The twelve-member companion series
Dìzhī (地支) comprises Zi 子, Chou 丑, Yin 寅, Mao 卯, Chen 辰, Si 巳, Wu 午, Wei 未, Shen 申, You 酉, Xu 戌 and Hai 亥. HKO documents the ordered series.
Keep the branch beside its paired stem when checking a result. The explorer shows the complete pair in each pillar, with its Chinese characters and romanized name.
Hong Kong Observatory · Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches ↗
Branches also label double-hours
HKO assigns Zi to 23:00–01:00 and the remaining branches to successive two-hour intervals.
In an Atlas example at 00:30, inspect the selected clock first. Compare the two rollover settings and inspect both the cycle date and complete hour pair. Export the chosen variant with its settings so the example remains reproducible.
Hong Kong Observatory · Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches ↗
Animal names are only one layer
Joey Yap’s workshop chart places Heavenly Stems over Earthly Branches and prints animal labels with branches. In the interface, Zi (Rat) identifies the lower component of a displayed pillar; the paired stem remains necessary for the complete visible pair.
The branch inspector lists hidden stems and main qi from an attributed table, then derives each stem’s Ten Gods relationship. The animal name alone does not determine this full pattern.
Joey Yap · Hack Your Destiny with BaZi, chart and branch table ↗
Ask a pillar-sized question
Use the selector to inspect the branch in its selected year, month, day or hour pillar. The tool keeps its time context and paired stem visible, which makes a changed convention inspectable.
Traditional family roles and modern practitioner topics are separate readings, not automatic properties of the animal. Calculation, attributed interpretation and reflection remain different statements.
Word origin · etymology
English translation of Chinese dìzhī, 地支.
Earthly renders dì and branch renders zhī. The name identifies the twelve-part companion series to the Heavenly Stems.
Hong Kong Observatory: Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches ↗
How we know · epistemology
Historical cyclical notation
The twelve branches encode recurring time divisions and inherited correspondences. Animal names identify symbolic associations; they do not provide biological or psychological evidence about a person born under a branch.
Hong Kong Observatory: Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches ↗
Explore it in your atlas
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These links connect subjects and terminology. They do not establish a shared historical origin.
Sources & provenance
Use the citations beside each section to distinguish a calculation convention, a historical teaching and an editorial example.