Yi Wood in All Twelve Months: Climate Favorable Elements from the Qiong Tong Bao Jian
The same Yi Wood Day Master born in deep winter and in high summer needs completely different things. The Qiong Tong Bao Jian, a Qing-era classic on climate adjustment, goes through all twelve months for Yi Wood one by one. This page puts them in a single table, then checks how close they come to the favorable elements our engine works out from the whole chart.
Climate favorable elements for each month
| Month | Climate | Climate favorable elements (first choice in bold, Ten God in brackets) | At least one among our favorable elements |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yin month (early spring, ~Feb 4 – Mar 5) | lingering cold | Bing Fire (Hurting Officer), Gui Water (Indirect Resource) | 100% |
| Mao month (mid-spring, ~Mar 6 – Apr 4) | Wood at its peak | Bing Fire (Hurting Officer), Gui Water (Indirect Resource) | 100% |
| Chen month (late spring, ~Apr 5 – May 5) | damp Earth in command | Gui Water (Indirect Resource), Bing Fire (Hurting Officer), Wu Earth (Direct Wealth) | 100% |
| Si month (early summer, ~May 6 – Jun 5) | Fire rising | Gui Water (Indirect Resource) | 95.8% |
| Wu month (midsummer, ~Jun 6 – Jul 6) | scorching heat | Gui Water (Indirect Resource), Bing Fire (Hurting Officer) | 100% |
| Wei month (late summer, ~Jul 7 – Aug 7) | dry Earth in command | Gui Water (Indirect Resource), Bing Fire (Hurting Officer) | 100% |
| Shen month (early autumn, ~Aug 8 – Sep 7) | Metal emerging | Bing Fire (Hurting Officer), Gui Water (Indirect Resource), Ji Earth (Indirect Wealth) | 100% |
| You month (mid-autumn, ~Sep 8 – Oct 7) | Metal at its peak | Gui Water (Indirect Resource), Bing Fire (Hurting Officer), Ding Fire (Eating God) | 100% |
| Xu month (late autumn, ~Oct 8 – Nov 6) | dry Earth in command | Gui Water (Indirect Resource), Xin Metal (Seven Killings) | 99.3% |
| Hai month (early winter, ~Nov 7 – Dec 6) | cold setting in | Bing Fire (Hurting Officer), Wu Earth (Direct Wealth) | 67.9% |
| Zi month (midwinter, ~Dec 7 – Jan 5) | bitter cold | Bing Fire (Hurting Officer) | 74.5% |
| Chou month (late winter, ~Jan 6 – Feb 3) | frozen, damp Earth | Bing Fire (Hurting Officer) | 45.6% |
Climate favorable elements follow the commonly circulated table of the Qiong Tong Bao Jian, listed roughly in order of priority. The original text often chooses differently depending on the rest of the chart; the table gathers all those cases into one list. Across the twelve months, the most frequent first choice is Bing Fire (6 months). Month dates are approximate and shift by a day or two each year with the solar terms.
What the original text says
| Month | Original text (Chinese) | In plain words |
|---|---|---|
| Yin month (early spring, ~Feb 4 – Mar 5) | 「正月乙木，必須用丙，因天氣尤有餘寒，非丙不暖，雖有癸水，恐凝寒氣，故以丙火為先，癸水次之。」 | Early spring is still cold and nothing warms without Bing Fire, so Bing comes first and Gui Water second. |
| Mao month (mid-spring, ~Mar 6 – Apr 4) | 「二月乙木，陽氣漸升，木不寒矣，以丙為君，癸為臣」 | Mid-spring is no longer cold; Bing Fire still leads and Gui Water assists. |
| Chen month (late spring, ~Apr 5 – May 5) | 「三月乙木，陽氣愈熾，先癸後丙。」 | Yang grows stronger in late spring: Gui Water first for moisture, then Bing Fire. |
| Si month (early summer, ~May 6 – Jun 5) | 「四月乙木，自有丙火，專取癸水為尊。」 | The month itself carries Bing Fire in early summer, so Gui Water alone is taken. |
| Wu month (midsummer, ~Jun 6 – Jul 6) | 「五月乙木，丁火司權，禾稼俱旱。上半月屬陽，仍用癸水。下半月屬陰，三伏生寒，丙癸齊用。」 | Fire rules and the fields are dry in midsummer: Gui Water in the first half of the month, Bing Fire and Gui Water together in the second. |
| Wei month (late summer, ~Jul 7 – Aug 7) | 「總之夏月之乙木，專用癸水，丙火酌用，庚辛次之。」 | For summer Yi Wood overall, Gui Water comes first and Bing Fire is used with discretion. |
| Shen month (early autumn, ~Aug 8 – Sep 7) | 「三秋乙木，金神司令，先丙後癸，惟九月專用癸水，恐丙暖戊土為病也。」 | Metal rules in early autumn: Bing Fire first to control Metal, then Gui Water for the Wood; the original also says the seventh month likes Ji Earth. |
| You month (mid-autumn, ~Sep 8 – Oct 7) | 「在白露之後，桂蕊未開，專用癸水以滋桂萼。若秋分後，桂花已開，卻喜向陽，又宜用丙，癸水次之」 | Gui Water alone in the first half of mid-autumn; after the equinox Bing Fire leads and Gui Water follows. |
