Geng Zi (庚子) Jiazi Pair Explained: The 37th of 60 Combinations

The Geng Zi Pair (庚子): Jiazi Explained

Geng Zi (庚子) is the 37th of the sixty Jiazi pairs, the stem-branch combinations that structure the entire Chinese calendar, BaZi charts and Qi Men Dun Jia timing alike. In the current cycle its years are 2020 and 2021, followed by its partner pair Xin Chou (辛丑) completing the same nayin group.

If that sounds abstract, think of the sixty pairs as the alphabet of Chinese time. Every year, month, day and hour in these systems is written in one of these sixty combinations, so understanding a pair is understanding the vocabulary the whole system speaks.

Geng Zi Quick Facts

What the Geng Zi Pair Means: An Outflowing Pair

Classical analysis of a stem-branch pair starts with their elements, and here the stem feeds the branch: Metal generates Water. Energy flows outward from the core into the environment, a generous, outward-facing pairing whose classic caution is over-giving.

This relation is why two pairs can both be called auspicious while feeling completely different in a life. The nourishing pairs suggest support arriving from the environment; the commanding pairs suggest the person taking charge of the environment; the disciplining pairs suggest life itself as the teacher. None of the five relations is good or bad. Each is a style of exchange between a person’s core and their ground.

The Two Years of the Earth on the Wall Nayin Group

Geng Zi (庚子) and Xin Chou (辛丑) share the nayin Earth on the Wall (壁上土): plastered wall earth: refined, finished, protective in a cultivated way. People born in 2020 carry the Metal Rat year, and people born in 2021 carry the Metal Ox year. The year-by-year detail, including the Li Chun boundary and the branch interactions, lives on the dedicated year pages, and the full chart method is in the BaZi chart guide.

Year-by-year readings for this pair: BaZi 2020, BaZi 2021.

Because the cycle repeats every sixty years, Geng Zi years also include 1960, 1900, and will return in 2080. The pair is the same; the generations differ, which is a nice reminder that a chart describes energies, not destinities.

Where Jiazi Pairs Appear in Your Chart

Every pillar in your BaZi is a jiazi pair: year, month, day and hour each carry one of these sixty combinations. The day pillar, most important of the four, has a one-in-sixty chance of being Geng Zi, and practitioners meet the pair again in decade luck cycles, annual years and QMDJ charts. If you want to see how the pairs are actually extracted from birth data, the beginner step-by-step guide walks through the whole process in one sitting.

The Rat Branch in Geng Zi

The branch carries the zodiac identity of the pair, here the Rat, and with it the layer people actually feel in daily life. Every Rat year, month, day or hour written with this branch carries the same family of themes: the tendencies, the strengths and the friction points that follow the Rat wherever the pair appears in a chart. Readers who want the full Rat picture, from branch interactions to 2027 timing, will find it in the zodiac and BaZi references on this site.

How to Find Your Own Jiazi Pair

Any BaZi chart lists the four pillars, and each pillar is one of these sixty pairs. Look up the day pillar, which most software and printed charts mark clearly, and the pair name written beside it is the one to study first. The year pillar pair, like the one this page describes when you were born in 2020, is the background layer; the day pair is the core. Both are worth knowing, and both take under a minute to find with the beginner plotting guide.

Geng Zi FAQ

Which years are Geng Zi years?

In the current cycle, 2020 and 2021. Going back: 1960 and 1961, 1900 and 1901. The pair returns every sixty years, and exact year boundaries follow Li Chun, around February 4, not Chinese New Year; the Chinese New Year dates reference has the exact boundaries.

What does it mean if my day pillar is Geng Zi?

Your core self carries the an outflowing pair signature. In element terms, the stem feeds the branch: Metal generates Water. Energy flows outward from the core into the environment, a generous, outward-facing pairing whose classic caution is over-giving. How that plays out in your life depends on the rest of the chart, which is exactly what a full reading addresses.

What is the nayin of Geng Zi?

Earth on the Wall (壁上土), shared with Xin Chou. Nayin is the poetic element nickname attached to each pair, a background texture in classical readings rather than the headline.