Day pillar type
Red Rat (Bing Zi): Personality and Matches
Hongsimdang Editorial Team · Last updated
Red Rat (Bing Zi) is the day pillar where the sun lighting everything from above (丙) rests on water in the deep of night (子). In short, it is polished within responsibility and structure and builds trust a little at a time.
What decides the Red Rat: day stem and day branch
Your day pillar is the stem and branch of the day you were born: the upper character is the day stem and the lower one is the day branch. For Red Rat (Bing Zi), the day stem is 丙 (Yang Fire) and the day branch is 子 (Rat). The “Red” in the name is the color of the day stem’s element, and “Rat” is the zodiac animal of the day branch. Both are Hongsimdang’s own labels.
The day stem 丙 is likened to the sun lighting everything from above. You are not good at hiding what you feel, and a room tends to brighten when you walk in. The day branch 子 is water in the deep of night. The Rat is popularly pictured as quick, well informed and always a step ahead, but that is the folk image of the zodiac. The actual reading comes from the element relationship and life stage that follow.
Read as elements, your stem and branch form an authority pair, in which the branch presses on the stem. The branch’s element presses on your stem, so you tend to be polished within the frame of rules, responsibility and other people’s expectations. The branch 子 also holds the hidden stems 壬, 癸, which lay another side beneath the one that shows.
Seen from your day stem 丙, the day branch 子 sits at the Womb (Tai) stage of the twelve life stages. It is the stage of carrying new energy, where ideas, planning and a feel for possibility are cultivated.
How the Red Rat shows up at work
Your strength gets polished in settings with rules, roles and deadlines. A strong sense of responsibility means people hand you a lot, but when what you carry piles up, fatigue arrives all at once, so line up someone to hand things to early.
Preparation and information are your edge, and the gap shows in groundwork nobody else sees. The more momentum you have, the hotter you run, and you are often the last to notice your own fatigue.
When you feel cornered, you think several steps ahead alone and end up carrying everything without telling anyone.
Try putting part of the time you spend preparing into putting your work out and watching how people respond.
How the Red Rat shows up in relationships and love
You are aware of your partner’s standards and of how others see you, and you work to stay proper. Your own wishes tend to get pushed back, so letting small true feelings out in daily life makes the relationship easier.
With people you trust you are attentive, and you keep ties going through thoughtfulness, but you do not hand over your deeper feelings easily.
You tend to be most at ease with someone who shares information and plans ahead with you, and who speaks plainly instead of leaving you to guess.
How the Red Rat handles money
Fixed income and a solid system keep you stable, and discipline works as your defense. In tense periods unexpected costs tend to pile up, so keep a reserve in a separate account from the start.
Money comes in fast and goes out generously. The generosity earns you goodwill, but unless you set a share aside first, there is often little left at the end of the month.
Your money decisions follow the quality of the information you get, so moving funds bit by bit on solid information suits you.
Day branches that harmonize with the Red Rat and ones that clash
The day branch of Red Rat (Bing Zi) is 子 (Rat). Which day branch the other person has decides the relation between your two branches, as shown below. A day branch that is not listed has no direct harmony or clash with yours.
| Their day branch | Relation between branches | How it reads |
|---|---|---|
| Rat (子) | Same day branch | like with like |
| Ox (丑) | Six Harmony | pulls together and fills in |
| Dragon (辰) | Triple Harmony partner | moves in the same direction, and the group is complete once a third branch joins |
| Monkey (申) | Triple Harmony partner | moves in the same direction, and the group is complete once a third branch joins |
| Rabbit (卯) | Punishment | rubs, so friction is likely |
| Horse (午) | Clash | head-on opposition |
| Goat (未) | Harm, Resentment / Ghost Gate | small misunderstandings pile up; attracts yet irritates |
| Rooster (酉) | Break | cracks are likely |
Harmony, Clash, Punishment, Harm, Break and Resentment are relations fixed mechanically by the pair of branches. They say nothing about anyone’s character being better or worse.
2027 (Ding Wei year) and the Red Rat
2027 is a Ding Wei year. The year’s stem and branch change over at the start of spring, around February 4, 2027. The Ding of 2027 is Fire like your day stem but with the opposite polarity, so you are more likely to share, or fight over, results and openings with people in a similar position. The year branch Wei forms a Harm relation with your day branch, so small misunderstandings tend to pile up, and checking in early works. Wei also forms a Resentment relation with your day branch, so attraction and irritation tend to show up together, and how you set distance becomes the focus.
What the day pillar alone cannot tell you
The day pillar is one of the four pillars of a chart. The year, month and hour pillars, the ten-year luck cycles, and Zi Wei Dou Shu and Western astrology readings are not included on this page. Two people with the same Red Rat can show it differently depending on their other pillars, and your day pillar alone does not settle personality or fate.
To see all four pillars, use the free BaZi calculator. To read a specific question through to timing, a personal reading is the next step.
See the whole chart with the free BaZi calculator →Personal readings →Day Pillar Types →
Frequently asked questions
How do I find out whether I am a Red Rat?
The day of Red Rat (Bing Zi) comes around once every 60 days, and people born on a 丙子 day belong to this type. Enter your birth date on the day pillar type index to check.
Why am I a Red Rat if my birth-year animal is not the Rat?
The birth-year animal comes from the year branch, while the Rat in Red Rat comes from the day branch 子. They are two separate calculations. Even if your birth year belongs to another animal, a day branch of 子 makes your day pillar a Rat.
Which types match the Red Rat?
Looking only at day branches, the Six Harmony partner of 子 is the Ox (丑), and the clash comes from the Horse (午). That is one narrow view. How well two people fit depends on all four pillars and on how they treat each other.
See other types
Same color
- Red Tiger (Bing Yin)
- Red Rabbit (Ding Mao)
- Red Ox (Ding Chou)
- Red Dog (Bing Xu)
- Red Pig (Ding Hai)
- Red Monkey (Bing Shen)
- Red Rooster (Ding You)
- Red Horse (Bing Wu)
- Red Goat (Ding Wei)
- Red Dragon (Bing Chen)
- Red Snake (Ding Si)
Same animal