Dressing冠帶

Dressing is named after the old coming-of-age rite, when a formal cap was set on the head and a sash tied at the waist. After the washing and grooming of Bathing, this third stage puts on adult clothes and shows its face to the world. It is pictured as a time when pride and the wish to act under your own name grow side by side. The strength is not fully ripe, but it has taken on bearing and posture. The stage comes to mind for awareness of how others see you, a wish to be recognised, and a spirit that holds its ground in a contest.

• 冠cap, formal headwear (Korean reading: gwan)
• 帶sash, belt (Korean reading: dae)

Putting on the cap and tying the sash: the dress that announced someone had come of age.

Dressing lies two seats from Sprouting. A yang Day Master counts two branches forward and a yin Day Master counts two back. Since yang Fire and yang Earth share a Sprouting branch, they also share a Dressing branch two steps further on, while yin Water reaches Dressing two steps behind its own Sprouting seat. Whatever the stem, Dressing falls on one of the four Earth branches, which the table lists stem by stem.

Placed in the month or day branch, Dressing is interpreted as a drive fuelled by the wish to show yourself and be recognised. It carries regard for face and principle and a readiness to sign your name to the work you take on. Comparing yourself with others a little less helps that push go further. Without Dressing, the reading leans toward a plain, unfussy focus on your own pace over outside eyes.

A 壬 (Ren) Day Master reaches Dressing at 戌 (Xu), two steps on from its Sprouting branch 申 (Shen) by way of 酉 (You). The yin stem 辛 (Xin) counts backward and arrives at the same 戌.

• A common idea

  Dressing points to a generous, easygoing nature.

  How we read it

  The mix-up starts in Korean, where the stage's reading, gwandae, sounds like the word for generous. The name refers to the cap and sash of adult dress, so this service reads it closer to pride and an urge to step forward.

• A common idea

  Dressing is already the fully grown stage.

  How we read it

  The clothes are adult, but the strength has not reached its top. Standing and Peak still come after Dressing in the sequence, so this service sees it as a seat with further to climb.

A method that runs yin stems forward like yang ones would give a 癸 (Gui) Day Master its Dressing at 戌 (Xu), the same as for 壬 (Ren). This service counts 癸 in reverse and places its Dressing at 丑 (Chou), so for 癸 the branch 戌 is Easing rather than Dressing.