About Sexagenary Cycle of Chinese Calendar…

Translated from blog post at http://LiYeSen.com

As I had mentioned in my previous blog post, the year of 2010 is the GengYin 庚寅 year in Chinese Lunar calendar (lunisolar calendar).

So, how does this GengYin came along?

The method, ‘Stems-branches Calendar Era’ 干支纪年 GanZhi JiNian is one of the ancient Chinese calendar. Calendar era is the year numbering system used by a calendar. It is a cyclic numeral system that combines of two basic cycles: – the ‘Ten Heavenly Stems’ 天干 TianGan, and ‘Twelve Earthly Branches’ 地支 DiZhi. The ‘Ten Heavenly Stems’ are Jia 甲, Yi 乙, Bing 丙, Ding 丁, Wu 戊, Ji 己, Geng 庚, Xin 辛, Ren 壬, and Gui 癸. The ‘Twelve Earthly Branches’ are Zhi 子, Chou 丑, Yin 寅, Mao 卯, Chen 辰, Si 巳, Wu 午, Wei 未, Shen 申, You 酉, Xu 戌, and Hai 亥. The combinations are matched in a fixed order and sequence, starting from JiaZhi 甲子 and ended with RenHai 癸亥. There are total of 60 combinations of ‘Ten Heavenly Stems’ and ‘Twelve Earthly Branches’. 60 combinations are referred to as one unit, one cycle. The cycle repeated itself again and again. That is why it is known as ‘Sixty JiaZhi’ 六十甲子 or ‘Sexagenary Cycle’ 六十花甲. GengYin 庚寅 is at the 27th position of the ‘Sexagenary Cycle’ (as shown in the table below).

Stem-Branch	Chinese name	Chinese name	Associations
1	甲子	jiǎ-zǐ	Yang Wood Rat
2	乙丑	yǐ-chǒu	Yin Wood Ox
3	丙寅	bǐng-yín	Yang Fire Tiger
4	丁卯	dīng-mǎo	Yin Fire Rabbit
5	戊辰	wù-chén	Yang Earth Dragon
6	己巳	jǐ-sì	Yin Earth Snake
7	庚午	gēng-wǔ	Yang Metal Horse
8	辛未	xīn-wèi	Yin Metal Sheep
9	壬申	rén-shēn	Yang Water Monkey
10	癸酉	guǐ-yǒu	Yin Water Chicken
11	甲戌	jiǎ-xū	Yang Wood Dog
12	乙亥	yǐ-hài	Yin Wood Pig
13	丙子	bǐng-zǐ	Yang Fire Rat
14	丁丑	dīng-chǒu	Yin Fire Ox
15	戊寅	wù-yín	Yang Earth Tiger
16	己卯	jǐ-mǎo	Yin Earth Rabbit
17	庚辰	gēng-chén	Yang Metal Dragon
18	辛巳	xīn-sì	Yin Metal Snake
19	壬午	rén-wǔ	Yang Water Horse
20	癸未	guǐ-wèi	Yin Water Sheep
21	甲申	jiǎ-shēn	Yang Wood Monkey
22	乙酉	yǐ-yǒu	Yin Wood Chicken
23	丙戌	bǐng-xū	Yang Fire Dog
24	丁亥	dīng-hài	Yin Fire Pig
25	戊子	wù-zǐ	Yang Earth Rat
26	己丑	jǐ-chǒu	Yin Earth Ox
27	庚寅	gēng-yín	Yang Metal Tiger
28	辛卯	xīn-mǎo	Yin Metal Rabbit
29	壬辰	rén-chén	Yang Water Dragon
30	癸巳	guǐ-sì	Yin Water Snake
31	甲午	jiǎ-wǔ	Yang Wood Horse
32	乙未	yǐ-wèi	Yin Wood Sheep
33	丙申	bǐng-shēn	Yang Fire Monkey
34	丁酉	dīng-yǒu	Yin Fire Chicken
35	戊戌	wù-xū	Yang Earth Dog
36	己亥	jǐ-hài	Yin Earth Pig
37	庚子	gēng-zǐ	Yang Metal Rat
38	辛丑	xīn-chǒu	Yin Metal Ox
39	壬寅	rén-yín	Yang Water Tiger
40	癸卯	guǐ-mǎo	Yin Water Rabbit
41	甲辰	jiǎ-chén	Yang Wood Dragon
42	乙巳	yǐ-sì	Yin Wood Snake
43	丙午	bǐng-wǔ	Yang Fire Horse
44	丁未	dīng-wèi	Yin Fire Sheep
45	戊申	wù-shēn	Yang Earth Monkey
46	己酉	jǐ-yǒu	Yin Earth Chicken
47	庚戌	gēng-xū	Yang Metal Dog
48	辛亥	xīn-hài	Yin Metal Pig
49	壬子	rén-zǐ	Yang Water Rat
50	癸丑	guǐ-chǒu	Yin Water Ox
51	甲寅	jiǎ-yín	Yang Wood Tiger
52	乙卯	yǐ-mǎo	Yin Wood Rabbit
53	丙辰	bǐng-chén	Yang Fire Dragon
54	丁巳	dīng-sì	Yin Fire Snake
55	戊午	wù-wǔ	Yang Earth Horse
56	己未	jǐ-wèi	Yin Earth Sheep
57	庚申	gēng-shēn	Yang Metal Monkey
58	辛酉	xīn-yǒu	Yin Metal Chicken
59	壬戌	rén-xū	Yang Water Dog
60	癸亥	guǐ-hài	Yin Water Pig

