卯 · Rabbit

mǎo · 兔 · the fourth earthly branch

卯 mǎo is the fourth of the twelve earthly branches in BaZi: the Rabbit, Yin Wood. The earthly branches are the lower half of each pillar in a chart, and the branch of the year pillar is your Chinese zodiac animal. 卯 also names the hours from 5 to 7am and the second month of the solar year, and it clashes with 酉, the Rooster.

Spring in full leaf and the sun just risen: Yin Wood, growth that bends rather than breaks. The branch sits due East, where the day and the season both open.

The facts

Element

木 Wood, Yin

Hours

5 to 7am

Month

The second month of the solar year

Hidden stems

乙 Yin Wood

Clashes

酉 Rooster · 卯酉冲

Six combination

戌 → 火 Fire

Three harmony

亥卯未 → 木 Wood

Seasonal group

寅卯辰 → 木 Wood

Harm 害

辰 Dragon

Punishment 刑

子 Rat

Destruction 破

午 Horse

These are the branch relations the engine computes. A clash in a chart is a watch-out, not a verdict, and a combination is not automatically good.

Where you meet it

• As the branch of a pillar. In the year pillar it is the animal people usually mean by "I am a Rabbit".
• As the hour 卯时, 5 to 7am, which is why the almanac's hours are named by branch.
• On a clash day: a 酉 day clashes anyone whose day or year branch is 卯.

Careful with the animal. Your BaZi year branch turns at Li Chun, not at Chinese New Year, so a birthday in late January or early February may not be the animal on the red envelope.