Sexagenary cycle · position 33 of 60

丙申

Yang Fire Monkey

Bǐng–Shēn

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

Branch
Shen
Na Yin
山下火
Monkey in a traditional Chinese landscape
Heavenly Stem · 3/10BingYang Fire
Earthly Branch · 9/12ShenMonkey · Yang Metal
Both sequences advance one position at a time. This exact pair returns after sixty steps.

Two coordinates, read together

What is fixed inside 丙申

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 restrains branch

Fire controls Metal in the five-phase controlling cycle.

A separate traditional association · 纳音

Fire below the mountain

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.

山下火

English association
Fire below the mountain
Associated phase
Fire
Shares this Na Yin
丁酉 Yin Fire Rooster

The fixed branch register

The Shen 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
Monkey
Branch polarity
Yang
Double hour
15:00–16:59
Month opens at
立秋 Start of Autumn
Direction
West-southwest

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

    偏财 Indirect Wealth
  2. 02

    Middle interior stem

    七杀 Seven Killings
  3. 03

    Residual interior stem

    食神 Eating God
Open all twelve hidden-stem interiors

One address in the sixty-position sequence

Where 丙申 returns

The pair is position 33. 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
33 / 60
Ten-position decade · 旬
甲午
Void branches · 空亡
Dragon · Snake
Stem stage at this branch
Conception

Annual returns in the supported range

Every occurrence from 1901 through 2099 is shown.

  1. 1956丙申
  2. 2016丙申
  3. 2076丙申
Read the Chinese New Year and Li Chun boundaries →

A coordinate, not a complete reading

What this pillar establishes

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

The pair fixes

  • Yang Fire through
  • The Monkey branch and its time coordinates
  • 山下火 Fire below the mountain as its Na Yin
  • Position 33 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 →