天干地支 · Heavenly Stems & Earthly Branches

BaZi · The Four Pillars, lesson 3: The alphabet of BaZi: ten stems, twelve branches and the cycle of sixty

第一模块 · 基础 · Module 1 · Foundations · 约 20 分钟，另有约 85 分钟的动手练习 about 20 minutes, plus a hands-on exercise of about 85 minutes

五行各分阴阳，就得到十个天干：甲乙（木）、丙丁（火）、戊己（土）、庚辛（金）、壬癸（水）。阳干像该五行的“放大版”：甲木是参天大树，丙火是太阳；阴干是“精微版”：乙木是花草藤蔓，丁火是烛光。这十个画面是全课程的“角色表”——后面每一课都会请他们反复出场，现在就把画面记熟。

Every element comes in two forms, a yang form and a yin form. Five elements in two forms give the ten Heavenly Stems. Wood gives Jia (甲) and Yi (乙). Fire gives Bing (丙) and Ding (丁). Earth gives Wu (戊) and Ji (己). Metal gives Geng (庚) and Xin (辛). Water gives Ren (壬) and Gui (癸). In each pair the first stem is yang and the second is yin. A yang stem is its element on a large scale: Jia is a towering tree, and Bing is the sun. A yin stem is its element on a small, delicate scale: Yi is flowers, grass and climbing vines, and Ding is a candle. Learn these ten pictures now. Every later lesson in the course uses them.

看这十枚印章时请注意：同色的两枚永远成对——一枚厚重，一枚细巧。这就是阳干与阴干的差别。甲与乙同属木，一个是往上顶的树干，一个是懂得绕路的藤蔓；庚与辛同属金，一个是开了刃的刀，一个是雕成器的玉。以后您看到任何一个天干，先问两句：哪一行？阳还是阴？这两问答完，性格的底稿就已经在纸上了。

Look at the seals and you will see that the two of the same color always come as a pair, one heavy and one delicate. That is the difference between a yang stem and a yin stem. Jia and Yi are both Wood. Jia is a trunk pushing straight up. Yi is a vine that finds its way around whatever is in the way. Geng and Xin are both Metal. Geng is a sharpened blade, and Xin is a piece of jade already carved into shape. From now on, whenever you meet a stem, ask two questions. Which element is it? Is it yang or yin? Once you have both answers, you already have a rough sketch of the personality it stands for.

十天干速写：记画面，别记定义 · The ten stems, one picture each: remember the pictures, not definitions

• 甲 参天大树 · 乙 花草藤蔓
  Jia (甲): a towering tree · Yi (乙): flowers and climbing vines
• 丙 当空太阳 · 丁 一盏烛火
  Bing (丙): the sun at noon · Ding (丁): a candle flame
• 戊 巍峨高山 · 己 田园沃土
  Wu (戊): a high mountain · Ji (己): fertile farmland
• 庚 出鞘刀剑 · 辛 雕琢珠玉
  Geng (庚): a drawn sword · Xin (辛): carved jewels and jade
• 壬 奔流江海 · 癸 润物雨露
  Ren (壬): a great river · Gui (癸): rain and dew

十二地支来自木星十二年的周期，对应十二生肖与十二个月：子丑寅卯辰巳午未申酉戌亥。地支比天干复杂，因为每个地支里还“藏”着一到三个天干，叫藏干。比如寅是一片森林，里面住着三位角色：甲这棵大树、树顶上的太阳丙、树脚下的高山戊。看盘时，地支是“根”：天干露在外面的东西，地支里有没有根，决定它是真有力还是虚浮。

The twelve Earthly Branches come from the twelve years Jupiter takes to circle the sky. Each one matches an animal of the Chinese zodiac and a month of the year. They are usually drawn as a circle, like the face of a clock, in this order: Zi (子) the Rat, Chou (丑) the Ox, Yin (寅) the Tiger, Mao (卯) the Rabbit, Chen (辰) the Dragon, Si (巳) the Snake, Wu (午) the Horse, Wei (未) the Goat, Shen (申) the Monkey, You (酉) the Rooster, Xu (戌) the Dog and Hai (亥) the Pig. Branches are more complicated than stems, because every branch contains one to three stems inside it. These are called its hidden stems. Two names need care before you go on. Yin, the Tiger, is simply the name of a branch, and it is in fact a yang branch, so do not confuse it with yin the polarity. And two different characters are both spelled Wu: Wu (戊), the Earth stem, and Wu (午), the Horse branch. This course writes the stem as Wu Earth and the branch as Wu, the Horse, or just the Horse. Take Yin, the Tiger, and picture it as a forest. Three stems are hidden in it. Jia is the great tree, Bing is the sun above the trees, and Wu Earth is the mountain the trees grow on. When you read a chart, think of the branches as roots. A stem stands in plain view on top. Whether it really has strength, or only looks strong, depends on whether it has a root in the branches below.

藏干光背表格很难记牢，因为表格看不见“多少”。下面这张图把十二个地支摊开，每个格子里的藏干按分量画出来——本气最大，中气次之，余气最小。

Hidden stems are hard to remember from a table alone, because a table cannot show how much of each stem a branch holds. Qi means energy or force. Here it simply means a share of the branch's force. Every branch has a main hidden stem, called its principal qi (本气). Many also hold a second, the middle qi (中气), and a third, the residual qi (余气). The figure below sets out all twelve branches and draws each hidden stem in proportion to its share: the principal qi largest, the middle qi smaller, the residual qi smallest.

