Earthly Branches

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The twelve earthly branches are the second series of the Chinese sexagenary cycle, pairing with the ten heavenly stems to number years, months, days and double-hours. The twelve zodiac animals are attached to the branches, but the branches are the older and more fundamental series; they also mark twelve directions and the twelve two-hour divisions of the day. They appear alongside the stems in Shang oracle bone inscriptions.

Facts

Overview

Entries in the Atlas: 12
What Defines This Grouping: The twelve-term duodenary series itself, which is older than the zodiac animals attached to it; the animals are held as their own category. 1
Size of the Traditional Set: 12 branches 1

Structure

Structure: The second of the two series of the sexagenary cycle: twelve branches paired with ten heavenly stems give sixty terms, used to number years, months, days and the twelve double-hours, and to mark the compass directions. 1

Status

Status Today: Living tradition, practised today 1

Sources

Science and Civilisation in China, Volume 3: Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth Joseph Needham, 1959

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The Twelve Branches

The twelve earthly branches are the second series of the Chinese sexagenary cycle, pairing with the ten heavenly stems to number years, months, days and double-hours. The twelve zodiac animals (rat, ox, tiger and the rest), are attached to the branches, but the branches are the older and more fundamental series; the familiar animals are a later mnemonic overlay.

Each branch corresponds to a double-hour of the day, a month of the year, a direction and a phase of the wu xing, making the twelve a basic frame for time and space in Chinese cosmology.

Time, direction and the zodiac

The branches organise the Chinese clock (twelve double-hours), the year (twelve months), and the compass, and through their animal associations they underlie the Chinese zodiac by which years are popularly named. In Ba Zi they form the lower half of each of the Four Pillars, carrying hidden stems and complex relationships of clash and combination.

The atlas gives each branch its animal, hour, direction and phase. The stems it pairs with, and the zodiac animals attached to it, are treated in their own categories under Eastern Systems.