remember these Chinese characters or my meanings

After getting your Four Pillars of Destiny, it should look something like 2 rows x 4 columns of Chinese Characters (Eight main ones).


(An example of Four Pillars from Joey Yap's Ba Zi Ming Pan calculator)

The top row is known as Heavenly Stems (HS), it will be one of these 10 characters, namely:
甲 = jia = first
乙 = yi = second
丙 = bing = third
丁 = ding = fourth
戊 = wu = fifth
己 = ji = sixth
庚 = geng = seventh
辛 = xin = eighth
壬 = ren = ninth
癸 = gui = tenth

The bottom row of four characters are known as Earthly Branches (EB), represented by either:
子 = zi = rat
丑 = chou = ox
寅 = yin = tiger
卯 = mao = rabbit
辰 = chen = dragon
巳 = si = snake
午 = wu = horse
未 = wei = goat
申= shen = monkey
酉 = you = rooster
戌 = xu = dog
亥 = hai = pig
EB is sometimes known as Chinese Horoscope / Zodiac represented by the twelve animals. That's where the similarity ends. You can know your Chinese Horoscope from Four Pillars (look at the right most column of EB. In this example, this person is born on the year of Tiger.

Just remember these 22 characters, their Hanyu Pinyin or literal meaning, they will be of importance use in this blog or any Four Pillars of Destiny. Ignore the small chinese characters under the EB for a start.