Day Pillar Shen Sha: Kui Gang Determination and Usage

日柱神煞 is the category of shensha that are identified directly from the day pillar, meaning the sexagenary pair formed by the day stem and the day branch. Unlike shensha that are derived by scanning the year branch or day branch against the other branches in a chart, these are determined by checking whether the day pillar itself matches a fixed list of ganzhi combinations. Because the day pillar is the native’s own seat, traditional sources treat day-pillar shensha as bearing on the person’s constitution, spouse palace, and the manner in which personal qualities are expressed. The most prominent members of this class are the Kuigang days, the Bazhuan days, and certain forms of peach blossom when it coincides with the day branch.

以日柱干支起的神煞有哪些

The shensha that are defined by the ganzhi of the day pillar are relatively few in number. Two are especially identified in classical texts. Kuigang is determined solely by the day pillar. If the year pillar, month pillar, or hour pillar contains the same ganzhi combination, it is not treated as Kuigang. The determination is thus a direct match between the day pillar and a list of qualifying days, and no other pillar is consulted. Bazhuan days are likewise a day-pillar category. They consist of the eight combinations Jia Yin, Yi Mao, Ding Wei, Wu Xu, Ji Wei, Geng Shen, Xin You, and Gui Chou. The name refers to the stem and branch being of the same qi; this grouping is discussed in Sanming Tonghui. Peach blossom is not in itself a day-pillar-only shensha, but when the peach blossom branch falls on the day branch it overlaps with the spouse palace, and traditional reading gives weight to that positional overlap. In contrast, Kuigang and Bazhuan do not require any separate calculation from the year branch or day branch to other branches; they are identified by the day pillar’s ganzhi directly.

魁罡四日与五日的分歧

The classical treatment of Kuigang contains an internal discrepancy. In Yuanhai Ziping, the essay on Kuigang lists four days: Ren Chen, Geng Xu, Geng Chen, and Wu Xu. Elsewhere in the same text, the verse formula on Kuigang also refers to Ren Xu. As a result, the four-day and five-day versions exist side by side within one source. The practical issue is whether Ren Xu should be included among Kuigang days. The four-day list treats Ren Xu as outside Kuigang. The verse version brings it within the same category. Since both statements appear in the same book, the disagreement is not a matter of one school against another but of internal textual variation. The present site adopts the union of the two versions and treats Ren Chen, Geng Xu, Geng Chen, Wu Xu, and Ren Xu as Kuigang. A day pillar outside this union is not classified as Kuigang. The choice of the union is an editorial position, not a claim that the texts resolve the discrepancy. It means that a chart with Ren Xu day is handled as Kuigang here, while the four-day-only reading remains available in the original essay.

见财官、逢冲与重叠三种情况

In reading a Kuigang day, three conditions are traditionally distinguished. The first is when the day pillar sees wealth officer configurations. The classical material says that if Kuigang is seen together with wealth and officer, the native may have an exceptional path. The second is when the Kuigang day meets its opposing branch. The day branch of a Kuigang day is always either Chen or Xu, and Chen and Xu clash. For Ren Chen and Geng Chen, the opposing branch is Xu. For Geng Xu, Wu Xu, and Ren Xu, the opposing branch is Chen. Chen is the reservoir of water and Xu is the reservoir of fire; both belong to earth. The clash between Chen and Xu is therefore a clash between two earth branches that also function as different storage positions. The third condition is overlap. When a Kuigang day is combined with other indicators on the same pillar or in the chart, the traditional view treats the overlap as intensifying rather than canceling the Kuigang quality. The source material distinguishes these three situations because they affect how the Kuigang day is discussed in practice: whether the chart also presents the supporting configurations, whether the opposing branch is present, and whether the Kuigang sign is layered with other signs.

非日柱位置见同一组干支

The same ganzhi may appear in a position other than the day pillar without carrying the Kuigang classification. If a chart has Ren Chen as the year pillar, month pillar, or hour pillar, that Ren Chen is not considered Kuigang. The rule is explicit: only the day pillar is checked. This makes Kuigang unlike shensha that are calculated from a branch and then searched across the other pillars. For example, peach blossom is found by starting from the year branch or day branch and checking the other branches. Yi Ma is similarly derived from a source branch and identified in other positions. Kuigang does not follow that method. It is a fixed set of day-pillar names. A Ren Chen anywhere else in the chart is simply a Ren Chen pillar; it is not treated as a Kuigang occurrence. The restriction matters because it limits the number of Kuigang appearances a chart can have. A chart cannot contain Kuigang in more than one pillar, since only the day pillar is eligible. If the day pillar is not one of the five listed combinations, the chart is treated as having no Kuigang, regardless of what appears elsewhere.

神煞在整张盘里的分量

Shensha are one layer among several in a bazi chart. They are not used as the primary structure of analysis. The day-pillar shensha such as Kuigang and Bazhuan describe qualities attached to the day seat, but they are read alongside the five elements, the ten gods, the strength of the day master, the positions of the stems and branches, and the interactions among the pillars. The traditional material gives Kuigang a marked character, yet it does not present it as overriding the rest of the chart. The same applies to peach blossom on the day branch. When the peach blossom branch is the day branch, the old reading emphasizes its interaction with the spouse palace, because the day branch is also the marriage seat. When the peach blossom branch is the month branch, it is called wall-outside peach blossom, and the old reading says that the charm appears in external fields such as social life and work. The phrase indicates the setting, not a predicted behavioral outcome. The distinction is positional: the same branch means different things according to the palace it occupies. In the whole chart, the weight of such shensha is contextual. They can add color to a reading, but they do not replace the structural analysis. A Kuigang day with conflicting elements is still read as a Kuigang day, but the conflict is carried by the elements and positions, not erased by the shensha. Conversely, a non-Kuigang day that happens to contain a Kuigang-like ganzhi in another pillar does not acquire the Kuigang meaning. The entry therefore records the definitions and the traditional conditions, while keeping their role limited to the layer they belong to.