The Ten Gods

The Relational Framework

The Ten Gods (十神) are not mystical entities. They are relationship labels. Take the Day Master's element. Every other element in the chart—every Heavenly Stem in every other pillar, every element hidden in every Earthly Branch—has one of five possible relationships to it.

Same element: parallel. Produced by the Day Master: output. Controlled by the Day Master: wealth. Controls the Day Master: authority. Produces the Day Master: resource. Five relationships, each split by yin/yang polarity, yields ten gods.

The logic is mechanical. If the Day Master is Yang Wood (甲), then Yang Wood is its parallel, Yang Fire is what it produces, Yang Earth is what it controls, Yang Metal is what controls it, and Yang Water is what produces it. Switch to the opposite polarity for each category and you get the other five. No interpretation is needed at this stage—only the generation and control cycles of the Five Phases.

五乾屬陽，喜合。以甲為例：見甲，為比肩、兄弟。見乙，為劫財、敗財，克父及妻。見丙，為食神、天廚、壽星，為男。見丁，為傷官、退財、耗氣，子甥。

— 《淵海子平》基礎

The Yuanhai Ziping lays this out stem by stem, using Yang Wood (甲) as the example. When it sees itself, that is Companion. When it sees Yin Wood (乙), that is Rob Wealth. When it sees Yang Fire (丙), that is Food God. Each pairing has a name, a character, and a set of traditional associations. The Ten Gods are the vocabulary of chart reading.

The Ten Gods Table

The pattern underneath the table is the 正/偏 distinction. 正 (direct, upright) marks an opposite-polarity pairing—yin meets yang. 偏 (partial, indirect) marks a same-polarity pairing—yang meets yang, or yin meets yin. This is not arbitrary naming. In Five Phase theory, opposite-polarity interactions are considered more harmonious, more regulated. Same-polarity interactions are rawer, less restrained. A Direct Officer governs you with propriety; Seven Killings governs you with force. Same relationship, different polarity, different character entirely.

The Output Pair: Food God and Hurting Officer

Food God (食神)

The Food God is what the Day Master produces, in opposite polarity. Yang Wood produces Yin Fire; that Yin Fire is its Food God. The name is literal in the tradition—it generates wealth indirectly, through the element it in turn produces. The Yuanhai Ziping describes it as the most benign of the ten:

食神者，生我財神之謂也…命中帶此者，主人財厚食豐、腹量寬洪…恆不喜見官星，忌倒食。

— 《淵海子平》食神

“The Food God is that which generates my Wealth God…those who carry it in their chart are blessed with thick wealth and abundant food, broad and generous in disposition…it consistently dislikes seeing the Officer star, and fears the inverted Food God.” The Food God is gentle output—production without strain. It fears the Direct Officer because Officer controls the Day Master, cutting off the source of output.

Hurting Officer (傷官)

The Hurting Officer is the same relationship—Day Master produces—but in same polarity. The name tells you its nature: it injures the Officer. Since the Direct Officer represents authority, regulation, and social position, the Hurting Officer is the element that attacks all three. The Yuanhai Ziping is vivid:

傷官主人多才藝、傲物氣高，常以天下之人不如己…傷官務要傷盡；傷之不盡，官來乘旺，其禍不可勝言。

— 《淵海子平》傷官

“The Hurting Officer gives a person many talents and arts, a proud and lofty bearing, who constantly considers everyone under heaven inferior to himself…the Hurting Officer must injure completely; if the injury is incomplete and the Officer returns in strength, the calamity is beyond words.”

The tradition developed a famous five-type verse distinguishing how Hurting Officer operates across different elemental combinations:

火土傷官宜傷盡；金水傷官要見官；木火見官官有旺；土金官去返成官；惟有水木傷官格，財官兩見始為歡。

— 《淵海子平》傷官

Fire-Earth Hurting Officer should injure completely. Metal-Water Hurting Officer needs to see the Officer. Wood-Fire sees the Officer and the Officer thrives. Earth-Metal removes the Officer and it returns as Officer. Only Water-Wood Hurting Officer format finds joy when both Wealth and Officer appear together. Five elemental combinations, five different rules. The same god, operating differently depending on what elements compose it.

The Authority Pair: Direct Officer and Seven Killings

Direct Officer (正官)

The Direct Officer is the element that controls the Day Master in opposite polarity. It represents legitimate authority—the regulated constraint that gives structure. The Yuanhai Ziping treats it as the most valued god in a chart:

正官乃貴氣之物，大忌刑衝破害。正官或多，反不為福。

— 《淵海子平》正官

“The Direct Officer is a thing of noble energy, greatly fearing punishment, clash, destruction, and harm. When the Direct Officer is too many, it turns against fortune.” One Officer is structure. Multiple Officers become oppression. The same element, in excess, changes character.

