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Hurting Officer (ShangGuan 伤官) in BaZi

Hurting Officer is number 4 of the ten gods, in the Output group — generated by the day master. This is the god-level overview (no pillar attached): the two-step derivation, which stem carries it for each of the ten day masters, and which branch main qi land on it. All rows are computed and can be back-substituted. For what it means on a specific pillar, use the three pillar pages below.

Computed facts (engine-verified)

This page is generated from the engine v0.14.0, not hand-written; structural facts reconcile against the methodology page.

GodHurting Officer · 伤官 (ShangGuan)
GroupOutput (食伤)
Relation to the day mastergenerated by the day master — step one of the derivation: is the target element generated by, controlled by, controlling, or identical to the day master]
Polarity rulewithin this pair the two gods split by polarity, so this one is always opposite-polarity (step two)
Pair siblingEating God — same group, polarity is the only difference
Pillar pagesHurting Officer in the year pillar · month · hour

The two-step derivation (published)

Assigning Hurting Officer takes exactly two steps, and both can be verified on the page:

Step one · the groupThe relation between the day master element and the target element sets the group: Hurting Officer belongs to the Output group — generated by the day master
Step two · which of the pairWithin the pair, Hurting Officer takes the stem whose polarity differs from the day master
Pair structureHurting Officer and Eating God share one group and one generating/controlling relation; polarity is their only difference — which is why the ten gods come in five pairs
What the pillar changesThe god does not change with position; the Hurting Officer pages for the year, month and hour pillars differ in the palace they describe, not in the derivation

Which stem gives it for each of the ten day masters

For a fixed day master the ten stems take the ten gods exactly once each, so which stem forms Hurting Officer is definite. All ten rows are computed — back-substitute any row and you get Hurting Officer.

Day masterIts elementStem that forms itIts elementPolarityBack-substitution
甲 Jia · 阳木Wood丁 DingFireoppositeHurting Officer
乙 Yi · 阴木Wood丙 BingFireoppositeHurting Officer
丙 Bing · 阳火Fire己 JiEarthoppositeHurting Officer
丁 Ding · 阴火Fire戊 WuEarthoppositeHurting Officer
戊 Wu · 阳土Earth辛 XinMetaloppositeHurting Officer
己 Ji · 阴土Earth庚 GengMetaloppositeHurting Officer
庚 Geng · 阳金Metal癸 GuiWateroppositeHurting Officer
辛 Xin · 阴金Metal壬 RenWateroppositeHurting Officer
壬 Ren · 阳水Water乙 YiWoodoppositeHurting Officer
癸 Gui · 阴水Water甲 JiaWoodoppositeHurting Officer

Which branch main qi land on it

Each of the twelve branches has one main-qi stem (the first hidden stem). Among the ten stems, Wu and Ji appear twice (Chen-Xu, Chou-Wei) and the other eight once — so for any day master each god takes at least one branch and the twelve branches split exactly. The table lists the branches whose main qi form Hurting Officer for each day master.

Day masterIts elementBranches whose main qi form itBranches
甲 Jia · 阳木Wood午 Wu1 of 12
乙 Yi · 阴木Wood巳 Si1 of 12
丙 Bing · 阳火Fire丑 Chou, 未 Wei2 of 12
丁 Ding · 阴火Fire辰 Chen, 戌 Xu2 of 12
戊 Wu · 阳土Earth酉 You1 of 12
己 Ji · 阴土Earth申 Shen1 of 12
庚 Geng · 阳金Metal子 Zi1 of 12
辛 Xin · 阴金Metal亥 Hai1 of 12
壬 Ren · 阳水Water卯 Mao1 of 12
癸 Gui · 阴水Water寅 Yin1 of 12
A note on what this page deliberately does not do: the popular versions of this material assign a fixed personality to each term — one character per branch, one destiny per stage. This site rejects that framing. What is published here is a structural position: which element sits where, on what kind of ground, with which tenants inside. The same term reads differently under a different month command, and no meaningful judgement exists without the other characters of the chart. Where the tradition offers a reading it is labelled as the tradition's; this site's own contribution is that every number and term on this page is computed, versioned and checkable against the methodology page.

Frequently asked

What is Hurting Officer in bazi?
Hurting Officer (伤官) is one of the ten gods, in the Output group — generated by the day master. The derivation has two steps: the generating or controlling relation between the day master element and the target element sets the group, then polarity picks between the two gods in that group. It takes the stem whose polarity differs from the day master.
Which stem is Hurting Officer for a 甲 day master?
丁 (Ding). The 甲 day master is 阳 Wood; 丁 stands in the relation of generated by the day master with opposite polarity, which is exactly the definition of Hurting Officer. The other nine day masters are in the table, each row back-substitutable.
What is the difference between Hurting Officer and Eating God?
Same group, same generating or controlling relation; the only difference is polarity: Hurting Officer takes the opposite polarity, Eating God the matching one. For any day master the two are carried by two different stems, and their main-qi branches never overlap.
Is a strong Hurting Officer good or bad?
A god is not a good-or-bad label, and this page gives derivation facts only. The same god often acts in opposite directions when the day master is weak versus strong; judging needs the month command, rooting, transparency and the whole chart. Any claim that more of a god is simply good or bad oversimplifies past what the system claims.

Reference index

Every enumerable component of ba zi has its own page here. Each page is computed by the same engine and can be checked item by item — none of it is a personality table.