Grave (Mu) — The Ninth of the Twelve Stages
In a Nutshell
The ninth of the Twelve Stages, also called "Storehouse": where the Five Elements return to storage — Jia Wood's Grave falls on Wei.
Quick facts
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Stage position | Ninth of the Twelve Stages |
| Alternate name | Storehouse (Ku) |
| Jia Wood's Grave | Wei |
| Yi Wood's Grave | Xu (yin stems count backward) |
What is Grave (Mu)?
Grave is the ninth stage of the "Twelve Stages," also called "Storehouse" (Ku) — the place where the Five Elements' qi returns to be stored. The counting is yang-forward, yin-backward: take Jia Wood — Jia's Birth is at Hai, and counting forward, Hai is Birth, Zi is Bath, Chou is Coming of Age, Yin is Arrival, Mao is Peak, Chen is Decline, Si is Sickness, Wu is Death, and the ninth position, Wei, is Grave. For the yin stem Yi Wood, Birth is at Wu, and counting backward, the ninth position, Xu, is Grave. In other words, a Jia Wood Day Master meeting Wei, or an Yi Wood Day Master meeting Xu, is the Day Master traveling into the "Grave" ground.
The image of "Grave" is storage: like the myriad things returning to the soil, goods put away in a warehouse — the Five Elements' qi gathered here. The four branches Chen, Xu, Chou, and Wei are called the "Four Storehouses": exactly where each element's Grave-Storehouse sits — Jia Wood's Grave at Wei, Bing Fire's at Xu, Geng Metal's at Chou, Ren Water's at Chen. Tradition has the saying "in season it is a storehouse, out of season it is a grave": the same branch is called "Storehouse" (a warehouse well stocked) when the element holds the season's command, and "Grave" (a still, sealed store) when it does not — the name changes with flourishing or fading, while the branch stays the same.
The complete order of the Twelve Stages and the yang-forward / yin-backward rule are set out in the *San Ming Tong Hui* (Book 2, on the Five Elements lodging in the twelve palaces) and the *Zi Ping Zhen Quan* ("On the Life and Death of Yin and Yang"); the original passages are quoted below. MoZhu's Twelve Stages lookup tool uses the yang-forward / yin-backward counting and shows the stage of each of the Four Pillars' stems.
"Grave" describes only one link of the Five Elements' return to storage — one auxiliary concept for reading the Day Master's strength and for Symbolic Stars lookups (the Canopy Star, for example, is taken from the Grave-Storehouse branch). This page introduces the stage's meaning, the lookup method, and the classical account, and draws no inferences from it.
Classical sources
"The Five Elements lodge in twelve palaces: Birth, Bathing, Cap and Belt, Official Post, Emperor, Decline, Sickness, Death, Grave, Extinction, Conception, Nurture, circling without end."
Plain words: The fixed order of the Twelve Stages.
Source: *San Ming Tong Hui*, Book 2, "On the Prosperity and Decline of the Five Elements and Their Lodging in the Twelve Palaces" — original: 五行寄生十二宫：长生、沐浴、冠带、临官、帝旺、衰、病、死、墓、绝、胎、养，循环无端，周而复始。
"The San Ming Ti Yao says: … twelfth, Grave, also called Storehouse: the myriad things, their work complete, are stored away, as a person at the end returns to the grave."
Plain words: The Grave, also called the Storehouse, is where things are stored after their work is done; Chen, Xu, Chou and Wei are the four storehouses. Jia Wood's Grave is at Wei, Yi Wood's at Xu.
Source: *San Ming Tong Hui*, Book 2, "On the Prosperity and Decline of the Five Elements and Their Lodging in the Twelve Palaces", quoting the *San Ming Ti Yao* — original: 《三命提要》云：……十二曰墓，又曰库，以万物成功而藏之库，如人之终而归墓也。
"Yang gathers and advances, so it runs forward; yin disperses and retreats, so it runs backward. That is why Birth, Bathing and the rest differ, forward for yang and backward for yin."
Plain words: Yang stems count forward, yin stems backward, so the two stems of one element land on different branches.
Source: *Zi Ping Zhen Quan*, "On the Life and Death of Yin and Yang" — original: 阳主聚，以进为进，故主顺；阴主散，以退为退，故主逆。长生沐浴等项，所以有阳顺阴逆之殊也。
*For entertainment purposes only.*