Strong and Weak Day Masters, and Your Favourable Element

Three ways to see the strength of the energy

• Gaining the season (득령): the season of birth backs me. If the month branch (월지, the season of birth) is the same element as the Day Master or generates it, the Day Master gains strength.
• Gaining the ground (득지): the ground under my feet (the bottom character of the birth day) backs me.
• Gaining support (득세): the other characters of the chart back me.

Looking at these three together, you judge whether the Day Master's energy is on the strong side (신강) or the weak side (신약). Of the three, the help of the season is given the most weight.

Halmeoni calculates with points

Halmeoni gives a weight to each of the seven characters other than the Day Master, and adds up the weights of the characters among them that help the Day Master (Companions (비겁), the same element as me, and Resource (인성), which generates me), for a score out of 100. A branch is judged by just one energy, its most central one (the main energy, 정기), and the other hidden stems are not included in the score. The weights follow a method commonly used by many calculators, and the month branch, which represents the season, is the heaviest.

The total is 100 points. If the time of birth is unknown, the hour pillar's 25 points are removed, the score is counted out of 75, and then converted to a score out of 100. Below 20 points is Very weak (극신약), 20–39 is Weak (신약), 40–54 is Balanced (중화), 55–74 is Strong (신강), and 75 or more is Very strong (극신강). Gaining the season is decided by whether the main energy of the month branch helps the Day Master, gaining the ground by whether the main energy of the day branch does, and gaining support is attached when three or more of the remaining five characters (year stem, month stem, hour stem, year branch, hour branch) help the Day Master. The three names are written into the reading as supporting grounds, but the level is decided by the score alone.

Working through an example

The Day Master of someone born in Seoul at 00:50 on 25 August 2001 (辛巳·丙申·庚申·丙子) is 庚 (metal). What helps 庚 is the same metal (Companions) and earth, which generates metal (Resource).

The weights of the helping characters are the year stem 辛 at 10 points, the month branch 申 at 30 points and the day branch 申 at 15 points, adding up to 55 points, so the chart is Strong. The value sits exactly at 55, where Strong begins, so it is worth knowing that by score it lies on the border with Balanced. It gains the season and the ground, but of the remaining five characters only 辛 helps, so it does not gain support. If the time of birth were unknown, the 25 points of the hour pillar 丙子 would drop out, giving 55 out of 75, which is 73 points. It is still Strong, but it comes out much stronger, so a single hour pillar moves the strength this much.

Someone born in Seoul at 10:30 am on 10 June 1980 (庚申·壬午·甲寅·己巳) is the opposite. The only characters helping the Day Master 甲 (wood) are the month stem 壬 (Indirect Resource, 10 points) and the day branch 寅 (Friend, 15 points), for 25 points, which is Weak. The main energy 丁 of the birth month 午 is fire, which wood generates (Hurting Officer), so the chart does not gain the season. The score can go all the way down to 0. Someone born in Seoul at 6:30 am on 5 March 1985 (乙丑·戊寅·癸卯·乙卯) has no metal or water among the visible characters to help the Day Master 癸 (water), so the score is 0, Very weak. 癸 and 辛 are hidden inside 丑, but the score counts only the main energy, so they are not included.

Strong is not good, and weak is not bad

A strong person takes the lead and pushes ahead on their own strength, but if the stubbornness goes too far they collide with others easily. A weak person finds strength not by trying to do everything alone but by receiving help from people and from good timing. Strength is a difference in disposition, not a ranking.

The favourable element (용신)

The energy that brings a chart into balance is called the yongsin (helpful element, 용신), and in Halmeoni's readings it is called the "favourable element". The most common method is to choose, if the Day Master is strong, the side that lightens its energy (Output (식상), Wealth (재성) and Officer (관성)), and if it is weak, the side that adds to it (Resource (인성) and Companions (비겁)) (balancing by strength, 억부). There is also a method that first looks for the energy that adjusts the temperature when someone is born in a season that is too cold or too hot (조후), but Halmeoni decides the favourable element by balancing by strength alone.

Halmeoni's rules for choosing the favourable element

Even when choosing by balancing by strength, what to use first differs from chart to chart. Halmeoni adds up each of the five groups (Companions, Output, Wealth, Officer, Resource) using the weights above, then sets the order by looking at which group is heaviest.

If the weights on the draining side are equal, the one that comes first in the order Officer, Wealth, Output is treated as heavier. The example chart (庚 Day Master) is Strong, and Companions (55 points) are heavier than Resource (0 points), so the order is fire (Officer), water (Output), wood (Wealth). The 甲 Day Master born in 1980 is Weak, and on the draining side Output (午 at 30 points and 巳 at 15 points) is heavier than Officer (20 points) and Wealth (10 points), so water (Resource) and wood (Companions) are the favourable elements.

The way of deciding the favourable element differs a little from school to school and from counsellor to counsellor. It is one of the biggest reasons the same chart can be read differently.

Common misconceptions

• Strong means a good chart and weak means a bad chart: strength is a difference in disposition. A weak chart is also read as one that receives help from people and timing well.
• The favourable element is the element missing from the chart: Halmeoni decides it by strength, not by count. Earth, which is absent from the example chart, is Resource that would make the Day Master even stronger, so it is not among the favourable elements.
• Using your favourable colour changes your luck: the lucky colour and direction on the daily fortune card simply translate the favourable element into something easy to picture in daily life, and they are not seen as changing things on their own.
• Very strong or very weak means a following structure (종격): some schools hold that when the Day Master's strength leans heavily to one side, following that flow is favourable. Halmeoni does not calculate following structures, and applies the same balancing-by-strength rules to Very strong and Very weak charts.

Frequently asked questions

• Does Strong or Weak change when the Luck Cycle changes? Halmeoni decides strength from the eight characters you were born with alone. Luck Cycles and years are looked at separately, by whether they bring the favourable element.
• Somewhere else says I am Weak. There are several methods, such as splitting weights across the hidden stems, considering whether a stem is rooted in a branch (통근), or also looking at how cold or hot the season is. A chart at a borderline value, like the example chart, can easily get different results depending on the method.
• If I am Balanced, do I have no favourable element? None is set separately. In that case the lucky colour and direction on the daily fortune card are taken from the scarcest element.