24 Directions represented by the Stem-branch System
Even though Chinese has words for the four cardinal directions - 北 (běi, north), 東/东 dōng, east), 南 (nán, south), and 西 (xī, west) - Chinese mariners and astronomers/ astrologers preferred using the twelve directions of the Earthly Branches, which is somewhat similar to the modern-day practice of English-speaking pilots using o'clock for directions. Since twelve points were not enough for sailing, twelve midpoints were added. Instead of combining two adjacent direction names, they assigned new names as follows:
For the four diagonal directions, appropriate trigram names of I Ching were used. For the rest, the Heavenly Stems were used. According to the Five Elements theory, east is assigned to wood, and the Stems of wood are 甲 (jiǎ) and 乙 (yǐ). Thus they were assigned clockwise to the two adjacent points of the east. Following is a table of the 24 directions:
Advanced mariners such as Zhèng Hé used 48-point compasses. An additional midpoint was called by a combination of its two closest basic directions, such as 丙午 (bǐngwǔ) for the direction of 172.5°, the midpoint between 丙 (bǐng), 165°, and 午 (wǔ), 180°.
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