甲寅 jia yin

甲 above, 寅 below

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

Where 甲寅 sits in the five elements

Metal and Water do not appear anywhere in this pillar.

Wood leads at 77.8%, then fire at 11.1%.

What is buried inside 寅

寅 hides 3 stems. The primary is 甲 (Wood), the same element as the stem; behind it sit 丙 (Fire, what the stem produces) and 戊 (Earth, what the stem restrains).

甲 meeting 寅: the 臨官 stage

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

甲 meets 寅 at the 臨官 stage — office.

寅 against 申, with 亥

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

Clashes with

申 (Monkey) — 壬申

Combines with

亥 (Pig) — 乙亥

Nayin: 大溪水

Nayin (納音) groups the cycle in pairs, each with an image. This one shares its image with 乙卯: 大溪水, “water of the great stream.”

How 甲寅 is conventionally read

甲 is the first stem: upright, forward, the trunk of a tree rather than its branches. 寅 is the first month, the push that begins the year.

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

When the next 甲寅 days fall

The sixty-cycle repeats every sixty days, so this pillar returns roughly every two months. The next one is 6 December 2026 (Sunday). Each is calculated at midday Beijing time; a birth in the hour before midnight can still belong to the previous 甲寅 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.

甲 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 Wood — the same element as the stem. The other five branches this stem sits on are 子 (Water), 戌 (Earth), 申 (Metal), 午 (Fire), 辰 (Earth).