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 歲星Suìxīng (Jupiter, the Year Star). Astronomers rounded the orbit of Suixing to 12 years (from 11.86). Suixing was associated with 攝提Shètí (η Boötis) and sometimes called Sheti.
Jonathan Smith has proposed that the first meanings of the earthly branches, predating the Shang dynasty, were phases of the moon, with the heavenly stems at that point referring to divisions of the ecliptic. After being adopted as a calendar these would have lost their clear lunar reference, permitting their repurposing for Jupiter stations.[2]
History
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (October 2019)
In correlative thinking, the 12 years of the Jupiter cycle also identify the 12 months of the year, 12 animals (mnemonics for the system), cardinal directions, seasons, and the 12 traditional Chinese units of time in the form of two-hour periods that each day was divided into. In this case an Earthly Branch can refer to a whole two-hour period, or to the exact time at its center. For instance 午時wǔshí can mean either noon or 11am – 1pm. (The jiéqì system provided single hours and 15-degree arcs in time and space.)
Chinese seasons are based on observations of the sun and stars. Many Chinese calendrical systems have started the new year on the second new moon after the winter solstice.
The Earthly Branches are today used with the Heavenly Stems in the current version of the "traditional Chinese calendar" and in Taoism. The Ganzhi (Stem-Branch) combination is a fairly new way to mark time; in the second millennium BC, during the Shang era, the 10 Heavenly Stems provided the names of the days of the week. The Branches are as old as the Stems (and according to recent archaeology may actually be older), but the Stems were tied to the ritual calendars of Chinese kings.
Some cultures assign different animals: Vietnam replaces the Ox and Rabbit with the water buffalo and cat, respectively; Tibet replaces the Rooster with the bird. In the traditional Kazakh version of the 12 year animal cycle (Kazakh: мүшел, müşel), the Dragon is substituted by a snail (Kazakh: ұлу, ulw), and the Tiger appears as a leopard (Kazakh: барыс, barıs).[3]
Directions
The 24 cardinal directions (ancient Chinese convention places the south (red) at the top).
Though Chinese has words for the four cardinal directions, Chinese mariners and astronomers/astrologers preferred using the 12 directions of the Earthly Branches, which is somewhat similar to the modern-day practice of English-speaking pilots using o'clock for directions. Since 12 points were not enough for sailing, 12 midpoints were added. Instead of combining two adjacent direction names, they assigned new names:
For the four diagonal directions, appropriate trigram names of I Ching were used.
For the rest, the Heavenly Stems (1–4, 7–10) were used. According to the Five Elements theory, east is assigned to wood, and the Stems of wood are 甲 (jiǎ) and 乙 (yǐ). Thus, they were assigned clockwise to the two adjacent points of the east.
Advanced mariners such as Zheng He used 48-point compasses. An additional midpoint was called by a combination of its two closest basic directions, such as 丙午 (bǐngwǔ) for the direction of 172.5°, the midpoint between 丙 (bǐng), 165°, and 午 (wǔ), 180°.
Current usage
The terrestrial branches are still commonly used nowadays in Chinese counting systems similar to the way the alphabet is used in English. For example, names in legal documents and contracts where English speakers would use K, L, M, etc. Korea and Japan also use terrestrial branches on legal documents in this way.
Since the celestial stems and terrestrial branches combined only consist of 22 characters, the four final letters – W, X, Y, and Z – cannot be represented by any of the celestial stems and terrestrial branches, and those four letters are represented by ‘物’, ‘天’, ‘地’, and ‘人’, respectively, instead.[4]
In case of upper-case letters, the radical of ‘口’ (the ‘mouth’ radical) may be added to the corresponding terrestrial branch or any of ‘物’, ‘天’, ‘地’, and ‘人’ to denote an upper-case letter.[5]
^Yuval Blum (22 February 2011). "Introduction to the "STEMS AND BRANCHES" theory". Mahaya Forest Hill Integrative Health Clinic, Toronto. from the original on 2018-08-27. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
^Smith, Jonathan M. (2011). "The Di Zhi 地支 as Lunar Phases and Their Coordination with the Tian Gan 天干 as Ecliptic Asterisms in a China before Anyang". Early China. 33: 199–228. doi:10.1017/S0362502800000274. S2CID 132200641. Retrieved January 29, 2022.
