These are not separate clocks — they are one wheel turning inside another. The year sets the theme of the season of your life-year; the solar term (~15 days) is the body's true mid-rhythm — the real "week" runs on the sun, not seven days; the day carries today's character; the hour is the moment you act. Read outward for theme, inward for timing.
The Twelve Hours · 十二時辰
Each branch holds two hours and its own quality. The lit one is now — the others tell you when the day leans toward beginning, peak, retreat, or rest.
萬年曆Wàn nián lì — the Ten-Thousand-Year Calendar. A perpetual almanac mapping every day to its energetic signature.今日 / 命Jīn rì "this day" · Mìng "life / the chart one is born into."天干Heavenly Stems — ten signatures (甲乙丙丁戊己庚辛壬癸), the five elements in their yang and yin forms. The visible character of a pillar.地支Earthly Branches — twelve (子丑寅卯辰巳午未申酉戌亥), the year-animals and the carriers of season and hour.五行Five Elements — Wood 木, Fire 火, Earth 土, Metal 金, Water 水. The phases all energy moves through.四柱Four Pillars — Year, Month, Day, Hour. Four nested wheels of time; together, a life.日主Day Master — the day's stem, read as the self: the element you are.十神Ten Gods — how every other force in the chart relates to the self: support, expression, wealth, authority, resource.
Solar terms compute astronomically to within ~10 minutes; for a birth on a solar-term knife-edge, confirm against an authoritative 萬年曆. True solar time here is longitude-corrected (the equation of time, ±16 min, is not applied) and historical daylight-saving should be verified for the birth year. A chart is a mirror for practice, not a verdict — the reading describes tendencies the practice refines, never fixes.