Earthly Branch profile
Zi · Rat · mid-winter Water
Zi is the first Earthly Branch and the mid-winter Water station in the twelve-part seasonal cycle. It is a calendrical container, not a standalone personality verdict.
Fixed coordinates
- Primary element
- 水
- Polarity
- Yang
- Seasonal position
- mid-winter
- Double-hour
- 23:00–01:00
- Solar-month position
- 11
Season and time coordinate
Its double-hour crosses civil midnight from 23:00 to 01:00, which is why Sibyl states its sect-2 day-rollover convention separately from this static branch reference.
What the branch stores
Zi stores Gui, Yin Water, as its single canonical Hidden Stem. The list is fixed; its chart role still depends on pillar position, Day Master, season, and the rest of the chart.
What to watch for
Do not turn Zi or its one Hidden Stem into a strength score, emotional diagnosis, lucky direction, or event prediction.
Hidden Stems structure
Practical reflection
Where does information need quiet storage before it can become a deliberate next move?
Reading method and boundary
This page explains the traditional correspondence between a branch and its Hidden Stems. It adds no weighting, strength, or activation judgment and infers no event from one branch.