己丑 ji chou

己 above, 丑 below

The stem and the branch carry the same element (Earth), which is the most single-minded pairing in the cycle. Nothing here pulls in two directions.

Where 己丑 sits in the five elements

Wood and Fire do not appear anywhere in this pillar.

Earth leads at 77.8%, then metal at 11.1%.

What is buried inside 丑

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

己 meeting 丑: the 墓 stage

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

己 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: 霹雳火

Nayin (納音) groups the cycle in pairs, each with an image. This one shares its image with 戊子: 霹雳火, “fire of the thunderbolt.”

How 己丑 is conventionally read

己 is cultivated soil: earth that is worked, turned, and made to grow things. 丑 is the last stretch of winter, storing what is not yet ready.

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

When the next 己丑 days fall

The sixty-cycle repeats every sixty days, so this pillar returns roughly every two months. The next one is 11 November 2026 (Wednesday). Each is calculated at midday Beijing time; a birth in the hour before midnight can still belong to the previous 己丑 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.

己 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 — the same element as the stem. The other five branches this stem sits on are 巳 (Fire), 卯 (Wood), 亥 (Water), 酉 (Metal), 未 (Earth).