Mao卯

The oracle glyph of Mao is a pair of doors swung open. The Shuowen: "Mao means to burst forth — in the second month all things push up through the soil, the image of opening gates." Mid-spring is the year's front door of vitality, and Mao is that door.

It hides pure Yi — the most concentrated garden of flowers and vines in the cycle. Directly opposite stands You (pure Xin): the eastern garden facing the western armory. The Mao-You axis is the boundary line between growing and reaping.

Mao is Yi Wood's Lu throne and Wood's imperial peak — the Hai-Mao-Wei frame takes it as center. A single hidden stem means undivided energy: Mao's Wood discounts nothing, feeding Fire, breaking Earth and draining Water at full rate.

Second-month wood has emerged but not yet hardened, so Metal is its dread — "tender wood meeting the blade" is the standing homework of Mao-month charts. Spring wood wants Bing Fire to flower and Gui Water at the root; the seasonal recipe is unusually clear.

Mao-Xu is a six-combination (into Fire) — spring wood embracing the dry vault, fire smoldering between them. Hai-Mao-Wei forms the Wood frame around Mao's peak. Mao versus You is a cardinal clash: axe against garden, read in matters of tendon and bone, hard decisions, east-west running.

Zi-Mao is the "punishment of rudeness" — mother Water and child Wood turning grace into grievance. Mao also harms Chen. A soft branch, Mao lacks counterpunch when clashed or punished; it wants Hai and Wei closing ranks, or a Jia stem overhead, for backbone.

In the pillars Mao delivers Yi Wood at full strength: a Yi Day Master takes it as Lu (a weak Yi finds its root here); a Jia Day Master takes it as the Blade — power in excess, wanting Officer stars to bridle it. To Fire, Earth, Metal and Water Day Masters it reads as Resource, Officer, Wealth and Output respectively.

Mao is one of the four Peach Blossom branches (Zi, Wu, Mao, You). Peach Blossom in a chart means charm and social gravity — a gift to manage, not a scandal to fear.

The Mao hour (5–7 a.m.) was "sunrise watch," when government offices took attendance — "checking in at Mao" remains everyday Chinese for showing up at work two thousand years later.

The Mao month is the lunar second: the Flower Festival (every blossom's birthday) falls here, and so does "the Dragon lifts its head" on the second day of the second month. Everything bursting out, dragons waking, flowers celebrating — all inside this opened door.