Metal in a BaZi Chart
Metal appears in a chart as the heavenly stems 庚 and 辛, and as the earthly branches 申 and 酉. The pair of stems is the sharpest yin-yang contrast in the cycle: 庚 is a blade and 辛 is jewellery, and they are the same phase.
金 Jīn · autumn · west
At a glance
Metal appears in a chart as the stems 庚 and 辛 and the branches 申 and 酉 — the blade and the needle, the peak and the first autumn.
In the classical correspondence tables Metal governs autumn and the west, the lung and large intestine, the nose, and the pungent taste.
How Metal appears in a chart
庚 is yang Metal: the axe, the blade, the thing that cuts and is not decorative. 辛 is yin Metal: the ring, the needle, the thing that is precise and small and valuable. A chart with 庚 prominent reads as blunt and effective; the same chart with 辛 reads as exact and discerning. Practitioners treat the substitution as a different chart.
The branches carry the season. 申 is the first autumn month, yang, and contains hidden Water and Earth, which is why 申 is a Metal branch that can also generate. 酉 is the peak, pure Metal and the most exact character in the cycle. A Metal stem rooted in 酉 is as strong as a stem gets; the same stem on 卯 — the Wood branch directly opposite — is being dulled and reads as present but ineffective.
As a day master, Metal is the self as judge. A 庚 day master is described as decisive, direct, and hard to soften; a 辛 day master as perceptive, fastidious, and easily wounded by coarseness. The caution is the same as for every day master: one character in eight.
Stems, branches, and the day master
The stems
庚 yang Metal: the blade, blunt and effective. 辛 yin Metal: the jewellery and the needle, exact and valuable. The pair is about whether the edge is for work or for discernment.
The branches
申 the first autumn month, yang, storing Water and Earth. 酉 the peak, pure Metal. Rooting in either makes a Metal stem strong; 寅 and 卯 dull it.
As a day master
Read as the self as judge. A 庚 day master decides; a 辛 day master discerns. What the chart supports decides whether either is bearable to live with.
The Metal characters
庚 Gēng (yang), 辛 Xīn (yin)
申 Shēn (monkey), 酉 Yǒu (rooster)
4 and 9
商 shāng
How much weight this carries
This is the most technical page in the set and the most falsifiable: either a chart contains Metal characters or it does not. What is not falsifiable is what those characters mean — that part depends on the practitioner, the school, and the question being asked.
Related Concepts
Common questions
How do I know if I am a Metal day master?
By the stem of your day pillar, which requires converting the birth date to the solar calendar. The free calculator on this site does that conversion.
Is 庚 stronger than 辛?
It is blunter, not stronger. 庚 cuts; 辛 distinguishes. Which is preferable depends on what the chart needs.
What does it mean to have no Metal in a chart?
That the phase is supplied by luck cycles rather than by the birth chart. It is common and not a defect — charts are read for balance.
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Want this applied to your own chart?
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