这张图要读出三件事。第一，子、午、卯、酉四个“专气”地支里基本只住一位（午另带一点己土），所以它们的力量最纯粹，代表什么就是什么。第二，寅、申、巳各住三位、亥住两位，是轮盘上的四条三岔路口，也正因为热闹，最容易在合冲里出事。第三，辰、戌、丑、未是四座仓库：本气是土，中气是上一个季节退下来的余气，藏在最深处的那一位才是真正的库神——辰藏癸（水库）、戌藏丁（火库）、丑藏辛（金库）、未藏乙（木库）。库门平时关着，要靠冲或刑才打得开（第11课）。初学最常犯的错，是把三个藏干当成一样重：定性的永远是本气，库里收着的那一位只在被引动时才说话。

The figure shows three things. First, four branches are pure: Zi the Rat, Wu the Horse, Mao the Rabbit and You the Rooster. Each holds essentially a single stem. (The Horse also holds a little Ji Earth beside its Fire.) That makes them the simplest branches to read: each one means just what its element means. Second, the Tiger, the Monkey and the Snake hold three stems each, and the Pig holds two. Several different forces meet in these four branches. Because of that, they are the branches most likely to cause trouble when combinations and clashes come into play. Third, the Dragon, the Dog, the Ox and the Goat are the four storehouses. Each has Earth as its principal qi. Its middle qi is what remains of the season that has just ended. The stem buried deepest is what the storehouse keeps in store: the Dragon keeps Water (Gui), the Dog keeps Fire (Ding), the Ox keeps Metal (Xin) and the Goat keeps Wood (Yi). A storehouse normally stays shut. It takes a clash or a punishment to open it, which Lesson 11 covers. The most common beginner mistake is to treat all three hidden stems as equally important. The principal qi always decides what a branch is. The stem a storehouse keeps in store only has an effect when something sets it off.

六十甲子 The cycle of sixty

十个天干配十二个地支，阳配阳、阴配阴，共得六十个组合——从甲子走到癸亥，就是“六十甲子”。年、月、日、时各自都在这六十个组合里循环。所以“八字”其实是四个坐标：您出生那刻，四个循环各走到了哪一格。

Pair the ten stems with the twelve branches, yang with yang and yin with yin, and you get sixty pairs. They run from Jia Zi (甲子) to Gui Hai (癸亥), and together they make up the cycle of sixty. The year, the month, the day and the hour each move through these same sixty pairs. So your eight characters are really four positions: where each of the four cycles stood at the moment you were born.

六十个组合听起来多，排成图就很直观：下面这张表从甲子走到癸亥，每十个一行，行首标出旬头。

Sixty pairs sounds like a lot, but the table below makes it easy to see. It runs from Jia Zi to Gui Hai, ten pairs to a row, and marks the pair that starts each row.

这张表有两个实用之处。第一，它解释了为什么干支不能乱配：十配十二，阳只配阳、阴只配阴，所以是六十而不是一百二十——像“甲丑”这样的组合根本不存在，看到就知道是错的。第二，每一行十个字用掉十个天干，却只用掉十个地支，剩下两个地支没有天干可配——那两个就是“空亡”（第10课的神煞之一）。查空亡不必背表：找到您日柱所在的那一行，缺的是哪两个地支，您的空亡就是哪两个。

The table is useful in two ways. First, it shows why stems and branches cannot be paired at random. Ten stems meet twelve branches, and yang pairs only with yang, yin only with yin. That is why there are sixty pairs and not a hundred and twenty. A pair such as Jia Chou (甲丑) does not exist, so when you see one you know it is a mistake. Second, each row of ten uses all ten stems but only ten of the twelve branches. Two branches in every row are left without a stem. Those two are the Void (空亡) for that row, one of the symbolic stars in Lesson 10. You do not need to memorize a Void table. Find the row your day pillar is in and see which two branches are missing from it. Those two are your Void.

最后加一条会让您立刻像内行的读法：干支要合起来看。天干坐在地支上，两者同气叫“通根”（甲坐寅、丙坐午），这根柱子力量最实；天干被脚下的地支所克，叫“截脚”（甲坐申）；地支被头上的天干所克，叫“盖头”（庚坐寅），两者都是看着体面、实则虚浮的样子。看盘时一柱一柱扫过去，先问“这根柱子自己稳不稳”，再谈它与别人的关系。这个小动作，能替您避开一大半初学者的误判。

One more habit will make you read like an experienced practitioner straight away: read each stem together with the branch under it. When the two share an element, the stem is rooted (通根), and the pillar is as solid as a pillar gets. Jia on the Tiger (甲寅) and Bing on the Horse (丙午) are examples. When the branch controls the stem above it, as in Jia on the Monkey (甲申), classical texts call it cut feet (截脚). When the stem controls the branch below it, as in Geng on the Tiger (庚寅), they call it a covered head (盖头). In both cases the stem sits in plain view at the top of the pillar, so it can look commanding. But the branch under it is either working against it or being held down by it, so the stem gets no support from below and the pillar has little real strength. Go through a chart one pillar at a time. First ask whether each pillar stands steady on its own, and only then ask how it relates to the others. This small habit saves you from most of the misjudgments beginners make.

本课要点 · Key takeaways

• 十天干 = 五行 × 阴阳；阳大阴细
  The ten stems are the five elements, each in a yang and a yin form. Yang is large, yin is small and delicate
• 十二地支各藏一到三个天干：地支是天干的“根”
  Each branch hides one to three stems. The branches are the roots of the stems above them
• 藏干诀是查藏干的随身表
  Learn each branch's hidden stems until you can recall them without the table
• 干支阴阳相配得六十甲子，四柱各自循环
  Stems and branches pair up into a cycle of sixty, and each of the four pillars moves through it

看我的藏干 · See my hidden stems

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