Day pillar type
Black Rat (Ren Zi): Personality and Matches
Hongsimdang Editorial Team · Last updated
Black Rat (Ren Zi) is the day pillar where a great river or the sea (壬) rests on water in the deep of night (子). In short, it holds steady at the center and heads straight in the direction you choose.
What decides the Black 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 Black Rat (Ren Zi), the day stem is 壬 (Yang Water) and the day branch is 子 (Rat). The “Black” 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 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 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 matching pair, with the same element on both sides. Because your day stem and day branch point at the same element, the face you show and what you feel inside tend to agree, and your center is hard to shake. The branch 子 also holds the hidden stems 壬, 癸, which lay another side beneath the one that shows.
Seen from your day stem 壬, the day branch 子 sits at the Peak (Di Wang) stage of the twelve life stages. It is the stage where energy is at its fullest, and leadership and capacity show in a big way.
How the Black Rat shows up at work
Your stem and branch pull the same way, so once a direction is set you rarely hesitate, and you work best where roles are clear. You are more likely to clash with a boss who rewrites the plan midstream, or a workplace whose standards change from day to day.
Preparation and information are your edge, and the gap shows in groundwork nobody else sees. Your thoughts keep branching out, decisions get slower, and some days your mood sinks deep.
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 Black Rat shows up in relationships and love
What you show and what you feel sit close together, so affection and irritation both tend to appear on your face. Because your will runs in one direction, someone just as stubborn can turn things into a contest. A partner who can say “let’s pause for a moment” is more likely to 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 Black Rat handles money
Your spending follows your convictions, and you will put a sizable sum behind anything you believe in. With joint investments or loans, being that invested makes it hard to stay detached, so agree on the rules in advance.
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.
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 Black Rat and ones that clash
The day branch of Black Rat (Ren 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 Black 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 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 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 Black 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 Black Rat?
The day of Black Rat (Ren Zi) comes around once every 60 days, and people born on a 壬子 day belong to this type. Enter your birth date on the day pillar type index to check.
Why am I a Black Rat if my birth-year animal is not the Rat?
The birth-year animal comes from the year branch, while the Rat in Black 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 Black 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
- 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 Ox (Gui Chou)
- Black Dog (Ren Xu)
- Black Pig (Gui Hai)
Same animal