Seven Killings (七殺)

The Seven Killings is the same controlling relationship, but in same polarity. Where the Direct Officer governs with protocol, Seven Killings governs with violence. The Yuanhai Ziping offers its most vivid metaphor here:

人有偏官，如抱虎而眠，雖借其威，足以攝群畜；稍失關防，必為其噬臍。有制伏則為偏官，無制伏則為七殺。

— 《淵海子平》偏官

“A person with the Indirect Officer is like one who sleeps embracing a tiger. Though you may borrow its power, enough to command all lesser beasts, the slightest lapse in vigilance and it will surely devour you. With restraint it is the Indirect Officer; without restraint it is Seven Killings.”

The distinction between 偏官 (Indirect Officer) and 七殺 (Seven Killings) is not two different gods. It is the same god in two different states: tamed or untamed. The Ditiansu makes this explicit:

殺即官也，身旺者以殺為官；官即殺也，身弱者以官為殺。

— 《滴天髓》官殺

“Killings are Officer: when the body is strong, Killings serve as Officer. Officer is Killings: when the body is weak, Officer becomes Killings.” The same element that gives authority to a strong Day Master crushes a weak one. The god does not change. The Day Master's strength determines which face it shows.

The Resource Pair: Seal and Partial Seal

Direct Seal (印綬)

The Direct Seal is the element that produces the Day Master in opposite polarity. It represents support, protection, nourishment—the element that strengthens you. In traditional readings, it maps to education, credentials, maternal care, and institutional backing.

有官無印，即非真官；有印無官，反成其福。印綬畏財。

— 《淵海子平》印綬

“Officer without Seal is not true Officer; Seal without Officer turns instead to fortune. The Seal fears Wealth.” The Seal and Officer form a natural pair: authority needs backing, and backing needs authority to direct it. But the Seal fears Wealth because Wealth (the element the Day Master controls) is in turn controlled by what produces the Day Master—Wealth destroys the Seal by the control cycle.

Partial Seal (偏印/梟神)

The Partial Seal is the same producing relationship, but in same polarity. Its alternate name is 梟神—the Owl God. The name is not decorative. In Chinese tradition, the owl was believed to devour its own mother. The Partial Seal “devours” the Food God: since the Food God is what the Day Master produces, and the Partial Seal is what produces the Day Master, the Partial Seal sits in the position that controls the Food God's output.

When the Food God is present and the Partial Seal appears, the gentle output that the Food God represents is cut off. The tradition calls this 梟神奪食—the Owl God seizing food. It is one of the most feared configurations in classical Bazi, because it turns a source of nourishment into a source of deprivation.

The Use God

Identifying the ten gods in a chart is taxonomy. The pivotal question is which one matters most. Both the Yuanhai Ziping and the Ditiansu converge on a single concept: the Use God (用神).

用之為財不可劫，用之為官不可傷，用之印綬不可壞，用之食神不可奪。此四句原有至理，其要在一「用」字。

— 任鐵樵，《滴天髓闡微》用神

“When the Use God is Wealth, it must not be robbed. When the Use God is Officer, it must not be injured. When the Use God is Seal, it must not be broken. When the Use God is Food God, it must not be seized. These four sentences contain the ultimate principle. The key lies in the single character: ‘use.’”

The Use God is whichever Ten God the chart needs most for balance. A chart with a strong Day Master and no output needs the Food God or Hurting Officer to drain excess strength. A chart with a weak Day Master drowning in authority needs the Seal to support it, or the Companion to share the burden. The entire reading pivots on identifying which god serves this balancing function.

Once the Use God is identified, every other element in the chart is evaluated by whether it supports or threatens that god. Wealth that supports the Use God is favorable; Wealth that destroys it is catastrophic. The same element changes meaning depending on its relationship to the Use God. This is why chart reading cannot be reduced to a lookup table—every god is context-dependent.

From Relationship to Strength

The Ten Gods tell you what relationships exist in a chart. They name every element's role relative to the Day Master. But naming a relationship does not tell you how powerful it is. A Food God that appears in the month branch during its thriving season is a different beast from a Food God buried in a weak hour pillar during a hostile month.

That question—how strong each god actually is—belongs to seasonal strength. The Ten Gods provide the vocabulary. Seasonal strength provides the grammar. Together, they allow you to read the sentence that a Bazi chart is trying to speak.