Good morning, Karin!
I forgot to ask you a question: In the Branches correlations’ table (pages 162-3), I see Zi – Kidney, Hai – Bladder, and also Si – Small Intestine, Wu – Heart; shouldn’t they be reversed? I mean, Zi/Hai are Yang/Yin Water and the ZangFu correlation, as far as I knew, should have been Bladder/Kidney; with the same logic in my mind, Si/Wu are Yin/Yang Fire, so, shouldn’t they be related to Heart/Small Intestine? I read that in the other Branches, the correlation is as I thought (Yin/Mao are Yang/Yin Wood, and the correlation is Gallbladder/Liver, etc.).
Thanks and have a nice evening,
Dario
Hello again Dario,
Thank you for another thoughtful question! The Yin and Yang qualities of the Earthly Branches is much more complicated than noting the simple Yin or Yang characteristics of the Heavenly Stems. The Earthly Branches have three YinYang classification systems – each Branch may be classified as both Yin and Yang, depending on context.
The summary charts provided in Calculating the BaZi are intended to be helpful when learning this calculation method. In order to gain more insight into what the calculations mean (i.e. interpreting the BaZi), however, it is essential that we use other resources to study the meanings of the Stems and Branches in greater depth.
From your questions, it sounds like you are interested in diving deeper into this knowledge! My husband and I discuss the subtleties of each of the 22 GanZhi symbols in detail in our Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches book. Both of these books are required study material for participants of our GanZhi Advanced Daoist Arts training program.
I hope this helps!
Calculating the BaZi 