Stem and Branch Reference: 22 Symbols and a Worked Element Count
Look up each symbol, Korean reading and primary element, then count the characters in Bing-Zi and Wu-Wu without guessing from a chart’s percentages.
Lucky By Birthday · Content revised 2026-11-02
Your task: identify one unfamiliar chart character and find the single element label it adds to a visible-character count.
Split the pair first
Arrange the pillars as Year, Month, Day and Hour. The first character of each pair is a stem; the second is a branch. Look them up separately so similar shapes such as 午 and 戊 do not get confused. The Korean column gives Korean readings; the English column uses Mandarin pinyin.
Look up one character at a time
| Symbol | Korean | Pinyin | Primary element | Polarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 甲 | 갑 | Jia | Wood | Yang |
| 乙 | 을 | Yi | Wood | Yin |
| 丙 | 병 | Bing | Fire | Yang |
| 丁 | 정 | Ding | Fire | Yin |
| 戊 | 무 | Wu | Earth | Yang |
| 己 | 기 | Ji | Earth | Yin |
| 庚 | 경 | Geng | Metal | Yang |
| 辛 | 신 | Xin | Metal | Yin |
| 壬 | 임 | Ren | Water | Yang |
| 癸 | 계 | Gui | Water | Yin |
| Symbol | Korean | Pinyin | Primary element | Polarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 子 | 자 | Zi | Water | Yang |
| 丑 | 축 | Chou | Earth | Yin |
| 寅 | 인 | Yin | Wood | Yang |
| 卯 | 묘 | Mao | Wood | Yin |
| 辰 | 진 | Chen | Earth | Yang |
| 巳 | 사 | Si | Fire | Yin |
| 午 | 오 | Wu | Fire | Yang |
| 未 | 미 | Wei | Earth | Yin |
| 申 | 신 | Shen | Metal | Yang |
| 酉 | 유 | You | Metal | Yin |
| 戌 | 술 | Xu | Earth | Yang |
| 亥 | 해 | Hai | Water | Yin |
Count just two pillars
Split 丙子 · 戊午 using the tables: 丙 is Fire, 子 Water, 戊 Earth and 午 Fire. The totals are Wood 0, Fire 2, Earth 1, Metal 0 and Water 1, out of four characters. Fire is 50% of this partial count; it is not yet the full chart distribution. You also need to know which pair is the Day Pillar before identifying a Day Master.
What to check when a count is zero
Check for an omitted pillar and count repeated characters each time they appear. An unknown-hour chart has six visible characters; a known-hour chart has eight. This table assigns one primary element to each branch. A method that splits branches into hidden stems changes the denominator, so compare the counting rules before comparing percentages.
The next symbol is not a date conversion
Use this reference to identify names, order and element labels. The cycle workshop shows the sixty pairs and how to move between them. Assigning a pair to a calendar date also requires a reference date and boundary rules.
Sources and reproducibility
The HKO stem/branch lists and Table 2 support the symbol order. Primary elements here are this site’s visible-count labels, not measured personal traits.
HKO: Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches · Site calculation conventions