Sprouting長生

Sprouting opens the cycle of the Twelve Life Stages. It is the seat where the Day Master's strength first comes into the world and begins to grow. Early writers compared the way each element swells and ebbs through the year to a single human life, and this stage is where that story starts. The strength is still small but has the widest room ahead. The name comes up when looking at an eagerness to learn, a welcome for unfamiliar work, and growth that takes root with help. All five yang stems find it within one shared set of four branches.

• 長long, lasting (Korean reading: jang)
• 生to be born, life (Korean reading: saeng)

A life just begun with a long way to grow: a starting point with the road wide open.

This service finds every stage by counting from Sprouting, and each of the ten stems has exactly one Sprouting branch, listed in the table below. From there a yang Day Master steps forward through the usual order of the twelve branches, and a yin Day Master walks the same ring backward. The two Earth stems borrow the seats of Fire: yang Earth begins where yang Fire does, and yin Earth where yin Fire does.

Wherever Sprouting sits, the reading points to curiosity and a capacity to learn. Several Sprouting seats describe someone who settles quickly into new surroundings and starts unfamiliar tasks without hesitation. No Sprouting does not mean the drive to begin is short; many people put their strength into deepening what they already know. A Luck Pillar branch bringing Sprouting suggests ten years for learning something new and giving it a try.

A 丙 (Bing) Day Master reaches Sprouting at 寅 (Yin). Because Earth follows Fire, a 戊 (Wu) Day Master meets it at the same 寅, while the yin stem 丁 (Ding) turns back and meets it at 酉 (You).

• A common idea

  Sprouting means a long life.

  How we read it

  The hope comes from a tradition that welcomes this stage, plus the first character of the original name, which means long. This service does not use Sprouting as a sign of lifespan or bodily condition; it reads a drive to begin and to learn.

• A common idea

  There is no true Sprouting stage for yin stems.

  How we read it

  An older view that denies yin stems a Sprouting of their own does exist. This service counts yin stems along a reversed path, so none of the five is left without a Sprouting branch.

A Qing-era commentary on the classic Di Tian Sui keeps Sprouting to 寅 (Yin), 申 (Shen), 巳 (Si), and 亥 (Hai), and does not accept 子 (Zi), 午 (Wu), 卯 (Mao), or 酉 (You) as yin Sprouting seats. On that view 乙 (Yi) would begin at 亥, like 甲 (Jia), rather than at 午; this service rates 午 as the Sprouting of 乙.