Sexagenary cycle · position 26 of 60

己丑

Yin Earth Ox

Jǐ–Chǒu

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

Stem
Ji
Branch
Chou
Na Yin
霹雳火
Ox in a traditional Chinese landscape
Heavenly Stem · 6/10JiYin Earth
Earthly Branch · 2/12ChouOx · Yin Earth
Both sequences advance one position at a time. This exact pair returns after sixty steps.

Two coordinates, read together

What is fixed inside 己丑

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

Ji

Yin Earth, stem 6 in the ten-stem sequence.

02 · Phase relation

Reinforcing

The stem and branch both carry Earth, so this pair repeats one phase rather than linking two phases.

A separate traditional association · 纳音

Thunderbolt fire

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.

霹雳火

English association
Thunderbolt fire
Associated phase
Fire
Shares this Na Yin
戊子 Yang Earth Rat

The fixed branch register

The Chou 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
Ox
Branch polarity
Yin
Double hour
01:00–02:59
Month opens at
小寒 Minor Cold
Direction
North-northeast

Inside this branch · 藏干

Hidden stems carried by

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

  1. 01

    Primary interior stem

    比肩 Friend
  2. 02

    Middle interior stem

    偏财 Indirect Wealth
  3. 03

    Residual interior stem

    食神 Eating God
Open all twelve hidden-stem interiors

One address in the sixty-position sequence

Where 己丑 returns

The pair is position 26. 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
26 / 60
Ten-position decade · 旬
甲申
Void branches · 空亡
Horse · Goat
Stem stage at this branch
Tomb

Annual returns in the supported range

Every occurrence from 1901 through 2099 is shown.

  1. 1949己丑
  2. 2009己丑
  3. 2069己丑
Read the Chinese New Year and Li Chun boundaries →

A coordinate, not a complete reading

What this pillar establishes

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

The pair fixes

  • Yin Earth through
  • The Ox branch and its time coordinates
  • 霹雳火 Thunderbolt fire as its Na Yin
  • Position 26 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 →