^А. Мухамбетова (A. Mukhambetova), Казахский традиционный календарь The traditional Kazakh calendar (in Russian)
earthly, branches, twelve, terrestrial, branches, chinese, ordering, system, used, throughout, east, asia, various, contexts, including, ancient, dating, system, astrological, traditions, zodiac, ordinals, carving, chinese, zodiac, ceiling, gate, kushida, shri. The twelve Earthly Branches or Terrestrial Branches 1 are a Chinese ordering system used throughout East Asia in various contexts including its ancient dating system astrological traditions zodiac and ordinals Earthly BranchesA carving of the Chinese zodiac on the ceiling of the gate to Kushida Shrine in Fukuoka JapanChinese nameChinese地支TranscriptionsStandard MandarinHanyu PinyindizhiYue CantoneseYale Romanizationdeih jiJyutpingdei6 zi1Southern MinHokkien POJte chi tōe chiKorean nameHangul지지Hanja地支TranscriptionsRevised RomanizationjijiJapanese nameKanji地支HiraganaちしTranscriptionsRomanizationchishi12 BranchesChinese十二支TranscriptionsStandard MandarinHanyu Pinyinshi er zhiYue CantoneseYale Romanizationsahp yih jiJyutpingsap6 ji6 zi1Southern MinHokkien POJsi p ji chi cha p ji chi cha p li ki Contents 1 Origin 2 History 3 Twelve branches 4 Directions 5 Current usage 6 See also 7 References 8 External linksOrigin EditThis system was built from observations of the orbit of Jupiter Chinese astronomers divided the celestial circle into 12 sections to follow the orbit of 歲星 Suixing Jupiter the Year Star Astronomers rounded the orbit of Suixing to 12 years from 11 86 Suixing was associated with 攝提 Sheti h Bootis and sometimes called Sheti Jonathan Smith has proposed that the first meanings of the earthly branches predating the Shang dynasty were phases of the moon with the heavenly stems at that point referring to divisions of the ecliptic After being adopted as a calendar these would have lost their clear lunar reference permitting their repurposing for Jupiter stations 2 History EditThis section needs expansion You can help by adding to it October 2019 In correlative thinking the 12 years of the Jupiter cycle also identify the 12 months of the year 12 animals mnemonics for the system cardinal directions seasons and the 12 traditional Chinese units of time in the form of two hour periods that each day was divided into In this case an Earthly Branch can refer to a whole two hour period or to the exact time at its center For instance 午時 wǔshi can mean either noon or 11 am 1 pm The jieqi system provided single hours and 15 degree arcs in time and space Chinese seasons are based on observations of the sun and stars Many Chinese calendrical systems have started the new year on the second new moon after the winter solstice The Earthly Branches are today used with the Heavenly Stems in the current version of the traditional Chinese calendar and in Taoism The Ganzhi Stem Branch combination is a fairly new way to mark time in the second millennium BC during the Shang era the 10 Heavenly Stems provided the names of the days of the week The Branches are as old as the Stems and according to recent archaeology may actually be older but the Stems were tied to the ritual calendars of Chinese kings Twelve branches Edit EarthlyBranch Chinese Japanese Ryukyuan Okinawan Korean RR Mongolian Manchu Vietnamese Chinesezodiac Japanesezodiac