The Ten Gods 十神
Support at matching polarity — also called 枭神 and 倒食, the 'upset-food' star, because the same stem that feeds the self takes away the Eating God.
| Term 十神 | 偏印 — Indirect Resource (pian yin) |
|---|---|
| Also written | 枭神 |
| Relation to the Day Master | 生我 · 阴阳相同 — produces the Day Master, same polarity |
| Group | Resource |
倒食即偏印之谓，一名吞啖煞，食神最忌见之。
Upset-Food is another word for the Indirect Resource; it is also called the devouring Killing, and the Eating God most dreads meeting it.
食怕枭，逢枭则夺。
The Eating God fears the Owl; meeting the Owl, it is taken away.
This entry carries three Chinese names for one relation, and the names disagree with each other. 偏印 is neutral and structural — resource at matching polarity. 枭神, the Owl, is pejorative; in the classical bestiary the owl is the bird said to devour its own mother. 倒食, Upset-Food, names the mechanism: the stem that produces the Day Master is also the stem that controls the Eating God.
Both statements are true at once, which is the point. San Ming Tong Hui walks the chain for Jia: 今甲见壬为倒食者，壬旺则克了丙火 — Ren produces Jia, but Ren also extinguishes Bing, and Bing was Jia's outlet, its wealth-maker and its defence against Geng. Help that arrives by shutting down your output is still help, and it is also a loss.
The same chapter refuses to leave it at that: 前忌倒食，逢制合反贵，切不可一见倒食，便以凶论 — where it is restrained or bound it turns valuable, and one should never call a chart bad on sight of it. That instruction to resist the obvious reading is worth more than the label.
This is a lookup, not a judgement — it falls straight out of the element relation and the yin/yang match, and the table below is generated by the same function the chart calculator uses. Where the Day Master has its own essay, the name links to it.
| Day Master | This god is… |
|---|---|
| 甲 Jia yang Wood | 壬 — Ren |
| 乙 Yi yin Wood | 癸 — Gui |
| 丙 Bing yang Fire | 甲 — Jia |
| 丁 Ding yin Fire | 乙 — Yi |
| 戊 Wu yang Earth | 丙 — Bing |
| 己 Ji yin Earth | 丁 — Ding |
| 庚 Geng yang Metal | 戊 — Wu |
| 辛 Xin yin Metal | 己 — Ji |
| 壬 Ren yang Water | 庚 — Geng |
| 癸 Gui yin Water | 辛 — Xin |
Sources: 《三命通会》 (San Ming Tong Hui, Ming, 万民英) and 《子平真诠》 (Zi Ping Zhen Quan, Qing, 沈孝瞻 — the original text, without Xu Leyu's commentary). Every passage above is quoted from a local plain-text edition and verified character by character. Translations are ours; corrections are welcome.
Enter a birth date, time and longitude — the calculator returns the four pillars, the hidden stems, the nayin and the ten gods, with true solar time applied.
Open the chart calculator →正官 Direct Officer · 七杀 Seven Killings · 正印 Direct Resource · 正财 Direct Wealth · 偏财 Indirect Wealth · 食神 Eating God · 伤官 Hurting Officer · 比肩 Parallel · 劫财 Rob Wealth