Gēng

庚 (Gēng) carries the harshest job description in the ten. It is yang metal, seventh in the cycle, and 三命通會 卷二 says it holds the power of autumn's killing cold in the world and presides over war among people, frost above and iron below. 滴天髓's commentary adds that it is the essence of 太白, the planet Venus. Such words describe a season and a material, the cold that ends the growing year and the ore that becomes a bell.

The first clause uses 煞, the killing edge, and the verse then lists what changes that edge. Water clears it, says the commentary, by setting its breath flowing, and fire purifies it. Earth that holds water keeps it alive and earth full of fire leaves it brittle. At the end the verse turns to family: big brother 甲 can be felled, and little sister 乙, though soft, combines with 庚 and the metal gives way.

In the calculator 甲 shows as Indirect Wealth and 乙 as Direct Wealth for this day master, while 丙 and 丁 are Seven Killings and Direct Officer. The forge is part of its stage reasoning: 三命通會 starts 庚 at 巳 as the furnace that turns it into bells and tripods, and puts its 死, the stage of ending, at 子, where metal sinks in cold water. Whether a 庚 chart has water, fire or earth close by, and in what state, is the question this verse hands the reader. Popular modern profiles speak of a blunt and decisive 庚 type, an idea from recent books.