The ten Celestial or Heavenly Stems (Chinese: 天干; pinyin: tiāngān) 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.[1]
Contents |
| Celestial Stem |
Chinese Pinyin |
Japanese kunyomi |
Japanese on'yomi |
Korean (RR) |
Vietnamese | Yin and Yang (陰陽) |
Wu Xing (五行) |
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) | 南 South |
| 4 | 丁 | dīng | hinoto | tei | 정 (jeong) | đinh | 陰(yin) | ||
| 5 | 戊 | wù | tsuchinoe | bo | 무 (mu) | mậu | 陽 (yang) | 土 (earth) | 中 Middle |
| 6 | 己 | jǐ | tsuchinoto | ki | 기 (gi) | kỷ | 陰 (yin) | ||
| 7 | 庚 | gēng | kanoe | kō | 경 (gyeong) | canh | 陽 (yang) | 金 (metal) | 西 West |
| 8 | 辛 | xīn | kanoto | shin | 신 (sin) | tân | 陰 (yin) | ||
| 9 | 壬 | rén | mizunoe | jin | 임 (im) | nhâm | 陽 (yang) | 水 (water) | 北 North |
| 10 | 癸 | guǐ | mizunoto | ki | 계 (gye) | quý | 陰 (yin) |
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 Suns and the Six Ages of the World of Saint Augustine. They were found in the given names 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.[2] 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:[3]
| Celestial Stem |
Meaning | |
|---|---|---|
| Original | Modern | |
| 甲 | shell | helmet, armor, one, words related to beetles, crustaceans, methyl group, fingernails, toenails |
| 乙 | fishguts | two, twist, words related to the ethyl group |
| 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) |
The Stems are still commonly used nowadays in Chinese counting systems similar to the way the alphabet is used in English. For example:
Allan, Sarah (1991). The shape of the turtle: myth, art, and cosmos in early China. Albany NY: State University of New York Press. ISBN 9780791404591.
Barnard, Noel (1986). "A new approach to the study of clan-sign inscriptions of Shang". In Kwang-chih Chang (ed.). Studies of Shang archaeology : selected papers from the International Conference on Shang Civilization. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 141–206. ISBN 9780300035780.
Tsien, Tsuen-hsuin; Kwang-chih Chang (1978). "T'ien kan: a key to the history of the Shang". In David Roy (ed.). Ancient China : studies in early civilization. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press. pp. 13–42. ISBN 9789622011441.
Chang Tai-Ping (1978). "The role of the t'ien-kan ti-chih terms in the naming system of the Yin". Early China 4: 45–48.
Keightley, David (2000). The ancestral landscape: time, space, and community in late Shang China, ca. 1200-1045 B.C.. Berkeley: University of California, Berkeley, Center for Chinese Studies. ISBN 9781557290700.
Norman, Jerry (1985). "A note on the origins of the Chinese duodenary cycle". In Graham Thurgood (ed.). Linguistics of the Sino-Tibetan area : the state of the art : papers presented to Paul K. Benedict for his 7lst birthday. Canberra: Australian National University. pp. 85–89.
Pulleyblank, E. G. (1995). "The ganzhi as phonograms". Early China News 8: 29–30.
Smith, Adam (2011). "The Chinese sexagenary cycle and the ritual origins of the calendar". In John Steele (ed.). Calendars and years II : astronomy and time in the ancient and medieval world. Oxford: Oxbow. pp. 1–37. ISBN 9781842179871. http://cangjie.info/public/papers/SmithAdam_2010_sexagenary.pdf.