| Day pillar | 辛亥 (xin hai) |
|---|---|
| Heavenly stem | 辛 (xin) |
| Earthly branch | 亥 (hai) |
| Day element | Metal 金 (jin) |
| Polarity | Yin |
| Month pillar | 乙巳 (yi si), governed by 立夏 (lixia) |
Today's day pillar is 辛亥 (xin hai), a yin Metal day in the sixty-day cycle. The month pillar is 乙巳 (yi si), governed by the term 立夏 (lixia).
辛 is yin Metal: the finished blade, the ring, metal that has already been through the fire and come out precise.
辛 is the yin form of Metal and the eighth stem. Its classical images are small and worked: jewellery, a needle, a fine knife. The character itself also carries the sense of pungent or hard-won, which the tradition does not treat as bad news, only as something that has been refined at some cost.
As a yin stem it pairs with yin branches, so 辛丑 (xin chou), 辛卯 (xin mao) and 辛酉 (xin you) all appear in the sixty. 辛 is the main hidden stem of 酉 (you) and it also hides in 丑 (chou) and 戌 (xu).
On a 辛 day the day element is Metal and the polarity is yin. Readers often describe that texture as exacting, which is a description of pace and attention, not a judgment being handed to anyone.