Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches
Meet the 10 Heavenly Stems and 12 Earthly Branches, learn their Korean names, and see why matching Yin-Yang pairs create the 60-pair Sexagenary Cycle.
Short answer: The ten Heavenly Stems (천간, 天干) and twelve Earthly Branches (지지, 地支) are the symbols Saju uses to represent time. A Stem combines Yin or Yang with one of the Five Elements. A Branch carries Yin or Yang, a primary element, a zodiac animal, and further calendar information. One Stem above one Branch makes a pillar.
If the Four Pillars are the chart's four columns, Stems and Branches are its alphabet. Fortunately, this alphabet has 22 letters, not 22 ways to ruin your week.
Stems sit above Branches in every pillar
In Qiora's Four Pillars grid, the upper row contains the Heavenly Stems and the lower row contains the Earthly Branches.
| Row | Large character | What Qiora shows after you tap it |
|---|---|---|
| upper | one of 10 Heavenly Stems | Stem, Yin or Yang, and element |
| lower | one of 12 Earthly Branches | Branch, Yin or Yang, primary element, and animal |
In the grid, focus on the large Chinese character in each card. The smaller archetype or relationship label is not one of the eight birth characters.
The names "heavenly" and "earthly" come from the traditional calendar. They do not mean that the top row is spiritual and the bottom row is mundane, or that one row matters more.
Because Stems are directly visible while Branches contain Hidden Stems (지장간, 地藏干), some practitioners treat Stems as the more visible layer and Branches as the more layered one. This is an interpretive convention, not a universal rule that everything above is public and everything below is private.
Meet the ten Heavenly Stems
The ten Stems are the Five Elements in two polarities:
5 elements × 2 polarities = 10 Heavenly Stems
Keep this table as a lookup sheet. You are not expected to memorize it before continuing.
| Order | Korean reading | Character | Qiora element label |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gap (갑) | 甲 | Yang Wood |
| 2 | Eul (을) | 乙 | Yin Wood |
| 3 | Byeong (병) | 丙 | Yang Fire |
| 4 | Jeong (정) | 丁 | Yin Fire |
| 5 | Mu (무) | 戊 | Yang Earth |
| 6 | Gi (기) | 己 | Yin Earth |
| 7 | Gyeong (경) | 庚 | Yang Metal |
| 8 | Sin (신) | 辛 | Yin Metal |
| 9 | Im (임) | 壬 | Yang Water |
| 10 | Gye (계) | 癸 | Yin Water |
Gap and Eul are both Wood, but they are not interchangeable. The polarity changes how the same elemental family is expressed. Later pages will give each Stem its own image and range of behavior. For now, learn the order and the Qiora label.
Your Day Master (일간, 日干) is one member of this list: the Heavenly Stem at the top of the Day Pillar. We will make it the reading's reference point on the next page.
Meet the twelve Earthly Branches
The twelve Branches are also arranged in a fixed order. Their animal names are the easiest handles for English readers.
Keep this table as a lookup sheet too. It can stay open while you inspect your chart.
| Order | Korean reading | Character | Animal | Polarity and primary element |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ja (자) | 子 | Rat | Yang Water |
| 2 | Chuk (축) | 丑 | Ox | Yin Earth |
| 3 | In (인) | 寅 | Tiger | Yang Wood |
| 4 | Myo (묘) | 卯 | Rabbit | Yin Wood |
| 5 | Jin (진) | 辰 | Dragon | Yang Earth |
| 6 | Sa (사) | 巳 | Snake | Yin Fire |
| 7 | O (오) | 午 | Horse | Yang Fire |
| 8 | Mi (미) | 未 | Goat | Yin Earth |
| 9 | Sin (신) | 申 | Monkey | Yang Metal |
| 10 | Yu (유) | 酉 | Rooster | Yin Metal |
| 11 | Sul (술) | 戌 | Dog | Yang Earth |
| 12 | Hae (해) | 亥 | Pig | Yin Water |
Two Korean readings are both written Sin in plain Roman letters: the Yin Metal Stem 辛 and the Monkey Branch 申. The Hanja and chart row tell you which one you are looking at. Tiny spelling mystery, solved before it became a thriller.
One more UI note: Qiora's English screen may currently show the Snake Branch 巳 as si. This guide uses the Korean reading Sa. They refer to the same character.
