Hidden Stems (Jijanggan): Stems Hidden Inside the Branches

What are hidden stems?

The term hidden stems (지장간, 地藏干) means "heavenly stems hidden inside the earthly branches." Tradition reads the forces hidden in a branch as showing up as traits that are less visible on the surface. A stem is one character and one force, but a branch stands for a season and a time, so it is seen as a mixture of several forces. The Tiger month 寅 인 is early spring, so it is said to hold the earth force of the end of winter, the fire force of the coming summer, and the wood force that is just beginning to grow.

In the order they are held, hidden stems are called residual qi (餘氣, 여기), middle qi (中氣, 중기) and main qi (正氣, 정기). Residual qi is the force left over from the previous season, middle qi is the force mixed in between, and main qi is the original force that represents the branch. When Halmeoni has to read a branch as a single character (for example, when deciding a branch's Ten God), it uses the main qi.

The hidden stems of the twelve branches

This table gives the hidden stems that Halmeoni uses in its calculations, exactly as they are. 子 자, 卯 묘 and 酉 유 have no middle qi, so they hold only two characters.

Patterns you can see in the table

Going down the table in order, a few patterns appear. First, the residual qi is usually the same as the main qi of the branch just before. The residual qi 甲 갑 (Yang Wood) of 卯 is the main qi of 寅, and the residual qi 丙 병 (Yang Fire) of 午 is the main qi of 巳. Ten of the twelve branches link up this way; only 寅 and 申 put 戊 무 (Yang Earth), the same earth element, as the residual qi instead of 己 기 (Yin Earth), the main qi of the branch before (丑 and 未).

The branches that begin a season, 寅, 巳, 申 and 亥, all have 戊 as the residual qi. The branches that end a season, 辰, 戌, 丑 and 未, have earth (戊 or 己) as the main qi, and each holds in its middle qi the force that gathers in a triple combination (삼합). 申子辰 gathers into water, so 辰 holds 癸 계 (Yin Water); 寅午戌 gathers into fire, so 戌 holds 丁 정 (Yin Fire); 巳酉丑 gathers into metal, so 丑 holds 辛 신 (Yin Metal); and 亥卯未 gathers into wood, so 未 holds 乙 을 (Yin Wood). 子, 卯 and 酉, in the very middle of a season, hold only two stems of the same element, and are regarded as the purest positions. Only 午, which is also in the middle of a season, has 己 sitting between 丙 and 丁.

Emergence and rooting

Emergence (투출, 透出) is when a character concealed in the hidden stems also appears as the same character among the chart's heavenly stems. It is regarded as using its force more openly than when it stays only inside the branch. For example, if you were born in a 寅 month and there is a 丙 병 among the stems, the middle qi 丙 of 寅 is said to have emerged.

Rooting (통근, 通根) goes the other way. When a heavenly stem meets the same element inside a branch, it is said to have taken root. For a 庚 경 (Yang Metal) Day Master (일간), it is said to be rooted when 庚 or 辛 is among the hidden stems somewhere in the branches, and a stem with a root is regarded as having strength. If emergence is "what rises from the branch to the stem," rooting is "the roots a stem sends down into the branch."

How Halmeoni reads it: Structure

Structure (격국) is decided by the month branch (월지), the branch of the birth month. First, if the month branch is the Day Master's prosperity position (녹), Halmeoni sets a Prosperity structure (건록격); if it is the Blade (양인), a Blade structure (양인격). For example, a 辛 Day Master born in a 酉 month has a Prosperity structure, and a 丙 Day Master born in a 午 month has a Blade structure. Halmeoni's standard is that the Blade is assigned only to yang stems (甲, 丙, 戊, 庚, 壬). Otherwise, Halmeoni goes through the hidden stems of the month branch in the order main qi, middle qi, residual qi, and looks for the same character among the year stem (연간), month stem (월간) and hour stem (시간), that is, whether it has emerged. The structure is named by which Ten God the first character found is to the Day Master, and if none of the hidden characters has emerged, it is decided by the main qi. The Day Master is "you," so it is not counted when looking for emergence.

So even for people born in the same 寅 month, the structure differs by what is among the stems. If the main qi 甲 is among the stems, the structure is set by 甲; if there is no 甲 but there is 丙, by 丙; if neither but there is 戊, by 戊. If 戊 is the same character as the Day Master, it becomes a Friend structure (비견격). As another example, take a 乙 Day Master born in a 午 month. The hidden stems of 午 are 丙, 己 and 丁, and the main qi is 丁. Halmeoni looks for them in the year, month and hour stems in the order main qi 丁, then 己, then 丙. If only 丙 is there, it is a Hurting Officer structure (상관격); if 丁 is there, an Eating God structure (식신격); if there is no 丁 but there is 己, an Indirect Wealth structure (편재격); and if there is nothing, it follows the main qi 丁 and is an Eating God structure. In this way the hidden stems are the gateway that decides the structure.

