Earthly Branches in Bazi: The Twelve Characters and Their Hidden Stems

一 What it is

What Earthly Branches Are

An Earthly Branch is the lower character of a Bazi pillar. Every pillar pairs one Heavenly Stem above with one branch below, and there are exactly twelve branches in total. Think of a branch as a labelled storage box: the label is short, but the box holds one to three smaller items called hidden stems. For example, 子 (Zi) holds only 癸, while 丑 (Chou) holds 己, 癸 and 辛 in that order. For the underlying framework, see Hidden Stems and Their Weights: what is inside each earthly branch.

This article covers what the twelve branches are, which hidden stems each contains, and how this calculator weights them. It does not cover stems, Ten Gods meanings, or how to judge a chart overall. A branch is not the same as its zodiac animal: the animal is only a familiar label for the branch, not the whole branch. Nor is a branch simply one element; its hidden stems may belong to different elements.

Hidden-stem weights follow this calculator’s list-order convention: 1.0 for the first listed stem, 0.5 for the second, and 0.3 for the third. The Month Branch supplies the engine’s seasonal context, but counting branches alone never establishes strength. Near a solar-term or local-day boundary, exact input matters, and an unknown birth time means no Hour Pillar is invented.

二 Where to find it in your chart

Where Earthly Branches Appear in Your Result

Your Four Pillars chart is a grid of four columns: Year, Month, Day and Hour. Each column has two characters. The upper character is a stem; the lower character is an Earthly Branch. There are exactly twelve branches, and the calculator prints them in the branch row of the result, directly beneath the stems.

Below each branch, the result lists its hidden stems. A branch carries one to three hidden stems, and the calculator shows them in a fixed order with weights of 1.0, 0.5 and 0.3. For example, 子 holds 癸 at 1.0; 丑 holds 己, 癸 and 辛 at 1.0, 0.5 and 0.3. These weights are this calculator’s list-order convention, not a universal rule.

The Day Master is the stem in the Day column. It appears in the five-element totals, but it is excluded only from the weighted Ten-God totals. The star section shows the Ten Gods for visible stems and hidden stems; the Month Branch supplies the engine’s seasonal context. Do not read raw branch counts as strength.

Zodiac animals are traditional labels for branches, not the whole branch. If your birth time is unknown, no Hour Pillar is invented, so the hour branch and its hidden stems are absent. Year and Month use China time; Day and Hour use true solar time. Near a solar-term or local-day boundary, exact input matters.

See these rows in the live Bazi Calculator.

三 How to read it

How to Read Earthly Branches Step by Step

Start with the four pillars your chart produces. Each pillar has an upper stem and a lower Earthly Branch. There are exactly twelve branches, and each one carries one to three hidden stems. Treat the branch as the lower character, not as a zodiac animal. The animal name is only a traditional label for that branch, not the whole branch and not a conclusion about you. The method is easier to compare with Earthly Branch Six Combinations: A Practical Guide to the Six Harmonies in Bazi.

Use the code-generated lookup table for hidden stems. For each branch, read its hidden stems in the listed order. This calculator applies weights of 1.0, 0.5 and 0.3 in that order. That weighting is this calculator’s list-order convention, not a classical rule. A branch with one hidden stem gives that stem full weight; a branch with two or three distributes weight down the list.

Next, note the visible stem of each pillar and its Ten God label. Then note the hidden stems and their Ten God labels. The Day Master is the day stem. It counts in the five-element totals, but it is excluded only from the weighted Ten-God totals. Do not treat a high raw count as proof of strength. Branch count alone does not establish strength either.

The Month Branch provides the engine’s seasonal context. Read it as context, not as an automatic verdict. Traditional associations attached to branches should be called traditional and kept within their stated bounds.

Follow this repeatable procedure:

• List the four pillars in order: year, month, day, hour.
• For each branch, copy the hidden stems from the lookup table in order.
• Apply the 1.0, 0.5 and 0.3 weights in that same order.
• Record the visible stem’s Ten God and each hidden stem’s Ten God.
• Check the five-element totals, remembering the Day Master is included there.
• Check the weighted Ten-God totals, where the Day Master is excluded.
• Note the Month Branch as seasonal context.

What you can observe: which branches appear, which hidden stems they contain, the listed order, the weights, the visible Ten Gods, the hidden Ten Gods, the five-element totals and the weighted Ten-God totals. What you cannot conclude from this procedure alone: strength, personality, career, relationships, health or future events. Those require rules this calculator does not supply.

Calendar boundaries matter. Year and Month use China time; Day and Hour use true solar time. Near a solar-term or local-day boundary, exact input matters. If the hour is unknown, no Hour Pillar is invented. For a worked example, see the Earthly Branches example charts.

四 When the reading changes

When a Branch’s Hidden Stems Sit in Different Pillars

A branch is the lower character of a pillar, and each of the twelve Earthly Branches carries one to three hidden stems. The calculator lists those hidden stems in a fixed order and applies weights of 1.0, 0.5 and 0.3 to that order. A concrete check is to open the hidden-stem list for each branch and note whether the same hidden stem appears in the year, month, day or hour pillar. Placement matters because a hidden stem in the month branch is read within the engine’s seasonal context, while the same hidden stem in a year branch is not. The limited significance is that repeated hidden stems show where the chart’s information clusters; they do not by themselves prove a strong or weak Day Master, and raw counts should not be treated as strength. This point connects directly with Zi (子) Earthly Branch: the Rat, Yang Water, and What It Means in Your Bazi Chart.

