A hai month bazi birth places you in the Pig month (亥 Hài), the tenth month of the Ba Zi (八字 bāzì) year and the start of winter. In Ba Zi the month pillar (月柱 yuèzhù) is the season pillar, and it is the single strongest factor in whether your Day Master (日主 rìzhǔ) reads strong or weak. The Pig month is where Water takes over the year and the cold sets in.
The Pig month opens at the solar term Li Dong (立冬 Lìdōng), around 7 November, not on any calendar date. Ba Zi months turn on solar terms (节气 jiéqì), so an early-November birth may still belong to the Dog month. If your birth sits near the edge, confirm the exact solar-term moment with the free chart calculator before counting the pillar by hand.
Your hai month bazi pillar by year stem
The month stem follows from your year stem by the Five Tigers rule (五虎遁 wǔhǔ dùn). Read your year stem on the left and take the Pig-month pillar.
| Year stem | Pig month pillar |
|---|---|
| 甲 Jiǎ | 乙亥 Yǐ Hài |
| 乙 Yǐ | 丁亥 Dīng Hài |
| 丙 Bǐng | 己亥 Jǐ Hài |
| 丁 Dīng | 辛亥 Xīn Hài |
| 戊 Wù | 癸亥 Guǐ Hài |
| 己 Jǐ | 乙亥 Yǐ Hài |
| 庚 Gēng | 丁亥 Dīng Hài |
| 辛 Xīn | 己亥 Jǐ Hài |
| 壬 Rén | 辛亥 Xīn Hài |
| 癸 Guǐ | 癸亥 Guǐ Hài |
The 戊/癸 column lands on 癸亥 here — water doubled on water, the deepest pillar in the sixty-cycle. The pairing itself (甲/己, 乙/庚, 丙/辛, 丁/壬, 戊/癸 share columns) is the Five Tigers rule at work, and the master month stem table shows every column across the twelve months.
What the Pig month does to a chart
Hai is the first month of winter, so Water is prosperous and rising. Like the Snake and the Monkey before it, the Pig is layered: alongside its strong Water it holds the birth of Wood, the seed that winter Water begins to nourish for the spring ahead. This shapes each Day Master. A Water Day Master born here is strong and deep. A Wood Day Master is not stranded in winter at all, because it has a hidden root here and is fed by the Water, so it reads better than the cold would suggest. A Metal Day Master drains its strength producing all this Water. Fire is at its lowest, cold and dim, often needing rescue. Earth is chilled and muddied by the abundant Water.
If your Day Master is Ren or Gui Water, read this alongside Ren Water born in winter. For any other stem, the month is only the opening temperature; the final judgement of strong versus weak Day Master still depends on all four pillars together.
The five states as winter opens (旺相休囚死)
Every element takes a seasonal grade through the five states (旺相休囚死 wàng xiàng xiū qiú sǐ). The Pig opens the Water season: Winter = Water season, branches 亥子丑, Nov 7 – Feb 3 (from Li Dong 立冬 to before Li Chun 立春).
| Element | State | Reading in a Pig month |
|---|---|---|
| Water | 旺 wàng — Prosperous | The season is your own element: maximum native strength; the chart usually needs outlets, not more support |
| Wood | 相 xiàng — Supported | The season feeds your element: strong by backing; comfortable, resourced, sometimes over-sheltered |
| Metal | 休 xiū — Resting | Your element feeds the season: energy flows out; mild drain, the retired-general state |
| Earth | 囚 qiú — Confined | Your element controls the season: fighting uphill against the times; effortful, gritty |
| Fire | 死 sǐ — Dormant | The season controls your element: weakest baseline; support and timing matter more than effort |
Wood’s Supported grade is reinforced twice over here — the season feeds it and the branch carries its birth — which is why a Pig-month Wood Day Master so often surprises people who expect winter to starve it. Fire’s Dormant grade, by contrast, has no such rescue in this branch; a Fire Day Master looks straight to Wood resource elsewhere in the chart.
What sits inside the branch
The Pig branch hides Ren Water as its main charge, with Jia Wood at its point of birth beneath it. The verbatim listing, first stem = main qi (本气 běnqì): Hài 亥 (Pig): Rén 壬 (Yang Water), Jiǎ 甲 (Yang Wood). That hidden Wood is what makes Hai matter to Wood Day Masters even in the cold. See the Hai branch hidden stems for how the two are weighted.
Spotting the pillar in your own chart
Any birth between Li Dong (~7 November) and Da Xue (大雪 Dàxuě, ~7 December) takes 亥 as its month branch. Read the stem from your year stem: a 丁 year must show 辛亥, one of the most commonly searched pillars of this month, and the whole column is laid out in the Ding-year month stem table. The usual cautions apply — early-November births may still sit in the Dog month, and the year stem turned at Li Chun back in February, not at New Year.
The month palace
As the palace of career climate and of parents, a Pig-month pillar often points to a deep, reflective, resourceful early environment: quiet and adaptable, with strength held below the surface. Read it as the season your working life started in, not a settled verdict. It opens the Water season that the Rat month will bring to its coldest peak, and it stands opposite the early-summer Snake month across the year.
Pig month FAQ
What clashes with a Pig month?
巳↔亥 in the fixed Six Clashes (六冲 liùchōng) list. A Snake branch elsewhere in the chart strikes the month palace, classically read as disruption around career climate or the parental line — a signal to examine, not a sentence.
Is a Fire Day Master doomed in a Pig month?
No, but it starts at the year’s weakest seasonal baseline: Dormant under prosperous Water. The reading then turns on Wood, which both drinks the Water and feeds the Fire. Charts with strong Wood resource can still come out well supported.
Why does Wood read strong here when it is not spring?
Because Supported (相) means the season feeds your element, and the Pig branch additionally hides Jia Wood as a root. Seasonal strength is about the production cycle, not just whose season it is.
To see how your hai month bazi pillar tilts your own Day Master strength, plot your full chart free with the Butcher Boy calculator.