Q: Hi Karin!
It was all going so swimmingly (if you can swim through something glacierly slow!), but I stuck totally on the Ming Gong Branch
7 November 1966, 22:11
Month branch: Xu = 11
Hour branch: Hai = 12
Isn’t after JieQi, so don’t add 1
32 – (11 + 12) = 9 = Shen
You have Wei?
Looks like there is an add 1 – but I can’t figure out why?
A: Hi there! Thank you for the question. We need add 1 for dates falling after ZhongQi. He was born before the JieQi/beginning point of November in 1966, which also means that he was born after the ZhongQi/midpoint of October 1966.
Please check my response to a similar question if you need more details: https://calculatingthebazi.com/2022/05/20/practice-exercise-7-4-johnny-yang/
I hope this helps!
Calculating the BaZi 
The same issue seems to come into the 4th Question
Johnny Yang
I had his MGB as 9 or Shen
32= [11+12]
32-23 =9
You have it as (+1) 32-24 = 8 and Wei
The problem seems to be in understanding ZhongQi
For me the logic goes..
7th Nov is before 22nd Nov i.e in the first half of the month.
However 22:11 is after 21:27 and therefore is firmly IN November as such. Why add the extra 1?
with thanks again
Jeremy
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A: Hi Jeremy!
Yes, the JieQi/ZhongQi concept is a little tricky because it is different than the we use in the Western Gregorian calendar. While the beginning and middle of each Branch month is roughly correlated with the start of the calendar month, they do NOT fall on the 1st and 15th of each month.
See chapter 2 sections “JieQi versus LiChun”, “Define the BaZi Month” and “Earthly Branches:Jie/Month Start” for more details.
If the birthday in question falls close to the Jie/Month start (as indicated on the Earthly Branches:Jie/Month Start chart found in Chapter 2), please double check the exact details of the JieQi and ZhongQi in the JieQi charts found in the appendix in the back of the book.
In the case of Johnny Yang, born on 7 November 1966 @ 22:11 ♁, he was born very close to the start of the 12th month (Hai 亥) so we need to double check the November JieQi chart, and by doing so we see that in 1966, the Branch month starts on November 8 @ 04:55. Johnny Yang was therefore born before the beginning (JieQi) of the 12th Branch month, which means he was born after the middle (ZhongQi) of the 11th month, so we need to add 1.
I hope this helps!
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