丁丑 ding chou

丁 above, 丑 below

The stem generates the branch: Fire produces Earth. The upper half of the pillar feeds the lower half, so the visible stem is spending itself on what it sits above.

Where 丁丑 sits in the five elements

Wood does not appear anywhere in this pillar.

Earth leads at 40.7%, then fire at 37.0%.

What is buried inside 丑

丑 hides 3 stems. The primary is 己 (Earth), what the stem produces; behind it sit 癸 (Water, what restrains the stem) and 辛 (Metal, what the stem restrains).

丁 meeting 丑: the 墓 stage

The twelve stages (十二長生): yang stems run forward, yin stems backward.

丁 meets 丑 at the 墓 stage — tomb.

丑 against 未, with 子

Opposite across the cycle (六沖), and paired with (六合):

Clashes with

未 (Goat) — 辛未

Combines with

子 (Rat) — 甲子

Nayin: 涧下水

Nayin (納音) groups the cycle in pairs, each with an image. This one shares its image with 丙子: 涧下水, “water in the ravine.”

How 丁丑 is conventionally read

丁 is a flame held in the hand: smaller than 丙, more deliberate, warmer at close range. 丑 is the last stretch of winter, storing what is not yet ready.

A fire-element day master on a earth footing — one of eight characters, which colours a chart and does not fix the person.

When the next 丁丑 days fall

The sixty-cycle repeats every sixty days, so this pillar returns roughly every two months. The next one is 29 December 2026 (Tuesday). Each is calculated at midday Beijing time; a birth in the hour before midnight can still belong to the previous 丁丑 day, because the day rolls at 23:00 true solar time.

Showing up to eight of the 6 occurrences in the next twelve months, from 2026-10-31.

丁 on six different footings

Six pillars carry this stem. It is the same day master every time, so everything that differs below is caused by the branch underneath it:

Here the footing is Earth — what the stem produces. The other five branches this stem sits on are 卯 (Wood), 亥 (Water), 酉 (Metal), 未 (Earth), 巳 (Fire).