Sexagenary cycle · position 30 of 60

癸巳

Yin Water Snake

Guǐ–Sì

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

Branch
Si
Na Yin
长流水
Snake in a traditional Chinese landscape
Heavenly Stem · 10/10GuiYin Water
Earthly Branch · 6/12SiSnake · Yin Fire
Both sequences advance one position at a time. This exact pair returns after sixty steps.

Two coordinates, read together

What is fixed inside 癸巳

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

Stem restrains branch

Water controls Fire in the five-phase controlling cycle.

A separate traditional association · 纳音

Long-flowing water

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.

长流水

English association
Long-flowing water
Associated phase
Water
Shares this Na Yin
壬辰 Yang Water Dragon

The fixed branch register

The Si 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
Snake
Branch polarity
Yin
Double hour
09:00–10:59
Month opens at
立夏 Start of Summer
Direction
South-southeast

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

    正财 Direct Wealth
  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 癸巳 returns

The pair is position 30. 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
30 / 60
Ten-position decade · 旬
甲申
Void branches · 空亡
Horse · Goat
Stem stage at this branch
Conception

Annual returns in the supported range

Every occurrence from 1901 through 2099 is shown.

  1. 1953癸巳
  2. 2013癸巳
  3. 2073癸巳
Read the Chinese New Year and Li Chun boundaries →

A coordinate, not a complete reading

What this pillar establishes

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

The pair fixes

  • Yin Water through
  • The Snake branch and its time coordinates
  • 长流水 Long-flowing water as its Na Yin
  • Position 30 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 →