Direction Season Lunar Month Double HourMandarinZhuyin MandarinPinyin CantoneseJyutping HokkienPOJ Middle ChineseBaxter on yomi ofEarthly Branch kun yomiof Animal Zodiac on yomi ofEarthly Branch Japanese based kun yomiof Animal Zodiac native kunyomi of animal zodiac1 子 ㄗˇ zǐ zi2 chu tsiX し shi ね ne し にー nii えんちゅ enchu 자 ja ᠬᠤᠯᠤᠭᠠᠨ ᠠ ᠰᡳᠩᡤᡝᡵᡳ ti SV tử 鼠Rat 鼠 0 north winter Month 11 11pm to 1am midnight 2 丑 ㄔㄡˇ chǒu cau2 thiu trhjuwX ちゅう chu うし ushi ちゅー うし ushi うし ushi 축 chuk ᠦᠬᠡᠷ ᡳᡥᠠᠨ sửu 牛Ox 牛 Cow 30 Month 12 1am to 3am3 寅 ㄧㄣˊ yin jan4 in yin いん in とら tora いん とぅら tura とぅら tura 인 in ᠪᠠᠷᠰ ᡨᠠᠰᡥᠠ dần 虎Tiger 虎 60 spring Month 1 3am to 5am4 卯 ㄇㄠˇ mǎo maau5 bau maewX ぼう bō う u ぼー うー uu うさじ usaji 묘 myo ᠲᠠᠤᠯᠠᠢ ᡤᡡᠯᠮᠠᡥᡡᠨ mao non SV mẹo 兔Rabbit 兎 90 east Month 2 5am to 7am5 辰 ㄔㄣˊ chen san4 sin dzyin しん shin たつ tatsu しん たち tachi りゅー ryuu 진 jin ᠯᠤᠤ ᠮᡠᡩᡠᡵᡳ thin SV thần 龙 龍 Dragon 竜 龍 120 Month 3 7am to 9 am6 巳 ㄙˋ si zi6 su ziX し shi み mi し みー mii はぶ habu 사 sa ᠮᠣᠭᠠᠢ ᠮᡝᡳᡥᡝ tị 蛇Snake 蛇 150 summer Month 4 9am to 11am7 午 ㄨˇ wǔ ng5 ngo nguX ご go うま uma ぐ うま uma んま nma 오 o ᠮᠣᠷᠢ ᠮᠣᡵᡳᠨ ngọ 马 馬 Horse 馬 180 south Month 5 11am to 1pm noon 8 未 ㄨㄟˋ wei mei6 bi mjɨjH び bi ひつじ hitsuji び ふぃちじ fichiji ふぃーじゃー fiijaa 미 mi ᠬᠣᠨᠢ ᡥᠣᠨᡳᠨ mui SV vị 羊Goat 羊Sheep 210 Month 6 1pm to 3pm9 申 ㄕㄣ shen san1 sin syin しん shin さる saru しん さーるー saaruu さーるー saaruu 신 sin ᠪᠡᠴᠢᠨ ᠪᠣᠨᡳᠣ than 猴Monkey 猿 240 autumn Month 7 3pm to 5pm10 酉 ㄧㄡˇ yǒu jau5 iu yuwX ゆう yu とり tori ゆー とぅい tu i とぅい tu i 유 yu ᠲᠠᠬᠢᠶ ᠠ ᠴᠣᡴᠣ dậu 鸡 雞 Rooster 鶏 鳥 Chicken 270 west Month 8 5pm to 7pm11 戌 ㄒㄩ xu seot1 sut swit じゅつ jutsu いぬ inu いん in いん in 술 sul ᠨᠣᠬᠠᠢ ᡳᠨᡩᠠᡥᡡᠨ tuất 狗Dog 犬 300 Month 9 7pm to 9pm12 亥 ㄏㄞˋ hai hoi6 hai hojX がい gai い i げー いー yii やましし yamashishi 해 hae ᠭᠠᠬᠠᠢ ᡠᠯᡤᡳᠶᠠᠨ hợi 猪 豬 Pig 猪Wild boar 330 winter Month 10 9pm to 11pmSome cultures assign different animals Vietnam replaces the Ox and Rabbit with the water buffalo and cat respectively Tibet replaces the Rooster with the bird In the traditional Kazakh version of the 12 year animal cycle Kazakh mүshel musel the Dragon is substituted by a snail Kazakh ulu ulw and the Tiger appears as a leopard Kazakh barys baris 3 Directions Edit The 24 cardinal directions ancient Chinese convention places the south red at the top Though Chinese has words for the four cardinal directions Chinese mariners and astronomers astrologers preferred using the 12 directions of the Earthly Branches which is somewhat similar to the modern day practice of English speaking pilots using o clock for directions Since 12 points were not enough for sailing 12 midpoints were added Instead of combining two adjacent direction names they assigned new names For the four diagonal directions appropriate trigram names of I Ching were used For the rest the Heavenly Stems 1 4 7 10 were used According to the Five Elements theory east is assigned to wood and the Stems of wood are 甲 jiǎ and 乙 yǐ Thus they were assigned clockwise to the two adjacent points of the east The 24 directions are Character Mandarin name Cantonese name Hokkien name Korean name Japanese name Ryukyuan Okinawan Vietnamese name Direction1 子 ㄗˇ zǐ zi2 chu 자 ja ね ne にー nii ti SV tử 0 north 2 癸 ㄍㄨㄟˇ guǐ gwai3 kui 계 gye SK 규 gyu みずのと mizunoto みんぬとぅ minnutu quy 15 3 丑 ㄔㄡˇ chǒu cau2 thiu 축 chuk SK 추 chu うし ushi うし ushi sửu 30 4 艮 ㄍㄣˋ gen gan3 kun 간 gan うしとら ushitora うしとぅら ushitura cấn 45 