Earthly Branches Meaning: 12 Animals, Elements and Double-Hours

The twelve Earthly Branches (지지 jiji, 地支) are the “ground” characters of a saju chart, better known as the twelve zodiac animals, from 子 ja (Rat) to 亥 hae (Pig). Each branch carries an element and a yin or yang polarity, and each one labels a year, a solar-term month, a day and a two-hour slice of the clock.

That last part surprises people. Your zodiac animal is not only a year thing. In saju, the same twelve branches mark every level of time, and your chart contains four of them.

Here’s the Moon Rabbit’s tour of all twelve, with the Rabbit, of course, getting a slightly affectionate mention.

The twelve branches at a glance

Branch	Korean	Animal	Element	Polarity	Double-hour	Saju month begins
子	자 ja	Rat	water	yang	23:00–01:00	Daeseol, ~Dec 7
丑	축 chuk	Ox	earth	yin	01:00–03:00	Sohan, ~Jan 6
寅	인 in	Tiger	wood	yang	03:00–05:00	Ipchun, ~Feb 4
卯	묘 myo	Rabbit	wood	yin	05:00–07:00	Gyeongchip, ~Mar 6
辰	진 jin	Dragon	earth	yang	07:00–09:00	Cheongmyeong, ~Apr 5
巳	사 sa	Snake	fire	yin	09:00–11:00	Ipha, ~May 6
午	오 o	Horse	fire	yang	11:00–13:00	Mangjong, ~Jun 6
未	미 mi	Goat/Sheep	earth	yin	13:00–15:00	Soseo, ~Jul 7
申	신 sin	Monkey	metal	yang	15:00–17:00	Ipchu, ~Aug 8
酉	유 yu	Rooster	metal	yin	17:00–19:00	Baengno, ~Sep 8
戌	술 sul	Dog	earth	yang	19:00–21:00	Hallo, ~Oct 8
亥	해 hae	Pig	water	yin	21:00–23:00	Ipdong, ~Nov 7

Solar-term dates shift by about a day from year to year, so treat them as “around.”

The animals, the Korean way

Korean zodiac talk revolves around your ddi (띠), your birth-year animal. “I’m a Horse ddi” is a perfectly normal thing to say at a first meeting. Two Korean details are worth knowing:

未 is yang (양), usually translated as Sheep or Goat. The Korean word covers both, and English sources vary.
亥 is the Pig (돼지 dwaeji). Some sources say Boar, and Japan’s zodiac does use the wild boar, but Korean usage says Pig.

Also note the timing. Casual ddi talk often switches animals at the Lunar New Year, or even on January 1. Saju switches at Ipchun (입춘, 立春), around February 4. People born in January or early February sometimes discover they are a different animal in their saju than at the dinner table. Both are fine; they just use different start lines.

Branches as double-hours

Traditional East Asian timekeeping divided the day into twelve double-hours (시진 sijin, 時辰), each named after a branch. The 子 ja hour straddles midnight, 午 o is the noon hour, and so on around the clock. Your birth hour becomes the branch of your hour pillar.

Two practical wrinkles for Korean births:

Local time corrections. The hour ranges above are standard, before any correction. Korea’s clock history includes UTC+8:30 from 1954 to 1961 and daylight saving in some years, such as 1987 and 1988. Many practitioners also apply true solar time: Seoul sits near 127°E, about 32 minutes behind the 135°E meridian that UTC+9 is based on. A birth at 11:10 on the clock could fall in the 巳 hour, not 午, after correction.
The midnight Rat. Because 子 spans 23:00 to 01:00, some Korean schools split it into yajasi (야자시, 夜子時, the “night Rat” before midnight) and jojasi (조자시, 朝子時, the “morning Rat” after). The choice affects whether a late-night birth uses today’s or tomorrow’s day pillar.

