Peer (Companion)
比肩 · bǐ jiān · one of the Ten Gods
Auspice ·
- Chinese
- 比肩
- Our name
- Peer
- Literal name
- Companion
- Relation
- 同我 · same element
- Polarity
- same as yours
- Its pair
- Rival
Peer — literally Companion (比肩, bǐ jiān) — is the Ten God for your own element, in the same polarity. For a 甲 Day Master it is 甲 (Jiǎ, Yang Wood).
Same element, same polarity as you: a peer and an ally — and someone who draws on the same supply.
Every Ten God is defined relative to the Day Master, the stem of your day of birth — that page explains the reference point; this one goes deeper on a single relation. The tables and the example below are computed at build time by the engine behind our free BaZi calculator, not written by hand.
Why is it called Companion?
The Chinese 比肩 means shoulder to shoulder: two people standing level, neither one ahead. In a chart it is a stem with your Day Master’s element and your polarity — for a 甲 day, another 甲. The usual English, Companion, keeps the warmth of the phrase and drops the levelness, which is the part that matters. We call it Peer because a peer is someone who could take your place, and whose place you could take. That is also why Peer checks Windfall: two identical stems reach for the same thing.
Among the Ten Gods, Peer checks Windfall and feeds Output; it is checked by Pressure and fed by Insight. These follow from the same element cycles, in the same polarity, and hold for every Day Master.
How is Peer worked out?
Start from your Day Master’s element and find the same element. That element has a yang stem and a yin stem. The one whose polarity matches your Day Master’s is Peer; the other is Rival.
| Day Master element | Peer element |
|---|---|
| Wood (木) | Wood (木) |
| Fire (火) | Fire (火) |
| Earth (土) | Earth (土) |
| Metal (金) | Metal (金) |
| Water (水) | Water (水) |
Count along the ten stems from the Day Master, counting it as the first, and Peer never moves: it is the Day Master’s own stem, repeated elsewhere in the chart.
Which stem is Peer for each Day Master?
| Day Master | Peer stem | Count | Hidden in branches |
|---|---|---|---|
| 甲 (Jiǎ, Yang Wood) | 甲 (Jiǎ, Yang Wood) | first | 寅 main qi, 亥 middle qi |
| 乙 (Yǐ, Yin Wood) | 乙 (Yǐ, Yin Wood) | first | 卯 main qi, 辰 middle qi, 未 residual qi |
| 丙 (Bǐng, Yang Fire) | 丙 (Bǐng, Yang Fire) | first | 巳 main qi, 寅 middle qi |
| 丁 (Dīng, Yin Fire) | 丁 (Dīng, Yin Fire) | first | 午 main qi, 未 middle qi, 戌 residual qi |
| 戊 (Wù, Yang Earth) | 戊 (Wù, Yang Earth) | first | 辰 main qi, 戌 main qi, 寅 residual qi, 巳 residual qi, 申 residual qi |
| 己 (Jǐ, Yin Earth) | 己 (Jǐ, Yin Earth) | first | 丑 main qi, 未 main qi, 午 middle qi |
| 庚 (Gēng, Yang Metal) | 庚 (Gēng, Yang Metal) | first | 申 main qi, 巳 middle qi |
| 辛 (Xīn, Yin Metal) | 辛 (Xīn, Yin Metal) | first | 酉 main qi, 戌 middle qi, 丑 residual qi |
| 壬 (Rén, Yang Water) | 壬 (Rén, Yang Water) | first | 亥 main qi, 申 middle qi |
| 癸 (Guǐ, Yin Water) | 癸 (Guǐ, Yin Water) | first | 子 main qi, 丑 middle qi, 辰 residual qi |
A Ten God shows up in two places: as a visible stem on top of a pillar, and as a hidden stem stored inside a branch. The last column lists every branch that stores this stem and at which layer; the main qi counts for most. Hidden-stem tables follow our published conventions.
What does Peer look like in a real chart?
Take the chart we publish for Frida Kahlo (1907–1954), cast by the same engine from the recorded birth time. The Day Master is 丙 (Bǐng, Yang Fire). Peer appears once: the month stem, 丙 (Bǐng, Yang Fire). Against a Yang Fire Day Master, 丙 (Yang Fire) reads as Peer: Fire is the same element as Fire, both yang.
| Year | Month | Day | Hour | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stem | 丁 · Rival | 丙 · Peer | 丙 · Day Master | 壬 · Pressure |
| Branch · hidden | 未己 Edge丁 Rival乙 Support | 午丁 Rival己 Edge | 辰戊 Output乙 Support癸 Structure | 辰戊 Output乙 Support癸 Structure |
Where the birth time comes from, and how strong that source is, is set out on the Frida Kahlo case page. Finding Peer in a well-known chart explains nothing about why the person became known; each case page has a section on where the chart does not fit the life.
How do you read Peer?
Ask someone to list who helped them most in the last five years, then who competed with them hardest. The lists overlap more than people expect: the same colleague, the same brother. Peer is the chart’s word for that overlap, and it declines to sort the names into friends and rivals. A chart with several Peers says that people of your own kind make up a large part of your weather. The chart does not say whether that is good. Whether a crowd of equals carries you or crowds you depends on what else is in the chart and on the season you are in, and no single character settles it. The useful exercise is narrower: pick one person who is on both lists and notice which role they are playing this year.
Peer and the other nine
Its pair is Rival: the same element relation, the other polarity. The full set, in order:
Peer · Rival · Output · Edge · Windfall · Steady Wealth · Pressure · Structure · Insight · Support
All ten on one page: the Ten Gods. The reference point they are all measured from: the Day Master. To see where Peer sits in your own chart, use the free BaZi calculator — no account needed. Auspice is for reflection, not prediction.