Gui Water is the tenth of the ten Heavenly Stems in Chinese style fortune telling. What are the Heavenly Stems and what do they show us? They don’t give any information about life or our circumstances—instead, they show us our ideas. Gui Water is the tenth archetype in Chinese cosmology. It is the mimic and the witness. If you want to check to see if Gui Water represents your personality in Chinese astrology, find a bazi chart calculator and look for your day stem. Your day stem is the anchor of your day and represents your personality.

(I titled this article “day master” because the day stem of your chart is often translated as “day master” and this is the most common search term related to the concept. However, you can call your day stem your day destiny, your chart ruler, or simply your day stem.)


As yin water, Gui Water is the most yin of the yin stems. Yin means hidden and changeable. What is Gui Water? Gui Water is actually air. A lot of people get confused because they get the western elements confused with the five movements of Chinese metaphysics. In western metaphysics, air is a separate element from water. In Chinese metaphysics, water flowing through the oceans and rivers is yang water. The water that flows through the air, the rain, the mist, the fog, and the clouds is yin water.

Gui Water is air. It is the most invisible movement. You can’t see air. It is also the most changeable movement. Air will absorb anything that flows through it. Air can be musky or dusty, can be cold or hot as steam. Air can be any color.

Gui Water is invisible. It’s that friend who is always able to match your rhythm so seamlessly that you don’t even realize they are doing it. They just happen to use the same words as you. They just happen to chuckle at the same things, to share the same sensibilities, and echo your mannerisms. They just happen to share the same interests. Gui Water people are able to transform themselves so undramatically that no one catches onto what they are doing.

Do you notice the air? No, you don’t. You can sense the air when it blows in your face or when it turns acrid but you don’t be able to see where it is coming from.

Gui Water people see the things that no one sees. It’s the silent observer who notices every single last detail. However, its own actions are subtle and imperceptible. Gui Water covers its own tracks. You don’t know where it is coming from. If you are in the middle of a mist, you can’t see where that mist is coming from. Once Gui Water is gone, it is gone. Water evaporates and leaves no trace.

Gui Water people can be just as chatty as Ren Water people but not all the time. While Ren Water is about the mystery of an abyss, Ren Water is perceivable. Ren Water people are chatty because they’re reflecting their surroundings. Gui Water doesn't reflect because the air isn’t reflective. Gui Water is transparent. When Gui Water people speak, they are asking questions. They are getting you to speak. And they are observing.

Gui Water people don’t share about anything that they are doing. They just don’t. I know a few people who are Gui Water. I learn things about them from other people, just random little things that they could share with me but they don't.

But it’s weird. Gui Water people aren’t holding secrets either the way the earth stems sometimes do. When you talk to Gui Water people, they’re spilling all this stuff. They’re telling you about their deepest fears and fantasies. But real information like basic facts about where they are living and how they earn a living? Mystery.

It’s hard to describe. Gui Water people are hard to describe because they actually look physically different everyday. Johnny Depp is a Gui Water day master. He looks different all the time and he’s able to hide things about himself by creating impressions. Jackson Wang is a Gui Water day master and it’s impossible to describe what he looks like because he’s always wearing a different hat or something to make himself look completely different. People don’t even really know what nationality he is. Halle Bieber is also a Gui Water day master. She’s one of the most invisible celebrities out there.

Some texts say that Gui Water represents the power of mercy. I don’t like mercy except as a kink because it signifies a power relation. I think that what the texts are trying to say is that Gui Water is empathetic. It feels what you feel. It knows what you know. It does what you do.

The thing that you hear the most about Gui Water is that it doesn’t have a core sense of self. It doesn’t have a fixed form. It’s just mimicking whatever is going on in its environment.

I’d like to amend this a bit. I think that this concept of not having a core self is a bit insulting in western societies where personality is everything. Gui Water actually has a very strong and flamboyant personality because air can infiltrate every style of culture and scene. That’s not what this idea of not having a core self is talking about. This idea of Gui Water not having a core self is talking about life lived in the daily.

Gui Water is the heaven’s saliva. It’s literally the weather which changes everyday. You can’t predict it. It’s always changing.

Gui Water people don’t have a fixed routine. They get up and then they decide what they are doing that day by going with the flow. They don’t have habits. They can change their life path based on a whim in under a second. That’s what Gui Water not having a core self really means. These people don’t brush their teeth everyday! They don’t stick to plans! They might show up to something and then get a bad feeling and then drift off in some unexpected direction.

But before you say that Gui Water is just impressionable and the type to do what everyone else is doing, let me ask you this—can you control the air?

Try. Try to scoop up the air and force it into a shape of your choosing. Try to light up a cigarette and keep the smoke contained in one room. You can’t. Gui Water is always changing. It doesn’t have a core way of living life. However, it’s uncontrollable. You can’t shape it. You can’t influence it. It just is what it is.

Why does Gui Water match the mannerisms of those around itself? How does it mimic and emulate? It’s not trying to fit in. It’s not compliance. Gui Water isn’t compliant.

Gui Water is the most yin of the yin stems. It has a special relationship to Bing Fire which is the most yang of the yang stems. Bing Fire is the sun and Gui Water is the clouds. Both come from the sky and not the earth below. Neither can be shaped by earthly movements. Both move at their own pace and in their own way. Both are transparent. The only difference is that Bing Fire is yang. It reveals things and follows a routine. Gui Water is yin. It hides things and follows chaos.

The reason why Gui Water emulates the mannerisms and aesthetics of its surroundings is because it’s a channel. That’s water. Water is a channel. Water infiltrates things and moves things through. When Gui Water matches the energy of a room, it doesn’t comply with a culture. Gui Water is actually placing itself in the best position to shift the culture of that room. You take it for granted, not even seeing it, until it makes itself known. The winds shift. Thunder strikes. Gui Water pauses. They say something unexpected.

I know a few Gui Water people. They know how to blend in but they also know how to shift the energy. I don’t really know how they do it. They just do it. They’re master performers. They know how to make you feel things. It’s like they use their entire bodies to become channels of empathy and then they change their emotions so you do too.

What Gui Water is doing is that they are actually creating a culture. Gui Water, through empathy and emulation, can channel the atmosphere or culture of a space. By channeling the atmosphere, they can control it to some extent. They can change it.

You have to keep in mind that the moisture that flows through the air is extremely influential. The weather is extremely influential. It controls your visibility. It controls what you can see and what you don’t. It promotes certain things and eliminates other things. You can’t see the air but the air impacts everything.

Another good example of a Gui Water person is actually Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki is a very famous anime artist who made Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and Howl’s Moving Castle. He infiltrated a channel (the connection between Disney and anime) and he changed it. He influenced the culture. How? You can try to describe what Miyazaki did with animation but you can’t really put your finger on it. As he says, storytelling can’t be described using words. That’s the art of invisible influence. That’s Gui Water.

Complete empathy. Not with one singular perspective but with every single perspective. Complete absorption and complete infiltration. No one is able to describe what you are doing with words but everyone feels it to some extent. That’s Gui Water.