Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches

The eight characters of a Saju chart are written with ten characters of heaven and twelve characters of earth. These twenty-two characters are the alphabet of Saju.

Ten heavenly stems

甲 Gap and 乙 Eul are Wood, 丙 Byeong and 丁 Jeong are Fire, 戊 Mu and 己 Gi are Earth, 庚 Gyeong and 辛 Sin are Metal, 壬 Im and 癸 Gye are Water. Each element has a yang and a yin form.

The old masters pictured them in nature: 甲 a tall tree, 乙 grass and flowers, 丙 the sun, 丁 a lamp, 戊 a great mountain, 己 a field, 庚 rock and raw iron, 辛 a jewel, 壬 a great river or the sea, 癸 rain and dew.

Twelve earthly branches

子 Rat, 丑 Ox, 寅 Tiger, 卯 Rabbit, 辰 Dragon, 巳 Snake, 午 Horse, 未 Goat, 申 Monkey, 酉 Rooster, 戌 Dog, 亥 Pig. The twelve animals of the East Asian zodiac are the earthly branches.

The branches also mark months and hours: 寅 is the month when late winter turns into spring, 子 is the hour of midnight. Each branch hides stems inside it, so a branch is more complex than it looks.

Sixty pairs

When the ten stems and twelve branches pair up in order, they make sixty combinations. These sixty pairs are assigned in turn to years, months, days and hours.

2026 is 丙午, the year of the Red Horse, and 2027 is 丁未, the year of the Red Goat. In Korea the sixtieth birthday is celebrated because the pair of your birth year has come full circle.

Characters that attract and clash

Branches can draw each other in (a combination) or collide (a clash). 子 and 丑 combine; 子 and 午 clash.

A combination points to bonds and ties, a clash to movement and change. When a character in your chart combines or clashes with the character of a year, life tends to bring the same.