The day pillar for Thursday, 21 January 2027
| Day pillar | 庚子 (geng zi) |
|---|---|
| Heavenly stem | 庚 (geng) |
| Earthly branch | 子 (zi) |
| Day element | Metal 金 (jin) |
| Polarity | Yang |
| Month pillar | 辛丑 (xin chou), governed by 小寒 (xiaohan) |
Today's day pillar is 庚子 (geng zi), a yang Metal day in the sixty-day cycle. The month pillar is 辛丑 (xin chou), governed by the term 小寒 (xiaohan).
庚 (geng), the seventh heavenly stem
庚 is yang Metal: ore, the axe head, the blade before anyone has polished it.
庚 is the seventh stem and Metal at its most unrefined. The images are heavy and practical: raw ore, weapons, tools that cut. Metal in this tradition is about edges and separation, deciding what is in and what is out, and 庚 does that plainly.
It is a yang stem, so it takes yang branches: 庚午 (geng wu), 庚申 (geng shen), 庚子 (geng zi). It is also the hidden stem inside 申 (shen), the monkey branch that opens autumn, and the two together make 庚申 one of the most straightforwardly metal days in the sixty.
When the page says Metal and yang, 庚 is the stem behind it. Autumn months tend to bring a run of them, which is the calendar and the element agreeing with each other rather than a coincidence.