Heavenly Stems
Encyclopedia
The ten Celestial or Heavenly Stems are a Chinese system of ordinals
that first appear during the Shang dynasty
, ca. 1250 BC, as the names of the ten days of the week. They were also used in Shang-period ritual as names for dead family members, who were offered sacrifices on the corresponding day of the Shang week. The Heavenly Stems were used in combination with the Earthly Branches
, a similar cycle of twelve days, to produce a compound cycle of sixty days
. Subsequently, the Heavenly Stems lost their original function as names for days of the week and dead kin, and acquired many other uses, the most prominent and long lasting of which was their use together with the Earthly Branches as a 60 year calendrical cycle.
and the Six Ages of the World
of Saint Augustine. They were found in the given name
s of the kings of the Shang in their Temple Names. These consisted of a relational term (Father, Mother, Grandfather, Grandmother) to which was added one of the ten gān names (e.g. Grandfather Jia). These names are often found on Shang bronzes designating whom the bronze was honoring (and on which day of the week their rites would have been performed, that day matching the day designated by their name). David Keightley, a leader scholar of ancient China and its bronzes, believes that the gān names were chosen posthumously through divination. Some historians think the ruling class of the Shang had ten clans, but it is not clear whether their society reflected the myth or vice versa. The associations with Yin-Yang and the Five Elements developed later, after the collapse of the Shang Dynasty.
The literal meaning of the characters was roughly as follows:
is used in English
. For example:
Ordinal number (linguistics)
In linguistics, ordinal numbers are the words representing the rank of a number with respect to some order, in particular order or position . Its use may refer to size, importance, chronology, etc...
that first appear during the Shang dynasty
Shang Dynasty
The Shang Dynasty or Yin Dynasty was, according to traditional sources, the second Chinese dynasty, after the Xia. They ruled in the northeastern regions of the area known as "China proper" in the Yellow River valley...
, ca. 1250 BC, as the names of the ten days of the week. They were also used in Shang-period ritual as names for dead family members, who were offered sacrifices on the corresponding day of the Shang week. The Heavenly Stems were used in combination with the Earthly Branches
Earthly Branches
The Earthly Branches provide one Chinese system for reckoning time.This system was built from observations of the orbit of Jupiter. Chinese astronomers divided the celestial circle into 12 sections to follow the orbit of Suìxīng . Astronomers rounded the orbit of Suixing to 12 years...
, a similar cycle of twelve days, to produce a compound cycle of sixty days
Sexagenary cycle
The Chinese sexagenary cycle , also known as the Stems-and-Branches , is a cycle of sixty terms used for recording days or years. It appears, as a means of recording days, in the first Chinese written texts, the Shang dynasty oracle bones from the late second millennium BC. Its use to record years...
. Subsequently, the Heavenly Stems lost their original function as names for days of the week and dead kin, and acquired many other uses, the most prominent and long lasting of which was their use together with the Earthly Branches as a 60 year calendrical cycle.
