Yin (寅) — the Tiger branch
Tiger · Wood · 1st lunar month (Start of Spring) · 03:30–05:30
The first step of a new year
What this energy is
Yin is the character that opens the BaZi year. It holds Bing fire as a spark inside, so the energy of starting and expanding runs strong.
Strengths
- Drive to open and to found things
- Goes first once the reason is clear
- Wide operating range
Shadows
- Starts many things, finishes few
- Moves before the ground is ready
- Sits in a position of frequent collision
We do not only say the pleasant things. Knowing the weak side first is what makes it manageable.
Evidence · why we read it this way
Evidence — Hidden stems Wu, Bing, Jia, with Jia as the main energy. The BaZi year begins not on 1 January but at Start of Spring in the Yin month. It is the birth branch of the Yin-Wu-Xu Fire frame and a Travelling Horse position, and it sits in the Yin-Si-Shen triple punishment.
BaZi terms used here
- Hidden Stems (地藏干)Heavenly Stems concealed inside a branch
- Each of the twelve branches is one character on the surface but holds two or three stems inside: the residual energy first, then the middle energy, then the main energy that represents the branch. Structures are taken from the main energy of the month branch.
- Birth, Peak and Storehouse branches (生旺庫)Where energy is born, peaks, and is stored
- The three branches of a frame each play a role: born at Yin, Shen, Si, Hai; at peak at Zi, Wu, Mao, You; stored at Chen, Xu, Chou, Wei. The storehouse is also called the tomb-vault.
- Triple Punishment (三刑)Three branches tangling into friction
- Yin-Si-Shen and Chou-Xu-Wei are the two main sets. Rather than a head-on clash they tangle, appearing as disputes, surgery or litigation.
- Start of Spring (立春)Where the BaZi year begins
- The BaZi year starts at Start of Spring (around 4 February), not 1 January. Someone born in January before that date uses the previous year’s pillar.
- Travelling Horse (驛馬)The star of movement and change
- It attaches to the birth branches Yin, Shen, Si and Hai. Staying in one place is hard, and the energy comes alive in travel, relocation and postings. It is read as a mobile engine rather than instability.
Does your chart carry this character?
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