Yi Wood

The 10 heavenly stems play a prominent role in the practice of advance feng shui and in bazi analysis.

Yi (乙) is the second of the heavenly stems and is elementally represented by yin wood (陰木).

When we observe the Chinese character 乙 as a pictorial, it’s appearance bears resembles to a small plant growing from the grown with a weak stem. This is what the word is defined as in the Chinese ancient dictionary shou wen jie zhi (說文解字).

It is also a word that can be translated to describe the form of things that are winding and twisting.

As opposed to Jia Wood, Yi Wood takes on the avatar of small plants and flowers that are strong in their own right, but flexible such as magnolias and peonies.

Among the 3 celestial creatures of dragon, tiger, tortoise and phoenix, it is most associated with the green dragon.

Being a branch of the wood element, it is related to the season of spring. In particular, the middle period of spring between March and April.

The period when one transitions from a child to and adult can also be said to be the Yi period of life.

On the compass consisting of the 24 mountains, Yi Wood sits on an easterly direction within 97.5° – 112.5°.

In Chinese alchemy and TCM, Yi can be a reference to the body parts of:

• Neck
• Ligaments
• Liver
• Hands
• Immune system

Of the 8 trigrams, it is a character that has affinity with the Sun trigram. Which among other symbolic representations, mean invasion.

In terms of Chinese numerology, the number 8 has the most connection with Yi.

Yi wood (H2) can be found as hidden stems in the branches Mao (E4), Chen (E5), Wu (E7), Wei (E8) and Xu (E11). It has a combination relationship with Geng (H7) to produce metal, and clashes with Ji (H6) and Xin (H8).

Yi wood self element

A person with the self-element (day master) of Yi wood would embody personal traits like adaptability, compassion, inner-strength and temperamental.

Having a flexible approach to life, jia wood personalities can often find themselves welcomed in social circles as they don’t have a knack of challenging the opinion of others.

This does not necessarily mean that they would be popular.

And when faced with life challenges, they always seem to find a way to navigate pass obstacles and “survive”. Somewhat like how the silver vine climbs up trees to get sunlight when blocked by other bigger plants.

However, they are not the best people to get advise from as they tend to stay on the fence rather than having a very clear standpoint.

This often keeps them out of trouble and become players who other want to pull to their side.

They exude calm and have control over temperament. Don’t be surprised to be charmed over by one.

An articulate and expressive nature makes them a real force to be reckoned with when they are your adversaries.

These are the type of people who would be able to talk and manipulate their way out of any situation… even even emerge victorious!

This makes them great negotiators. No matter how lost a deal might appear to be, Yi wood personalities would be able to come out without losing.

The biggest drawback of such day masters is that indecisive nature that don’t just drag them behind in life, but also frustrate the hell out of those who are closest to him or her.

Good luck trying to convince one to your side when you get into a conflict with someone else.

At work, they excel at positions that require quick-thinking and creative tact. It would be a waste of their gifts to put them in mundane positions.

Otherwise, boredom can be a strong motivating force to switch jobs to competitors who allow them the roles they desire.

The relation of the elements to Yi Wood is as follows:

• Wood – People
• Fire – Intelligence
• Earth – Wealth
• Metal – Status
• Water – Resource

They can be further broken down into the 10 gods of bazi.

10 Gods

More about the 10 gods is discussed here.

Yi wood in relation to other self-element heavenly stems