A you month bazi birth places you in the Rooster month (酉 Yǒu), the eighth month of the Ba Zi (八字 bāzì) year and the height of autumn. In Ba Zi the month pillar (月柱 yuèzhù) is the season pillar, and it is the single biggest influence on whether your Day Master (日主 rìzhǔ) reads strong or weak. Where the Monkey month was Metal rising, the Rooster month is Metal at its purest and sharpest.
The Rooster month opens at the solar term Bai Lu (白露 Báilù), around 7 September, not on the first of the calendar month. Ba Zi months turn on solar terms (节气 jiéqì), so an early-September birth may still belong to the Monkey month. When your birth sits near the boundary, confirm the exact turning point with the free chart calculator before assuming the month from the date.
Your you month bazi pillar by year stem
The month stem is fixed by your year stem through the Five Tigers rule (五虎遁 wǔhǔ dùn). Read your year stem on the left and take the Rooster-month pillar.
| Year stem | Rooster month pillar |
|---|---|
| 甲 Jiǎ | 癸酉 Guǐ Yǒu |
| 乙 Yǐ | 乙酉 Yǐ Yǒu |
| 丙 Bǐng | 丁酉 Dīng Yǒu |
| 丁 Dīng | 己酉 Jǐ Yǒu |
| 戊 Wù | 辛酉 Xīn Yǒu |
| 己 Jǐ | 癸酉 Guǐ Yǒu |
| 庚 Gēng | 乙酉 Yǐ Yǒu |
| 辛 Xīn | 丁酉 Dīng Yǒu |
| 壬 Rén | 己酉 Jǐ Yǒu |
| 癸 Guǐ | 辛酉 Xīn Yǒu |
As with every month, the ten year stems fold into five columns — 甲/己, 乙/庚, 丙/辛, 丁/壬, 戊/癸 share columns under the Five Tigers rule. A 戊 or 癸 year gives 辛酉, yin metal doubled on its own branch, the hardest-edged pillar this month produces. The master month stem table carries all five columns for the whole year.
What the Rooster month does to a chart
You is the crest of autumn, and its Metal is the most concentrated of the year. The Rooster branch is the simplest of the Metal stations: it hides only Xin Metal, with no Water and no Earth to dilute it. That purity gives it a hard, decisive effect. A Metal Day Master born here is strongly rooted and can tip into being too strong, sharp to the point of brittle. A Water Day Master is cleanly fed by the Metal and reads well. A Wood Day Master is heavily controlled by prosperous Metal and is at its weakest, often in real need of support. Earth is drained producing all this Metal, and Fire, well past its season, has little say.
A practical note we see often in charts: a Rooster month makes any Metal in the chart sharper and more insistent, so charts that already lean Metal usually want Fire to shape it or Water to lead it out, rather than more Metal piled on. If your Day Master is Xin or Geng Metal, read this alongside Xin Metal born in autumn. For any other stem, the month is only the baseline temperature; whether such concentrated Metal helps or overwhelms is decided in strong versus weak Day Master.
Where each element stands at autumn’s peak
The grading runs through the five states (旺相休囚死 wàng xiàng xiū qiú sǐ), and the Rooster is the very centre of the Metal season: Autumn = Metal season, branches 申酉戌, Aug 7 – Nov 6 (from Li Qiu 立秋 to before Li Dong 立冬). Being the season’s peak, each grade lands at full force.
| Element | State | What it means here |
|---|---|---|
| Metal | 旺 wàng — Prosperous | The season is your own element: maximum native strength; the chart usually needs outlets, not more support |
| Water | 相 xiàng — Supported | The season feeds your element: strong by backing; comfortable, resourced, sometimes over-sheltered |
| Earth | 休 xiū — Resting | Your element feeds the season: energy flows out; mild drain, the retired-general state |
| Fire | 囚 qiú — Confined | Your element controls the season: fighting uphill against the times; effortful, gritty |
| Wood | 死 sǐ — Dormant | The season controls your element: weakest baseline; support and timing matter more than effort |
For a Wood Day Master this is the year’s most demanding station: Dormant against Metal at its sharpest. Such charts lean on Water to turn the Metal’s pressure into resource, which is exactly the kind of chain a full reading traces.
What sits inside the branch
The Rooster branch hides only Xin Metal, a single undiluted charge, which is exactly why You reads so decisively. The verbatim listing: Yǒu 酉 (Rooster): Xīn 辛 (Yin Metal) — one stem, and it is the main qi (本气 běnqì) by definition. See the You branch hidden stems for how that lone charge is handled in practice.
Tracing the pillar in your own chart
A birth between Bai Lu (~7 September) and Han Lu (寒露 Hánlù, ~8 October) carries 酉 in the month branch. Then take your year stem to the table above: a 丙 year must show 丁酉, and the full column sits in the Bing-year month stem table. September births in the first week are the ones to double-check, since the Bai Lu hour drifts year to year and the Monkey month may still hold.
The month palace
As the palace of career climate and of parents, a Rooster-month pillar classically points to a precise, discerning, quality-minded early environment: refined and exacting, with a low tolerance for the rough. Read it as the season your working life was set in, not a fixed outcome. It brings to a peak the Metal the Monkey month began, and hands the year toward the drying earth of the Dog month.
Rooster month FAQ
Which branch clashes with my month?
卯↔酉 in the fixed Six Clashes (六冲 liùchōng) list. A Rabbit branch elsewhere in your chart strikes the month palace — read classically as friction in the career climate or parental line, and always weighed against the rest of the chart.
Why does the Rooster have only one hidden stem?
子, 卯 and 酉 are the pure cardinal stations of Water, Wood and Metal; each hides a single stem. That is a structural feature of the branch system, and it is why these months read with such clarity compared with the mixed Earth months.
Is a Rooster month good or bad for a Wood Day Master?
It is the weakest seasonal baseline Wood receives — Dormant under prosperous Metal. That is not a life verdict; it tells a practitioner to look immediately at Water and companion Wood elsewhere before judging the chart.
To see how your you month bazi pillar tilts your own Day Master strength, plot your full chart free with the Butcher Boy calculator.