Sexagenary cycle · 六十甲子

The complete
60 Jiazi cycle.

Every valid pairing of a Heavenly Stem and an Earthly Branch, arranged in its exact order. Find any pair, inspect its ingredients, then read it in the context of a complete BaZi chart.

Explore all 60 pairs Find yours in a chart

How the cycle is builtAdvance together

Heaven

甲乙丙丁戊己庚辛壬癸

10 stems

Earth

子丑寅卯辰巳午未申酉戌亥

12 branches

same polarity onlyLCM(10, 12)60steps before both sequences reset

10Heavenly Stems

12Earthly Branches

60Fixed pairings

30 · 30Yang · Yin

Complete index

Find a pair in the cycle

Search by Chinese characters, pinyin, English name, animal, or cycle number. Every result opens a complete deterministic reference.

Showing all 60 pairs

Sequence 01–10甲子 → 癸酉

Sequence 11–20甲戌 → 癸未

Sequence 21–30甲申 → 癸巳

Sequence 31–40甲午 → 癸卯

Sequence 41–50甲辰 → 癸丑

Sequence 51–60甲寅 → 癸亥

Read the structure

A pair has two visible parts—and more beneath.

The stem sits above the branch. The branch also carries a season, a primary element, and one or more hidden stems. Those fields are fixed; their function changes with chart context.

Example · #01甲子Jia · Zi

甲 · Stem: Yang Wood · visible layer
子 · Branch: Rat · mid-winter · Water
Hidden stem: 癸 · Yin Water
Element relation: Water generates Wood

Position changes the job

The same pair is not the same reading.

First locate where the pair appears. Only then compare it with the Day Master, season, Ten Gods, roots, combinations, clashes, and timing layers.

01Year pillar

Broad inherited and social frame

One background layer of the natal chart—not a complete ancestry or childhood verdict.

02Month pillar

Seasonal and structural frame

The branch season has special weight here, while Pattern still requires the complete chart method.

03Day pillar

Day Master and its seat

The stem becomes the Day Master; the branch becomes its seat. That role does not transfer to other positions.

04Hour pillar

Resolved hour layer

This pair is calculated only after timezone, location, solar correction, and hour-boundary rules are resolved.

Build the full picture

Continue with the governing concepts

Questions

Frequently asked

What is the 60 Jiazi cycle?

The Jiazi cycle is the fixed sequence formed as the ten Heavenly Stems and twelve Earthly Branches advance together. It contains sixty valid stem-branch pairs, beginning with 甲子 and ending with 癸亥.

Why are there 60 pairs instead of 120?

Stems and branches alternate yang and yin in step, so only same-polarity pairings occur. The ten-step stem sequence and twelve-step branch sequence return to their starting point together after sixty positions.

Does one Jiazi pair describe a complete personality?

No. A pair identifies deterministic chart data. Its role depends on whether it appears in the year, month, day, hour, luck, or annual layer and on its relationships with the complete chart.

How do I find the Jiazi pairs in my chart?

Generate a Four Pillars chart from your birth date, time, and place. Pillarwise first resolves the recorded moment and true solar time, then calculates the year, month, day, and hour pairs.

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