Some people may ask, “We are already using the Western Calendar, what is the usage of this Sexagenary Cycle calendar?”

In fact, ‘Stems-branches calendar era’ has a wide range of application.

Here’s an example….

The most familiar application about ‘Stems-branches calendar era’ that we know is the ‘Eight Characters’ 八字. It is also well-known as ‘The Four Pillars of Destiny’ or ‘The Four Pillars Life-ology’. It uses ‘Ten Heavenly Stems’ and ‘Twelve Earthly Branches’ 天干地支 for year numbering, month numbering, day numbering, and hour numbering. Four pillars (pairs) include year, month, day and hour, where each pair consists of one heavenly stem and one earthly branch, with total of eight characters. Therefore, it is named as ‘Eight Characters’. It is mostly use in fortune-telling and predictions.

For example,

西元	2010年1月25日21时29分	25th October 2010, 21:29
八字	己丑年丁丑月乙亥日丁亥时	Yin Wood Pig  Day, Yin Fire Ox Month, Yin Earth Ox Year, Yin Fire Pig Hour

The application of ‘Stems-branches Calendar Era’ began three thousands years ago, at Shang Dynasty. This has been used in ancient China, and has never stopped. Therefore, it can use to infer chronology. It is important significant for archeology and ancient studies. In history, the revolution led by Sun Yat-Sen was named as “Revolution of 1911” “辛亥革命” XinHai Revolution, as it was the year of 1911 辛亥 XinHai.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, ‘Stems-branches Calendar Era’ is the application base for ‘Five Movements and Six Climates’ 五运六气 WuYun LiuQi, ‘Midnight-noon and Ebb-flow Doctrine’ 子午流注 ZhiWu LiuZhu, ‘Eight Methods of Intelligence Turtle’ 灵龟八法 LingGui BaFa.

Chinese Zodiac and twelve earthly branches

About ‘Yin and Yang’….

Translated from blog post at http://LiYeSen.com

‘Yin and Yang’ is a philosophical issue, and also a technological issue.

‘Yin and Yang’ is one of the important contents of Traditional Chinese cultures. ‘She’ is also one of the basic theories of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).

My own experiences and understandings on Yin Yang started from the course of “Basic Theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine”, when I studied in university. After graduation, I had in-depth study following my mentor for many years. And from here, I had chance to get contact with predictable science, feng shui, Buddhism and Taoism and so on… I thought that I could consider that I had already knew well about the study of ‘Yin and Yang’. But, up until teachings from my respectful teachers, then I suddenly come to realize my inadequacy. I was like a frog at the bottom of a well, with narrow view. I was like hardworking cattle, trapped on the mountain, not aware of the vast of sea.

‘Yin and Yang’ is the law of universe. It’s a universal truth and guideline of nature.

Yin and Yang, black and white, good and evil, life and death…

My understanding on ‘Yin and Yang’ had never been so deep. I felt as real as it is now. Sometimes, it also came along with a bit of fear.

Human beings have a common problem, i.e. seeing is believing. Everything is about evidence, particular about “Scientific proof”. Human beings usually adopt attitudes of suspect, refuse, and slander towards things that cannot be seen. I am also a human. I too, had the same idea before.

But… along the process of learning, I had truly experienced and realized what YinYang is, what time tunnel is, what’s in the absent of space-time…

I had deeply felt the threatening and harms from Darkness and evils, experiencing the fear of death. I also had chance to witness people who were unmoved when facing death. I also realized the devoid of humanity…

Recalled back what I had studied for more than a year, I came to realize…

What I see, what I hear is not necessarily be real; What cannot be seen does not mean that it does not exist!

