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Five phases / 水 Shuǐ

Water Phase 水 in Bazi: Stems, Branches & Relations

Water 水 generates Wood and controls Fire; Metal produces it and Earth controls it. Its stems are Ren 壬 and Gui 癸, and its branches are Rat 子, Pig 亥.

Season
Winter
Direction
North
Two stems
壬 · 癸
A winter river winding through snow-covered mountains and pavilions
水Winter · North

Two movements · four fixed relations

What Water gives—and what keeps it in check

Every phase stands in four fixed relations. Neither cycle is a ranking: generating and controlling are both necessary, and a system with only one would run away or seize up.

01

Water generates

Wood

相生 — it feeds and produces the next phase

02

Generated by

Metal

相生 — the phase that produces it in turn

03

Water controls

Fire

相克 — it restrains and keeps the other in check

04

Controlled by

Earth

相克 — the phase that restrains it

Where the phase enters a chart

The stems and branches that carry Water

A phase reaches a chart through the ten heavenly stems and twelve earthly branches. Each stem takes one phase in a yang and a yin form; the branches distribute the same five phases across the twelve animals.

01 · Two polarities

Heavenly stems

02 · 2 fixed branches

Earthly branches

These branches fall together in the calendar because water governs winter.

Twelve appearances in sixty positions

Water in the sixty-year cycle

Twelve of the sixty stem-branch pairs take a stem of this phase—one for each branch, alternating yang and yin. Read the records across rather than scanning a table.

  1. Position 91992

    壬申

    Yang Water Monkey

  2. Position 101993

    癸酉

    Yin Water Rooster

  3. Position 192002

    壬午

    Yang Water Horse

  4. Position 202003

    癸未

    Yin Water Goat

  5. Position 292012

    壬辰

    Yang Water Dragon

  6. Position 302013

    癸巳

    Yin Water Snake

  7. Position 392022

    壬寅

    Yang Water Tiger

  8. Position 402023

    癸卯

    Yin Water Rabbit

  9. Position 492032

    壬子

    Yang Water Rat

  10. Position 502033

    癸丑

    Yin Water Ox

  11. Position 592042

    壬戌

    Yang Water Dog

  12. Position 602043

    癸亥

    Yin Water Pig

A separate named association

The Water sounds

纳音 assigns each pair of pillars one of thirty sounds, each named for an image. Six of them belong to this phase, and a pillar's sound is often a different phase from its stem.