午 · Horse

wǔ · 马 · the seventh earthly branch

午 wǔ is the seventh of the twelve earthly branches in BaZi: the Horse, Yang Fire. 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. 午 also names the hours from 11am to 1pm and the fifth month of the solar year, and it clashes with 子, the Rat.

The branch of full noon and high summer: Yang Fire at its peak, with nowhere further to climb. Branches are positions in the cycle before they are animals, and 午 is the position where heat is greatest and the turn towards decline begins.

The facts

Element

火 Fire, Yang

Hours

11am to 1pm

Month

The fifth month of the solar year

Hidden stems

丁 Yin Fire己 Yin Earth

Clashes

子 Rat · 子午冲

Six combination

未 → 土 Earth

Three harmony

寅午戌 → 火 Fire

Seasonal group

巳午未 → 火 Fire

Harm 害

丑 Ox

Punishment 刑

self-punishment 自刑

Destruction 破

卯 Rabbit

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 Horse".
• As the hour 午时, 11am to 1pm, which is why the almanac's hours are named by branch.
• On a clash day: a 子 day clashes anyone whose day or year branch is 午.

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.