Chou mountain

Meaning

Chou, 丑 chǒu, is the first mountain of the north-east (NE1): the fifteen degrees from 22.5° to 37.5°, centred on 30°. It takes its name from Chou, the second of the twelve Earthly Branches, the Ox’s, and carries its phase, Earth.

Chou is the Ox’s branch, Earth, the frozen ground of the last month of winter that keeps the seed safe until spring, and the small hours of the night. On the compass it opens the north-east, from the line at 22.5° where the north ends. A home facing Chou looks between north-north-east and north-east and sits in Wei, the Goat’s mountain, at the south-west: a Kun house, of the West group like every home facing the north-east.

For the Flying Stars Chou is the north-east’s Earth dragon and counts as yin, unlike Gen and Yin beside it, so its main chart is its own. Built in Period 8, a home facing Chou had the prosperous chart, the period’s stars at the back and at the front where the classics want them, with the Combination of Ten for the water stars and an opposed chart; built in Period 9, it has both of the period’s stars at the back. The prosperous chart comes to Chou in Periods 2, 5 and 8, the periods of the three Earth stars, which is also Chou’s own phase.

In practice

• The facing: a home whose front faces between 22.5° and 37.5° faces Chou, and sits in Wei, SW1: a Kun house of the West group. The Home lens tints Chou on its dial and draws Wei dashed.
• Near its edges: within 3° of 22.5° or 37.5° many schools read a replacement chart, which Ulune shows beside the main one; within 1.5° the facing is on a void line: at 22.5° the line between the north and the north-east, towards Gui; at 37.5° the line towards Gen, inside the north-east.
• The Flying Stars: built in Period 9, a home facing Chou has the formation Double stars at the sitting; built in Period 8, the formations Prosperous at sitting and facing, Combination of Ten, water and Opposed chart.
• The year: Chou is the Grand Duke’s mountain in a Ox year, 2021 and 2033, which the classics suggest not facing for the year’s new beginnings, and the Year Breaker’s in 2027 and 2039, a side they suggest leaving undisturbed by works. The year’s 5 Yellow visits its palace, the north-east, in 2025 and 2034.

Across traditions

• The solar terms: on luopan plates that carry a ring of the solar terms, Chou goes with the Major Cold, the Sun at 300°, entering Aquarius in the Western zodiac.
• Ushitora: Japanese names the north-east after the Ox and the Tiger, whose mountains, Chou and Yin, flank Gen; Chou is its first half, ushi.

Origin and history

Chou is one of BaZi’s four storehouses, the Earth branches that close the seasons: Chou winter, Chen spring, Wei summer and Xu autumn. On the luopan the same four branches open the four corners, so that each corner begins with the earth that closes a season, and all four count as yin for the Flying Stars. Chou’s is the coldest of them, the Major Cold on the ring of terms, the last term of winter before the corner turns to spring.

How Ulune calculates it

Ulune finds the mountain a home faces from its magnetic facing, among 24 mountains of 15° counted from Ren at 337.5°: Chou takes every facing from 22.5° up to 37.5°, that edge belonging to the next, and the home sits in the mountain opposite, Wei. For the Flying Stars, Chou is the first mountain of a corner palace, of the group the classics call the Earth dragon, and so counts as yin: when the stars look to it for their flight, it sends a star backward. Its replacement star, from the classical verse, is 7, which takes the place of the number going to the centre when, near an edge, it is the mountain that decides.

Correspondences