Yin Yang is the core concept of I-Ching. It is the important part of Traditional Chinese cultures. It is not from civilization of earth, but from another world!

Do not suspect the authenticity and accuracy of I-Ching 《易经》 and The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon 《黄帝内经》. As for study and learning, there is not just only book , not only teachers. The important is about intuition. The answer is always in heart.

Just Talk About Chinese Zodiac…

Translated from blog post at http://LiYeSen.com

It’s now 2010…

We have entered the year of 2010, but the Chinese Lunar New Year is yet to come.

For Chinese Lunar calendar (lunisolar), it includes one of the items, that is the ShuXiang 属相, or ShengXiao 生肖, birthpet. It is better to be known as Chinese Zodiac in English. The year of 2010 is the year of Tiger for Chinese Zodiac.

The 12 Chinese Zodiac

How does this Chinese Zodiac divide? The separation of Chinese Zodiac for year 2010 should be counted from which date? Should it be counting from 1st Jan 2010 or the first day of Chinese Lunar New Year?

No! neither both!

The division of Chinese Zodiac is based on the first solar term, ‘Start of Spring’ LiChun “立春” among the 24 solar terms. That is, from the date of 4th February 2010 until 3rd February 2011, is considered as one year, the year of Tiger. It is also the year of GengYin 庚寅.

Explanation on ‘Five Elements’

Translated from original blog post at http://LiYeSen.com

The ‘Five Elements’ WuXing 五行 is also known as ‘Five Phases’, ‘Five Stages’, ‘Five Steps’, or ‘Five Movements’. Five Elements referred to Wood element, Fire element, Earth element, Metal element, and Water element. 木、火、土、金、水。

Five Elements

The theory of Five Elements was first found recorded in one of the authoritative books of Confucianism in China, ‘Four Books and Five Classics’ ShiShu WuJing 四书五经¹, i.e. ‘The Classic of History’ ShangShu《尚书》. In this book, ‘Classic of History’ ShangShu HongFan《尚书 洪范》, it had written down the conversation between King Wu of Zhou Dynasty, 周武王and QiZhi 箕子. They had mentioned, “The Five elements are water element, fire element, wood element, metal element, and earth element. Water element has the characteristics of downwards and moisturizing. Fire element has the characteristics of hot and upwards. Wood element has the characteristic of straight and curve. Metal element has the characteristics of being solid and changeable. Earth Element has the characteristics of nourishing and harvesting. Water element with nourishing characteristic is corresponded to salty. Fire element with hot characteristic is corresponded to bitter in taste. Wood element with straightening characteristic is corresponded to sour. Metal element with solid characteristic is corresponded to pungent. Earth element with harvesting characteristic is corresponded to sweet.”

“五行：一曰水，二曰火，三曰木，四曰金，五曰土。水曰润下，火曰炎上，木曰曲直，金曰从革，土爰稼穑。润下作咸，炎上作苦，曲直作酸，从革作辛，稼穑作甘。”

The ‘Five Elements’ is the universe concept and material concept of Traditional Chinese Medicine. It is widely used in philosophy, Traditional Chinese Medicine, theory of predictions and other aspects.

To learn about Traditional Chinese Medicine and Traditional Chinese Culture, it is important and necessary to study the Five Elements theory. more…

For more, please visit –>> HERE

p/s:

¹ Four Books and Five Classic includes of

Four Books 四书

1. The Great Learning 《大学》
2. The Doctrine of the Mean 《中庸》
3. The Analects of Confucius 《论语》
4. The Mencius 《孟子》

Five Classics五经

1. Classic of Changes 《周易》
2. Classic of Poetry 《诗经》
3. Classic of Rites 《礼记》
4. Classic of History 《尚书》
5. Spring and Autumn Annals 《春秋》

For more, please visit HERE…

Happy New Year!

It’s a brand new year of 2010.

Wish everyone have a prosperous year 0f 2010.

Again Happy New Year!

Happy New Year

Happily Restore Your Health!

Great and exciting news!

I’m very excited about this! This big announcement!

Finally, my latest eBook, “Happily Restore Your Health!” is published!