How Halmeoni reads it: the strength of the Day Master

To measure the strength of the Day Master, Halmeoni counts each branch by its main qi alone. The month branch is given 30, the day and hour branches 15 each, the year branch 10, and each stem 10; Halmeoni then looks at how much of the total comes from the characters that help the Day Master (Companions (비겁) and Resource (인성)). Gaining the season (득령, the season of birth backs you) and gaining the ground (득지, the ground under your feet, the bottom character of your birth day, backs you) are also judged by the main qi of the month branch and the day branch.

Residual qi and middle qi do not enter the strength score. There is also a method that divides weight among each hidden stem by days or proportions and scores the depth of rooting, but Halmeoni counts only the main qi, as in the commonly used calculation. So a root that exists only in residual or middle qi does not change the strength score. The standards for dividing the weight of hidden stems differ among schools, and on this point the strength judgement can differ from other sources.

How Halmeoni reads it: Ten Gods and interpretation

• A branch's Ten God is set by its main qi. The Ten God written in the branch row of the saju card is exactly the Ten God of the main qi.
• A Ten God that exists only in residual or middle qi is noted separately as "hidden only among the hidden stems," and is passed to the interpretation with less weight than a revealed Ten God. Here "revealed" means appearing in a stem or in the main qi of a branch, while "emergence" earlier means a hidden stem of the month branch appearing in a stem.
• Patterns such as Eating God restrains the Seven Killings (식신제살), Hurting Officer restrains the Seven Killings (상관제살), pressure turned into support through Resource (살인상생) and the patterns of absence (무) such as no wealth star (무재) are checked down to the hidden stems, and if a needed character is only among the hidden stems, "only among the hidden stems" is added.
• The partner star (배우자성) is also counted separately: the number revealed and the number among the hidden stems.
• The count of the five elements leaves out the hidden stems and uses the eight characters that appear on the surface.

Example: a chart whose Direct Officer structure comes from the middle qi

The chart of someone born in Seoul at 2:30 pm (14:30) on 16 February 1986 has the year pillar 丙寅 병인, the month pillar 庚寅 경인, the day pillar 辛卯 신묘 and the hour pillar 乙未 을미. The Day Master is 辛 신, metal like a jewel or a blade. Ipchun has passed, so the birth month is the 寅 month.

Start with the structure. The month branch 寅 is neither the prosperity position nor the Blade of 辛, so Halmeoni looks for emergence among the hidden stems. The main qi 甲 is not among the stems (丙, 庚, 乙), and the middle qi 丙 is in the year stem. So the structure is set by 丙, and since 丙 is the Direct Officer to 辛, it is a Direct Officer structure (정관격). Had Halmeoni looked only at the main qi of the month branch without checking the hidden stems, this chart would have been a Direct Wealth structure (정재격).

The strength is counted by the main qi alone. The main qi 甲 of the month branch 寅 is Wealth (재성) to 辛, so the chart does not gain the season, and the main qi 乙 of the day branch 卯 is also Wealth, so it does not gain the ground. Only the stem 庚 (Rob Wealth) and the main qi 己 (Indirect Resource) of the hour branch 未 help the Day Master, so by Halmeoni's calculation the Day Master is weak (신약). Direct Resource 戊 is hidden in both 寅 branches, but as residual qi it does not enter the strength count, and in the interpretation it is passed on as a low-weight fact: "Direct Resource is hidden only in the hidden stems of the year and month branches."

Rooting can also be checked. The hidden stems of the four branches are 戊·丙·甲, 戊·丙·甲, 甲·乙 and 丁·乙·己, and there is not a single metal (庚 or 辛), the same element as 辛. By any school's standard, the Day Master 辛 has not taken root in the branches, which points the same way as Halmeoni's calculation judging it weak.

Where schools differ

• The makeup of 子, 卯 and 酉: some books give 子 both 壬 and 癸, 卯 both 甲 and 乙, and 酉 both 庚 and 辛, while others give only the main qi (癸, 乙, 辛). Halmeoni uses two characters.
• 午 and 亥: some books leave 己 out of 午, or 戊 out of 亥. Halmeoni uses 丙·己·丁 for 午 and 戊·甲·壬 for 亥.
• Dividing by days (月律分野, the monthly division): there is a tradition of dividing a month into some days of residual qi, some days of middle qi and the rest main qi, and the number of days differs slightly from book to book. Halmeoni does not divide by days.
• The commanding stem (司令, 사령): there is also a method that picks the one hidden stem in charge of that month, according to how many days into the solar term the birth falls, and uses it for the structure or strength. Halmeoni does not pick a commanding stem separately, and sets the structure by the emergence order above.

Because of these differences, another manseryeok or consultation may give a different structure or strength. Neither is simply right or wrong; the standards differ, so it matters to read consistently by one standard.