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Branch 6 of 12 · Si (Snake)

The Snake branch (巳) — Yin Fire, Southeast, 09:00–11:00

The Snake branch is number 6 of the twelve: yin Fire, the animal Snake, the 4th month (beginning at Start of Summer), the hour 09:00–11:00, direction Southeast, season Summer. Below are the structural facts — hidden stems, six-harmony, clash, harm, punishment, trine and meeting — plus which of the twelve stages each of the ten stems occupies on this branch. All of it is computed and checkable; none of it is a personality verdict.

Computed facts (engine-verified)

This page is generated from the engine v0.14.0, not hand-written; structural facts reconcile against the methodology page.

Branch Si (Snake) · position 6 of 12
Polarityyin (even position — consistent with the stem pairs in the sixty-cycle)
ElementFire 火
AnimalSnake 蛇
Month4th month · begins at Start of Summer (立夏)
Hour09:00–11:00
DirectionSoutheast (东南)
SeasonSummer
Hidden stems Bing Yang Fire (main, Fire); Geng Yang Metal (middle, Metal); Wu Yang Earth (residual, Earth)

How this branch relates to the others

Branch relations are fixed tables — combination, clash, harm, punishment, trine and meeting each have a defined membership. This site computes them from those tables and does not add the popular "once combined, everything improves" clause.

Six harmony Shen (Monkey) — combines into Water
Six clash Hai (Pig)
Six harm Yin (Tiger)
PunishmentPunishment of Arrogance: Yin (Tiger), Shen (Monkey)
Three harmonyMetal trine: Si (Snake) You (Rooster) Chou (Ox)
MeetingSouth Fire meeting: Si (Snake) Wu (Horse) Wei (Goat)

Where the ten stems stand on this branch

The twelve stages describe how strong a stem is on a given branch. Yang stems run forward, yin stems run backward, so each of the ten stems lands on exactly one stage per branch. The ten rows below are computed; the stage names link to their full definitions.

StemStage on this branchPosition
Jia Yang Wood (yang Wood)Illness7 of 12
Yi Yin Wood (yin Wood)Bathing2 of 12
Bing Yang Fire (yang Fire)Official Post4 of 12
Ding Yin Fire (yin Fire)Prosperity5 of 12
Wu Yang Earth (yang Earth)Official Post4 of 12
Ji Yin Earth (yin Earth)Prosperity5 of 12
Geng Yang Metal (yang Metal)Birth1 of 12
Xin Yin Metal (yin Metal)Death8 of 12
Ren Yang Water (yang Water)Extinction10 of 12
Gui Yin Water (yin Water)Conception11 of 12

The five pillars containing this branch

Each branch appears in five of the sixty pillars (a yang branch only pairs with yang stems, a yin branch only with yin stems). Every pillar has its own page:

Ji Si · Xin Si · Gui Si · Yi Si · Ding Si

A note on what this page deliberately does not do: the popular versions of this material assign a fixed personality to each term — one character per branch, one destiny per stage. This site rejects that framing. What is published here is a structural position: which element sits where, on what kind of ground, with which tenants inside. The same term reads differently under a different month command, and no meaningful judgement exists without the other characters of the chart. Where the tradition offers a reading it is labelled as the tradition's; this site's own contribution is that every number and term on this page is computed, versioned and checkable against the methodology page.

Frequently asked

What is the Snake branch?
It is number 6 of the twelve branches: yin Fire, the animal Snake, the 4th month (beginning at Start of Summer), the hour 09:00–11:00, direction Southeast. Its hidden stems are Bing + Geng + Wu.
Which hours belong to the Snake hour?
The Snake hour covers 09:00–11:00. This site treats the hour as a two-hour block and publishes both conventions for the 23:00 day change (the mainstream Zi Ping rule that rolls to the next day, and the midnight rule) — see the methodology page.
Which branches combine with or clash with Snake?
Six harmony: Shen (Monkey) (combining into Water). Clash: Hai (Pig). Harm: Yin (Tiger). Trine: Si (Snake), You (Rooster), Chou (Ox). Meeting: Si (Snake), Wu (Horse), Wei (Goat). These are fixed table relations and every one of them is checkable on this page.
Is the Snake branch good or bad?
A single branch is neither. Snake is a structural position: its element, its hidden stems and its relations to the other branches only mean something inside a whole chart. Any source that grades an individual branch as lucky or unlucky is claiming more than the system itself does.

Nearby branches

Chen (Dragon) ←  ·  → Wu (Horse)

Reference index

Every enumerable component of ba zi has its own page here. Each page is computed by the same engine and can be checked item by item — none of it is a personality table.