Winter

Winter is read as storage — the stage where activity goes inward and is held rather than spent. Winter belongs to Water, north, and maximum yin. Traditional reading treats it as conservation rather than as barrenness.

Natural features are read by state and conditions. Winter is read as storage — the stage where activity goes inward and is held rather than spent. Traditional readings look at whether it is calm or disturbed, near or distant. Something growing in winter is the classic variant, read as activity maintained against the conditions rather than because of them.

Sources are explicit that winter is a storing phase; what is kept through it is what the following cycle runs on. It is grouped under Water (水) in the five-element system.