Heavenly Stem of the Year Pillar

Heavenly Stem of the Year Pillar

S/N	Heavenly Stem of Year	Notation	Chinese Pinyin	Simplified Chinese	Yin/Yang (阴阳)	Five Elements (五行)	Cycle Direction of Male	Cycle Direction of Female
1	Jia	HS1	jiǎ	甲	Yang	Wood	Forward	Reverse
2	Yi	HS2	yǐ	乙	Yin	Wood	Reverse	Forward
3	Bing	HS3	bǐng	丙	Yang	Fire	Forward	Reverse
4	Ding	HS4	dīng	丁	Yin	Fire	Reverse	Forward
5	Wu	HS5	wù	戊	Yang	Earth	Forward	Reverse
6	Ji	HS6	jǐ	己	Yin	Earth	Reverse	Forward
7	Geng	HS7	gēng	庚	Yang	Metal	Forward	Reverse
8	Xin	HS8	xīn	辛	Yin	Metal	Reverse	Forward
9	Ren	HS9	rén	壬	Yang	Water	Forward	Reverse
10	Gui	HS10	guǐ	癸	Yin	Water	Reverse	Forward

Earthly Branch of the Month Pillar

There are 12 Earthly Branches as follows:

S/N	Time (时辰)	Notation	Chinese Pinyin	Earthly Branch in Simplified Chinese (地支)	12 Animal Mnemonics (十二支)	Yin/Yang (阴阳)	Five Elements (五行)
1	11pm - 1am	EB1	zǐ	子	Rat	Yang	Water
2	1am - 3am	EB2	chǒu	丑	Ox	Yin	Earth
3	3am - 5am	EB3	yín	寅	Tiger	Yang	Wood
4	5am - 7am	EB4	mǎo	卯	Rabbit	Yin	Wood
5	7am - 9am	EB5	chén	辰	Dragon	Yang	Earth
6	9am - 11am	EB6	sì	巳	Snake	Yin	Fire
7	11am - 1pm	EB7	wǔ	午	Horse	Yang	Fire
8	1pm - 3pm	EB8	wèi	未	Goat	Yin	Earth
9	3pm - 5pm	EB9	shēn	申	Monkey	Yang	Metal
10	5pm - 7pm	EB10	yǒu	酉	Rooster	Yin	Metal
11	7pm -9pm	EB11	xū	戌	Dog	Yang	Earth
12	9pm - 11pm	EB12	hài	亥	Pig	Yin	Water

Using the Monthly Pillar of a Ba Zi chart, the first luck pillar will be the next Stem & Branch of the above charts, in either the forward or reverse cycle.

For example, a male born in a Yang year (or a female born in a Yin year) will follow the forward cycle, and if his Month Pillar is HS8 and EB6, then his first Luck Pillar will be HS9 and EB7.

Similarly, if a female is born in a Yang year (or a male born in a Yin year), her luck will follow the reverse cycle, and her first Luck Pillar will be HS7 and EB5, if her Monthly Pillar is HS8 and EB6.

Starting Age of the First Luck Pillar

Each Luck Pillar lasts 10 years. The first five years are covered by a Heavenly Stem, and the next five years by an Earthly Branch, and this is repeated for each subsequent Luck Pillar. The starting age of the Luck Pillar is based on the date of birth in the Hsia Calendar. The following variables are used to derive the Luck Pillar:

1. The gender of the person
2. The Yin or Yang of the Heavenly Stem of the year of birth
3. The Monthly Pillar of the Ba Zi of the person
4. The number of days to the preceding or following Hsia Season, from the date of birth

There are two possibilities, (A) and (B), as given below:
(A)
For a male born in a Yang year (that is, the Heavenly Stem of the Year Pillar is Yang), the method is to look up his date of birth in the Hsia Calendar, count forward, and obtain the number of days from his date of birth to the next Hsia Season, where Early Spring is represented by 1, Mid Spring by 2,
Late Spring by 3, ... etc. For example, if Joe is born on 28th August 2000 (where the Monthly Pillar is HS1 and EB9), then the first day of the following Hsia Season is 7th Sep 2000, and the number of days is 10.

The starting age will be 10 divided by 3, rounded to the nearest integer, which is 3. The Heavenly Stem of Joe's first five years will be from 3 to 7, and the Earthly Branch of his next five years will be from age 8 to age 12. The Luck Cycle or Luck Pillar is plotted from right to left, as the age increases, beginning from the next (in increasing order) Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch of his Monthly Pillar.

The above calculation also applies for a female born in a Yin year.

The Luck Cycle : H2-E10, Age 3, Forward

73-77	63-67	53-57	43-47	33-37	23-27	13-17	3-7	Age
HS9	HS8	HS7	HS6	HS5	HS4	HS3	HS2	Heavenly Stem
78-82	68-72	58-62	48-52	38-42	28-32	18-22	8-12	Age
EB5	EB4	EB3	EB2	EB1	EB12	EB11	EB10	Earthly Branch

(B)
However, for a male born in a Yin year, or a female born in a Yang year, the counting is in a backward sequence. The counting starts from the date of birth backwards to the preceding Hsia Season. For example, if Joe is born in a Yin year, the counting will start from 28th August 2000 backwards to 6th August 2000, giving a total of 22 days. In this case, the starting age will be 22 divided by 3, which is 7 (rounded to the nearest integer). The Heavenly Stem of Joe's first five years will be from 7 to 11, and the Earthly Branch of his next five years will be from age 12 to age 16.
The Luck Cycle or Luck Pillar is plotted from right to left, as the age increases, beginning from the next (in decreasing order, since Joe is a male born in a Yin year) Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch of his Monthly Pillar.

The Luck Cycle : H10-E8, Age 7, Reverse

77-81	67-71	57-61	47-51	37-41	27-31	17-21	7-11	Age
HS3	HS4	HS5	HS6	HS7	HS8	HS9	HS10	Heavenly Stem
82-86	72-76	62-66	52-56	42-46	32-36	22-26	12-16	Age
EB1	EB2	EB3	EB4	EB5	EB6	EB7	EB8	Earthly Branch