Sexagenary cycle · position 01 of 60
甲子
Yang Wood Rat
This is one fixed meeting of a Heavenly Stem and an Earthly Branch. The stem supplies yang Wood; the branch supplies the Rat and its twelve-position time coordinate.
Two coordinates, read together
What is fixed inside 甲子
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.
A separate traditional association · 纳音
Gold in the sea
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.
海中金
- English association
- Gold in the sea
- Associated phase
- 金 Metal
- Shares this Na Yin
- 乙丑 Yin Wood Ox
The fixed branch register
The 子 Zi coordinate
The same branch names an animal, a double hour, a solar-term month and a compass sector. Those coordinates remain attached to 子in every pillar that contains it.
- Animal
- Rat
- Branch polarity
- Yang
- Double hour
- 23:00–00:59
- Month opens at
- 大雪 Major Snow
- Direction
- North
Inside this branch · 藏干
Hidden stems carried by 子
The relationship name below compares each interior stem with 甲 Jia as the reference stem.
- 01
癸
Primary interior stem
正印 Direct Resource
One address in the sixty-position sequence
Where 甲子 returns
The pair is position 1. 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
- 01 / 60
- Ten-position decade · 旬
- 甲子
- Stem stage at this branch
- 养 Nurture
Annual returns in the supported range
Every occurrence from 1901 through 2099 is shown.
- 1924甲子
- 1984甲子
- 2044甲子
A coordinate, not a complete reading
What this pillar establishes
甲子 fixes one stem–branch identity. A chart supplies the placement and comparisons that make that identity usable.
The pair fixes
- Yang Wood through 甲
- The Rat branch and its time coordinates
- 海中金 Gold in the sea as its Na Yin
- Position 1 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 →