Wood Rat
Jiǎ Zǐ, yang
- Stem
- 甲 wood, yang
- Branch
- 子 rat
- 納音
- 海中金 Gold in the Sea
- Years
- 1924, 1984, 2044
Each listed year runs from its boundary to the next one, and it depends on the convention. Early dates in the calendar year can belong to the year before.
About this year
甲子 comes first among the sixty stem-branch pairs, so the count of years starts here and returns here. The stem 甲 is yang wood and the branch 子, the Rat, is water. In the generating cycle water feeds wood, which means the branch nourishes the stem in this pairing. The years 1984 and 2044 carry it.
Its 納音 name is Gold in the Sea, and metal appears nowhere in the stem or the branch. That gap is normal, because a 納音 marks a place in the cycle and need not repeat either element. The Ming handbook Sanming Tonghui glosses this gold as energy held in store, with a name and no form yet, like a person still in the mother's womb.
Where this text comes from
The 納音 name follows the Wikisource text of 三命通會, volume 1, the only witness we found for the full set of names. The polarity of the stems and branches and the generating and overcoming cycles follow 五行大義 volume 2.
- 三命通會 卷一 (Wikisource 三命通會/卷一, SIMPLIFIED script as stored on Wikisource)
Retrieved 2026-11-09
- 五行大義 卷二 (Wikisource 五行大義/2, traditional script)
Retrieved 2026-11-09
The English here is our own plain wording, not a translation of a single source.