Mao · Rabbit

Meaning

Mao is the fourth Earthly Branch: the branch of the Rabbit, of the east, of the double hour of sunrise, from five to seven in the morning, and of the second month of the Chinese year, which holds the spring equinox. It is Wood, yin and pure: the green of a spring meadow, growth everywhere at once. Xu Shen’s dictionary explains it by 冒 mào, to push up and through: in the second month the ten thousand things break out of the ground, and the character, he says, is the picture of a gate standing open.

It is read as gentleness, grace and sociability, the courtesy of the Rabbit, a gift for harmony and for making a place pleasant, and the quiet persistence of grass that comes back however often it is cut. Mao opens doors more than it forces them. Its difficulty is the tenderness of new leaves: it can shy away from conflict, give way too easily, or wait for perfect conditions that spring never quite provides.

As one of the four cardinal branches, with Zi, Wu and You, Mao holds a single phase: its only hidden stem is Yi, yin Wood. It is the peak of the Wood trine and the heart of spring’s three branches, and across the circle it faces You, the heart of autumn, the season of the harvest that its sowing prepares.

In practice

• In BaZi, Mao holds Yi alone, so a Mao in the chart is pure Wood. It is the Prosperity of Yi and the Peak of Jia, which is why it is Jia’s Sword Edge; it is the Nobleman of Ren and Gui, the Academic star of Gui, and the Peach Blossom for a year or day branch of the Yin, Wu and Xu trine. A Mao month, from Jingzhe, about 6 March, to Qingming, about 5 April, is spring at its height, when Wood is at its strongest.
• Its relations: Mao is in harmony with Xu, a pair that leans towards Fire; it is the peak of the Wood trine with Hai and Wei, and the middle of the spring trio with Yin and Chen. It clashes with You, harms Chen, forms the “uncivil” punishment with Zi, and a destruction with Wu.
• In Chinese astrology, Mao is the Rabbit: 2023 was a Water Rabbit year, 2035 will be a Wood Rabbit year.
• In Feng Shui, Mao is the middle mountain of the east, from 82.5° to 97.5°, a yin one for the Flying Stars.

Across traditions

• In Japan the branch is read u, the rabbit; in Korea myo; in Vietnam Mão, and there its animal is the cat.
• In old China officials answered the roll call at the hour of Mao, at dawn: “to answer the Mao”, 點卯 diǎnmǎo, still means to clock in, or to show up for form’s sake.
• The Yi Jing’s sovereign hexagram for the Mao month is Great Power (Da Zhuang, the 34th), four whole lines under two broken ones; and Western astrology’s Aries begins at the equinox in the middle of this month, both reading the moment when growth becomes force.

Origin and history

Mao is one of the branch characters of the Shang oracle bones, written as two shapes facing each other, which the Han read as the two leaves of an open door. The Huainanzi (139 BC) puts Mao at the east, at the equinox of spring; Ban Gu wrote that things push out and thrive in Mao, and Xu Shen’s Shuowen Jiezi (c. 100) that in the second month they break through the ground, under the sign of the open gate. The east, the direction of sunrise, has remained Mao’s on every compass since.

BaZi’s classics read Mao as the purest Wood among the branches, and the four cardinal branches as the strongest of their phases. Its books, from the Yuanhai Ziping of the Song dynasty to the San Ming Tong Hui of the Ming, also call Zi, Wu, Mao and You the Peach Blossom branches, the places of charm and attraction in a chart, which Ulune reads from the year and day branches.

How Ulune calculates it

Ulune numbers Mao 3 among the branches. The Mao month runs from the exact moment of Jingzhe, the Sun at 345°, to Qingming, the Sun at 15°, and holds Chunfen, the equinox, at 0°; the Mao hour is 05:00 to 07:00 on true solar time at the birthplace by default. In BaZi’s balance its hidden Yi counts one point of Wood, two in the month branch. Its relations follow the rules on the branches’ places, the uncivil punishment of Zi and Mao being one of the three fixed groups.

Correspondences