Branches also correspond to parts of the year, directions, two-hour time blocks, and Hidden Stems. Those layers matter, but loading all of them at once is an excellent way to remember none of them. This page keeps only the first labels.
A zodiac animal is not the whole Branch
Calling 子 the Rat Branch is convenient. It does not turn the Branch into a personality quiz about rodents.
The twelve animals are traditional labels attached to the twelve Branches. A Branch's work in Saju also depends on its element, polarity, season, position, Hidden Stems, and relationships with other characters. The Rat on a year badge and the Rat in a Day Branch share the same Branch, but their positions ask different questions.
Two different animals may appear on the same Qiora result:
- To find the Saju birth-year animal, tap the bottom card under Year. The Animal line in that Branch detail comes from the Year Branch calculated under Qiora's year-boundary convention. A popular zodiac label may differ for births near the New Year if it uses Lunar New Year instead of Ipchun.
- Qiora's round Animal Spirit near the top is built from the Day Pillar pair.
They come from different positions, so they can show different animals. Neither one has wandered into the wrong chart.
Ten Stems and twelve Branches make sixty pairs
You may expect 10 × 12 to produce 120 pillars. The calendar does not use every Stem with every Branch. Stems and Branches advance together in their fixed orders, and only matching polarities pair:
- Yang Stem + Yang Branch
- Yin Stem + Yin Branch
The first pair is Yang Wood Rat (甲子). The next is Yin Wood Ox (乙丑). After ten pairs, the Stem order restarts while the Branch order keeps moving. Because 60 is the least common multiple of 10 and 12, both orders return to their starting point together after 60 steps.
This is the Sexagenary Cycle (육십갑자, 六十甲子), the repeating sequence of 60 valid Stem-Branch pairs. It supplies the pillar pairs used for years, months, days, and hours. A pillar name should follow Qiora's standard English form: polarity + element + animal, with the Hanja at first mention.
The cycle is a calendar sequence, not a ranking. Pair 60 did not grind harder than pair 1.
A pair carries more than two labels
Consider the first pillar:
- the Stem 甲 is Yang Wood
- the Branch 子 is Yang Water and carries the Rat label
- the Stem sits above the Branch as one pillar
Together, those labels identify the pair. They do not finish the interpretation. You have read the label on the folder, not every page inside it.
Find the Stems and Branches on Qiora
Open Four Pillars · 四柱 on your Qiora chart.
- Read the column labels: Year, Month, Day, Hour.
- Read the four large characters across the upper row. These are the Heavenly Stems.
- Read the four large characters across the lower row. These are the Earthly Branches.
- Choose one column and read its large characters from top to bottom as one pair.
- Tap both cards. Check that their detail panels show the same polarity: both Yang or both Yin.
- On the lower Branch card, find the primary element and Animal line.
Do not memorize all 22 characters today. Find your own chart characters first. Familiarity grows faster when the symbols belong to an actual column instead of a flash-card ambush.
If your birth time is unknown, mark the entire Hour column as unverified. Qiora is designed to show question marks there, but it may use noon internally as a technical placeholder. Some current screens may display Hour characters calculated from noon without marking them as placeholders. Those characters are not confirmed birth data. Do not add them to your study list, count their elements, or treat the Hour pair as your own pillar.
Next, Your Day Master will take one Stem from the grid and show why it becomes the reference point for the rest of the chart.
Related:
Sources and editorial notes
- The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture confirms the traditional Korean order of the ten Stems, twelve Branches, and the sixty-pair sequence from 甲子 to 癸亥.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art documents the twelve Branches as calendar symbols in Han-period material culture.
- The stronger source book supplied the beginner structure. Its personality claims for individual symbols were deferred to later pages and will be checked separately.
- Qiora's terminology dictionary requires complete pillars to use the form "Yang/Yin + Element + Animal (Hanja)." Pinyin-style pillar names were therefore excluded.
- A live English UI check displayed the Snake Branch as "si (Snake)." The manuscript keeps the Korean reading "Sa"; the UI transliteration is tracked as a separate product issue.
- Branch season, direction, time, and Hidden Stem details were intentionally deferred to prevent beginner overload.
Saju readings are for self-reflection and personal growth. They are not a substitute for professional medical, legal, or financial advice. Your choices shape your life more than any chart can.