Day pillar type
Blue Monkey (Jia Shen): Personality and Matches
Hongsimdang Editorial Team · Last updated
Blue Monkey (Jia Shen) is the day pillar where a tall tree growing straight up (甲) rests on metal in autumn (申). In short, it is polished within responsibility and structure and builds trust a little at a time.
What decides the Blue Monkey: 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 Blue Monkey (Jia Shen), the day stem is 甲 (Yang Wood) and the day branch is 申 (Monkey). The “Blue” in the name is the color of the day stem’s element, and “Monkey” is the zodiac animal of the day branch. Both are Hongsimdang’s own labels.
The day stem 甲 is likened to a tall tree growing straight up. Once you settle on a direction you rarely back down, and the people around you tend to end up following your lead. The day branch 申 is metal in autumn. The Monkey is popularly pictured as quick-witted, nimble and good at juggling several things, 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 申 also holds the hidden stems 戊, 壬, 庚, which lay another side beneath the one that shows.
Seen from your day stem 甲, the day branch 申 sits at the Extinction (Jue) stage of the twelve life stages. It is the stage of emptying out and filling again, so life turns are large and your power to recover is strong.
How the Blue Monkey 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.
You read a situation fast, and your strength shows in scheduling, planning and improvement work that calls for improvising. That refusal to bend can cost you when a situation calls for a turn. It helps to see a mid-course change as an adjustment, not a defeat.
When conditions stay unsettled, your attention scatters and you take up one thing after another until nothing gets finished.
Pick the one thing to keep up first, and treat the rest of your interests as time-limited trials.
How the Blue Monkey 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.
You always have something to talk about, so conversations rarely go flat, but your interest moves quickly and you can drift away before things deepen.
Someone who enjoys change with you, and waits without blame when your interest shifts, is the best fit.
How the Blue Monkey 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.
You treat money like a tree you are growing: once you pick something worth backing, you keep feeding it for years. That pays off when the bet is sound, but spreading your risk tends to be the last thing you think about.
You spot openings and move money quickly, which suits side income and several streams of earnings, though spreading out too far makes things hard to track.
Day branches that harmonize with the Blue Monkey and ones that clash
The day branch of Blue Monkey (Jia Shen) is 申 (Monkey). 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) | Triple Harmony partner | moves in the same direction, and the group is complete once a third branch joins |
| Dragon (辰) | Triple Harmony partner | moves in the same direction, and the group is complete once a third branch joins |
| Monkey (申) | Same day branch | like with like |
| Snake (巳) | Six Harmony, Punishment, Break | pulls together and fills in; rubs, so friction is likely; cracks are likely |
| Tiger (寅) | Clash, Punishment | head-on opposition; rubs, so friction is likely |
| Rabbit (卯) | Resentment / Ghost Gate | attracts yet irritates |
| Pig (亥) | Harm | small misunderstandings pile up |
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 Blue Monkey
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 energy by which your day stem pushes strongly outward, so your voice and your expression stand out, and so can moments when your words land hard and opinions split. The year branch Wei has no direct Six Harmony or Clash with your day branch, so the color of this year shows mainly in its relation to your day stem.
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 Blue Monkey 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 Blue Monkey?
The day of Blue Monkey (Jia Shen) comes around once every 60 days, and people born on a 甲申 day belong to this type. Enter your birth date on the day pillar type index to check.
Why am I a Blue Monkey if my birth-year animal is not the Monkey?
The birth-year animal comes from the year branch, while the Monkey in Blue Monkey comes from the day branch 申. They are two separate calculations. Even if your birth year belongs to another animal, a day branch of 申 makes your day pillar a Monkey.
Which types match the Blue Monkey?
Looking only at day branches, the Six Harmony partner of 申 is the Snake (巳), and the clash comes from the Tiger (寅). 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
- Blue Rat (Jia Zi)
- Blue Ox (Yi Chou)
- Blue Dog (Jia Xu)
- Blue Pig (Yi Hai)
- Blue Rooster (Yi You)
- Blue Horse (Jia Wu)
- Blue Goat (Yi Wei)
- Blue Dragon (Jia Chen)
- Blue Snake (Yi Si)
- Blue Tiger (Jia Yin)
- Blue Rabbit (Yi Mao)
Same animal