CALENDAR AND CONVENTIONS
The sixty-year stem-branch cycle
Ten Heavenly Stems pair in order with twelve Earthly Branches to form sixty year names.
Go deeper: the full reference
The idea in context
Both sequences advance one step each year. They return to their starting pair, Jia-Zi, after sixty combinations. The animal comes from the branch; Yin or Yang and the Five Phase shown here come from the stem.
An example to picture
Jia-Chen (甲辰) is Yang Wood Dragon, while Yi-Si (乙巳) is Yin Wood Snake.
A question to sit with
What changes when you read a year as two coordinated cycles?
Native app reference
The original examples describe Synastry’s date-only native year reader. This web guide does not calculate a placement or a Four Pillars chart.
Keep the calendar convention in view
The website offers these educational readings. Synastry’s native year reader uses a civil date and Lunar New Year; it is separate from a full Four Pillars or BaZi chart. Begin with the convention before comparing year labels.
Sources and conventions
These references identify the calendar or historical method used in this guide. Keep the named convention in view when comparing other traditions.
Hong Kong Observatory — Gregorian–Lunar Calendar Conversion Tables ↗ · Calendar reference covering 1901–2100, including leap months and cautions near midnight boundaries. The Synastry native reader uses its separately disclosed date-only Lunar New Year convention; this website provides the educational guide.
Connect the ideas
Begin with the year, not a full chart
Learn the calendar language used by Synastry’s native Chinese lunar-year reading, with its limits and conventions kept visible.
1 min readThe calendar convention in this guide
A Chinese lunar-year reading from an entered Gregorian calendar date.
1 min readA lunisolar calendar
Chinese calendar months follow lunar phases while the year stays aligned with seasons.
1 min readThe Lunar New Year boundary
This calculator changes the year placement on the first day of the first lunar month.
1 min read