Ke (unit)
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The ke (刻; pinyin: kè) is a traditional Chinese unit of decimal time lasting approximately a quarter of a western hour. Traditionally the ke divides a day into 100 equal intervals[1] of 14.4 minutes (14 m 24 s). The ke is equivalent to the centiday (cd), a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. Ke literally means 'to etch' or 'to cut', and it is part of the noun Kedu which refers to etched-on markings on measuring devices.[citation needed]
Alongside the ke, the ancient Chinese kept time with double hours (traditional 時辰, simplified 时辰, pinyin shíchen) also known as watches. Because one cannot divide 12 double hours into 100 ke evenly, each ke was subdivided into 60 fen (分; pinyin fēn).
There were various attempts to redefine the ke to 96, 108, or 120 so as to divide evenly into 12 double hours. During the Qing dynasty around the time of the arrival of Jesuit missionaries, the duration of the ke was finally redefined to one-ninety-sixth of a day, or exactly one quarter of a western hour. Today ke is the standard Chinese term to refer to a quarter of an hour.
[edit] Notes
- ^ According to the Shuowen Jiezi from Xu Shen, “漏以铜壶盛水，刻节，昼夜百刻。” Translation: “Drop waters from a copper/bronze container with water inside. The time spent is measured. We can thus divide a whole day into 100 measures.”
The unit Ke is used in Chinese medicine for the application of a technique related to chronobiology in the West. One of the categories of energy circulation, the Wei Qi or defensive energy, may be accessed through the utilization of Chinese time keeping and is based on the Ke as one hundredth of a day, or 14'24". The application depends on the part of the day; from Zi to Wu hours or watches the circulation follows the Yang in a cycle of Taiyang, Shaoyang, Yangming and Zu Shaoyin. In the night, from Wu to Zi the circulation follows internal organ sequence beginning with Heart/Lung, Lung/Liver, Liver/Spleen and Spleen/Kidney. The action is one described by analogy as an energetic bivouac where at the indicated points the Wei Qi and the Ying Qi meet up and the Ying Qi nourishes the Wei Qi while the Wei Qi being active delivers impulsion to the Ying Qi. The most common objective is the enhancement of immunology, the Western medical equivelant to Wei Qi. CALLAc
[edit] References
- Ronan, Colin p 247-250 in Walker, Ch. ed.: Astronomy before the telescope. Brit. Museum P., UK (1999). ISBN 0-7141-2733-7
