet. |
| Winter (亥子丑 · Nov–Jan) | 休 Resting | Producing Water: clarity and expression come easily, though the season gives nothing back. |
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.
14 February 1997, born in Tokyo — day pillar 辛丑 (Xin Chou).
The day stem is 辛 on 丑, an Earth branch that holds Metal, in the month of 寅 — early spring by solar term, even though the calendar reads mid-February. That distinction matters: 立春 had already passed, so the BaZi year and month had turned. Metal in spring is confined, working without seasonal support, and the Earth underneath is doing most of the holding.
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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