己 Jǐ — the Yin Earth Day Master

What the classics read it as

Yin Earth. The field — worked ground, low and damp, the earth that is for growing rather than for standing on.

「己土卑濕，中正蓄藏」. Ji earth is low and moist, upright in the centre, and it stores. Storage is the operative word. 戊 holds things up; 己 takes things in. It is the only stem in the set whose classical description is about capacity rather than about action.

What it loves: help. 「若要物旺，宜助宜幫」 — if you want what grows here to thrive, it needs assistance and support. This is stated flatly and it is unusual; most of the ten stems are described by what they resist. 己 is described by what it needs. A field left alone reverts.

What it fears: less than you would expect. 「不愁木盛，不畏水狂」 — it does not worry about abundant wood, it is not afraid of wild water. Wood is what a field is for, and water is what a field drinks. What it does fear is being asked to be a mountain, and the second half of that line is the useful one: 「火少火晦，金多金光」 — with too little fire the fire is smothered here, and with plenty of metal the metal shines. What this ground supports, it supports at its own expense.

The character: 己 is patient in a way that is easy to mistake for having no position. It has one. It simply expresses it over a season rather than in a sentence.

The cost: the field gives the harvest to whoever planted it, and the planting is remembered as theirs.