Reading the Month Branch as Seasonal Context

The month branch supplies the engine’s seasonal context, so it deserves a separate look before you compare anything else. A practical check is to identify the month branch, then list its hidden stems in the given order and weights, and finally compare that list with the hidden stems in the other three branches. If the month branch’s first hidden stem also appears elsewhere, the chart repeats that information across positions. If it appears nowhere else, the month context stands more alone. The limited significance is contextual: the month branch frames how other branches are read in this calculator, but branch count alone cannot establish strength, and traditional associations attached to a branch should be called traditional and kept within that boundary.

Repeated and Absent Hidden Stems

Beginners often notice a hidden stem that appears many times and assume it dominates the chart. A better check is to separate visible stems from hidden stems, then note which hidden stems are repeated and which are absent. The visible Day Master counts in the five-element totals, but it is excluded only from the article’s weighted Ten-God totals, so the two summaries answer different questions. A repeated hidden stem raises the weighted total for its Ten God; an absent one leaves a zero. The limited significance is distribution, not destiny: repetition shows emphasis in the engine’s accounting, while absence shows only that the listed positions do not supply that hidden stem.

Unknown Hour and Boundary Cases

When the birth time is unknown, no Hour Pillar is invented, which removes one branch and its hidden stems from every count. A concrete check is to confirm whether the hour is known before reading any hour-branch hidden stems, then compare the remaining three pillars only. Near a solar-term or local-day boundary, exact input matters: year and month use China time, while day and hour use true solar time, so a small input change can move a pillar. The limited significance is that an unknown hour narrows the chart’s visible information without filling the gap, and a boundary case should be treated as uncertain rather than resolved by assumption.

五 Worked chart examples

These teaching charts were screened by the site’s current calendar engine. They are not people or client stories. Tables and totals are generated from the engine; the prose only explains what is shown.

Chart A: Reading the Visible Pillars and Hidden Stems

Chart A has four pillars: 甲子 (year), 丙子 (month), 甲申 (day) and 乙丑 (hour). The lower character of each pillar is an Earthly Branch. There are exactly twelve branches, and each carries one to three hidden stems. This calculator lists those hidden stems in a fixed order and weights them 1.0, 0.5 and 0.3 in that order.

The year branch 子 hides 癸 only, so 癸 receives the full 1.0 weight. The month branch 子 is identical, adding another 1.0 to 癸. The day branch 申 hides 庚, 壬 and 戊: 庚 takes 1.0, 壬 takes 0.5 and 戊 takes 0.3. The hour branch 丑 hides 己, 癸 and 辛: 己 takes 1.0, 癸 takes 0.5 and 辛 takes 0.3.

Now trace the visible stems. The year stem 甲 and day stem 甲 are both Friend; the month stem 丙 is Eating God; the hour stem 乙 is Rob Wealth. The day stem is the Day Master, so it is excluded only from the weighted Ten-God totals, not from the five-element totals.

Combining visible and hidden cells gives the supplied five-element totals: wood 3, fire 1, earth 1.3, metal 1.3 and water 3. The supplied Ten-God totals are Friend 1, Rob Wealth 1, Eating God 1, Hurting Officer 0, Indirect Wealth 0.3, Direct Wealth 1, Seven Killings 1, Direct Officer 0.3, Indirect Resource 0.5 and Direct Resource 2.5.

These figures describe Chart A’s cells and weights. They are not a strength verdict, and branch count alone should not be read as strength. The month branch supplies seasonal context, while the zodiac animal is only a label for the branch, not the whole branch.

Reading Chart B Cell by Cell

Chart B has the pillars 乙丑, 壬午, 甲午 and 戊辰. Its Day Master is 甲, the stem of the day pillar. The year stem 乙 is Rob Wealth; the month stem 壬 is Indirect Resource; the hour stem 戊 is Indirect Wealth.

Each branch carries hidden stems. 丑 holds 己, 癸 and 辛, weighted 1.0, 0.5 and 0.3 in list order. These become Direct Wealth, Direct Resource and Direct Officer. 午 holds 丁 and 己, giving Hurting Officer and Direct Wealth in both the month and day branches. 辰 holds 戊, 乙 and 癸, giving Indirect Wealth, Rob Wealth and Direct Resource.

Those cells produce the weighted Ten-God totals: Rob Wealth 1.5, Hurting Officer 2, Indirect Wealth 2, Direct Wealth 2, Direct Officer 0.3, Indirect Resource 1 and Direct Resource 0.8. Friend, Eating God and Seven Killings are each 0. The visible Day Master is counted in the five-element totals but excluded from these weighted Ten-God totals.

The five-element totals are wood 2.5, fire 2, earth 4, metal 0.3 and water 1.8. Earth is largest, but raw totals are not a strength verdict.

A Brief Contrast with Chart A

Chart A, 甲子 / 丙子 / 甲申 / 乙丑, shares the 甲 Day Master and the 丑 branch, yet its totals differ: wood 3, fire 1, earth 1.3, metal 1.3 and water 3. Its Ten-God profile also differs, with Direct Resource 2.5 and no Hurting Officer, while Chart B has Hurting Officer 2 and Direct Resource 0.8.

Practical observation: pick one branch, list its hidden stems in order, apply 1.0, 0.5 and 0.3, then compare the resulting totals with another chart. This traces where each number comes from.

六 Base-rate boundary

The full enumeration used by this site contains 518,400 valid Four Pillars combinations: 60 year pillars × 12 solar-month slots × 60 day pillars × 12 hour slots. The subject of this article is a structural layer of the chart rather than one narrowly defined configuration, so attaching a single occurrence percentage would be misleading.

Whenever a later article gives a percentage, read it as an equal-weight combination-space proportion, not a percentage of people or birth records. Define the exact condition first, then count it.