northeast 5 寅 ㄧㄣˊ yin jan4 in 인 in とら tora とぅら tura dần 60 6 甲 ㄐㄧㄚˇ jiǎ gaap3 kap kah 갑 gap きのえ kinoe ちにー chinii giap 75 7 卯 ㄇㄠˇ mǎo maau5 bau 묘 myo う u う u mao non SV mẹo 90 east 8 乙 ㄧˇ yǐ jyut3 it 을 eul きのと kinoto ちぬとぅ chinutu ất 105 9 辰 ㄔㄣˊ chen san4 sin 진 jin SK 신 sin たつ tatsu たち tachi thin SV thần 120 10 巽 ㄒㄩㄣˋ xun seon3 sun 손 son たつみ tatsumi たちみー tachimii tốn 135 southeast 11 巳 ㄙˋ si zi6 su 사 sa み mi みー mii tị 150 12 丙 ㄅㄧㄥˇ bǐng bing2 peng 병 byeong ひのえ hinoe ふぃにー finii binh 165 13 午 ㄨˇ wǔ ng5 ngo 오 o うま uma うま uma ngọ 180 south 14 丁 ㄉㄧㄥ ding ding1 teng 정 jeong ひのと hinoto ふぃぬとぅ finutu đinh 195 15 未 ㄨㄟˋ wei mei6 bi 미 mi ひつじ hitsuji ふぃちじ fichiji mui SV vị 210 16 坤 ㄎㄨㄣ kun kwan1 khun 곤 gon ひつじさる hitsujisaru ふぃちじさーるー fichijisaaruu khon 225 southwest 17 申 ㄕㄣ shen san1 sin 신 sin さる saru さーるー saaruu than 240 18 庚 ㄍㄥ geng gang1 keng 경 gyeong かのえ kanoe かにー kanii canh 255 19 酉 ㄧㄡˇ yǒu yau5 iu 유 yu とり tori とぅい tu i dậu 270 west 20 辛 ㄒㄧㄣ xin san1 sin 신 sin かのと kanoto かぬとぅ kanutu tan 285 21 戌 ㄒㄩ xu seot sut 술 sul いぬ inu いん in tuất 300 22 乾 ㄑㄧㄢˊ qian kin4 khian 건 geon いぬい inui いんいー in yii can SV kiền 315 northwest 23 亥 ㄏㄞˋ hai hoi6 hai 해 hae い i いー yii hợi 330 24 壬 ㄖㄣˊ ren jam4 jim 임 im みずのえ mizunoe みんにい minnii nham 345 Advanced mariners such as Zheng He used 48 point compasses An additional midpoint was called by a combination of its two closest basic directions such as 丙午 bǐngwǔ for the direction of 172 5 the midpoint between 丙 bǐng 165 and 午 wǔ 180 Current usage EditThe terrestrial branches are still commonly used nowadays in Chinese counting systems similar to the way the alphabet is used in English For example names in legal documents and contracts where English speakers would use K L M etc Korea and Japan also use terrestrial branches on legal documents in this way Since the celestial stems and terrestrial branches combined only consist of 22 characters the four final letters W X Y and Z cannot be represented by any of the celestial stems and terrestrial branches and those four letters are represented by 物 天 地 and 人 respectively instead 4 In case of upper case letters the radical of 口 the mouth radical may be added to the corresponding terrestrial branch or any of 物 天 地 and 人 to denote an upper case letter 5 See also Edit PDF A study of the cardinal directions chart Heavenly Stems 天干 Sexagesimal cycle 干支 Sheng Xiao Chinese calendarReferences Edit Yuval Blum 22 February 2011 Introduction to the STEMS AND BRANCHES theory Mahaya Forest Hill Integrative Health Clinic Toronto Archived from the original on 2018 08 27 Retrieved 2018 08 27 Smith Jonathan M 2011 The Di Zhi 地支 as Lunar Phases and Their Coordination with the Tian Gan 天干 as Ecliptic Asterisms in a China before Anyang Early China 33 199 228 doi 10 1017 S0362502800000274 S2CID 132200641 Retrieved January 29 2022 A Muhambetova A Mukhambetova Kazahskij tradicionnyj kalendar The traditional Kazakh calendar in Russian 1 pages 147 and 148 2 pages 147 and 148 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Earthly Branches Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches Hong Kong Observatory Archived from the original on 2018 11 04 Retrieved 2018 11 04 Portals China Society History Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Earthly Branches amp oldid 1134901006, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