Table
| Celestial Stem |
Chinese Pinyin Pinyin Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into... |
Japanese kunyomi |
Japanese on'yomi |
Korean (RR) |
Vietnamese | Yin and Yang Yin and yang In Asian philosophy, the concept of yin yang , which is often referred to in the West as "yin and yang", is used to describe how polar opposites or seemingly contrary forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world, and how they give rise to each other in turn. Opposites thus only... |
Wu xing correlations |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 甲 | jiǎ | kinoe | kō | 갑 (gap) | giáp | 陽 (yang) | 木 (wood) | 東 East |
| 2 | 乙 | yǐ | kinoto | otsu | 을 (eul) | ất | 陰 (yin) | ||
| 3 | 丙 | bǐng | hinoe | hei | 병 (byeong) | bính | 陽(yang) | 火 (fire Fire (classical element) Fire has been an important part of all cultures and religions from pre-history to modern day and was vital to the development of civilization. It has been regarded in many different contexts throughout history, but especially as a metaphysical constant of the world.-Greek and Roman tradition:Fire... ) |
南 South |
| 4 | 丁 | dīng | hinoto | tei | 정 (jeong) | đinh | 陰(yin) | ||
| 5 | 戊 | wù | tsuchinoe | bo | 무 (mu) | mậu | 陽 (yang) | 土 (earth Earth (classical element) Earth, home and origin of humanity, has often been worshipped in its own right with its own unique spiritual tradition.-European tradition:Earth is one of the four classical elements in ancient Greek philosophy and science. It was commonly associated with qualities of heaviness, matter and the... ) |
中 Middle |
| 6 | 己 | jǐ | tsuchinoto | ki | 기 (gi) | kỷ | 陰 (yin) | ||
| 7 | 庚 | gēng | kanoe | kō | 경 (gyeong) | canh | 陽 (yang) | 金 (metal Metal (classical element) Metal , is the decline of the matter, or the matter's decline stage. Metal is the fourth phase of Wu Xing. Metal is yin in character, its motion is inwards and its energy is contracting. It is associated with the Autumn, the west, old age, the planet Venus, the color white, dry weather, and the... ) |
西 West |
| 8 | 辛 | xīn | kanoto | shin | 신 (sin) | tân | 陰 (yin) | ||
| 9 | 壬 | rén | mizunoe | jin | 임 (im) | nhâm | 陽 (yang) | 水 (water Water (classical element) Water is one of the elements in ancient Greek philosophy, in the Asian Indian system Panchamahabhuta, and in the Chinese cosmological and physiological system Wu Xing... ) |
北 North |
| 10 | 癸 | guǐ | mizunoto | ki | 계 (gye) | quý | 陰 (yin) |
Origin
The Shang people believed that there were ten suns, each of which appeared in order in a ten-day cycle (旬; xún). The Heavenly Stems (tiāngān 天干) were the names of the ten suns, which may have designated world ages as did the Five SunsFive Suns
Five Suns is an album by progressive rock group Guapo released in 2003.- Track listing :#Five Suns, Pt. 1 #Five Suns, Pt. 2 #Five Suns, Pt. 3 #Five Suns, Pt. 4 #Five Suns, Pt...
and the Six Ages of the World
Six Ages of the World
The Six Ages of the World is a Christian historical periodization first written about by Saint Augustine circa 400 AD. It is based upon Christian religious events, from the creation of Adam to the events of Revelation...
of Saint Augustine. They were found in the given name
Given name
A given name, in Western contexts often referred to as a first name, is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name...
s of the kings of the Shang in their Temple Names. These consisted of a relational term (Father, Mother, Grandfather, Grandmother) to which was added one of the ten gān names (e.g. Grandfather Jia). These names are often found on Shang bronzes designating whom the bronze was honoring (and on which day of the week their rites would have been performed, that day matching the day designated by their name). David Keightley, a leader scholar of ancient China and its bronzes, believes that the gān names were chosen posthumously through divination. Some historians think the ruling class of the Shang had ten clans, but it is not clear whether their society reflected the myth or vice versa. The associations with Yin-Yang and the Five Elements developed later, after the collapse of the Shang Dynasty.
The literal meaning of the characters was roughly as follows:
| Celestial Stem | | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|
| Original | Modern | |
| 甲 | shell | helmet, armor, one, words related to beetles, crustaceans, methanol, fingernails, toenails |
| 乙 | fishguts | two, twist, words related to ethanol Ethanol Ethanol, also called ethyl alcohol, pure alcohol, grain alcohol, or drinking alcohol, is a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid. It is a psychoactive drug and one of the oldest recreational drugs. Best known as the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages, it is also used in thermometers, as a... |
| 丙 | fishtail; brimstone? | bright, fire, fishtail (rare) |
| 丁 | nail | male adult, robust, T-shaped, to strike, a surname |
| 戊 | lance | (not used) |
| 己 | threads on a loom? | self; already, past |
| 庚 | evening star | age (of person) |
| 辛 | to offend superiors? | bitter, piquant, toilsome |
| 壬 | burden?; porter? | to shoulder, to trust with office |
| 癸 | both feet?; spinning? | (not used) |
Current usage
The Stems are still commonly used nowadays in Chinese counting systems similar to the way the alphabetAlphabet
An alphabet is a standard set of letters—basic written symbols or graphemes—each of which represents a phoneme in a spoken language, either as it exists now or as it was in the past. There are other systems, such as logographies, in which each character represents a word, morpheme, or semantic...
