Earthly Branch profile
Chou · Ox · late-winter Earth
Chou is late-winter Earth: a transitional branch in which cold conditions are gathered rather than instantly resolved.
Fixed coordinates
- Primary element
- 土
- Polarity
- Yin
- Seasonal position
- late winter
- Double-hour
- 01:00–03:00
- Solar-month position
- 12
Season and time coordinate
Its 01:00–03:00 double-hour and twelfth solar-month position mark the closing phase of winter before the spring cycle begins.
What the branch stores
Chou stores Ji, Gui, and Xin in Sibyl's canonical order. This fixed composition names what is contained; it does not assign percentage weights or activation.
What to watch for
Do not equate Chou with wealth, property, endurance, or a favourable chart condition without the complete Four Pillars context.
Hidden Stems structure
Practical reflection
What needs patient consolidation before a new cycle can begin without carrying unfinished work forward?
Reading method and boundary
When this page is opened from a chart, the Hidden Stems label comes from the deterministic engine. Opened on its own, this profile only mirrors the same fixed table and performs no calculation. It adds no weighting, strength, or activation judgment and infers no event from one branch.