Sexagenary cycle · position 50 of 60

癸丑

Yin Water Ox

Guǐ–Chǒu

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

Branch
Chou
Na Yin
桑柘木
Ox in a traditional Chinese landscape
Heavenly Stem · 10/10GuiYin Water
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 癸丑

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

Gui

Yin Water, stem 10 in the ten-stem sequence.

02 · Phase relation

Branch restrains stem

Earth controls Water in the five-phase controlling cycle.

A separate traditional association · 纳音

Mulberry wood

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.

桑柘木

English association
Mulberry wood
Associated phase
Wood
Shares this Na Yin
壬子 Yang Water 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 Gui as the reference stem.

  1. 01

    Primary interior stem

    七杀 Seven Killings
  2. 02

    Middle interior stem

    比肩 Friend
  3. 03

    Residual interior stem

    偏印 Indirect Resource
Open all twelve hidden-stem interiors

One address in the sixty-position sequence

Where 癸丑 returns

The pair is position 50. 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
50 / 60
Ten-position decade · 旬
甲辰
Void branches · 空亡
Tiger · Rabbit
Stem stage at this branch
冠带 Cap and Gown

Annual returns in the supported range

Every occurrence from 1901 through 2099 is shown.

  1. 1913癸丑
  2. 1973癸丑
  3. 2033癸丑
  4. 2093癸丑
Read the Chinese New Year and Li Chun boundaries →

A coordinate, not a complete reading

What this pillar establishes

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

The pair fixes

  • Yin Water through
  • The Ox branch and its time coordinates
  • 桑柘木 Mulberry wood as its Na Yin
  • Position 50 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 →