Meaning
正財 is the stem the day master controls in the other polarity. Wood controls earth, so for a 甲 day master Direct Wealth is 己, yin earth; for a 乙 day master 戊; for a 丙 day master, whose fire controls metal, 辛.
The 淵海子平 defines it by polarity, 「陰見陽財，陽見陰財」, yin seeing yang wealth and yang seeing yin. English Wikipedia's table reverses this pair, as it does the Power and Resource pairs; the classical rule, which our tables follow, puts Direct Wealth on the opposite polarity.
The same book calls it the wealth of one's own household, 「吾妻之財」, and insists on a point that runs through the whole tradition: a day master must be strong enough to hold its wealth, and wealth is better timely than abundant. The 三命通會 explains the pair with an image of its age, 甲 taking 己 as the principal partner and 戊 as the secondary, and draws a household founded with a spouse's help.
For a yang day master Direct Wealth is also the stem it combines with: 甲 with 己, 丙 with 辛, 戊 with 癸, 庚 with 乙, 壬 with 丁. The 淵海子平's table names it 合神, the combining partner, for that reason.
Modern English teaching reads steady income; our chart's own one-line nature, labelled as ours and reworded in October 2026 away from money words, is "steady management, diligence, a careful hold on what one has".
In a luck pillar
A Direct Wealth pillar has a stem the day master controls, in the other polarity. The tradition reads it as a decade whose theme is what the day master controls, under the same rules as Indirect Wealth: wealth wants a luck that supports it and not one that robs it (「財欲運扶，不欲運劫」), and how a decade is weighed depends on the day master's strength.
That weighing is the part EsoTerrier leaves out: we compute neither strength nor the useful god, so the chart names the pillar and its relations with the natal pillars and calls it neither favourable nor unfavourable. If a luck pillar's stem combines with the natal day stem, as 己 does with 甲, the chart shows the combination; what the tradition makes of it is told on the BaZi pages, as the tradition's.
Direct Wealth for each day master
The element controlled, in the other polarity.
| Day master | Direct Wealth |
|---|---|
| 甲 Jiǎ (yang wood) | 己 Jǐ |
| 乙 Yǐ (yin wood) | 戊 Wù |
| 丙 Bǐng (yang fire) | 辛 Xīn |
| 丁 Dīng (yin fire) | 庚 Gēng |
| 戊 Wù (yang earth) | 癸 Guǐ |
| 己 Jǐ (yin earth) | 壬 Rén |
| 庚 Gēng (yang metal) | 乙 Yǐ |
| 辛 Xīn (yin metal) | 甲 Jiǎ |
| 壬 Rén (yang water) | 丁 Dīng |
| 癸 Guǐ (yin water) | 丙 Bǐng |
In the classical texts
The 滴天髓's verse on 庚 sets the two Wealth gods side by side: 庚 "can beat elder brother 甲" but "loses to little sister 乙" (「輸於乙妹」). 甲 is 庚's Indirect Wealth, overcome by force; 乙 is its Direct Wealth, which combines with it (乙庚合) instead of being overcome.
The 淵海子平's opening table gives Direct Wealth the principal wife, with a line about kin that we do not repeat; its family table makes it a man's wife, and 任鐵樵 called that reading sound. All of it is the tradition's reading of its time, labelled disputed and never applied to a family.
Correspondences
Each item with how it stands: “sourced” is in the work cited, “our construction” is EsoTerrier’s own, and “disputed” means the sources disagree.
- The polarity rule
- 「陰見陽財，陽見陰財」: yin meeting yang wealth and yang meeting yin, in the 淵海子平 sourced
- Other classical names
- 吾妻之財, "my wife's wealth", in the essay; 合神, the combining partner, for a yang day master in the table sourced
- Classical role in the opening table
- The principal wife (正妻) sourced
- Family role in the 六親 table
- For a man the wife; 任鐵樵 agrees. A gendered table of its age, recorded as history disputed
- In the stem verses
- The 滴天髓 on 庚: it loses to little sister 乙 (「輸於乙妹」); 乙 is 庚's Direct Wealth and combines with it sourced
- Other English names
- Proper Wealth, True Wealth sourced
- Our one-line nature
- Steady management, diligence, a careful hold on what one has our construction
How the schools read it
- *淵海子平* (Song material, Ming printing)
- The wealth of one's own household; insists the day master must be strong to hold it, and that wealth should come in its season rather than in abundance.
- *三命通會* (Ming)
- Explains 甲 meeting 己 as the principal partner and 戊 as the secondary; draws a household founded with a spouse's help.
- 任鐵樵 on the *滴天髓* (Qing)
- Keeps the wife reading as sound (「此理出於正論」) while rejecting other lines of the family table.
- Modern English teaching
- Steady income for everyone; the wife in a man's chart in older readings.
- EsoTerrier
- Our chart's line, a modern reading of our own: steady management, diligence, a careful hold on what one has.
Claims about it
-
Direct Wealth is the Wealth stem that shares the day master's polarity.
falseWhat the record shows: The classical rule is the reverse: 正財 is yin meeting yang and yang meeting yin, as the 淵海子平 and 三命通會 both state. English Wikipedia's table has this pair reversed.
-
A Direct Wealth decade is a time for steady earnings and large purchases.
falseWhat the record shows: A reading of money onto a relation between stems. Our earlier pages wrote this kind of line; it is withdrawn.
-
Direct Wealth is a man's wife.
disputedWhat the record shows: The 淵海子平's family table says so, and 任鐵樵 agreed. It is recorded as the tradition's reading of its time and never applied to a person.
