A universal guide for China studiesChinese History |
Combining two characters each of these cycles, years are enumerated and make up a cycle of sixty years (only the half of possible permutations is used).
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The Ten Celestial Stems are connected with the Five Elements or Phases (wuxing 五行) and their corresponding colors. The Qin Dynasty 秦 chose Water as her element and black as its color. The Han Dynasty 漢 chose the element Fire and therewith used the imperial color red. Four of these colors and elements are likewise connected to the four seasons: wood and green with the spring, red and fire with the summer, yellow and earth with the autumn, and black and water with the winter. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The character for year (nian 年) is compounded of a ripe ear 禾 and a man 人 or a thousand 千, showing us that the original meaning of this word was not "year", but rather "harvest". The Chinese lunar year (yueli 月曆 or "old calendar" 舊曆 jiuli) has twelve lunar months with 29 and 30 days. The first month is called "correct month" (zhengyue 正月), the others are simply numbered as "second month" (eryue 二月) etc. The season is also divided in first, middle and last part (meng 孟, zhong 仲 and ji 季) Every third year, a thirteenth intercalary month (runyue 閏月) was inserted to adjust the lunar year with the solar year. One month is divided into three ten day weeks (xun 旬). Days are also counted as a combination of the Stems and the Branches, also in sixty day cycles like the years. This sixty day monthly cycle is divided into two months. When China came into contact with the Western seven day week, new names for each of the seven was introduced by the Jesuits, following the names of the western days, and following the Five Elements: 日曜日 riyaori "sunday", 月曜日 yueyaori "monday", 火曜日 huoyaori "fire-day: tuesday" (the fire-planet is Mars, hence the same like the Romance languages, e.g. Italian martedì: tuesday), 水曜日 shuiyaori "water-day: wednesday" (the water-planet is Mercury, hence the same like the Italian mercoledì: wednesday), 木曜日 muyaori "wood-day: thursday" (the wood-planet is Jupiter, Italian giovedì: thursday), 金曜日 jinyaori "metal-day: friday" (the water-planet is Venus, friday in Italian is venerdì), 土曜日 tuyaori "earth-day: saturday". This pattern to count days is still in use in Korea and Japan (calling the days iryoil, woryoil etc. resp. nichiyobi, getsuyobi etc.). The Chinese today simply numerate their days: 星期一 xingqiyi "star-time one: monday", 星期二 xingqier "star-time two: tuesday", 星期日 "star-time sun: sunday", or 禮拜一 libaiyi "ritual-prayer one: monday", and so on. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Twelve Earthly Branches and the corresponding hours with the names of animals and cardinal points. | Hours are counted in double-hours, beginning at 11:00 PM just before midnight. The "hour of the horse" was midday. The southern gate of the imperial palace in Peking is called Wumen 午門, according to the Branch wu 午 corresponding to the south. There are also other animals connected with the four cardinal points: The Black Dragon (xuanwu 玄武) symbolizes the north, the Green Dragon (qinglong 青龍) the east, the Red Bird (zhuque 朱雀, jap. suzaku) the south, and the White Tiger (baihu 白虎) the west. The begin of the year changed during early history dynasty to dynasty. During the Zhou Dynasty 周, the year began with the lunar month that contained the winter solistice (zi 子), today the year starts two months after the full moon that follows the winter solistice (yin 寅). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Like Western calendars have some fixed days according to the lunar year (for example, Easter is falling of the first sunday after the first fullmoon of the spring), the Chinese calendar has fixed days within the year with a special name, like the first day of the first month (lichun 立春 "spring begins") or the summer solistice (xiazhi 夏至 "summer arrives"). Buddhist names for the days are also in use. The calendar made problems when several emperors or rulers claimed to be the righteous at the same time. During the Warring States period 戰國時代, the feudal states challenged the political power of the Zhou kings, but not their ethical position as Heaven appointed kings. The first problem arised during the Three Kingdoms period 三國 and during the time of division between north and south, because every ruler proclaimed his own calendar. |
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(C) Ulrich Theobald 2000-2002