Day Pillar #10 · 癸酉
| Position in the cycle | #10 of 60 |
|---|---|
| Heavenly stem 天干 | 癸 — 水 Water |
| Earthly branch 地支 | 酉 — 金 Metal |
| Nayin 纳音 | 剑锋金 — Sword-Edge Metal (Metal) |
| Hidden stems 藏干 | 辛 — 辛 (Metal) |
| Twelve-stage placement 十二长生 | 病 — Illness (of the stem in its own branch) |
Guiyou (癸酉). If the previous pillar's stem was the river running to the sea, this one is the opposite water: the weakest kind in the whole system, rain and dew.
癸水至弱，达于天津，得龙而运。
Gui water is the weakest of all; it reaches the ford of heaven, and only once it rides the dragon does it move.
Here is the part worth sitting with. Yang water hits the branch 申 at its growth stage (长生) — birth. Yin water hits the same branch at its death stage (死). Same element, same branch, opposite reading — because yin and yang stems run the twelve life stages in reverse of each other.
That is a structural fact about the system, not a judgement about a person: strength and collapse trade places depending on which face of the element you are looking at.
癸 sits here on 酉, which hides pure 辛 metal, and metal feeds water — so even this frail water has a source pressed right against it.
Its nayin is 剑锋金, sword-edge metal, the same as 壬申. The text is specific about what that metal requires:
剑锋金者，白帝司权，刚由百炼，红光射于斗牛，白刃凝于霜雪。此金造化，非水不能生。
Sword-edge metal: the White Emperor holds authority; its hardness comes of a hundred temperings. Red light strikes the Dipper and the Ox; the white blade is congealed frost and snow. In the making of this metal, nothing but water can generate it.
Sources: 《三命通会》 (San Ming Tong Hui, Ming, 万民英) and 《滴天髓》 (Di Tian Sui) — both quoted from local plain-text editions and verified character by character. Translations are ours. Corrections are welcome.
Enter a birth date and time to get the four pillars, the hidden stems, the nayin and the twelve-stage placements for a real chart — the same tables this page is built on.
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