The Ten Gods (shi shen) are ten roles that any other character in a chart can play relative to your Day Master. They are not deities and not spirits — the English name is an old translation of a Chinese term for “ten relationships”. Each role is produced by two facts: how the other character’s element relates to yours, and whether its polarity matches.
The five groups
| Group | Ten Gods | Traditional theme |
|---|---|---|
| Peer | Friend 比肩 · Rob Wealth 劫財 | self-reliance, peers, competition |
| Output | Eating God 食神 · Hurting Officer 傷官 | expression, craft, what you make |
| Wealth | Direct Wealth 正財 · Indirect Wealth 偏財 | resources, income, what you manage |
| Authority | Direct Officer 正官 · Seven Killings 七殺 | structure, responsibility, pressure |
| Resource | Direct Resource 正印 · Indirect Resource 偏印 | support, learning, what sustains you |
Within each group the pair splits by polarity. “Direct” roles come from the opposite polarity to your Day Master and are traditionally read as more stable and conventional; “Indirect” roles share your polarity and are read as more volatile, more individual, sometimes more powerful. That distinction is a convention, not a ranking.
Lookup: stems against your Day Master
Choose your Day Master to translate all ten Heavenly Stems. The table works without JavaScript too — the default below is Jia (Yang Wood), and the full matrix further down covers every combination.
| Stem | Element | Polarity | Ten God | Group |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jia 甲 | Wood | yang | Friend 比肩 | Peer |
| Yi 乙 | Wood | yin | Rob Wealth 劫財 | Peer |
| Bing 丙 | Fire | yang | Eating God 食神 | Output |
| Ding 丁 | Fire | yin | Hurting Officer 傷官 | Output |
| Wu 戊 | Earth | yang | Indirect Wealth 偏財 | Wealth |
| Ji 己 | Earth | yin | Direct Wealth 正財 | Wealth |
| Geng 庚 | Metal | yang | Seven Killings 七殺 | Authority |
| Xin 辛 | Metal | yin | Direct Officer 正官 | Authority |
| Ren 壬 | Water | yang | Indirect Resource 偏印 | Resource |
| Gui 癸 | Water | yin | Direct Resource 正印 | Resource |
Lookup: branches and their hidden stems
An Earthly Branch carries a primary element plus one to three hidden stems. The primary element is what the branch “looks like”; the hidden stems are what it can actually do. Each hidden stem has its own Ten God against your Day Master.
| Branch | Animal | Element | Hidden stems (Ten God) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zi 子 | Rat | Water | Gui 癸 (Direct Resource) |
| Chou 丑 | Ox | Earth | Ji 己 (Direct Wealth) · Gui 癸 (Direct Resource) · Xin 辛 (Direct Officer) |
| Yin 寅 | Tiger | Wood | Jia 甲 (Friend) · Bing 丙 (Eating God) · Wu 戊 (Indirect Wealth) |
| Mao 卯 | Rabbit | Wood | Yi 乙 (Rob Wealth) |
| Chen 辰 | Dragon | Earth | Wu 戊 (Indirect Wealth) · Yi 乙 (Rob Wealth) · Gui 癸 (Direct Resource) |
| Si 巳 | Snake | Fire | Bing 丙 (Eating God) · Wu 戊 (Indirect Wealth) · Geng 庚 (Seven Killings) |
| Wu 午 | Horse | Fire | Ding 丁 (Hurting Officer) · Ji 己 (Direct Wealth) |
| Wei 未 | Goat | Earth | Ji 己 (Direct Wealth) · Ding 丁 (Hurting Officer) · Yi 乙 (Rob Wealth) |
| Shen 申 | Monkey | Metal | Geng 庚 (Seven Killings) · Ren 壬 (Indirect Resource) · Wu 戊 (Indirect Wealth) |
| You 酉 | Rooster | Metal | Xin 辛 (Direct Officer) |
| Xu 戌 | Dog | Earth | Wu 戊 (Indirect Wealth) · Xin 辛 (Direct Officer) · Ding 丁 (Hurting Officer) |
| Hai 亥 | Pig | Water | Ren 壬 (Indirect Resource) · Jia 甲 (Friend) |
Full matrix: every stem against every Day Master
Rows are the Day Master; columns are the other Heavenly Stem. Read across a row to see how that Day Master would label each stem in a chart.
| Day Master | Jia 甲 | Yi 乙 | Bing 丙 | Ding 丁 | Wu 戊 | Ji 己 | Geng 庚 | Xin 辛 | Ren 壬 | Gui 癸 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jia 甲 | Friend | Rob Wealth | Eating God | Hurting Officer | Indirect Wealth | Direct Wealth | Seven Killings | Direct Officer | Indirect Resource | Direct Resource |
| Yi 乙 | Rob Wealth | Friend | Hurting Officer | Eating God | Direct Wealth | Indirect Wealth | Direct Officer | Seven Killings | Direct Resource | Indirect Resource |
| Bing 丙 | Indirect Resource | Direct Resource | Friend | Rob Wealth | Eating God | Hurting Officer | Indirect Wealth | Direct Wealth | Seven Killings | Direct Officer |
| Ding 丁 | Direct Resource | Indirect Resource | Rob Wealth | Friend | Hurting Officer | Eating God | Direct Wealth | Indirect Wealth | Direct Officer | Seven Killings |
| Wu 戊 | Seven Killings | Direct Officer | Indirect Resource | Direct Resource | Friend | Rob Wealth | Eating God | Hurting Officer | Indirect Wealth | Direct Wealth |
| Ji 己 | Direct Officer | Seven Killings | Direct Resource | Indirect Resource | Rob Wealth | Friend | Hurting Officer | Eating God | Direct Wealth | Indirect Wealth |
| Geng 庚 | Indirect Wealth | Direct Wealth | Seven Killings | Direct Officer | Indirect Resource | Direct Resource | Friend | Rob Wealth | Eating God | Hurting Officer |
| Xin 辛 | Direct Wealth | Indirect Wealth | Direct Officer | Seven Killings | Direct Resource | Indirect Resource | Rob Wealth | Friend | Hurting Officer | Eating God |
| Ren 壬 | Eating God | Hurting Officer | Indirect Wealth | Direct Wealth | Seven Killings | Direct Officer | Indirect Resource | Direct Resource | Friend | Rob Wealth |
| Gui 癸 | Hurting Officer | Eating God | Direct Wealth | Indirect Wealth | Direct Officer | Seven Killings | Direct Resource | Indirect Resource | Rob Wealth | Friend |
How to read the counts, not just the labels
A single Ten God does not describe anything. What readers actually look at is the distribution: a chart with a lot of Output and no Wealth is described differently from one with both; a chart with strong Authority and no Resource is unstable in a specific, recognisable way. The two levels that matter are:
- Which group is dominant — Peer, Output, Wealth, Authority or Resource.
- Which group is absent — and whether luck cycles later supply it.
Your calculated chart lists the Ten God for every visible stem and every hidden stem, then groups them. Start from the groups.