Happily Restore Your Health! http://RestoreYourHealthToday.com

Find out more here –>> http://RestoreYourHealthToday.com

Hope…

Translated from blog post at http://LiYeSen.com.

ome time ago, I had received en email from a website, NewDoctor.com.  It was written that they had recently ran a poll asking the professionals listed what online informational resources they use to keep up to date or even to simply find great information. It many of their users had labeled my blog as an excellent source of Medical information. They had decided to make my blog as part of our top medical blogs and award me with a Top Medical Blogs award banner.

This had really give me encouragement and support…

Lately, again, I received a wonderful news…

Another foreign website had listed my blog as one of the “Top 50 Blogs for Holistic Health and Wellness“. It provides people with ideas, thoughts and spirits different from those of Western Medicine. It also contain information about healthy treatment and health care. The Top 50 blogs listed there were categories into 10 groups, with one of them is for Traditional Chinese Medicine. My blog was listed in this category. It had commented my blog as a site providing health information including information about Traditional Chinese Medicine and acupuncture.

From these two notifications, I had an inspiration:

“True and Traditional Chinese Medicine has a wide range of market, where it is popularly accepted by Western countries. “

I was also deeply impressed by people’s urgent desire to seek for knowledge of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

http://YeSenAcupuncture.com

I do hope that the launching of my new personal website – http://YeSenAcupuncture.com can bring more comprehensive information on Traditional Chinese Medicine, and helping  everyone to be healthy.

Random Thouhgts of Double Ninth Festival…

Translated from original blog post at http://www.LiYeSen.com

“九月九日憶山東兄弟” jiǔ yuè jiǔ rì yì shān dōng xiōng dì

by 王維 wáng wéi

獨在異鄉為異客， dú zài yì xiāng wéi yì kè

每逢佳節倍思親。 měi féng jiā jié bèi sī qīn

遙知兄弟登高處， yáo zhī xiōng dì dēng gāo chù

遍插茱萸少一人。 biàn chā zhū yú shǎo yī rén

“Double Ninth, Missing My Shandong Brothers” — Wang Wei (Tang Dynasty)

Translated into English version poem:

As a lonely stranger in the strange land,

Every holiday the homesickness amplifies.

Knowing that my brothers have reached the peak,

All but one is present at the planting of zhuyu.

Double Ninth Festival

This Monday, with date of 26th of October 2009 on the  calendar, was also the ninth day of the ninth lunar month of lunisolar calendar. This was the Chung Yeung Festival “重阳节”, or also known as the Double Ninth Festival, Festival for Elderly “老人节”,  or Ascend Festival “登高节”. My earliest understanding of this poem, “Double Ninth, Missing My Shandong Brothers” by Wang Wei, is from my primary school’s text-book.

Chinese culture has been around for years. Each poems, each sentences, each phrases, even each words bare and carry with human cultures, scientific and technological knowledge. Let us learn from this poem about Chinese cultures… The ninth day of the ninth lunar month of every year is the Chung Yeung Festival, Double Ninth Festival or also known as “Festival for the Elderly”.

The name –  Chung Yeung “重阳” originated from the book of I-Ching. In I-Ching, the number “six” is a Yin Number, i.e. even number. While the number “nine” is a Yang Number, i.e., odd number. For ninth day of ninth lunar month, both day and month are Yang numbers, having double “nine”. Thus, it is called Chung Yeung, “duplicate Yang” “重阳” and also “duplicate nine” “重九”. This showed that Chinese people had always emphasized on Yang Numbers, Yang Qi.

In the history of China, Double Ninth Festival had been around since the Warring States Period. But only until Tang dynasty, then this festival became folks festival. This festival has been pass down for few dynasties until now modern days. In folk concepts, two ‘nine’ is double Yang. The pronunciation of  ”nine” 九 in Mandarin is Jiu which same as “long” 久. Thus, “nine nine” shows the meaning of long life, and healthy longevity.

In China, this day had been marked as “Festival for the Elderly”, as to promote the ethos and morale of respecting, caring, loving and helping the elderly. Therefore, this day, Double Ninth Festival has an additional new meaning. Many companies and communities organize trips, gatherings, performances, concerts and so on, as to celebrate this significant festival.

The first sentence of this poem, let us feel and understand how Chinese people pay attention to family and affection. It has exactly the same meaning as in another poem of a famous  Chinese poet, Li Bai 李白《静夜思》.

“举头望明月，低头思故乡”

“Raising my head, I see the moon so bright; withdrawing my eyes, my nostalgia comes around. I am being homesick.”

