Double hour 4 of 12 · 時支
The Rabbit hour
卯 Mao holds 05:00–06:59 on the modern civil clock. Tradition fitted the rabbit to it as the hour of the jade rabbit, which the moon was said to hold as it set.
One branch · four linked coordinates
What stays fixed in the Rabbit 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卯 Mao
05:00–06:59
- Month opens惊蛰 Jīngzhé
Awakening of Insects
- DirectionEast
Branch sector 4 of 12
- Fixed phaseWood
Phase carried by the branch
五鼠遁 · day stem sets hour stem
Five complete Rabbit 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丁卯Yin Fire Rabbit
- 02 · on 乙 Yi / 庚 Geng days己卯Yin Earth Rabbit
- 03 · on 丙 Bing / 辛 Xin days辛卯Yin Metal Rabbit
- 04 · on 丁 Ding / 壬 Ren days癸卯Yin Water Rabbit
- 05 · on 戊 Wu / 癸 Gui days乙卯Yin Wood Rabbit
Two clock edges
The Rabbit hour changes at 05:00 and after 06:59
A time earlier than 05:00 belongs to the preceding branch; a time after 06:59 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 Rabbit branch clashes with Rooster, forms Six Harmony with Dog, and belongs to the Wood trine with Pig and Rabbit and Goat. These relationships come from fixed positions.