Dear Karin,
I am just reading your excellent book “Calculating the BaZi”. Unfortunately I have some problem to link the 12 months : January, February, March….November, December to the list of month branch / Zi, Chou,Yin,…….Xu,Hai. In your worked BAZI calculations (page 227) you relate January to Chou (2) and February to Yin (3), September to Shen (9), November to 11…that’s OK .In Exercise 7 you relate July to 8 (Wei), but according to the other values it should be 7! Or do I have a profund misunderstanding? I would be thankful for a clarifying explanation.
Hello Gabriel,
Thank you for your email! I think the Earthly Branches:Jie/Month Start chart found on pg 51 (in the Define the BaZi Month section of chapter 1) will help clarify this issue.
With respect to the BaZi calendar, the first day of the first month is approximately the 7th of December each year. The first month is Zi 子, which roughly corresponds to the time period of 7 December to 5 January, give or take a day or two on either end.
As an aside, if the birth day in question falls close to this monthly “start” date, please remember to check the appropriate Jie chart for the exact month start day and time.
According to the chart on page 51, the energy of the time period of approximately 7 July to 7 August each year is “Wei 未.” Wei 未 is the 8th month of the BaZi calendar. The MonthBranch number (#MB) for sample exercise #7 is 8.
I hope this helps!
Calculating the BaZi 