The Ten Gods: how stems are labelled from the Day Master
Quick answer: In BaZi, the Ten Gods (十神) are names for how any Heavenly Stem relates to your Day Master (the stem of the day pillar). They are derived from the Five Elements cycle plus yin/yang polarity. They label stems — visible or hidden — relative to you. They are not personality verdicts, luck ratings, or predictions about what will happen.
This page explains the naming logic our calculator uses. The same table appears on How we calculate your chart. For the classical list that works the names out using Jia as its example, see Classical sources (Yuanhai Ziping).
Start from the Day Master
Your Day Master is the Heavenly Stem of the day pillar. Find it with the Day Master calculator (date is enough for most births; late-night births also need the day-boundary choice). Everything below assumes that stem is known.
Each of the other nine stems stands in one of five elemental relations to the Day Master, and each relation splits into two gods by polarity:
| Relation to the Day Master | Same polarity | Opposite polarity |
|---|---|---|
| Same element | Friend (比肩) | Rob Wealth (劫财 / 劫財) |
| Element the Day Master produces | Eating God (食神) | Hurting Officer (伤官 / 傷官) |
| Element the Day Master controls | Indirect Wealth (偏财 / 偏財) | Direct Wealth (正财 / 正財) |
| Element that controls the Day Master | Seven Killings (七杀 / 七殺; also 偏官) | Direct Officer (正官) |
| Element that produces the Day Master | Indirect Resource (偏印; also 倒食, 枭神 / 梟神) | Direct Resource (正印 / 印绶) |
"Same polarity" means both stems are yang or both are yin. "Opposite polarity" means one is yang and one is yin. The Five Elements cycle behind the middle three rows is the ordinary generation and control cycle explained on Five Elements in BaZi.
Worked example: Jia as Day Master
The Yuanhai Ziping names the Ten Gods using Jia (甲, Yang Wood) as its example. Our Jia Wood Day Master page reproduces that list in a stem-by-stem table. In short, for Jia:
| Stem | Ten God (English on this site) |
|---|---|
| 甲 Jia | Friend |
| 乙 Yi | Rob Wealth |
| 丙 Bing | Eating God |
| 丁 Ding | Hurting Officer |
| 戊 Wu | Indirect Wealth |
| 己 Ji | Direct Wealth |
| 庚 Geng | Seven Killings |
| 辛 Xin | Direct Officer |
| 壬 Ren | Indirect Resource |
| 癸 Gui | Direct Resource |
If your Day Master is not Jia, the names stay the same but the stems that carry them rotate. The rule is always: look up the elemental relation and the polarity match, then read the cell in the table above. You do not memorise ten separate personality essays for each Day Master; you apply one relation table.
A second glance: Ding as Day Master
Ding (丁) is Yin Fire. Fire produces Earth, so the Earth stems are Ding's wealth gods; Metal stems are Ding's output; Water stems control Ding (power); Wood stems produce Ding (resource); Fire stems are companions.
| Stem | Element vs Ding | Ten God |
|---|---|---|
| 丁 Ding | Same, same polarity | Friend |
| 丙 Bing | Same, opposite polarity | Rob Wealth |
| 戊 Wu | Ding produces it (yang) | Eating God |
| 己 Ji | Ding produces it (yin) | Hurting Officer |
| 庚 Geng | Ding controls it (yang) | Indirect Wealth |
| 辛 Xin | Ding controls it (yin) | Direct Wealth |
| 壬 Ren | Controls Ding (yang) | Seven Killings |
| 癸 Gui | Controls Ding (yin) | Direct Officer |
| 甲 Jia | Produces Ding (yang) | Indirect Resource |
| 乙 Yi | Produces Ding (yin) | Direct Resource |
You can verify any row by checking polarity and the generation/control arrows on the Five Elements page. Our engine applies this automatically on every chart.
Visible stems and hidden stems
Ten God labels apply to:
- The four visible stems (year, month, day, hour) — except the day stem, which is the Day Master and is usually labelled as such rather than as Friend to itself.
- Hidden stems inside each Earthly Branch — the same relation table, applied to each stem the branch contains.
That is why the hidden stems table matters for Ten Gods as well as for strength. A branch can carry more than one god. For example, for a Jia Day Master, the Tiger branch 寅 holds 甲 (Friend), 丙 (Eating God) and 戊 (Indirect Wealth) as main, middle and residual qi under our table.
Our strength method counts elemental support; it does not score "good" or "bad" gods. See weak Day Master and strong Day Master for how season and roots are weighed.
What the English names mean (descriptive only)
Modern English guides inherited a set of translated labels. On this site they are names for relations, nothing more:
- Friend / Rob Wealth — same element as the Day Master (companions). Polarity splits the pair.
- Eating God / Hurting Officer — the element the Day Master produces (output).
- Indirect / Direct Wealth — the element the Day Master controls (wealth in the classical vocabulary of control).
- Seven Killings / Direct Officer — the element that controls the Day Master (power / authority vocabulary in classical texts).
- Indirect / Direct Resource — the element that produces the Day Master (resource / seal vocabulary).
Classical Chinese also uses alternate names in places (for example 偏官 alongside 七殺, 枭神 / 倒食 alongside 偏印). We keep the English set above consistent across the site so a chart, this page and the methodology table never disagree.
What we do not do on this page: assign luck, rank, romance, illness or career outcomes to any god. Classical manuals and modern blogs often do that; those passages are exactly the kind of fixed verdict we refuse to reproduce on Classical sources.
Common misconceptions
- "Direct Officer means I will hold rank." The name is a relation label. Whether a reader emphasises Officer in a chart depends on season, structure and school. Our calculator does not turn Direct Officer into a biography.
