Gui Hai · Yin Water Pig
In Chinese: 癸亥
Gui Hai, the Yin Water Pig, last of the sixty: rain over the winter sea, gentle, intuitive and open, the cycle’s close.
Meaning
Gui Hai closes the cycle, the last stem on the last branch, after which Jia Zi begins again. Rain falls on the Pig’s winter water, a stem on its own phase at its peak, and the tradition reads gentleness, tolerance and an intuition that gathers everything in before the new start.
Gui over Hai: yin Water over yin Water, a stem standing on its own phase.
Gui, Yin Water, is the rain and the dew: gentle, everywhere, giving life quietly. The Pig is generous, sincere and good-natured.
The zodiac reads a Gui Hai year as the Water Pig’s. The Water Pig is the gentlest of the Pigs: intuitive, tolerant, open to everyone. Its kindness is real, and it does well to trust its own good judgement.
Its Na Yin, shared with Ren Xu, is Water of the great sea (大海水 dàhǎi shuǐ): a sound of Water, heard beside the pillar’s Water.
In practice
- As a year, from Lichun, around 4 February: 1803, 1863, 1923, 1983, 2043, 2103 and 2163, in the 1800–2200 table.
- As a month: the Pig month of every Wu or Gui year, opened by Start of Winter, as in the solar years 2023 and 2028.
- As a day, every sixty days: in 2026, on 18 February, 19 April, 18 June, 17 August, 16 October and 15 December.
- As an hour: the Pig’s double hour, 21:00–23:00, of Wu and Gui days.
- As a day pillar, its stem is the Day Master, Gui, sitting on Hai, the partner palace: Hai holds Ren and Jia, Gui’s Rob Wealth and Hurting Officer, and Gui stands at its Peak stage there.
- As a luck pillar or a year, it brings each Day Master the god of its stem and the god of its branch’s main qi: the Correspondences below give them for all ten.
Across traditions
- In Japan, Korea and Vietnam the same pillar is mizunoto-i, gyehae and Quý Hợi, with each language’s readings of 癸 and 亥.
How Ulune calculates it
Gui Hai is the 60th of the sixty pillars: the 10th of the ten stems over the 12th of the twelve branches, which the cycle moves on one step together, so that a stem only ever meets the branches of its polarity. Ulune counts a year’s pillar from Lichun, 1984 being Jia Zi; a month’s twelve a year through the cycle, from Bing Yin in the Tiger month of 1984 (the rule of the five tigers); a day’s by the count of days, 1 January 2000 being Wu Wu; an hour’s twelve a day (the rule of the five rats).
Gui Hai belongs to the ten-day week from Jia Yin to Gui Hai, whose stems meet the branches from Yin to Hai and leave out Zi and Chou: for a day pillar of this week, those are the empty branches. Its Na Yin is the 30th of the thirty, one for each two pillars.
Correspondences
| Correspondence | Gui Hai |
|---|---|
| Characters, pinyin | 癸亥 guǐhài |
| Place in the cycle | 60 of 60 |
| Stem | Gui, yin Water |
| Branch | Hai, the Pig, yin Water |
| Hidden in the branch | Ren 70, Jia 30 |
| Stem and branch | Water over Water, one phase |
| Na Yin | Water of the great sea, with Ren Xu |
| Its stem’s stage in its branch | Peak |
| Ten-day week | Jia Yin to Gui Hai; empty branches Zi and Chou |
| Its stem, for each Day Master | Jia → Direct Resource, Yi → Indirect Resource, Bing → Direct Officer, Ding → Seven Killings, Wu → Direct Wealth, Ji → Indirect Wealth, Geng → Hurting Officer, Xin → Eating God, Ren → Rob Wealth, Gui → Companion |
| Its branch’s main qi, for each Day Master | Jia → Indirect Resource, Yi → Direct Resource, Bing → Seven Killings, Ding → Direct Officer, Wu → Indirect Wealth, Ji → Direct Wealth, Geng → Eating God, Xin → Hurting Officer, Ren → Companion, Gui → Rob Wealth |
| Years, 1800–2200 | 1803, 1863, 1923, 1983, 2043, 2103, 2163 |
| Month | Pig month of Wu and Gui years |
| Hour | Pig hour, 21:00–23:00, of Wu and Gui days |
| Before and after | Ren Xu, Jia Zi |
| Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese | Mizunoto-i, gyehae, Quý Hợi |
Related
- Gui · Yin WaterThe tenth and last Heavenly Stem, yin Water: rain, dew and mist, a quiet water that seeps everywhere, nourishes from within and closes the cycle.
- Hai · PigThe twelfth and last Earthly Branch, yin Water: the Pig, the start of winter and the late evening, roots resting in the dark until the year begins again.
- PigThe twelfth and last of the animals, the Pig of the branch Hai: generous, sincere and good-natured, it enjoys life and gives without counting.
- Water of the great seaWater of the great sea, the Na Yin of Ren Xu and Gui Hai: the ocean that receives every river, vast, deep and all-embracing.
- Ren Xu · Yang Water DogRen Xu, the Yang Water Dog: a river meeting the dry autumn hills, understanding, kind and loyal.
- Jia Zi · Yang Wood RatJia Zi, the Yang Wood Rat, first of the sixty: a tall tree over winter water, a beginning fed from below before it shows.
Sources
- Sima Qian, Shiji, c. 94 BC
- Ban Gu, Hanshu, 1st century
- Xu Sheng (ed.), Yuanhai Ziping, Song dynasty
- Wan Minying, San Ming Tong Hui, 16th century
- Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 3, 1959