Yin Wood day master
Yi, the second stem: Yin Wood, the vine. In Four Pillars the stem of the day of birth is the self, and everything else in the chart is read as what supports it, drains it, or stands in its way.
What the tradition says
Four Pillars reads a Yin Wood day master as the vine or the grass: flexible, persistent, growing around obstacles rather than through them, and surviving conditions the tree does not. The tradition associates it with adaptability, charm, a talent for alliances, and a resilience that looks like softness from outside. It does well with something to climb, a Yang Wood or a Yang Earth in the chart, and it makes the most of small amounts of Water and light.
The honest shadow is the vine's dependence: an opportunism that attaches to whoever is strongest, an indecision that waits to see which way the wind is blowing, and a resentment at needing support at all. The tradition says a Yin Wood chart with nothing to climb sprawls, and one with too much Metal is grass under a mower.
What supports it, and what it supports
Yin Wood is Wood. In the cycle of the five, Water produces Wood and supports it; Wood produces Fire and is drained by it; Wood controls Earth; and Metal controls Wood. A chart is read by counting which of the five is plentiful and which is missing around the day master, and the tradition's word for a good chart is not a strong one but a balanced one.
Something to climb, a little Water, gentle Fire, and Earth to root in. Yin Metal, the clippers, keeps it in shape; Yang Metal, the axe, is aimed at trees and mostly misses it.
The image, as the site reads it
Yin Wood is the vine. It grows around obstacles rather than through them, and it survives conditions the tree does not.
Postcard versus reading, from the other side
Your year animal is the character everyone knows. Yin Wood is the one the tradition reads first, and hardly anyone knows theirs.
The year animal is the branch of the year pillar, shared by everyone born in the same twelve months. The day master is the stem of the day pillar, one of ten, and it changes every day, so it is the character of a birth rather than of a cohort. The tradition weighs the other seven characters against it: what feeds Yin Wood, what drains it, what it controls and what controls it. A Yin Wood born in a Dragon year and one born in a Rat year are read as the same self in different weather, and two Dragons with different day masters are read as different people who share a postcard.
The ten year luck pillars are read against the day master too: each decade's stem and branch is weighed as support or drain for Yin Wood, which is what the calculator's luck pillar section does once sex at birth is given.
About 60 seconds · needs your date, time and place · the four pillars are drawn for you
Questions people ask
How do I find my day master?
From the day pillar, which the calculator works out from your date and place of birth by the solar terms rather than the calendar. It is the stem, the upper character, of the day column, and it is the same for everyone born on that day anywhere in the world.
Is Yin Wood a strong day master?
Strength in Four Pillars is a reading of the chart around the day master, not a virtue of the stem: Yin Wood is strong when Water and Wood are plentiful in the other pillars and weak when Metal and Fire are. The tradition prefers balance to strength, and reads a strong day master with nothing to do as a burden.
What is the difference between Yin Wood and Yang Wood?
Same element, opposite polarity: the vine against the tree. The tradition reads Yang as the outward, forceful form of the element and Yin as the inward, flexible one, and it does not rank them.
We read charts for pattern and coherence, not prediction. Nothing here tells you what will happen, and nothing here tells you who you are; it shows a structure and leaves the judgement with you.