CHINESE SUPERSTITIONS - University of Oregon

— 389 —
The 10 heavenly stems are the following: Kiah ^, Yih £,,
Ping pj, Ting T, Wu J%, Ki Q, Keng j£, Sin ^, Jen =£,
and Kwei ^ (1).
The 12 branches are thus enumerated by the Chinese: Tze ^f-,
Ch'eu #, Yin ^, Mao Jj|], C/i'en J£, Sze Q, Wu ^, Wei ^,
S/ien ^, Fiu @f, //sft/i /£, and Hat ^ (2).
The first stem, combined with the first branch, is Kiah-tze E|3
^-, and designates the first year of the cycle. The second stem is
then combined with the second branch, and designates the second
year, or Yih-ch'eu £, -J^, and so on to the tenth stem, and the
tenth branch. The eleventh branch, Hsiih J%, is then joined with
the first stem Kiah r^ , the twelfth, Hai %, with the second, and so
on (3). Sixty years are numbered in this way, after which the
series begins over again, and a new cycle commences (4). There
were 44 cycles before the birth of Christ, ending A.D. 3; and there
will be 32 cycles since that date, up to A.D. 1924. The present
cycle began A.D. 1864, and hence the year 1921 is the 58 th
the 31 st
cycle (5).
year of
As to the origin of these "heavenly stems'
1
T'ien-kan , 3R -p,
and "earthly branches", Ti-shi jfe ~£, it seems to go back to the
remotest antiquity. Chinese Annalists record that P'anku j$. ~^ ,
the first being brought into existence by
the evolution of the Great
Monod, T'ai-yih -Jz — , was followed by three Sovereigns: the
(1) See Chinese Superstitions Vol. I. p. 142. note 1. — Mayers. Chinese
Reader's Manual, p. 349 (The 10 Sterns^.
(2) Chinese Superstitions. Vol. I. p. 142. note 2; Vol. III. p. 262. note 2.
Mayers. Chinese Reader's Manual, p. 351.
(3) Williams. Dictionary of the Chinese Languague. — Encyclopaedia
Sinica. p. 137.
(4) This is the only mode of reckoning years employed by the Chinese.
It is followed by the Japanese, Koreans, Mongols, Siamese, Annamese, and
others who have borrowed their civilisation from China. Williams. Diction-
ary of the Chinese Language.
(5)
Williams. Dictionary of the Chinese Language (Kiah-tze ^ -:
J-).