The day pillar for Saturday, 12 December 2026
| Day pillar | 庚申 (geng shen) |
|---|---|
| Heavenly stem | 庚 (geng) |
| Earthly branch | 申 (shen) |
| Day element | Metal 金 (jin) |
| Polarity | Yang |
| Month pillar | 庚子 (geng zi), governed by 大雪 (daxue) |
Today's day pillar is 庚申 (geng shen), a yang Metal day in the sixty-day cycle. The month pillar is 庚子 (geng zi), governed by the term 大雪 (daxue).
申 (shen), the ninth earthly branch
申 is the monkey branch, the start of autumn and the mid afternoon, where metal first shows up in the year.
申 is Metal, yang by position, monkey by animal. Its hours are 15:00 to 17:00 and its month begins at 立秋 (liqiu) in early August, which is the calendar declaring autumn while the weather is still hot.
Its hidden stems are 庚 (geng, yang Metal), 壬 (ren, yang Water) and 戊 (wu, yang Earth). Metal generating water is the standard cycle at work: autumn is where the year starts making the winter it will need.
On a 申 day the branch is Metal, and if the stem above it is 庚 or 壬 you get 庚申 or 壬申 (ren shen), two of the more unmixed pillars in the sixty.