is used in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
. For example:
- Names in legal documents and contracts where English speakers would use A, B, C, etc. KoreaKoreaKorea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
and JapanJapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
also use heavenly stems on legal documents in this way. In Korea, letters gap (甲) and eul (乙) are consistently used to denote the larger and the smaller contractor (respectively) in a legal contract, and are sometimes used as synonyms for such; this usage is also common in the Korean ITInformation technologyInformation technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
industry. - Choices on multiple choiceMultiple choiceMultiple choice is a form of assessment in which respondents are asked to select the best possible answer out of the choices from a list. The multiple choice format is most frequently used in educational testing, in market research, and in elections-- when a person chooses between multiple...
exams, surveys, etc. - Organic chemicalOrganic chemistryOrganic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, composition, reactions, and preparation of carbon-based compounds, hydrocarbons, and their derivatives...
s (e.g. methanolMethanolMethanol, also known as methyl alcohol, wood alcohol, wood naphtha or wood spirits, is a chemical with the formula CH3OH . It is the simplest alcohol, and is a light, volatile, colorless, flammable liquid with a distinctive odor very similar to, but slightly sweeter than, ethanol...
: 甲醇 jiǎchún; ethanolEthanolEthanol, also called ethyl alcohol, pure alcohol, grain alcohol, or drinking alcohol, is a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid. It is a psychoactive drug and one of the oldest recreational drugs. Best known as the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages, it is also used in thermometers, as a...
: 乙醇 yǐchún). See Organic nomenclature in ChineseOrganic nomenclature in ChineseThe Chinese Chemical Society lays out a set of rules based on those given by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry for the purpose of systematic organic nomenclature in Chinese...
. - DiseaseDiseaseA disease is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism. It is often construed to be a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune...
s (Hepatitis AHepatitis AHepatitis A is an acute infectious disease of the liver caused by the hepatitis A virus , an RNA virus, usually spread the fecal-oral route; transmitted person-to-person by ingestion of contaminated food or water or through direct contact with an infectious person...
: 甲型肝炎 jiǎxíng gānyán; Hepatitis B: 乙型肝炎 yǐxíng gānyán) - Sports leagues (Serie ASerie ASerie A , now called Serie A TIM due to sponsorship by Telecom Italia, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and has been operating for over eighty years since 1929. It had been organized by Lega Calcio until 2010, but a new...
: 意甲 yìjiǎ) - VitaminVitaminA vitamin is an organic compound required as a nutrient in tiny amounts by an organism. In other words, an organic chemical compound is called a vitamin when it cannot be synthesized in sufficient quantities by an organism, and must be obtained from the diet. Thus, the term is conditional both on...
s (although currently, in this case, the ABC system is more popular) - Characters conversing in a short text (甲 speaks first, 乙 answers)
- StudentStudentA student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In some nations, the English term is reserved for those who attend university, while a schoolchild under the age of eighteen is called a pupil in English...
s' grades in Taiwan: with an additional Yōu (優 "Excellence") before the first celestial stem Jiǎ. Hence, English grades A, B, C, D and F correspond to 優, 甲, 乙, 丙 and 丁 (yōu, jiǎ, yǐ, bǐng, dīng).
See also
- Sexagesimal cycle
- Earthly BranchesEarthly BranchesThe Earthly Branches provide one Chinese system for reckoning time.This system was built from observations of the orbit of Jupiter. Chinese astronomers divided the celestial circle into 12 sections to follow the orbit of Suìxīng . Astronomers rounded the orbit of Suixing to 12 years...
- Chinese numeralsChinese numeralsChinese numerals are characters for writing numbers in Chinese. Today speakers of Chinese use three numeral systems:the ubiquitous Arabic numerals and two indigenous systems....
- Organic nomenclature in ChineseOrganic nomenclature in ChineseThe Chinese Chemical Society lays out a set of rules based on those given by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry for the purpose of systematic organic nomenclature in Chinese...