The Twelve Earthly Branches

If the Heavenly Stems are the visible voices of a chart, the Earthly Branches are its rooms: heavier, slower, and full of things not visible from outside. There are twelve of them, each with an animal, an element, a season, and a set of hidden occupants. Your zodiac sign is simply the branch of your Year Pillar — which makes the branches the part of BaZi everyone already half-knows.

The twelve, one breath each

• Zi (子, Rat, Water) — deep winter, 23:00–01:00. Pure, quiet, concentrated; holds only 癸.
• Chou (丑, Ox, Earth) — late winter, 01:00–03:00. Soggy, fertile, patient; a storage Earth.
• Yin (寅, Tiger, Wood) — 03:00–05:00, the gate of spring. Yang Wood rising fast; ambition waking up.
• Mao (卯, Rabbit, Wood) — 05:00–07:00. Pure spring Wood; steady growth, holds only 乙.
• Chen (辰, Dragon, Earth) — spring's end, 07:00–09:00. Charged Earth holding Wood's remnant; water tank and weather-maker.
• Si (巳, Snake, Fire) — 09:00–11:00, early summer. Fire inside metal's frame; busy line-up 丙庚戊.
• Wu (午, Horse, Fire) — 11:00–13:00. High summer fire; visible heat and movement.
• Wei (未, Goat, Earth) — 13:00–15:00, summer's end. Earth holding Fire's warmth; harvest mood.
• Shen (申, Monkey, Metal) — 15:00–17:00, the gate of autumn. Metal arriving with a shout; sharp, quick, clever.
• You (酉, Rooster, Metal) — 17:00–19:00. Pure autumn Metal; precise and clean, holds only 辛.
• Xu (戌, Dog, Earth) — 19:00–21:00, autumn's end. Earth holding Metal's remnant; a watchful threshold.
• Hai (亥, Pig, Water) — 21:00–23:00, the gate of winter. Water gathering with Wood on deck (壬甲).

Seasons are the branch's real business

The branch of your Month Pillar is your birth season, and season is the single strongest factor in a chart'sstrength. Wood thrives in spring (寅卯辰), Fire in summer (巳午未), Metal in autumn (申酉戌), Water in winter (亥子丑), and Earth in the four transition months that sit between the seasons (辰戌丑未). A Day Master born in its own season is conventionally read as strong; born against it, as leaning light.

Pairs and groups move the story

Branches rarely sit alone. They combine with their neighbors — six-combine, triple combine and directional meeting — and they clash and harm each other across the chart: clashes, harms and punishments. A branch that clashes with your Day branch is a different room than one that silently combines with it, so the relationships between branches are where a static chart starts to talk.

The animal is the door, not the house

The twelve animals (十二生肖) are the friendliest entrance into the branches — everyone has a sign. But the animal is only the outside of the branch: its element, its season and its hidden crew carry far more weight in an actual reading. Enjoy your zodiac sign; read your branch.

Cast your chart — every branch is shown with its animal, its element and its hidden stems, so you can meet all twelve of your rooms at once.

Related reading

• The Ten Heavenly Stems — the visible half of every character
• Hidden stems — who lives inside each branch
• Six-combines, triple combines and meetings — how branches pull together