Hidden Stems (藏干)
The stems inside the branches.
In short
Hidden stems (藏干, cáng gān) are the one to three heavenly stems stored inside each earthly branch. A branch is not a single element: 子 holds only 癸, while 寅 holds 甲, 丙, and 戊, which is how a chart carries more information than its eight visible characters.
| Characters | 藏干 · 人元 |
|---|---|
| Pinyin | cáng gān |
| Group | Building the chart |
The first stem in each branch is the branch's own element and is called the principal stem. It carries the most weight. The stems after it are weaker, and the classical names for them translate roughly as the middle and residual qi, which is a fair description of how much they count.
The covered branches are where this matters most. 子, 卯, 酉, and 亥 hold a single stem each. 午 and 亥 hold two. The remaining six hold three, and those three often belong to three different elements, so a chart that looks short of metal may have plenty of it sitting inside branches that show no metal on the surface.
Stems are what the ten gods are counted from, so hidden stems are what let the ten gods be read for the branch positions at all. Without them a reading could only name the relationships in the four visible stems and would miss the year, month, and hour branches entirely.
Two practical consequences follow. A chart's element balance read from the eight visible characters is a rough sketch, and every serious calculator will count hidden stems as well. And an element that appears to be missing frequently is not missing at all, it is just not on the surface.
What each branch hides
The first stem listed is the branch's own element and carries the most weight. The ones after it are weaker and are what make a chart richer than its eight visible characters.
| 子 zǐ | 癸 (principal) |
| 丑 chǒu | 己 (principal) · 癸 · 辛 |
| 寅 yín | 甲 (principal) · 丙 · 戊 |
| 卯 mǎo | 乙 (principal) |
| 辰 chén | 戊 (principal) · 乙 · 癸 |
| 巳 sì | 丙 (principal) · 庚 · 戊 |
| 午 wǔ | 丁 (principal) · 己 |
| 未 wèi | 己 (principal) · 丁 · 乙 |
| 申 shēn | 庚 (principal) · 壬 · 戊 |
| 酉 yǒu | 辛 (principal) |
| 戌 xū | 戊 (principal) · 辛 · 丁 |
| 亥 hài | 壬 (principal) · 甲 |
Definitions get you through a chart. Something has to be done with it.
The audit walks the nine areas of a home in the order that matters, with two or three changes per area. It is the practical half of what these terms describe.
Questions people ask about this term
Do hidden stems count as real characters in the chart?
Yes, with less weight than visible ones. They are what the ten gods are counted from for the branch positions, and any element count worth trusting includes them. A reading that only uses the eight visible characters will misjudge the balance.
Which hidden stem matters most?
The first one listed for the branch, called the principal stem. It is the branch's own element and it carries the bulk of the branch's influence. The others are real but secondary, and most schools weight the principal stem several times higher.
Why does 子 hide only one stem while 巳 hides three?
Because the branches correspond to months, and months differ in how many phases they carry. The four cardinal branches, 子 卯 酉 午-adjacent, sit at peaks where one element dominates. The branches near the transitions between seasons hold the outgoing element, the incoming one, and the residual.
This page has no affiliate links and nothing to sell. The tables here are fixed by the tradition and you can check any of them against a printed almanac. What a chart means for a person is a reading of that tradition, not a finding, so treat it as a way to think about a situation rather than a prediction.