Earthly Branches

Earthly Branches
A carving of the Chinese zodiac on the ceiling of the gate to Kushida Shrine in Fukuoka, Japan
Chinese name
Chinese	地支
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin dìzhī Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization deih ji Jyutping dei6 zi1 Southern Min Hokkien POJ tē-chi tōe-chi
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabet	Địa Chi
Chữ Hán	地支
Korean name
Hangul	지지
Hanja	地支
Transcriptions Revised Romanization jiji
Japanese name
Kanji	地支
Hiragana	ちし
Transcriptions Romanization chishi

The Earthly Branches (also called the Terrestrial Branches or the 12-cycle^[1]) are a system of twelve ordered symbols used throughout East Asia. They are indigenous to China, and are themselves Chinese characters, corresponding to words with no concrete meaning other than the associated branch's ordinal position in the list. Cultural applications of the Branches include a dating system known as the sexagenary cycle, as well as astrology. They are associated with the ten Heavenly Stems in Chinese calendars, and in Taoist practice.