Day pillar type
Blue Rat (Jia Zi): Personality and Matches
Hongsimdang Editorial Team · Last updated
Blue Rat (Jia Zi) is the day pillar where a tall tree growing straight up (甲) rests on water in the deep of night (子). In short, it turns learning and backing into strength and grows from the roots up.
What decides the Blue 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 Blue Rat (Jia Zi), the day stem is 甲 (Yang Wood) and the day branch is 子 (Rat). The “Blue” 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 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 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 a resource pair, in which the branch feeds the stem. The branch’s element flows toward your stem the way soil feeds a plant, so learning and backing turn easily into strength, and you often feel held up from underneath. The branch 子 also holds the hidden stems 壬, 癸, which lay another side beneath the one that shows.
Seen from your day stem 甲, the day branch 子 sits at the Bath (Mu Yu) stage of the twelve life stages. It is the stage of washing and dressing up, where your senses and charm are cultivated and a taste for change comes along.
How the Blue Rat shows up at work
Study, credentials and the support of seniors or teachers turn into results for you fairly directly. You tend to wait until you feel prepared, so try putting work out at eighty percent. The gap between you and your peers can open quickly.
Preparation and information are your edge, and the gap shows in groundwork nobody else sees. 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 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 Blue Rat shows up in relationships and love
You are drawn to people who look after you or guide you, and you are good at receiving. The more comfortable it gets, the easier it is to take that care for granted, so repay it with actions and the relationship will last.
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 Blue Rat handles money
Income comes most easily from knowledge, credentials, contracts or a steady backer, and building up gradually suits you better than speculating. The start may look slow, but once the base is laid you gain ground quickly.
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.
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 Blue Rat and ones that clash
The day branch of Blue Rat (Jia 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 Blue 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 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 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 Blue 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 Blue Rat?
The day of Blue Rat (Jia Zi) comes around once every 60 days, and people born on a 甲子 day belong to this type. Enter your birth date on the day pillar type index to check.
Why am I a Blue Rat if my birth-year animal is not the Rat?
The birth-year animal comes from the year branch, while the Rat in Blue 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 Blue 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
- Blue Ox (Yi Chou)
- Blue Dog (Jia Xu)
- Blue Pig (Yi Hai)
- Blue Monkey (Jia Shen)
- 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