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 |
Chinese |
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.
Filed under: Chinese Cultures, Information, Traditional Chinese Medicine | Tagged: calendar, Chinese Calendar, Chinese Lunar calendar, chronology, Day, day numbering, Eight Characters, Five Movements and Six Climates, Hour, hour numbering, how to calculate the Eight Characters, lunisolar calendar, month, month numbering, Revolution of 1911, Sexagenary Cycle, Stems-branches Calendar Era, Ten Heavenly Stems, The Four Pillars Life-ology, The Four Pillars of Destiny, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Twelve Earthly Branches, year, year numbering, year of 2010, Yin and Yang, Yin Yang, YinYang, 八字, 天干地支, 干支纪年 | Leave a Comment »




















