General concepts

Ten Gods (Shi Shen)

Also known as: ten godsshi shen十神ten deitiesten starsten profilesbazi ten godsfriendrob wealtheating godhurting officerindirect wealthdirect wealthseven killingsdirect officerindirect resourcedirect resource

The Ten Gods (Shi Shen, 十神) are the ten relationships BaZi draws between the Day Master and every other stem of a chart, derived from the five phases and from yin and yang.

Despite the name, the Ten Gods are not deities. The word shen here means something closer to a spirit or a quality, and the ten names are labels for relationships. English books also call them the Ten Deities, the Ten Stars or the Ten Profiles. Each name describes how one stem of the chart stands towards the Day Master, the stem of the day pillar, which the tradition treats as the person.

The derivation uses two questions. The first is how the phase of a stem relates to the phase of the Day Master in the cycles of the five phases. It can be the same phase, the phase the Day Master creates, the phase the Day Master controls, the phase that controls the Day Master, or the phase that creates it. The second question is polarity: whether the stem has the same yin or yang as the Day Master or the opposite one. Five relationships times two polarities give ten.

The same phase gives the companions: Friend (Bi Jian, 比肩) with the same polarity and Rob Wealth (Jie Cai, 劫财) with the opposite one. The phase the Day Master creates gives the output stars: Eating God (Shi Shen, 食神, written with a different character from the Ten Gods) and Hurting Officer (Shang Guan, 伤官). The phase the Day Master controls gives wealth: Indirect Wealth (Pian Cai, 偏财) and Direct Wealth (Zheng Cai, 正财). The phase that controls the Day Master gives power: Seven Killings (Qi Sha, 七杀, also Pian Guan) and Direct Officer (Zheng Guan, 正官). The phase that creates the Day Master gives resource: Indirect Resource (Pian Yin, 偏印) and Direct Resource (Zheng Yin, 正印). In each pair the first name has the same polarity as the Day Master and the second the opposite one.

An example makes the system clear. For a Jia Day Master, Yang Wood, the stem Jia is Friend and Yi is Rob Wealth. Bing is Eating God and Ding is Hurting Officer, because Wood feeds Fire. Wu is Indirect Wealth and Ji is Direct Wealth, because Wood controls Earth. Geng is Seven Killings and Xin is Direct Officer, because Metal cuts Wood. Ren is Indirect Resource and Gui is Direct Resource, because Water nourishes Wood. For another Day Master the same stems receive different names.

The Ten Gods are given to the visible stems of the year, month and hour pillars and to the hidden stems inside every branch, where the main hidden stem counts most. The tradition reads the five groups as themes: companions as peers, independence and competition; output as expression, creativity and what a person gives out; wealth as resources and what a person manages; power as rules, pressure and responsibility; resource as learning, support and care. Classical texts also tie some stars to family roles, a reading many modern practitioners rephrase.

No Ten God is good or bad by itself. Seven Killings and Hurting Officer have dramatic names, but the tradition judges every star only within the balance of the whole chart, and that judgement differs between schools.

The free BaZi calculator in AstroSensus shows the Ten God of every visible and hidden stem with a short description. It does not mark any of them as favourable or unfavourable.