Stage 1 · Term 4 of 34
Earthly Branch 地支
Dì Zhī
One of twelve characters (子丑寅卯辰巳午未申酉戌亥) tied to the twelve zodiac animals, months and double-hours. Branches are the chart's foundations — deeper, slower energies that also conceal Hidden Stems.
In the classics
《渊海子平》 records each branch's hidden-stem contents and the relation tables — combination, clash, punishment, harm — that 《三命通会》 later catalogued exhaustively. Branch doctrine is the bulk of classical interaction theory.
In a chart
Branches are slower and deeper than stems: they hold the chart's roots, seasons and storehouses. A stem is only as strong as its rooting in the branches, which is why strength assessment (Stage 2) begins underground. Branches also carry the chart's social weather — the twelve animals attach here, and the combine/clash arithmetic of Stage 3 runs almost entirely on branches.
Worked example
寅 (Tiger) carries the hidden stems 甲, 丙 and 戊 — a wood-fire-earth chain concealed inside one character. A chart with 寅 quietly holds all three, whether or not any of them shows on the surface.
Where beginners misread it
Reading a branch as just its zodiac animal. The animal is the label; the machinery — element, season, hidden stems, relations — is what actually gets read.
How this plays out in your chart depends on the whole structure — the chart-specific judgment taught in Yixin Academy's structured courses.
learnwithyixin.com/courses →What does Earthly Branch mean in BaZi?
One of twelve characters (子丑寅卯辰巳午未申酉戌亥) tied to the twelve zodiac animals, months and double-hours. Branches are the chart's foundations — deeper, slower energies that also conceal Hidden Stems.