Day Master strength

Meaning

The Day Master’s strength says how much of its own energy the self holds in its chart: whether its phase is plentiful, helped by the season, the branches and the other stems, or thin, surrounded by what it feeds, controls or is shaped by. BaZi reads three answers, strong, balanced and weak, and nearly everything else in the analysis turns on which it is, above all the phases that help.

None of the three is better. Ulune’s readings put it so: a strong Day Master has plenty of its own energy, self-reliant and able to carry a lot, and the tradition looks for outlets that use that strength well, expression, work, responsibility; a balanced one neither lacks nor overflows, and can lean on others or give to them as the moment asks; a weak one draws more on what surrounds it, sensitive to its setting, at its best with support, good company and learning. Weak, here, means receptive, not lesser.

The judgement is a matter of method, and schools differ. Ulune uses the three tests the classics name, each shown with its answer, so the result can be checked rather than believed, and it says when a chart is so full or so empty of its own phase that some schools would read it by other rules.

In practice

• Born in season, 得令 délìng: the month branch’s main qi is the Day Master’s own phase or the one producing it; a Jia Day Master in a Hai month, whose main qi is Ren, Water, is in season. This test counts twice.
• Rooted, 得地 dédì: a branch, any of them, holds a hidden stem of the Day Master’s phase, whatever its weight.
• Supported, 得勢 déshì (得势): at least half of the other visible stems are of the Day Master’s phase or produce it.
• The score: 3 or 4 is strong, 2 balanced, 0 or 1 weak; the reading lists each test, the stems and branches it looked at, and the score.
• What follows: a strong Day Master is helped by what it produces, controls and is controlled by; a weak one by its own phase and the one producing it; a balanced one by the phases the chart holds least.
• The follow structures: whatever the score, a chart whose support is 80% or more, or 20% or less with no root and no helper, is also flagged as dominant or following, and its helpful phases are read the other way round.

Across traditions

• In Japan and Korea the strong and the weak self are shinkyō and shinjaku in Shichū Suimei, singang and sinyak in saju, and the same three tests are taught.
• In Western astrology the nearest idea is a planet’s dignity, its strength by sign and by place; but dignity rates one planet, where the Day Master’s strength weighs the self against its whole chart.

Origin and history

Strong self and weak self, 身強 shēnqiáng (身强) and 身弱 shēnruò, are among the first questions of the Zi Ping school: the Song dynasty Yuanhai Ziping asks whether the Day Master has the month, the ground and the help of the stems, and the San Ming Tong Hui repeats the three tests. The Di Tian Sui, with Ren Tieqiao’s commentary, warns against reading strength mechanically, since a self can be carried by its whole chart or drained by it; the Ziping Zhenquan reads strength through the month and its structure. Ulune’s rule, the season counting twice, the root and the support once, is its own way of stating what the classics weigh, and its readings say so.

How Ulune calculates it

Ulune takes the main qi of the month branch and asks how its phase stands to the Day Master’s: its own phase or the one producing it passes the first test. It looks through the hidden stems of every branch, the day’s and the month’s included, for one of the Day Master’s phase: one is a root. It counts the other visible stems, of the year, month and hour, that are of the Day Master’s phase or produce it: half or more is support. The season gives two points, the root and the support one each.

Correspondences