Support (Direct Resource)
正印 · zhèng yìn · one of the Ten Gods
Auspice ·
- Chinese
- 正印
- Our name
- Support
- Literal name
- Direct Resource
- Relation
- 生我 · it produces you
- Polarity
- opposite to yours
- Its pair
- Insight
Support — literally Direct Resource (正印, zhèng yìn) — is the Ten God for the element that produces your Day Master, in the opposite polarity. For a 甲 Day Master it is 癸 (Guǐ, Yin Water).
What nourishes you, directly: shelter and learning — someone standing between you and the weather.
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 Direct Resource?
Direct Resource is the element that produces yours, in the opposite polarity: for a 甲 day, 癸. The seal in its name, 印, was the official’s seal, a sign that someone with standing had vouched for you. The classical image is shelter — the person who stands between you and the weather — and learning that comes in through the front door. We call it Support, which is the plain English for the same thing. Support checks Edge and feeds Rival, and it is fed by Structure; the manuals call that last pairing 官印相生, rules and backing arriving together.
Among the Ten Gods, Support checks Edge and feeds Rival; it is checked by Steady Wealth and fed by Structure. These follow from the same element cycles, in the same polarity, and hold for every Day Master.
How is Support worked out?
Start from your Day Master’s element and find the element that produces it in the generating cycle. That element has a yang stem and a yin stem. The one whose polarity is opposite to your Day Master’s is Support; the other is Insight.
| Day Master element | Support element |
|---|---|
| Wood (木) | Water (水) |
| Fire (火) | Wood (木) |
| Earth (土) | Fire (火) |
| Metal (金) | Earth (土) |
| Water (水) | Metal (金) |
Count along the ten stems from the Day Master, counting it as the first, and Support is the tenth stem for a yang Day Master but the eighth for a yin one. The stems alternate yang and yin, so a stem of the opposite polarity has no fixed distance.
Which stem is Support for each Day Master?
| Day Master | Support stem | Count | Hidden in branches |
|---|---|---|---|
| 甲 (Jiǎ, Yang Wood) | 癸 (Guǐ, Yin Water) | tenth | 子 main qi, 丑 middle qi, 辰 residual qi |
| 乙 (Yǐ, Yin Wood) | 壬 (Rén, Yang Water) | eighth | 亥 main qi, 申 middle qi |
| 丙 (Bǐng, Yang Fire) | 乙 (Yǐ, Yin Wood) | tenth | 卯 main qi, 辰 middle qi, 未 residual qi |
| 丁 (Dīng, Yin Fire) | 甲 (Jiǎ, Yang Wood) | eighth | 寅 main qi, 亥 middle qi |
| 戊 (Wù, Yang Earth) | 丁 (Dīng, Yin Fire) | tenth | 午 main qi, 未 middle qi, 戌 residual qi |
| 己 (Jǐ, Yin Earth) | 丙 (Bǐng, Yang Fire) | eighth | 巳 main qi, 寅 middle qi |
| 庚 (Gēng, Yang Metal) | 己 (Jǐ, Yin Earth) | tenth | 丑 main qi, 未 main qi, 午 middle qi |
| 辛 (Xīn, Yin Metal) | 戊 (Wù, Yang Earth) | eighth | 辰 main qi, 戌 main qi, 寅 residual qi, 巳 residual qi, 申 residual qi |
| 壬 (Rén, Yang Water) | 辛 (Xīn, Yin Metal) | tenth | 酉 main qi, 戌 middle qi, 丑 residual qi |
| 癸 (Guǐ, Yin Water) | 庚 (Gēng, Yang Metal) | eighth | 申 main qi, 巳 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 Support look like in a real chart?
Take the chart we publish for Steve Jobs (1955–2011), cast by the same engine from the recorded birth time. The Day Master is 丙 (Bǐng, Yang Fire). Support appears 3 times: the year stem, 乙 (Yǐ, Yin Wood); 乙 (Yǐ, Yin Wood) hidden in the year branch 未, as its residual qi; 乙 (Yǐ, Yin Wood) hidden in the day branch 辰, as its middle qi. Against a Yang Fire Day Master, 乙 (Yin Wood) reads as Support: Wood produces Fire, one yang and one yin.
| Year | Month | Day | Hour | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stem | 乙 · Support | 戊 · Output | 丙 · Day Master | 丁 · Rival |
| Branch · hidden | 未己 Edge丁 Rival乙 Support | 寅甲 Insight丙 Peer戊 Output | 辰戊 Output乙 Support癸 Structure | 酉辛 Steady Wealth |
Where the birth time comes from, and how strong that source is, is set out on the Steve Jobs case page. Finding Support 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 Support?
A certain kind of person holds three certificates and still does not feel ready. They were the dependable child, the one who prepared, and preparation became the price of being allowed to act. Support describes what feeds you before you move: a mentor, or a parent who absorbed the shocks. It is easy to read as plain good fortune. The texts are more careful. Too much intake and too little output is a known imbalance, and a chart heavy in Support can describe someone who keeps waiting for one more qualification. That is a pattern to test, not a verdict, and the chart cannot tell you whether it fits. Try counting what you prepared this year against what you actually handed over.
Support and the other nine
Its pair is Insight: 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 Support sits in your own chart, use the free BaZi calculator — no account needed. Auspice is for reflection, not prediction.