Branches as months and seasons

In saju, each branch also rules a solar-term month, and those months group neatly into seasons:

Spring: 寅 Tiger, 卯 Rabbit, 辰 Dragon
Summer: 巳 Snake, 午 Horse, 未 Goat/Sheep
Autumn: 申 Monkey, 酉 Rooster, 戌 Dog
Winter: 亥 Pig, 子 Rat, 丑 Ox

Look at the elements and a pattern appears. The first two branches of each season carry that season’s element: wood for spring, fire for summer, metal for autumn, water for winter. The third is always earth, 辰, 未, 戌 and 丑, which fits the traditional idea that earth governs the transitions between seasons. Your month branch is read as the “weather” of your whole chart, which is why practitioners weigh it so heavily.

Harmonies and clashes between branches

Branches are social creatures. Saju tracks several classic relationships:

Samhap (삼합, 三合), three harmonies. Three branches, four places apart, form an element team:

Trio	Element
申子辰 Monkey, Rat, Dragon	water
寅午戌 Tiger, Horse, Dog	fire
巳酉丑 Snake, Rooster, Ox	metal
亥卯未 Pig, Rabbit, Goat	wood

Yukhap (육합, 六合), six pairings: 子丑, 寅亥, 卯戌, 辰酉, 巳申, 午未. These are read as friendly, cooperative pairs.

Chung (충, 沖), six clashes: the branches directly opposite each other on the wheel, 子午, 丑未, 寅申, 卯酉, 辰戌, 巳亥. A clash is read as movement or friction, often lively rather than bad.

Wonjin (원진, 怨嗔), six “resentment” pairs, a Korean favourite: 子未, 丑午, 寅酉, 卯申, 辰亥, 巳戌. In modern practice they’re a gentle prompt to talk things through.

These relationships show up in compatibility (궁합 gunghap) chats too. Treat them as conversation starters. Two people with a “clash” can simply mean two people with different rhythms, and that’s often where the fun is.

More than an animal: hidden stems

One last layer: each branch is said to contain one to three hidden stems (지장간 jijanggan, 支藏干). A branch’s headline element is the main ingredient, but practitioners say several branches, especially the four earth branches, carry traces of other elements too. That’s why a reader might say a chart “has more fire than it looks.” Most beginner apps summarize this for you, so you don’t need to memorize it on day one.

FAQ

What are the 12 Earthly Branches?

They are twelve characters, 子 ja, 丑 chuk, 寅 in, 卯 myo, 辰 jin, 巳 sa, 午 o, 未 mi, 申 sin, 酉 yu, 戌 sul and 亥 hae, matched with the Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. In saju they sit on the bottom half of each pillar and label years, months, days and two-hour blocks of time.

What is my birth hour animal?

Find the double-hour your birth time falls into: for example, 05:00–07:00 is the 卯 Rabbit hour and 11:00–13:00 is the 午 Horse hour. Many practitioners then adjust for local time, especially true solar time and historical time zones, which can move a birth near the edge into the neighbouring hour. A saju calculator can handle the correction for you.

What is the difference between samhap and yukhap?

Samhap is a team of three branches, spaced four apart, that together form one element, such as 寅午戌 for fire. Yukhap is a pair of two branches, such as 子丑, traditionally read as a cooperative partnership. Practitioners generally consider samhap the broader, more powerful grouping and yukhap the more personal one. Both are read as harmonies.

Is a branch clash in my chart bad?

Not in any fixed sense. A chung, or clash, is traditionally read as tension, change or movement between two parts of the chart. In a personality reading that can look like restlessness, versatility or a knack for handling change. Practitioners consider the whole chart before saying anything about a single clash, and a good reading frames it as a theme to understand, not a warning.

Try it with the Moon Rabbit

Want to see which four animals live in your chart? The Moon Rabbit shows every branch on your free saju card. You can also check today’s fortune to see how today’s branch meets yours.

Saju is a cultural tradition, not a science. SajuBunny readings are for fun and self-reflection, not professional advice.

Sources

For fun and self-reflection. Saju is a traditional way of looking at yourself, not a prediction or professional advice.