Meaning
偏財 is the stem the day master controls that shares its polarity. Wood controls earth, so for a 甲 day master it is 戊, yang earth; for a 乙 day master 己; for a 庚 day master, whose metal controls wood, 甲.
The 淵海子平 gives the rule in four characters a side: 「陽見陽財，陰見陰財」, yang seeing yang wealth and yin seeing yin is the indirect kind. That matters, because a widely read English table has it backwards. English Wikipedia's Ten Gods table puts the indirect gods on the opposite polarity; the classical texts, our own tables and the open calendar libraries all put Indirect Wealth on the same polarity as the day master, as here.
"Wealth" in the Ten Gods is a name for a relation: the element the day master controls, as a person once controlled land, goods and household. The 淵海子平 calls 偏財 the wealth of everyone (眾人之財) rather than of one's own household, easily shared out among brothers and sisters, best when it shows openly in the chart and weakest when other stems seize it. Its opening table also gives it the secondary wife and the concubine, a social reading of its time.
Modern English teaching reads the father and unexpected gain; our chart's own one-line nature, labelled as ours and reworded in October 2026 away from money words, is "opportunity, enterprise, generosity, risk-taking".
In a luck pillar
An Indirect Wealth pillar has a stem the day master controls, in its own polarity. The tradition reads it as a decade whose theme is what the day master controls. The 淵海子平 lists luck in 辰, 戌, 丑, 未, 戊 and 己 for a 甲 or 乙 day master as the wealth luck; the 三命通會 says wealth wants a luck that supports it and not one that robs it (「財欲運扶，不欲運劫」); and the 淵海子平 adds that a strong day master should walk a weakening luck, a weak one a strengthening luck (「干旺宜行衰運，干弱宜旺運」).
Every one of those rules depends on the day master's strength, which EsoTerrier does not compute, by the owner's decision. Our chart therefore names the pillar, gives its branch and hidden stems and the relations it forms with the natal chart, and says nothing about gain or loss. The texts' promises of fame and profit are not reproduced.
Indirect Wealth for each day master
The element controlled, in the same polarity.
| Day master | Indirect Wealth |
|---|---|
| 甲 Jiǎ (yang wood) | 戊 Wù |
| 乙 Yǐ (yin wood) | 己 Jǐ |
| 丙 Bǐng (yang fire) | 庚 Gēng |
| 丁 Dīng (yin fire) | 辛 Xīn |
| 戊 Wù (yang earth) | 壬 Rén |
| 己 Jǐ (yin earth) | 癸 Guǐ |
| 庚 Gēng (yang metal) | 甲 Jiǎ |
| 辛 Xīn (yin metal) | 乙 Yǐ |
| 壬 Rén (yang water) | 丙 Bǐng |
| 癸 Guǐ (yin water) | 丁 Dīng |
In the classical texts
The 滴天髓's verse on 庚 says it "can beat elder brother 甲" (「能勝甲兄」): 甲 is 庚's Indirect Wealth, the controlled stem of the same polarity, taken by force rather than by combination. Compare the next line of the same verse on the Direct Wealth page.
The 淵海子平's family table makes 偏財 a man's father and his secondary wife. 任鐵樵, commenting in the Qing, rejected the father (「以財為父者，乃後人謬也」, taking wealth for the father is a later error) and read both Wealth gods as the wife's side. The table and the dissent are both recorded as history and labelled disputed.
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
- 「陽見陽財，陰見陰財」: a yang day master meeting yang wealth, a yin one meeting yin, in the 淵海子平 sourced
- Other classical name
- 眾人之財, "the wealth of everyone", in the 淵海子平's essay sourced
- Classical roles in the opening table
- The secondary wife and the concubine (偏妻、偏妾), for both yang and yin day masters sourced
- Family role in the 六親 table
- For a man the father, and the secondary wife; 任鐵樵 called the father reading a later error. Recorded as history disputed
- In the stem verses
- The 滴天髓 on 庚: it can beat elder brother 甲 (「能勝甲兄」); 甲 is 庚's Indirect Wealth sourced
- Other English names
- Unconventional Wealth, Side Wealth sourced
- Our one-line nature
- Opportunity, enterprise, generosity, risk-taking our construction
How the schools read it
- *淵海子平* (Song material, Ming printing)
- Defines it by polarity, calls it the wealth of everyone, easily shared out among siblings, best when it shows openly.
- *三命通會* (Ming)
- Its rule for decades: wealth wants a luck that supports it, not one that robs it.
- 任鐵樵 on the *滴天髓* (Qing)
- Rejects the old table's father reading and treats both Wealth gods as the wife's side of the family.
- Modern English teaching
- The father, and unexpected or speculative gain; we do not repeat the gain.
- EsoTerrier
- Our chart's line, a modern reading of our own: opportunity, enterprise, generosity, risk-taking.
Claims about it
-
Indirect Wealth is the Wealth stem of the opposite polarity to the day master.
falseWhat the record shows: The reverse: the 淵海子平 defines 偏財 as yang meeting yang and yin meeting yin. English Wikipedia's table has this pair reversed; our tables follow the classical rule.
-
An Indirect Wealth decade is a season for windfalls and bold ventures.
falseWhat the record shows: The texts read the pillar as a relation to the day master, weighed against the chart. Our earlier page turned it into a promise about money; that wording is withdrawn.
-
Indirect Wealth stands for a man's father.
disputedWhat the record shows: That is one line of the 淵海子平's family table; 任鐵樵 called it a later error. Recorded as history, never applied to anyone.
