Sexagenary cycle · position 53 of 60

丙辰

Yang Fire Dragon

Bǐng–Chén

This is one fixed meeting of a Heavenly Stem and an Earthly Branch. The stem supplies yang Fire; the branch supplies the Dragon and its twelve-position time coordinate.

Branch
Chen
Na Yin
沙中土
Dragon in a traditional Chinese landscape
Heavenly Stem · 3/10BingYang Fire
Earthly Branch · 5/12ChenDragon · Yang Earth
Both sequences advance one position at a time. This exact pair returns after sixty steps.

Two coordinates, read together

What is fixed inside 丙辰

A pillar keeps the same stem and branch wherever it is used. What changes is its placement—as a year, month, day or hour—and the other pillars it is compared with.

01 · Visible stem

Bing

Yang Fire, stem 3 in the ten-stem sequence.

02 · Phase relation

Stem feeds branch

Fire generates Earth, so the visible stem feeds the branch phase.

A separate traditional association · 纳音

Earth in the sand

Na Yin assigns one named image and phase to every pair of consecutive cycle pillars. It sits beside the visible stem and branch coordinates; it does not replace either one.

沙中土

English association
Earth in the sand
Associated phase
Earth
Shares this Na Yin
丁巳 Yin Fire Snake

The fixed branch register

The Chen coordinate

The same branch names an animal, a double hour, a solar-term month and a compass sector. Those coordinates remain attached to in every pillar that contains it.

Animal
Dragon
Branch polarity
Yang
Double hour
07:00–08:59
Month opens at
清明 Clear and Bright
Direction
East-southeast

Inside this branch · 藏干

Hidden stems carried by

The relationship name below compares each interior stem with Bing as the reference stem.

  1. 01

    Primary interior stem

    食神 Eating God
  2. 02

    Middle interior stem

    正印 Direct Resource
  3. 03

    Residual interior stem

    正官 Direct Officer
Open all twelve hidden-stem interiors

One address in the sixty-position sequence

Where 丙辰 returns

The pair is position 53. Its annual appearances repeat every sixty years; the same pillar can also occur at the month, day or hour scale under those cycles' own rules.

Cycle position
53 / 60
Ten-position decade · 旬
甲寅
Void branches · 空亡
Rat · Ox
Stem stage at this branch
Sickness

Annual returns in the supported range

Every occurrence from 1901 through 2099 is shown.

  1. 1916丙辰
  2. 1976丙辰
  3. 2036丙辰
  4. 2096丙辰
Read the Chinese New Year and Li Chun boundaries →

A coordinate, not a complete reading

What this pillar establishes

丙辰 fixes one stem–branch identity. A chart supplies the placement and comparisons that make that identity usable.

The pair fixes

  • Yang Fire through
  • The Dragon branch and its time coordinates
  • 沙中土 Earth in the sand as its Na Yin
  • Position 53 in the repeating sequence

The chart still decides

Whether the pair is the year, month, day or hour pillar; which stem is the Day Master; and how the surrounding stems and branches relate to it. The pair alone does not rank a personality, promise an outcome or stand in for the other three pillars.

See how four pillars form a chart →