Day pillar type
Black Dog (Ren Xu): Personality and Matches
Hongsimdang Editorial Team · Last updated
Black Dog (Ren Xu) is the day pillar where a great river or the sea (壬) rests on dry earth and a castle wall (戌). In short, it is polished within responsibility and structure and builds trust a little at a time.
What decides the Black Dog: 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 Black Dog (Ren Xu), the day stem is 壬 (Yang Water) and the day branch is 戌 (Dog). The “Black” in the name is the color of the day stem’s element, and “Dog” is the zodiac animal of the day branch. Both are Hongsimdang’s own labels.
The day stem 壬 is likened to a great river or the sea. You take a wide view and like to see which way the current runs before you move, and your thinking is large in scale. The day branch 戌 is dry earth and a castle wall. The Dog is popularly pictured as loyal, dutiful and protective, 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 戌 also holds the hidden stems 辛, 丁, 戊, which lay another side beneath the one that shows.
Seen from your day stem 壬, the day branch 戌 sits at the Crown (Guan Dai) stage of the twelve life stages. It is the stage of putting on your clothes to go out, so confidence and opinions show readily on the outside.
How the Black Dog 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.
Roles that guard safety or quality, and work where keeping your word is the value, suit you, and your sense of responsibility brings you more and more to carry. Your thoughts keep branching out, decisions get slower, and some days your mood sinks deep.
When you feel betrayed you close your heart suddenly, and reopening a door once shut takes a long time.
Before you doubt a new person, hand them one small request and see how they handle it.
How the Black Dog 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 are deeply loyal to the people you trust, but your guard is high and it takes time before you open up.
You do well with someone who keeps promises and waits, without pushing, until your guard comes down.
How the Black Dog 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 prefer money to keep moving rather than sit in one place. The range of openings is wide, but without a clear purpose it tends to run off like water.
You are defensive with money and save steadily, but your weakness is lending out of loyalty to people you trust, so set a ceiling on the amount.
Day branches that harmonize with the Black Dog and ones that clash
The day branch of Black Dog (Ren Xu) is 戌 (Dog). 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Tiger (寅) | Triple Harmony partner | moves in the same direction, and the group is complete once a third branch joins |
| Rabbit (卯) | Six Harmony | pulls together and fills in |
| Horse (午) | Triple Harmony partner | moves in the same direction, and the group is complete once a third branch joins |
| Dog (戌) | Same day branch | like with like |
| Ox (丑) | Punishment | rubs, so friction is likely |
| Dragon (辰) | Clash | head-on opposition |
| Snake (巳) | Resentment / Ghost Gate | attracts yet irritates |
| Goat (未) | Punishment, Break | rubs, so friction is likely; cracks are likely |
| Rooster (酉) | 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 Black Dog
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 the income and belongings your day stem handles steadily, so the more you build in plain steps, the more it shows, and the footing of daily life tends to settle. The year branch Wei enters a Punishment relation with your day branch, so stubborn standoffs with people close by are more likely, and rounding the edges of how you say things helps. Wei also forms a Break relation with your day branch, so events that call for mending what you built earlier tend to appear.
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 Black Dog 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 Black Dog?
The day of Black Dog (Ren Xu) comes around once every 60 days, and people born on a 壬戌 day belong to this type. Enter your birth date on the day pillar type index to check.
Why am I a Black Dog if my birth-year animal is not the Dog?
The birth-year animal comes from the year branch, while the Dog in Black Dog comes from the day branch 戌. They are two separate calculations. Even if your birth year belongs to another animal, a day branch of 戌 makes your day pillar a Dog.
Which types match the Black Dog?
Looking only at day branches, the Six Harmony partner of 戌 is the Rabbit (卯), and the clash comes from the Dragon (辰). 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
- Black Monkey (Ren Shen)
- Black Rooster (Gui You)
- Black Horse (Ren Wu)
- Black Goat (Gui Wei)
- Black Dragon (Ren Chen)
- Black Snake (Gui Si)
- Black Tiger (Ren Yin)
- Black Rabbit (Gui Mao)
- Black Rat (Ren Zi)
- Black Ox (Gui Chou)
- Black Pig (Gui Hai)
Same animal