Rival (Rob Wealth)
劫财 · jié cái · one of the Ten Gods
Auspice ·
- Chinese
- 劫财
- Our name
- Rival
- Literal name
- Rob Wealth
- Relation
- 同我 · same element
- Polarity
- opposite to yours
- Its pair
- Peer
Rival — literally Rob Wealth (劫财, jié cái) — is the Ten God for your own element, in the opposite polarity. For a 甲 Day Master it is 乙 (Yǐ, Yin Wood).
Same element, opposite polarity: it comes close quickly, and takes just as directly.
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 Rob Wealth?
劫 is to seize, and 财 is the Wealth element — hence the literal Rob Wealth. It is a stem with your element in the opposite polarity: for a 甲 Day Master, 乙. The name comes from what it does inside the chart, not from anything it does to your wallet. Rival checks Steady Wealth in the same polarity — for a 甲 day, 乙 acts on 己, and 己 is exactly the stem that reads as 甲’s Steady Wealth. It reaches for the thing you were going to govern. We call it Rival because a rival is close enough to want exactly what you want.
Among the Ten Gods, Rival checks Steady Wealth and feeds Edge; it is checked by Structure and fed by Support. These follow from the same element cycles, in the same polarity, and hold for every Day Master.
How is Rival 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 is opposite to your Day Master’s is Rival; the other is Peer.
| Day Master element | Rival 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 Rival is the second stem for a yang Day Master but the tenth for a yin one. The stems alternate yang and yin, so a stem of the opposite polarity has no fixed distance.
Which stem is Rival for each Day Master?
| Day Master | Rival stem | Count | Hidden in branches |
|---|---|---|---|
| 甲 (Jiǎ, Yang Wood) | 乙 (Yǐ, Yin Wood) | second | 卯 main qi, 辰 middle qi, 未 residual qi |
| 乙 (Yǐ, Yin Wood) | 甲 (Jiǎ, Yang Wood) | tenth | 寅 main qi, 亥 middle qi |
| 丙 (Bǐng, Yang Fire) | 丁 (Dīng, Yin Fire) | second | 午 main qi, 未 middle qi, 戌 residual qi |
| 丁 (Dīng, Yin Fire) | 丙 (Bǐng, Yang Fire) | tenth | 巳 main qi, 寅 middle qi |
| 戊 (Wù, Yang Earth) | 己 (Jǐ, Yin Earth) | second | 丑 main qi, 未 main qi, 午 middle qi |
| 己 (Jǐ, Yin Earth) | 戊 (Wù, Yang Earth) | tenth | 辰 main qi, 戌 main qi, 寅 residual qi, 巳 residual qi, 申 residual qi |
| 庚 (Gēng, Yang Metal) | 辛 (Xīn, Yin Metal) | second | 酉 main qi, 戌 middle qi, 丑 residual qi |
| 辛 (Xīn, Yin Metal) | 庚 (Gēng, Yang Metal) | tenth | 申 main qi, 巳 middle qi |
| 壬 (Rén, Yang Water) | 癸 (Guǐ, Yin Water) | second | 子 main qi, 丑 middle qi, 辰 residual qi |
| 癸 (Guǐ, Yin Water) | 壬 (Rén, Yang Water) | tenth | 亥 main qi, 申 middle 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 Rival look like in a real chart?
Take the chart we publish for Albert Einstein (1879–1955), cast by the same engine from the recorded birth time. The Day Master is 丙 (Bǐng, Yang Fire). Rival appears 2 times: the month stem, 丁 (Dīng, Yin Fire); 丁 (Dīng, Yin Fire) hidden in the hour branch 午, as its main qi. Against a Yang Fire Day Master, 丁 (Yin Fire) reads as Rival: Fire is the same element as Fire, one yang and one yin.
| Year | Month | Day | Hour | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stem | 己 · Edge | 丁 · Rival | 丙 · Day Master | 甲 · Insight |
| Branch · hidden | 卯乙 Support | 卯乙 Support | 申庚 Windfall壬 Pressure戊 Output | 午丁 Rival己 Edge |
Where the birth time comes from, and how strong that source is, is set out on the Albert Einstein case page. Finding Rival 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 Rival?
The rival most people remember is not a stranger. It is the one who applied for the same job, or had the same idea a week earlier — close enough to want exactly what you want, and quick enough to move first. Rival names that closeness. The old manuals treat it warily, and the wariness is easy to inflate into a warning about thieves. What the chart records is proximity: an element so like yours that it competes for the same ground. Some people do their best work beside someone like that. Others spend years in a contest they never chose. The chart does not say which you are, and this page will not guess. It leaves a question for the next time someone close gets there first: was that a loss, or a measurement?
Rival and the other nine
Its pair is Peer: 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 Rival sits in your own chart, use the free BaZi calculator — no account needed. Auspice is for reflection, not prediction.