- "Seven Killings is dangerous." The Chinese name is strong; the English calque is dramatic. On this site it only means "yang form of the element that controls the Day Master". No danger rating is implied.
- "Rob Wealth means people steal from me." It means the yin/yang opposite companion of your Day Master's element. The English phrase is historical translation baggage.
- "I should collect good gods and avoid bad ones." That framing is a reading style some popular books teach. It is not a rule our engine encodes, and it is not a substitute for reading season and roots.
- "Ten Gods replace the Five Elements." They are the Five Elements plus polarity, named from the Day Master. Learn Five Elements first if the table feels opaque.
- "Hidden stems don't get Ten Gods." They do. Every stem in the chart, visible or hidden, can be labelled.
How this site shows Ten Gods
On a full chart, stems are annotated with the English Ten God names from the table above. The methodology page is the normative reference if a UI label and this article ever seem to drift. Engine version for the public calculator is documented on methodology.
We do not currently publish ten separate articles, one per Ten God. Thin single-god pages invite fortune language. If that changes later, each page would still be constrained to naming logic and examples — not verdicts.
Practice on a published chart
Open a chart on the example charts hub. The main list is 18 public figures with sourced civil dates; an hour is there only when a source gives one. The appendix fixtures are fictional and print full pillars for teaching. Note the Day Master, then name the year, month and hour stems using the table. Check that the engine's labels match your hand count. If you prefer a single Day Master deep-dive first, use the Jia Wood examples: both charts print Ten God names on each pillar.
For a reading path that places Ten Gods after Day Master and elements, see Learn BaZi.
Polarity cheatsheet (yang and yin stems)
Yang stems: 甲 Jia, 丙 Bing, 戊 Wu, 庚 Geng, 壬 Ren.
Yin stems: 乙 Yi, 丁 Ding, 己 Ji, 辛 Xin, 癸 Gui.
Same element pairs are always one yang + one yin (Jia/Yi Wood, Bing/Ding Fire, Wu/Ji Earth, Geng/Xin Metal, Ren/Gui Water). That is why each elemental relation splits cleanly into two Ten Gods. If you mis-remember a stem's polarity, Direct vs Indirect labels swap even when the element is right.
Generation and control in one paragraph
Wood produces Fire; Fire produces Earth; Earth produces Metal; Metal produces Water; Water produces Wood.
Wood controls Earth; Earth controls Water; Water controls Fire; Fire controls Metal; Metal controls Wood.
"Produces" from the Day Master's point of view → output gods (Eating God / Hurting Officer).
"Controls" from the Day Master's point of view → wealth gods.
"Controlled by" → power gods (Seven Killings / Direct Officer).
"Produced by" → resource gods.
"Same element" → companion gods (Friend / Rob Wealth).
Detail and seasonal states: Five Elements.
Direct vs Indirect without moral language
Classical Chinese pairs often use 正 ("direct/upright") and 偏 ("indirect/oblique"). English inherited "Direct" and "Indirect" for wealth, officer and resource, while the output and companion pairs use other historical English labels (Eating God / Hurting Officer; Friend / Rob Wealth). On this site those strings are identifiers. They do not encode a moral ranking. A chart full of "Direct" labels is not thereby "better" than one full of "Indirect" labels; season and structure still dominate any serious read, and our calculator does not score gods as good or bad.
Ten Gods on the strength page — what overlaps
People sometimes ask whether a high Friend count "makes you strong". Our strength method counts elemental support (own element + resource), including hidden stems with published weights — not a count of auspicious gods. You can have several companion stems and still be weak in a hostile season, or few companions and still be strong when the month branch roots you. Keep weak / strong and this page mentally separate.
Are the Ten Gods the same as the ten Heavenly Stems?
No. The ten Heavenly Stems are the absolute stem names (Jia, Yi, Bing…). The Ten Gods are relative labels that depend on which stem is the Day Master. The stem Bing is Eating God for Jia, but Friend for another Bing Day Master.
Do Ten Gods apply to Earthly Branches?
Branches are labelled through their hidden stems. The branch itself is not a Ten God; the stems it contains are.
Does a strong Day Master change what the gods mean?
Strength changes how a reader may weigh output, wealth and power versus resource and companions. It does not rename the gods. Our calculator's strength score is separate from Ten God labelling; see methodology § strength.
Why don't you publish "what Seven Killings means for love"?
Because that content is fortune assertion dressed as vocabulary. This page stops at naming. Rule disputes and school differences belong on methodology.
Where does the classical naming list come from?
The Yuanhai Ziping works through the names using Jia as the example (見乙為劫財, 見丙為食神…). Editions and discussion: Classical sources.
Hidden-stem labelling drill
Take branch 申 Shen (Monkey): hidden stems 庚, 壬, 戊 (our table). For a Jia Day Master those label as Seven Killings, Indirect Resource and Indirect Wealth respectively. For a Bing Day Master the same stems relabel (Metal becomes wealth, Water becomes power, Earth becomes output). The branch did not change; the Day Master did. Doing this drill once prevents the mistake of memorising "Shen always means Seven Killings".
Next step: Find your Day Master, then open your full chart and read each stem's Ten God label against the table above.
Sources
- Ten Gods relation table and engine behaviour: How we calculate your chart
- Classical naming list (Yuanhai Ziping): Classical BaZi texts
- Jia worked table: Jia Wood Day Master
- Five Elements cycles: Five Elements in BaZi
BaZi is a traditional Chinese cultural practice. This page explains naming only; it is not medical, legal, financial or psychological advice, and it makes no prediction about your life.
Last updated: 2026-10-07