Earthly Branch · 5 of 12
Dragon辰
Dragon is the fifth of the twelve Earthly Branches. It is wet yang Earth, east-south-east, and the double hour from 7 to 9 in the morning. Yi lodges on Dragon.
- 子Rat23–1
- 丑Ox1–3
- 寅Tiger3–5
- 卯Rabbit5–7
- 辰Dragon7–9
- 巳Snake9–11
- 午Horse11–13
- 未Goat13–15
- 申Monkey15–17
- 酉Rooster17–19
- 戌Dog19–21
- 亥Pig21–23
Term details
| Chinese | 辰、天罡 |
|---|---|
| Pinyin | chén |
| Standard name | Dragon |
| First mention | Dragon (Chen 辰) |
| Order | 5 of 12 |
| Element | Earth |
| Yin or yang | yang |
|---|---|
| Double hour | 07:00 to 09:00 |
| Direction | east-south-east |
| As Monthly General | Libra, from Autumn Equinox |
| Clashes with | Dog 戌 |
| Stems lodged here | Yi 乙 |
Etymology
In oracle-bone script 辰 pictures a farm tool for clearing weeds, by one view the shell of a large clam (the original form of 蜃), since clam shells served as blades in early farming. The character 農 "farming" is written with it for that reason.
The Shuowen Jiezi, the Han dynasty dictionary, assigns it to the third month: "to shake; yang breath stirs, thunder and lightning shake, and it is the people's time to farm", and adds that 辰 is the star 房, which marks the seasons. From there the character came to mean an hour, a day, and the stars, as in the words for the heavenly bodies and a fine day; the branch takes its name from this. Its zodiac animal is the dragon. The Chinese dragon is a water spirit that brings rain, a sign of good fortune, not the fire-breathing monster of Western legend that a knight must slay.
The Old Chinese pronunciation is reconstructed as *[d]ər (Baxter and Sagart). Middle Chinese was dzyin.
Significations
- people
- chiefs, leaders, commanders, those who come first, inspectors and law enforcers, military officers, butchers, executioners
- matters
- quarrels, struggle, war, fights, inspection, prisons and punishment, arrest, domination
- things
- passes, city gates, checkpoints, walls, reservoirs, jars and water tanks, bricks and tiles, nets
- body
- the head, the throat, the neck, skin and flesh, damp in the body, swelling of the skin
- animals
- the dragon, the serpent, the whale, fish
- places
- the sea, low ground by water, marshes, ridges, dykes, frontier strongholds, monasteries, graves
- direction and time
- the south-east, the Dragon hour
- weather
- the judge between fair and wet
As the Monthly General
Dragon is the Monthly General from Autumn Equinox 秋分, when the Sun enters Libra, until the next solar term of the same kind. In the chart it is written as the Dragon general. Its classical name is 天罡, which the classical texts use far less often than the name of the branch itself.
Source text
Dragon is strife and lawsuits, and governs death and mourning too. The Dragon general governs fighting and lawsuits; it is also called the heavenly prison and the heavenly net, and governs death.
辰為斗訟兼主喪亡。○天罡主斗爭詞訟，亦名天牢，又名天羅，主死亡。
Sources: 大六壬指南 卷一、卷二、卷三天时章与迁移章; 六壬课经 斩关、死奇、天狱、二烦; 毕法赋 罡塞鬼户任谋为; 毕法赋注解 四、四十七、五十二; 类神释义表 天罡辰