伤官
shāng guān · Hurting Officer
The Hurting Officer (伤官, shāng guān) is the Ten God the Day Master produces with the opposite yin-yang polarity — for a 癸 (yin water) Day Master, the yang wood 甲. Its name is literal and the San Ming Tong Hui spells the mechanism out: what the Day Master produces drains it and also controls the Direct Officer, so the Officer can no longer confer rank. The Ziping Zhenquan nonetheless calls the star refined rather than adverse, and notes that scholars and writers are frequently found in this configuration.
Deep Oracle Editorial Team · 2026-08-08 · 3 min read
Lookup
| Day Master | Hurting Officer stem | Main-qi branch | Also hidden in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 甲 | 丁 | 午 | 未, 戌 |
| 乙 | 丙 | 巳 | 寅 |
| 丙 | 己 | 丑, 未 | 午 |
| 丁 | 戊 | 辰, 戌 | 寅, 巳, 申 |
| 戊 | 辛 | 酉 | 丑, 戌 |
| 己 | 庚 | 申 | 巳 |
| 庚 | 癸 | 子 | 丑, 辰 |
| 辛 | 壬 | 亥 | 申 |
| 壬 | 乙 | 卯 | 辰, 未 |
| 癸 | 甲 | 寅 | 亥 |
Not one rule but five
The single most-quoted line about this star is that a Hurting Officer meeting an Officer brings trouble. The San Ming Tong Hui carries that line — and, in the same chapter, the opposite: it states that a chart with the Officer thoroughly suppressed is sometimes not fortunate, and that a Hurting Officer meeting an Officer is sometimes not harmful. It then replaces the single rule with five, keyed to the Day Master's element: fire and earth Hurting Officers should suppress the Officer, while metal-water, wood-fire and earth-metal cases do not object to seeing one. The reasoning is elemental — a cold metal chart needs the warmth an Officer supplies, a flooding water chart needs the containment, a dense wood chart needs the cutting. A page that states only the first rule has stated one fifth of the doctrine.
The two orthodox routes
伤官生财 turns the star into a producer of Wealth, and the Ziping Zhenquan treats this as converting an adverse star into a useful one, on condition that the Day Master is strong and rooted. 伤官佩印 uses a Seal to restrain it, and the condition inverts: the same book requires the Hurting Officer to be strong and the Day Master somewhat weak for the result to be refined, and warns that a heavy Day Master with a light Hurting Officer and many Seals is an impoverished shape. Wealth and Seal control each other and are not normally combined; where both are used, the book requires them to stand clear of one another among the revealed stems.
Worked example
Worked example (solar 1993-02-11 8:00, male, computed by this site's engine):
Pattern: 伤官格 · Strength: 中和 (engine verdicts)
A 癸 Day Master born in the 寅 month: the month's main qi 甲 is the Hurting Officer, revealed in the month stem, and the hour stem 丙 is Direct Wealth — the Wealth-producing route. No Direct Officer is revealed among the stems, so the configuration the most-quoted line warns about does not arise here. The engine judges the Day Master balanced, which is the condition attached to the Wealth route.
Related terms
Classical sources cited
- 《三命通会·论伤官》
- 《子平真诠·论伤官》
- 《子平真诠·论四凶神能成格》
Lookup tables are generated from this site's chart engine; quotations are verified against the cited works.
Cast a BaZi chart
Enter a birth date and time to compute the full chart: four pillars, ten gods, stars, luck cycles and annual pillars.
Start now