Sexagenary cycle · position 02 of 60
乙丑
Yin Wood Ox
This is one fixed meeting of a Heavenly Stem and an Earthly Branch. The stem supplies yin Wood; the branch supplies the Ox and its twelve-position time coordinate.
Two coordinates, read together
What is fixed inside 乙丑
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.
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
- 甲子 Yang Wood Rat
The fixed branch register
The 丑 Chou coordinate
The same branch names an animal, a double hour, a solar-term month and a compass sector. Those coordinates remain attached to 丑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 丑
The relationship name below compares each interior stem with 乙 Yi as the reference stem.
- 01
己
Primary interior stem
偏财 Indirect Wealth - 02
癸
Middle interior stem
偏印 Indirect Resource - 03
辛
Residual interior stem
七杀 Seven Killings
One address in the sixty-position sequence
Where 乙丑 returns
The pair is position 2. 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
- 02 / 60
- Ten-position decade · 旬
- 甲子
- Stem stage at this branch
- 衰 Decline
Annual returns in the supported range
Every occurrence from 1901 through 2099 is shown.
- 1925乙丑
- 1985乙丑
- 2045乙丑
A coordinate, not a complete reading
What this pillar establishes
乙丑 fixes one stem–branch identity. A chart supplies the placement and comparisons that make that identity usable.
The pair fixes
- Yin Wood through 乙
- The Ox branch and its time coordinates
- 海中金 Gold in the sea as its Na Yin
- Position 2 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 →