庚 Geng — Yang Metal
Geng is the seventh Heavenly Stem, Yang Metal. If it's your day stem, BaZi sees you as ore and a blade: decisiveness, directness and a sense of justice.
Image
In the Di Tian Sui, the verse on the Geng stem begins: “庚金帶煞，剛健為最” — “Geng metal carries the power of the blade; nothing is harder.”
Geng is ore, an axe, a sword before tempering: the raw power of metal that has yet to take shape.
Personality
Geng means decisiveness and directness. Geng people act fast, tell it like it is, and respect strength and a fair fight. They have a strong sense of justice and duty and know how to see things through. Gentleness comes harder to them than heroics.
Strengths: courage and decisiveness, a sense of justice, the ability to see things through, loyalty and directness.
Weak points: harshness in words and actions, intolerance of weakness, a habit of solving things by force.
What Supports Geng
Metal needs fire to turn ore into a blade: the Di Tian Sui writes that Geng “is made pure by water and sharp by fire.” Moist earth nourishes it, while dry earth makes it brittle. The same treatise notes that Geng “defeats its elder brother Jia but loses to its younger sister Yi”: it combines with her.
Each element has its own season: wood is strongest in spring, fire in summer, metal in autumn, water in winter, and earth in the transitional months between the seasons. Tradition sees a Day Master born in its own season as confident, and one born out of season as needing support; how much this matters is decided by an analysis of the whole chart.
At Work and in Relationships
At work, Geng does well where resolve and discipline are needed: the military, sports, surgery, engineering, crisis management. In relationships, Geng brings loyalty and protection and values honesty and respect.
This is an image, not a verdict: the rest of the chart — the Ten Gods, the Luck Pillars, the balance of elements — can shift the picture considerably.
Frequently asked questions
Which stem does Geng combine with?
With Yi (乙, Yin Wood). This pair produces the Metal element. In a chart, it's a sign of attraction and alliance; if the Day Masters of two people form this pair, tradition sees a natural attraction between them.
Which stem does Geng clash with?
With Jia (甲, Yang Wood): the two stems stand opposite each other in the cycle, and the element of one suppresses the element of the other. In a chart, this is a conflict of goals between the areas of life of the two pillars.
Where can I find out what my Day Master is?
In the BaZi calculator: the Day Master is the stem of the day pillar, and it's marked separately in the chart table. You need your exact date of birth, and if you were born around midnight, your birth time as well.