Meaning
The Pig is the twelfth and last animal of the cycle of earthly branches, and its branch is named Hai. Its theme fits in one sentence: the generosity that gives without counting, sometimes at its own expense.
The first trait is sincerity. The Pig says what it thinks and does what it says, without hidden ground and without calculating position. It readily grants others the same simplicity, and that is where its naivety comes from: not from a lack of intelligence, but from a refusal to suspect. It has to have been deceived before it will consider that it could be deceived.
Then comes tolerance. The Pig puts up with differences, slowness and clumsiness that other signs would not put up with. Its breadth is not indifference: it is a capacity to take in, which comes from Water, the element of conservation, what goes down, keeps a reserve and waits for its hour.
The third trait is enjoyment, in the full sense: a taste for the table, for rest, for shared comfort, for pleasure taken without guilt. The Pig does not deprive itself and does not deprive others. Its generosity and its appetite are the same movement, turned once outward and once toward itself.
The point of fragility is the counting. Giving without counting presupposes a reserve, and the reserve is not endless. The Pig realises late that it has given too much, and it then rarely holds it against whoever took.
A methodological note, valid for all twelve signs. The animal of the year is only one character out of the eight in a BaZi chart: the branch of the year pillar. The month, the day and the hour carry their own stems and their own branches, which can qualify this portrait in either direction.
The branch and its element
The branch Hai carries Water Yin. It is one of the two Water branches of the cycle, along with Zi, the Rat’s.
Hai hides two heavenly stems, and the gap between the surface and the inside is the whole interest of the sign. Ren, Water Yang, is the dominant stem: it is the ocean, the great river, the vast water that carries everything and will not be contained. Under a Yin branch, therefore a discreet one, sits an amplitude that nothing announces.
Jia, Wood Yang, is the second hidden stem: the great tree, the hard wood that grows straight and does not bend. It brings the Pig an uprightness and a capacity for initiative that its good nature masks. It is also that Wood the San He trine of the next section comes to look for in this branch: the seed is already there.
The Pig holds the tenth BaZi month, the entry into winter, and the direction North-Northwest.
Alliances and clashes
Three relations structure the branch Hai. There are no others.
The Liu He alliance, the union of six, ties the Pig to the Tiger, branch Yin. The name of that branch does not designate polarity: branches carry proper names, which are not translated and cannot be deduced. The pair produces Wood: the alliance does not extend the Water of the Pig, it puts it to work.
The Liu Chong clash sets the Pig against the Snake, branch Si, the one that faces it on the cycle. The opposition pronounces no verdict: it describes a tension of axis between two contrary ways of handling the same question.
The San He trine gathers the Pig (Hai), the Rabbit (Mao) and the Goat (Wei). Together the three branches produce Wood, and the Pig holds the opening place in it, the one where the element is still in reserve rather than deployed.
These relations are read between branches, never directly between people. Two charts are neither matched nor opposed because their years carry the Pig and the Snake: the reading is done on the eight characters, and the year supplies only two of them.
Key facts
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Earthly branch | Hai, 12th and last of the cycle |
| Element and polarity | Water Yin |
| Hidden stems | Ren (Water Yang), Jia (Wood Yang) |
| Double hour | 9pm - 11pm |
| BaZi month | 10th month (November, after Lidong) |
| Season | Winter |
| Direction | North-Northwest |
| Liu He alliance | Tiger (Yin), the pair produces Wood |
| Liu Chong clash | Snake (Si) |
| San He trine | Pig, Rabbit, Goat, which produces Wood |
The recent years of the Pig, with the heavenly stem that accompanies them:
| Year | Heavenly stem |
|---|---|
| 1947 | Ding (Fire Yin) |
| 1959 | Ji (Earth Yin) |
| 1971 | Xin (Metal Yin) |
| 1983 | Gui (Water Yin) |
| 1995 | Yi (Wood Yin) |
| 2007 | Ding (Fire Yin) |
| 2019 | Ji (Earth Yin) |
| 2031 | Xin (Metal Yin) |
| 2043 | Gui (Water Yin) |
The stem changes at every occurrence: in 1983 and in 2043 it doubles the Water of the branch, in 1971 and in 2031 it brings Metal. Two Pigs born twelve years apart do not carry the same year pillar, which is enough to rule out the idea of a single portrait per animal.
Keywords
- generosity
- sincerity
- enjoyment
- naivety
- tolerance
