Brief Introduction to the Relationship of Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches.
The heavenly stems and earthly branches, abbreviated as 'gan zhi,' are used in the Xia calendar to arrange year names and dates.
There are ten heavenly stems: Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, and Gui.
There are twelve earthly branches: Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu, and Hai. These ten heavenly stems and twelve earthly branches are combined in sequence to form sixty basic units, which were used by ancient people to represent years.
What is the relationship of Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches?
Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches are symbols used in ancient times to record years, months, days, and hours.
Heavenly Stems represent the backbone of the heavens, symbolizing initiative and are a simplified form of the word 'gan.'
Earthly Branches represent support and stability, symbolizing branches, and are a simplified form of the word 'zhi.'
The relationship of Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches refers to the mutual interactions between the Five Elements associated with them.
There are 8 different ways in which the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches interact: generative, control, combination, clash, punishment, harm, destruction, and transformation.