The Chinese astrology library
The Earthly Branches
The twelve animals beneath every pillar
Every pillar in a BaZi chart has two characters, and the lower one is an Earthly Branch. The twelve branches carry the zodiac animals, the months of the solar year and the double-hours of the day. When you say you are a Tiger, you are naming the branch of your year pillar, and that branch holds more than its animal.
Raise your four pillars, freeTwelve branches, twelve animals
A BaZi chart has four pillars (year, month, day and hour), and each pillar stacks two characters. On top sits a Heavenly Stem. Underneath sits one of twelve Earthly Branches. The branches run in a fixed order that repeats without end: Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu, Hai. Each has an animal name, and in the same order they are Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. So your year animal is simply the branch of your year pillar, and your secret animal is the branch of your hour pillar.
Each branch also has an element and a polarity. Zi the Rat is yang water, Wu the Horse is yang fire, Chou the Ox is yin earth, and You the Rooster is yin metal. Inside, every branch holds one to three hidden stems: a main qi, and sometimes a middle and a residual qi. This site counts them at weights of 1, 0.5 and 0.3. That is how the animals feed a chart's element balance alongside the stems, and you can see the count with and without them on the five elements page.
How the branches get along
Picture the twelve branches as spokes on a wheel. Much of branch lore is plain geometry on that wheel. Branches four steps apart form the three harmony trines, each tied to an element: Rat-Dragon-Monkey (water), Ox-Snake-Rooster (metal), Tiger-Horse-Dog (fire) and Rabbit-Goat-Pig (wood). These are the classic friendships of compatibility talk.
Branches six steps apart sit directly across the wheel and form the clashes: Rat-Horse, Ox-Goat, Tiger-Monkey, Rabbit-Rooster, Dragon-Dog and Snake-Pig. A third set, the six harmonies, pairs the animals one to one: Rat-Ox, Tiger-Pig, Rabbit-Dog, Dragon-Rooster, Snake-Monkey and Horse-Goat. Classical practice also tracks punishment, harm and break between branches.
A year whose branch opposes your year animal is the one popularly called your clash year. The clash year tool goes further and checks the year's branch against all four of your pillars. To compare two whole charts, branches included, try compatibility.
Branches as clocks and calendars
The branches also keep time directly. Each year carries a branch, and on this site the year turns at Lichun, when the Sun reaches 315 degrees around February 4, not at the lunar new year. The twelve months each carry a branch too, turning at the jie solar terms every 30 degrees of the Sun from there. Each day has its branch as well, and the day itself splits into twelve double-hours, with each animal keeping a two-hour watch.
Those watches are read by true solar time at your birthplace, not by the clock on the wall. Daylight saving comes off. Your longitude shifts the time by 4 minutes per degree from your time zone's center line. The equation of time adds or subtracts up to about 16 minutes. A birth near a boundary can land in the neighboring animal. Draw up your own four branches with the free BaZi calculator, and see the branch now running at This Year.
Keep learning
The rest of the library: five short guides to the Four Pillars.
The Four Pillars (BaZi)How your birth year, month, day and hour become the eight characters of a BaZi chart.
The Heavenly StemsThe ten Heavenly Stems, from great tree to still lake, and how they sit in your chart.
The Day MasterThe one stem in your BaZi chart that stands for you, and the ten forms it takes.
Yin & YangHow yin and yang double the five elements, split the twelve animals, and color your Day Master.
Lichun — the Solar New YearWhy your Chinese animal year turns at Lichun in early February, not January 1 or the festival.
See it in your chart
Your four pillars, cast from the exact moment of your birth with the hour read by the Sun, your Day Master and your five elements, with a written reading free. It works even if you don’t know your birth time.
Raise my four pillarsThe Earthly Branches, answered
Are the Earthly Branches the same as the zodiac animals?
Close to it. The twelve animals are the popular names of the twelve branches, in the same order from Rat to Pig. But a branch carries more than its animal: an element and a polarity, one to three hidden stems, a place in the cycle of months, and a two-hour watch of the day. BaZi reads all of that, which is why a full chart says much more than "I'm a Tiger."
How do the three harmony trines work for compatibility?
Animals four places apart on the wheel share a trine, and each trine leans toward one element: Rat-Dragon-Monkey for water, Ox-Snake-Rooster for metal, Tiger-Horse-Dog for fire, Rabbit-Goat-Pig for wood. In popular compatibility these trios are the best-match groups. A real comparison looks wider, at both Day Masters, the partnership palaces, the year animals and the elements, so a shared trine is a good sign rather than a verdict.
What is a clash between two branches?
A clash pairs two branches directly across the wheel, six steps apart: Rat and Horse, Ox and Goat, Tiger and Monkey, Rabbit and Rooster, Dragon and Dog, Snake and Pig. When the year's branch clashes with your year animal, tradition calls it your clash year. Read it as friction you can see coming and plan around, not as doom, and remember that the year can also touch your other pillars.
Which animal rules my birth hour?
Each animal keeps a two-hour watch, starting with the Rat from 11pm to 1am, then the Ox from 1 to 3am, and on around the day. The watch is read by true solar time at your birthplace, so a clock time near a boundary may belong to the neighboring animal. The branch of your watch is your hour branch, also called your secret animal. Without a known birth time, a chart has no hour pillar.
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