BaZi · Day Master
The Jia day master (甲, jiǎ)
Jia is Yang Wood, the first of the ten stems: a tall tree, a beam, timber that has already taken its shape.
Element: Wood · Polarity: Yang · Pinyin: jiǎ · Read as: a tall tree, a beam of timber
As a day master
A Jia day master is read as upright, upward and slow to bend — the stem of beginnings and of structure. It is the character a chart leans on rather than the one that goes around a problem.
What classically stands beside it
The classical line pairs Jia with 庚 (Yang Metal, its Seven Killings) to be planed into something usable, and gives it 己 (Yin Earth, its Direct Wealth) to hold. Left uncut, the reading says, it grows into a thicket rather than a beam.
Where it sits in a chart
The Day Master is whatever stem the day pillar lands on; a chart can carry the same stem in the year, month or hour pillar, and that is then read as another character standing to the Day Master, not as a second day master.
Where this stem comes from
The day is counted in an unbroken sixty-day cycle, so the stem is not chosen — it is the one the cycle lands on. Enter a birth date and the chart prints it.
Questions
How is the day pillar computed?
Days are counted in a cycle of sixty, unbroken since the calendar began, so a given date always falls on the same stem and branch. Only the hour pillar needs the birth hour.
Does a Jia day master mean I am Wood?
It says the day stem is Wood; the chart counts all eight characters. The Day Master is the reference point, not the whole of the reading.
All ten Day Masters
Yi 乙 · Bing 丙 · Ding 丁 · Wu 戊 · Ji 己 · Geng 庚 · Xin 辛 · Ren 壬 · Gui 癸
Cast your chart All ten Day Masters Luck Pillars (大运) — the ten-year blocks of a BaZi chart