There are many customary activities on this day, such as climbing high mountain, enjoy flower (especially chrysanthemum) drinking chrysanthemum wine, and wearing ZhuYu 茱萸 plant, Cornus officinalis. (Both chrysanthemum and ZhuYu are considered to have cleansing qualities and are used on other occasions to air out houses and cure illnesses.) Ascending a mountain is one of the most important activities of Double Ninth Festival, also known as Ascend Festival. According to historic records, climbing a mountain is a consuetude of this festival since the Han Dynasty. Nowadays, this has been a great healthy lifestyle for relaxing,  regulating mood and exercising.

The poem has also recorded about ZhuYu 茱萸 plant, a type of Chinese herbs. It has a nickname of “Master of exorcising evil spirits”, according to FengTu Ji《风土记》:

“九月九日折茱萸以插头上，辟除恶气而御初寒。”

“By wearing a ZhuYu plant on head on ninth day of ninth month, it can help to cleanse and exorcise evils, cum keep out coldness”

This practice of wearing ZhuYu plant was very popular during Tang Dynasty. People believed that wearing a ZhuYu plant on this day, can help to avoid and evacuate disaster. It can be worn on arm, or carried along in a sachet (named as ZhuYu sachet). The characteristics and the functions of ZhuYu plant are clearly recorded in Compendium of Materia Medica《本草纲目》<<Bencao GangMu>> .

A special day of festival… A special day for festival… Randomly thinking about Double Ninth Festival…

Life is in Our Hands…

Translated from original blog post at http://www.LiYeSen.com

Because of my profession – as a doctor, I have more chances than other ordinary people do to face sickness and death. ‘Doctor’ is a life saving career: rescuing people from death, recovering people from sickness. ‘Doctor’ is also a career that helps people from lifting and relieving suffers and pain. I had always heard from my patients, “Doctor, I’m handing over my body to you. Just help me out!”, “Doctor, you have to save me!”…

After hearing such sentences, many doctors might feel happy, honour and proud of it. However, I personally do not think so, because there is truth that is rarely known by people. When patient said out these words, certainly he has trust in doctor. But, it also shows that he is putting the blame on doctor, i.e. pushing his own responsibility to doctor. This show how irresponsible of him on his own life. Curing a disease is not just the responsibility of the doctor himself. It is about the coordination between doctor and patient. There is an interactive relationship between them. If every patients hand over their responsibility to doctors, but then who can really afford it?

Human potential is unlimited! Human body is controlled by soul, and both human body and soul coordinate. This is as mentioned in The Yellow Emperor Inner Canon <<HuangDi NeiJing – ShangGu TianZhen Lun>> 《黄帝内经 上古天真论》, “Harmony between body and spirit”. Our hearts lead our soul. This was what I had mentioned before in my previous blog post – “How does disease form?” Many of the diseases are the results of what people thought. Meanwhile, almost every disease can be cured by “heart”, whether the patients want or not. Soul and heart have played an important role in the happening and the progress of diseases. Just take an example that we are familiar with – cancer. Some people, when they found out that they had cancer, the condition get worsen tremendously. They die in a short period. While some people have a very different situation, and different actions and behaviours. They persist and have strong will. They fight in courage that ended up with victory against cancer. The previously group of people that I mentioned, can said that they scared to death. While the later group of people fight the battle against cancer and they win with their “heart”, their strong will.

Therefore, as I said, ‘Life is in our own hands! We are the master! As long as you want it, anything is possible!’

Aftertaste of ‘Old Pal Mee’…

Translated from the original blog post at http://www.LiYeSen.com

Old Pal Mee - 老友面

Old Pal Mee or Old Friend Noodles, 老友面 is one of the famous snack of GuangXi, China. It is a type of mee (pasta, noodle), that have been around more than hundred years.

Talking about the name of this noodle, Old Pal Mee, there’s actually a story behind it.

It is said that there was a old man who patronized  ZhuoJi tea shop 周记茶馆 everyday for tea.

One day, old man did not go to the tea shop as he caught a cold. The boss of this tea shop used refine noodles accompanied with minced garlic, chilli, pepper powder, sour bamboo shoot and others as ingredients. He cooked a bowl of hot noodles for the old friend to eat. Old man sweated after eating that bowl of noodles, and the symptom of the disease had allayed. This was how the name “Old Pal Mee” derived. This noodle served as appetizer and helped to drive away coldness. This was deeply accepted by the diners and had passed down for long time.

Recently, I thought of this memorable hometown snack. By just thinking of it, I was already very hungry and greedy. I had myself cook a bowl of this “Old Pal Mee” to solve my greediness…

Woo..! It really gave me an endless aftertastes…