Twelve-Day Earthly-Branch Model of the Three Yin and Three Yang
The Three Yin and Three Yang model distinguishes host qi from guest qi on the annual scale, but its ordered symmetry is also reproduced in shorter cycles measured in days. This is the twelve-day Earthly-Branch time model of the Three Yin and Three Yang. The model is presented as a key for interpreting many otherwise puzzling judgments in Zhang Zhongjing’s Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases, such as how many days a Taiyang disorder may take to transmit or when it may resolve spontaneously. The core first-principles proposition is the daily intervention of the Six Qi of Earthly-Branch timing upon cyclical impedance in the human channel network. Symmetrical with the ten-day Heavenly-Stem model, this model treats twelve Earthly-Branch days as one complete cycle. Within it, each of the six core energies of the Three Yin and Three Yang takes its turn governing the temporal character of one day. This daily rotation of the Six Qi in the external world is treated as a strong intervention signal that can excite or suppress the channel network when the body is in a pathological state.