| Xu month (late autumn, ~Oct 8 – Nov 6) | 「九月乙木，根枯葉落，必賴癸水滋養。」 | Roots dry and leaves fall in late autumn: Gui Water is essential, with Xin Metal to produce the Water. |
| Hai month (early winter, ~Nov 7 – Dec 6) | 「十月乙木，木不受氣，而壬水司令，取丙為用，戊土次之。」 | Ren Water rules in early winter: Bing Fire for warmth, Wu Earth to hold back the Water. |
| Zi month (midwinter, ~Dec 7 – Jan 5) | 「十一月乙木，花木寒凍，一陽來復，喜用丙火解凍」 | Plants are frozen in midwinter: Bing Fire alone to thaw them, and no Gui Water. |
| Chou month (late winter, ~Jan 6 – Feb 3) | 「冬月之木，雖取戊制水，不可作用，專取丙火則可。」 | The original has no separate passage for the twelfth month; winter Yi Wood takes Bing Fire alone throughout. |
Quotations follow the edition on Chinese Wikisource and were checked sentence by sentence against a second circulating edition; where the two differ the passage is skipped with an ellipsis, and variant characters are written in their standard forms. Where the book discusses several months together, the same sentence is repeated. The plain-words column is our own summary, not the book's wording; where the table above lists more climate favorable elements than the book's summary for that month, it is flagged there.
The four seasons at a glance
| Season | Months | What the table emphasizes |
|---|---|---|
| Spring | Yin, Mao, Chen | In Yin and Mao months Bing Fire comes first, with Gui Water assisting. In Chen month Gui comes first, then Bing, with Wu Earth in support. |
| Summer | Si, Wu, Wei | Si month takes Gui Water alone. In Wu and Wei months Gui Water still comes first, with Bing Fire assisting. |
| Autumn | Shen, You, Xu | Shen month uses Bing, Gui and Ji together. You month takes Gui first, then Bing and Ding. Xu month takes Gui Water and Xin Metal. |
| Winter | Hai, Zi, Chou | Winter is cold and frozen. Hai month takes Bing and Wu; Zi and Chou months take Bing Fire alone, to warm the chart. |
How we counted: our engine cast one chart for every day from 1960 to 2005, with the birth hour drawn at random from a fixed seed, 16,802 charts in all, and compared the Qiong Tong Bao Jian's climate favorable elements for that Day Master and month with the favorable elements our engine worked out.
Find your climate favorable elements
Enter your date of birth to find your Day Master and birth month, see which climate favorable elements the Qiong Tong Bao Jian lists for them, and check each one against the favorable elements our engine works out from your whole chart. Everything is calculated in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
Uses your Gregorian birth date. The month follows the solar terms, not the calendar month: Yin month begins at Start of Spring, Mao month at Awakening of Insects, and so on (see how the month pillar works).
A straight word: the Qiong Tong Bao Jian is a good map, but it is not your location
The Qiong Tong Bao Jian lists climate favorable elements by Day Master and birth month, which tells you what people born in that month usually need. Two people born in the same month can still hold very different amounts of Fire and Water. In our own test, the book's first choice matched the top favorable element our engine worked out from the whole chart only 35.0% of the time; at least one of the listed climate favorable elements was among the favorable elements 84.8% of the time. Use it for a sense of direction, and read the whole chart in the end. Everything on this site is for reference and entertainment.
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Yi Wood climate adjustment FAQ
What is the climate favorable element for Yi Wood born in Yin month?
The common Qiong Tong Bao Jian table lists Bing Fire and Gui Water, with Bing Fire as the first choice.
What is the climate favorable element for Yi Wood born in Zi month?
The table lists Bing Fire, with Bing Fire as the first choice.
Is the Yi Wood climate favorable element the same as my favorable element?
Not necessarily. In our engine simulation, the first-choice climate favorable element for Yi Wood matched our top favorable element 54.3% of the time, and at least one of the listed climate favorable elements was among the favorable elements 90.5% of the time. Favorable elements also depend on the strength of the whole chart and how warm or cold it already runs.