食神
shí shén · Eating God
The Eating God (食神, shí shén) is the Ten God the Day Master produces with the SAME yin-yang polarity — for a 戊 (yang earth) Day Master, the yang metal 庚. With 伤官, the opposite-polarity output, it forms the output pair; the matching polarity makes the drain gentler, which is the basis for reading this star as steady production, craft and appetite rather than edge.
The San Ming Tong Hui explains the name through the image of something being eaten: what the Day Master produces feeds on it. The same book records the star's alternative names, 寿星 and 爵星, and sets its basic condition — an Eating God should be in a productive and thriving state, not a weak or expiring one. It also caps the quantity: one is appropriate, and too many drain the Day Master's own substance, at which point the book treats the star as turning into 伤官.
Deep Oracle Editorial Team · 2026-10-22 · 3 min read
Lookup
| Day Master | Eating God stem | Main-qi branch | Also hidden in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 甲 | 丙 | 巳 | 寅 |
| 乙 | 丁 | 午 | 未, 戌 |
| 丙 | 戊 | 辰, 戌 | 寅, 巳, 申 |
| 丁 | 己 | 丑, 未 | 午 |
| 戊 | 庚 | 申 | 巳 |
| 己 | 辛 | 酉 | 丑, 戌 |
| 庚 | 壬 | 亥 | 申 |
| 辛 | 癸 | 子 | 丑, 辰 |
| 壬 | 甲 | 寅 | 亥 |
| 癸 | 乙 | 卯 | 辰, 未 |
Producing Wealth, restraining Killings
The star has two classical uses. 食神生财 treats it as the source of Wealth, and the Ziping Zhenquan explains the whole reason the tradition welcomes an otherwise draining star in these terms; the same book notes that a chart using the Eating God alone is rich with Wealth luck and poor without it, so the benefit reaches the chart through a Wealth star and not directly. 食神制杀 uses it to restrain Seven Killings instead, and the Ziping Zhenquan rates the route that forgoes Wealth for Killings and Seal as the most commanding of all. Both routes fail the same way: an Indirect Seal strips the Eating God, and neither Wealth nor restraint survives it.
Worked example
Worked example (solar 1978-09-03 4:00, female):
This chart's pattern is 食神格; the day master is 中和.
A 戊 Day Master born in the 申 month: the month's main qi 庚 is the Eating God, revealed in the month stem, and the hour stem 甲 is Seven Killings — the restraining route. No Indirect Seal is revealed, so the Eating God is not stripped and the route stands.
Related terms
Classical sources cited
- 《三命通会·论古人立印食官财名义》
- 《三命通会·论食神》
- 《子平真诠·论食神》
- 《子平真诠·论四吉神能破格》
- 《子平真诠·论偏官》
Lookup tables are generated from this site's chart engine; quotations are verified against the cited works.
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