Bing Xu · Yang Fire Dog
In Chinese: 丙戌
Bing Xu, the Yang Fire Dog: the sun setting over the autumn hills, warmth stored in dry ground, loyal and energetic.
Meaning
Bing Xu is the late-autumn sun over the Dog’s dry earth, which keeps Fire in store. The tradition reads a warmth that lasts after the light: loyalty, conviction and energy kept for those it defends.
Bing over Xu: yang Fire over yang Earth, a stem that produces its branch, as Fire produces Earth.
Bing, Yang Fire, is the sun: warm, generous, shining on everyone alike. The Dog is loyal, honest and just.
The zodiac reads a Bing Xu year as the Fire Dog’s. The Fire Dog is the boldest of the Dogs: loyal, energetic, quick to defend what it believes. Its conviction inspires others, and calm helps it choose its fights well.
Its Na Yin, shared with Ding Hai, is Earth on the roof (屋上土 wūshàng tǔ): a sound of Earth, heard beside the pillar’s Fire and Earth.
In practice
- As a year, from Lichun, around 4 February: 1826, 1886, 1946, 2006, 2066, 2126 and 2186, in the 1800–2200 table.
- As a month: the Dog month of every Yi or Geng year, opened by Cold Dew, as in the solar years 2020 and 2025.
- As a day, every sixty days: in 2026, on 12 January, 13 March, 12 May, 11 July, 9 September and 8 November.
- As an hour: the Dog’s double hour, 19:00–21:00, of Yi and Geng days.
- As a day pillar, its stem is the Day Master, Bing, sitting on Xu, the partner palace: Xu holds Wu, Xin and Ding, Bing’s Eating God, Direct Wealth and Rob Wealth, and Bing stands at its Storehouse stage there.
- As a luck pillar or a year, it brings each Day Master the god of its stem and the god of its branch’s main qi: the Correspondences below give them for all ten.
Across traditions
- In Japan, Korea and Vietnam the same pillar is hinoe-inu, byeongsul and Bính Tuất, with each language’s readings of 丙 and 戌.
How Ulune calculates it
Bing Xu is the 23rd of the sixty pillars: the 3rd of the ten stems over the 11th of the twelve branches, which the cycle moves on one step together, so that a stem only ever meets the branches of its polarity. Ulune counts a year’s pillar from Lichun, 1984 being Jia Zi; a month’s twelve a year through the cycle, from Bing Yin in the Tiger month of 1984 (the rule of the five tigers); a day’s by the count of days, 1 January 2000 being Wu Wu; an hour’s twelve a day (the rule of the five rats).
Bing Xu belongs to the ten-day week from Jia Shen to Gui Si, whose stems meet the branches from Shen to Si and leave out Wu and Wei: for a day pillar of this week, those are the empty branches. Its Na Yin is the 12th of the thirty, one for each two pillars.
Correspondences
| Correspondence | Bing Xu |
|---|---|
| Characters, pinyin | 丙戌 bǐngxū |
| Place in the cycle | 23 of 60 |
| Stem | Bing, yang Fire |
| Branch | Xu, the Dog, yang Earth |
| Hidden in the branch | Wu 60, Xin 30, Ding 10 |
| Stem and branch | Fire produces Earth |
| Na Yin | Earth on the roof, with Ding Hai |
| Its stem’s stage in its branch | Storehouse |
| Ten-day week | Jia Shen to Gui Si; empty branches Wu and Wei |
| Its stem, for each Day Master | Jia → Eating God, Yi → Hurting Officer, Bing → Companion, Ding → Rob Wealth, Wu → Indirect Resource, Ji → Direct Resource, Geng → Seven Killings, Xin → Direct Officer, Ren → Indirect Wealth, Gui → Direct Wealth |
| Its branch’s main qi, for each Day Master | Jia → Indirect Wealth, Yi → Direct Wealth, Bing → Eating God, Ding → Hurting Officer, Wu → Companion, Ji → Rob Wealth, Geng → Indirect Resource, Xin → Direct Resource, Ren → Seven Killings, Gui → Direct Officer |
| Years, 1800–2200 | 1826, 1886, 1946, 2006, 2066, 2126, 2186 |
| Month | Dog month of Yi and Geng years |
| Hour | Dog hour, 19:00–21:00, of Yi and Geng days |
| Before and after | Yi You, Ding Hai |
| Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese | Hinoe-inu, byeongsul, Bính Tuất |
Related
- Bing · Yang FireThe third Heavenly Stem, yang Fire: the sun at noon, warmth and light given to everything alike, open, generous and seen from afar.
- Xu · DogThe eleventh Earthly Branch, yang Earth: the Dog, the last month of autumn and the evening, dry ground that keeps the year’s Fire as yang goes home.
- DogThe eleventh of the twelve animals, the Dog of the branch Xu: loyal, honest and just, it defends its friends and its principles and can be trusted completely.
- Earth on the roofEarth on the roof, the Na Yin of Bing Xu and Ding Hai: earth baked into tiles, shelter over a household.
- Yi You · Yin Wood RoosterYi You, the Yin Wood Rooster: a flower in mid-autumn, delicate growth in a season of sharp metal, conscientious and fine.
- Ding Hai · Yin Fire PigDing Hai, the Yin Fire Pig: a lamp beside winter water, a small brave flame whose branch also holds the wood that feeds it.
Sources
- Sima Qian, Shiji, c. 94 BC
- Ban Gu, Hanshu, 1st century
- Xu Sheng (ed.), Yuanhai Ziping, Song dynasty
- Wan Minying, San Ming Tong Hui, 16th century
- Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 3, 1959