Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches
Heavenly stems and earthly
branches are collectively known as Stem-Branch or Gan-Zhi. The 10 heavenly
stems are Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren and Gui. The 12
earthly branches are Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu and
Hai. Each heavenly stem is paired with an earthly branch to form the Gan-Zhi
sexagenary cycle that starts with Jia-Zi (Table 2).
Table 2
The Gan-Zhi sexagenary cycle.
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
Jia-Zi |
Yi-Chou |
Bing-Yin |
Ding-Mao |
Wu-Chen |
Ji-Si |
Geng-Wu |
Xin-Wei |
Ren-Shen |
Gui-You |
Jia-Xu |
Yi-hai |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
Bing-Zi |
Ding-Chou |
Wu-Yin |
Ji-Mao |
Geng-Chen |
Xin-Si |
Ren-Wu |
Gui-Wei |
Jia-Shen |
Yi-You |
Bing-Xu |
Ding-Hai |
25 |
26 |
27 |
28 |
29 |
30 |
31 |
32 |
33 |
34 |
35 |
36 |
Wu-Zi |
Ji-Chou |
Geng-Yin |
Xin-Mao |
Ren-Chen |
Gui-Si |
Jia-Wu |
Yi-Wei |
Bing-Shen |
Ding-You |
Wu-Xu |
Ji-Hai |
37 |
38 |
39 |
40 |
41 |
42 |
43 |
44 |
45 |
46 |
47 |
48 |
Geng-Zi |
Xin-Chou |
Ren-Yin |
Gui-Mao |
Jia-Chen |
Yi-Si |
Bing-Wu |
Ding-Wei |
Wu-Shen |
Ji-You |
Geng-Xu |
Xin-Hai |
49 |
50 |
51 |
52 |
53 |
54 |
55 |
56 |
57 |
58 |
59 |
60 |
Ren-Zi |
Gui-Chou |
Jia-Yin |
Yi-Mao |
Bing-Chen |
Ding-Si |
Wu-Wu |
Ji-Wei |
Geng-Shen |
Xin-You |
Ren-Xu |
Gui-Hai |
The use of
Gan-Zhi to record the years, months, days and hours all started in different
periods in history. The Gan-Zhi years and days have been used for two
to three thousand years. In ancient time, the months and the hours (the
hours are called shichen) were named after the earthly branches only (Figure
1 and Table 3). Through the years, people started to make stems
of the months after the stem of the year (Table 4), and stems of the hours after
the stem of the day (Table 5). The Gan-Zhi's of year, month, day and hour
together form the Eight Characters.
Table 3 The relationship
between the 12 shichen and the present time system.
12
shichen |
The
present time system |
Zi hour |
23
hour to 01 hour |
Chou
hour |
01
hour to 03 hour |
Yin
hour |
03
hour to 05 hour |
Mao
hour |
05
hour to 07 hour |
Chen
hour |
07
hour to 09 hour |
Si hour |
09
hour to 11 hour |
Wu
hour |
11
hour to 13 hour |
Wei hour |
13
hour to 15 hour |
Shen hour |
15
hour to 17 hour |
You
hour |
17
hour to 19 hour |
Xu hour |
19
hour to 21 hour |
Hai hour |
21
hour to 23 hour |
Table
4 The relationship between
the stem of the year and the stem of the month.
The
stem
of
the year
|
The
stem of the month |
Yin
1st
month
|
Mao
2nd
month
|
Chen
3rd
month
|
Si
4th
month
|
Wu
5th
month
|
Wei
6th
month
|
Shen
7th
month
|
You
8th
month
|
Xu
9th
month
|
Hai
10th
month
|
Zi
11th
month
|
Chou
12th
month
|
Jia or Ji |
Bing |
Ding |
Wu |
Ji |
Geng |
Xin |
Ren |
Gui |
Jia |
Yi |
Bing |
Ding |
Yi
or Geng |
Wu |
Ji |
Geng |
Xin |
Ren |
Gui |
Jia |
Yi |
Bing |
Ding |
Wu |
Ji |
Bing
or Xin |
Geng |
Xin |
Ren |
Gui |
Jia |
Yi |
Bing |
Ding |
Wu |
Ji |
Geng |
Xin |
Ding
or Ren |
Ren |
Gui |
Jia |
Yi |
Bing |
Ding |
Wu |
Ji |
Geng |
Xin |
Ren |
Gui |
Wu
or Gui |
Jia |
Yi |
Bing |
Ding |
Wu |
Ji |
Geng |
Xin |
Ren |
Gui |
Jia |
Yi |
Table
5 The relationship between
the stem of the day and the stem of the hour.
The
stem
of the day |
The
stem of the hour |
Zi
hour |
Chou
hour |
Yin
hour |
Mao
hour |
Chen
hour |
Si
hour |
Wu
hour |
Wei
hour |
Shen
hour |
You
hour |
Xu
hour |
Hai
hour |
Jia or Ji |
Jia |
Yi |
Bing |
Ding |
Wu |
Ji |
Geng |
Xin |
Ren |
Gui |
Jia |
Yi |
Yi
or Geng |
Bing |
Ding |
Wu |
Ji |
Geng |
Xin |
Ren |
Gui |
Jia |
Yi |
Bing |
Ding |
Bing
or Xin |
Wu |
Ji |
Geng |
Xin |
Ren |
Gui |
Jia |
Yi |
Bing |
Ding |
Wu |
Ji |
Ding
or Ren |
Geng |
Xin |
Ren |
Gui |
Jia |
Yi |
Bing |
Ding |
Wu |
Ji |
Geng |
Xin |
Wu
or Gui |
Ren |
Gui |
Jia |
Yi |
Bing |
Ding |
Wu |
Ji |
Geng |
Xin |
Ren |
Gui |
|