Earthly 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.

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.