The Hour of Birth (Sheng Shi)

The hour is the grave site — mind the foundation

If the month is the house, the hour is where things come to rest: the text calls it the grave, the final placement. Its hidden stem is again a working spirit, and it sets the foundation's orientation — the direction a life's results are actually laid down in. The two chapters together give the reader the two anchors of the chart: what season you were born into, and where your outcomes settle.