| Day pillar | 己丑 (ji chou) |
|---|---|
| Heavenly stem | 己 (ji) |
| Earthly branch | 丑 (chou) |
| Day element | Earth 土 (tu) |
| Polarity | Yin |
| Month pillar | 辛丑 (xin chou), governed by 小寒 (xiaohan) |
Today's day pillar is 己丑 (ji chou), a yin Earth day in the sixty-day cycle. The month pillar is 辛丑 (xin chou), governed by the term 小寒 (xiaohan).
己 is yin Earth: the field rather than the mountain, soil that has been worked and is meant to grow something.
Sixth of the stems and Earth in its yin form, 己 is garden soil, the flat cultivated ground. Where 戊 (wu) holds a shape, 己 receives and nourishes, and classical writing gives it the qualities of a good medium rather than a good barrier.
Because it is yin it pairs only with yin branches, giving 己丑 (ji chou), 己巳 (ji si), 己亥 (ji hai) and the rest. 己 is the main hidden stem of 丑 (chou) and 未 (wei), the two earth branches that sit at the seams of winter and summer.
A 己 day reads Earth and yin on the page. Earth days are the ones readers most often find quiet, which the tradition treats as a tempo, a settling pace, not as nothing happening.