Double hour 2 of 12 · 時支
The Ox hour
丑 Chou holds 01:00–02:59 on the modern civil clock. Tradition fitted the ox to it as the hour oxen chew the cud, long before the ploughing begins.
One branch · four linked coordinates
What stays fixed in the Ox period
The clock selects one Earthly Branch. The same branch also carries a phase, compass direction and solar-term month; those links are structural coordinates, not extra personality labels.
- Hour branch丑 Chou
01:00–02:59
- Month opens小寒 Xiǎohán
Minor Cold
- DirectionNorth-northeast
Branch sector 2 of 12
- Fixed phaseEarth
Phase carried by the branch
五鼠遁 · day stem sets hour stem
Five complete Ox hour pillars are possible
The branch is fixed by the clock. The stem advances from the Day Master, so the ten day stems fall into five rule pairs and produce five possible hour pillars here.
- 01 · on 甲 Jia / 己 Ji days乙丑Yin Wood Ox
- 02 · on 乙 Yi / 庚 Geng days丁丑Yin Fire Ox
- 03 · on 丙 Bing / 辛 Xin days己丑Yin Earth Ox
- 04 · on 丁 Ding / 壬 Ren days辛丑Yin Metal Ox
- 05 · on 戊 Wu / 癸 Gui days癸丑Yin Water Ox
Two clock edges
The Ox hour changes at 01:00 and after 02:59
A time earlier than 01:00 belongs to the preceding branch; a time after 02:59 belongs to the next. This site reads the local civil time entered and does not silently apply longitude, daylight-saving or apparent-solar-time corrections.
Known time
A recorded local time selects this branch and allows the hour stem to be derived from the day stem.
Unknown time
The hour pillar stays absent. Assuming noon or another default would invent two of the chart’s eight characters.
The same branch geometry at every scale
Its clash, harmony and trine do not change with the clock
The Ox branch clashes with Goat, forms Six Harmony with Rat, and belongs to the Metal trine with Snake and Rooster and Ox. These relationships come from fixed positions.