The Ten Gods 十神
The same controlling relation as Direct Officer but with matching polarity — named for sitting seven places away, and read entirely on whether something restrains it.
| Term 十神 | 七杀 — Seven Killings (qi sha) |
|---|---|
| Also written | 偏官 |
| Relation to the Day Master | 克我 · 阴阳相同 — controls the Day Master, same polarity |
| Group | Authority |
偏官者，乃甲见庚、乙见辛之例，犹二男不同处，二女不同居，不成配偶，故谓之偏官。以其隔七位而相克战，故谓之七煞。
The Indirect Officer is the case of Jia meeting Geng, or Yi meeting Xin — like two men who cannot share a place, or two women who cannot share a house: no pair is formed, and so it is called the Indirect Officer. Because it stands seven places off and meets in conflict, it is called the Seven Killings.
譬小人多凶暴，无忌惮，若无礼法控制之，不惩不戒，必伤其主，故有制谓之偏官，无制谓之七煞。
It is like a base man, violent and without scruple: if rite and law do not hold him and nothing chastens or warns him, he is bound to injure his master. So when there is restraint it is called the Indirect Officer, and when there is none, the Seven Killings.
This is one of the few places where the classical vocabulary is doing real analytic work rather than labelling. 偏官 and 七杀 are the same stem in the same position. Which name applies depends on one thing: whether the chart contains something that restrains it. San Ming Tong Hui states the switch explicitly — 有制谓之偏官，无制谓之七煞.
Counting seven: from Jia (1st stem) to Geng (7th) is seven places. The same step from any stem lands on the one that controls it at matching polarity. The name is arithmetic, not metaphor.
Zi Ping Zhen Quan puts the practical form of this in one line: 煞用食制，不要露财透印, when Killings are handled by the Eating God, wealth and resource should not be exposed — because both of those undo the restraint. The relation itself is neutral; what the texts read is the presence or absence of a check on it.
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 | 庚 — Geng |
| 乙 Yi yin Wood | 辛 — Xin |
| 丙 Bing yang Fire | 壬 — Ren |
| 丁 Ding yin Fire | 癸 — Gui |
| 戊 Wu yang Earth | 甲 — Jia |
| 己 Ji yin Earth | 乙 — Yi |
| 庚 Geng yang Metal | 丙 — Bing |
| 辛 Xin yin Metal | 丁 — Ding |
| 壬 Ren yang Water | 戊 — Wu |
| 癸 Gui yin Water | 己 — Ji |
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 · 正印 Direct Resource · 偏印 Indirect Resource · 正财 Direct Wealth · 偏财 Indirect Wealth · 食神 Eating God · 伤官 Hurting Officer · 比肩 Parallel · 劫财 Rob Wealth