You · Rooster

Meaning

You is the tenth Earthly Branch: the branch of the Rooster, of the west, of the double hour of sunset, from five to seven in the evening, and of the eighth month of the Chinese year, the one that holds the autumn equinox. It is Metal, yin and pure: the gathered harvest, the year’s work completed and put in order. The character 酉 is a jar of wine, the shape it still lends to 酒 jiǔ, wine; Xu Shen explained it by 就 jiù, to accomplish: in the eighth month, he wrote, the millet is ripe and can be made into wine.

It is read as precision, diligence and a sense of order: the eye of the Rooster for detail, pride in work done well, frankness, and the pleasure of a task finished and a table set. You likes things clear, sorted and fair. Its difficulty is the sharpness of the season: a critical eye turned on others or on itself, high standards that leave little room for rest, and a need to have everything right before it can enjoy what is there.

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

In practice

• In BaZi, You holds Xin alone, so a You in the chart is pure Metal. It is the Prosperity of Xin and the Peak of Geng, which makes it Geng’s Sword Edge; it is the Birth of Ding and Ji, the Nobleman of Bing and Ding and the Academic star of Ding and Ji. A You month, from Bailu, about 8 September, to Hanlu, about 8 October, is autumn at its height, Metal at its strongest.
• Its relations: You is in harmony with Chen, a pair that leans towards Metal; it is the peak of the Metal trine with Si and Chou, and the middle of the autumn trio with Shen and Xu. It clashes with Mao, harms Xu, forms a destruction with Zi, and punishes itself when it meets itself.
• In Chinese astrology, You is the Rooster: 2017 was a Fire Rooster year and 2029 will be an Earth Rooster year.
• In Feng Shui, You is the middle mountain of the west, from 262.5° to 277.5°, a yin one for the Flying Stars.

Across traditions

• In Japan the branch is read tori, the bird; in Korea yu; in Vietnam Dậu. The Mid-Autumn Festival, on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the Chinese calendar, falls in or close to the You month, with its full moon and its harvest.
• The Yi Jing’s sovereign hexagram for the You month is Contemplation (Guan, the 20th): four broken lines beneath two whole ones, a time to look at what the year has given.
• Western astrology begins Libra at the autumn equinox, in the middle of the You month: the sign of balance and of fair measure, close to You’s sense of order and of things weighed after the harvest.

Origin and history

You is one of the branch characters of the Shang oracle bones, already drawn as a pointed jar for wine; the same shape is the key of many characters for fermented things, wine, vinegar, sauce. The Huainanzi (139 BC) sets You at the west and at the autumn equinox; Sima Qian called it the ageing of the ten thousand things, Ban Gu wrote that they are kept and ripened in You, and Xu Shen’s Shuowen Jiezi (c. 100) explained it by the millet ready for wine. Sunset, the double hour of You, is also the hour when the rooster goes to roost.

BaZi’s classics read You as the purest Metal among the branches, the peak of the Metal trine whose birth is Si and whose storehouse is Chou, as the Huainanzi sets out the three branches of each phase. The Yuanhai Ziping of the Song dynasty and the San Ming Tong Hui of the Ming count it among the four Peach Blossom branches, with Zi, Mao and Wu.

How Ulune calculates it

Ulune numbers You 9 among the branches. The You month runs from the exact moment of Bailu, the Sun at 165°, to Hanlu, the Sun at 195°, and holds Qiufen, the equinox, at 180°; the You hour is 17:00 to 19:00 on true solar time at the birthplace by default. In BaZi’s balance its hidden Xin counts one point of Metal, two in the month branch. You is one of the four branches Ulune reads as punishing themselves, with Chen, Wu and Hai; and for a year or day branch of the Shen, Zi and Chen trine it is the Peach Blossom, for one of its own trine the General.

Correspondences