Sexagenary cycle · position 42 of 60
乙巳
Yin Wood Snake
This is one fixed meeting of a Heavenly Stem and an Earthly Branch. The stem supplies yin Wood; the branch supplies the Snake and its twelve-position time coordinate.
Two coordinates, read together
What is fixed inside 乙巳
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.
A separate traditional association · 纳音
Covered-lamp 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.
覆灯火
- English association
- Covered-lamp fire
- Associated phase
- 火 Fire
- Shares this Na Yin
- 甲辰 Yang Wood Dragon
The fixed branch register
The 巳 Si coordinate
The same branch names an animal, a double hour, a solar-term month and a compass sector. Those coordinates remain attached to 巳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 巳
The relationship name below compares each interior stem with 乙 Yi as the reference stem.
- 01
丙
Primary interior stem
伤官 Hurting Officer - 02
庚
Middle interior stem
正官 Direct Officer - 03
戊
Residual interior stem
正财 Direct Wealth
One address in the sixty-position sequence
Where 乙巳 returns
The pair is position 42. 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
- 42 / 60
- Ten-position decade · 旬
- 甲辰
- Stem stage at this branch
- 沐浴 Bath
Annual returns in the supported range
Every occurrence from 1901 through 2099 is shown.
- 1905乙巳
- 1965乙巳
- 2025乙巳
- 2085乙巳
A coordinate, not a complete reading
What this pillar establishes
乙巳 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 Snake branch and its time coordinates
- 覆灯火 Covered-lamp fire as its Na Yin
- Position 42 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 →