Re: 子年

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Subject: Re: 子年
From: TAKASUGI Shinji (ts

sf.airnet.ne.jp)
Date: Wed, 12 Jun 2002 14:25:37 GMT
References: 1, 2

See a message of mine for the pronunciations of 十二支 (じゅうにし), the twelve characters of the Chinese zodiac, which are sometimes translated as earthly branches.

十二支 appeared about 3500 years ago. They were probably the names of the twelve months of the year first, and used also for days and years later. They were associated with the twelve animals about 2000 years ago, according to some historians. The first year of the Chinese zodiac, later called the year of the rat, is always written as 子, not 鼠, because the former didn't mean the rat first time.

十干 (じっかん), the ten characters of the Chinese astrology, which are sometimes translated as heavenly stems, are as old as 十二支. Ancient Chinese people believed that there were ten suns, each of which appeared once every ten days. 十干 were probably the names of the ten days, and used also for months and years later. We still commonly use the word 旬 (じゅん), which means ten days, as in 上旬 (じょうじゅん), 中旬 (ちゅうじゅん), and 下旬 (げじゅん). They are now associated with 陰陽 (いんよう), the yin-yang dualism, and 五行 (ごぎょう), the Chinese five elements theory, as follows:

Order	Symbol	Pronunciation			Yin-Yang	Element
		Mandarin	Japanese
		Mandarin	On	Kun
1	甲	jiă	kô	kinoe	Yang	Wood
2	乙	yĭ	otsu	kinoto	Yin	Wood
3	丙	bĭng	hei	hinoe	Yang	Fire
4	丁	dīng	tei	hinoto	Yin	Fire
5	戊	wù	bo	tsuchinoe	Yang	Earth
6	己	jĭ	ki	tsuchinoto	Yin	Earth
7	庚	gēng	kô	kanoe	Yang	Metal
8	辛	xīn	shin	kanoto	Yin	Metal
9	壬	rén	jin	mizunoe	Yang	Water
10	癸	guĭ	ki	mizunoto	Yin	Water

The kun-readings are better than the on-readings to avoid homonyms.

Some of the associations of yin-yang are shown below:

陽 Yang	陰 Yin
天 Heaven	地 Earth
日 the Sun	月 the Moon
昼 Day	夜 Night
明 Light	暗 Darkness
動 Movement	静 Stillness
奇 Odd	偶 Even

It is clear that yin is zero and yang is one in the binary system.

Some of the associations of 五行 are shown below:

Element	木 Wood	火 Fire	土 Earth	金 Metal	水 Water
Season	春 Spring	夏 Summer	土用 Change of seasons	秋 Autumn	冬 Winter
Direction	東 East	南 South	中央 Center	西 West	北 North
Color	青 Blue	赤 Red	黄 Yellow	白 White	黒 Black
Taste	酸 Sour	苦 Bitter	甘 Sweet	辛 Hot	鹹 Salt
Organ	肝 Liver	心 Heart	脾 Spleen	肺 Lung	腎 Kidney
Planet	歳星 (木星) Jupiter	惑 (火星) Mars	鎮星 (土星) Saturn	太白 (金星) Venus	辰星 (水星) Mercury
Sense	色 Sight	声 Sound	香 Smell	味 Taste	触 Touch
Finger	無名指 Ring finger	中指 Middle finger	食指 Index finger	拇指 Thumb	小指 Little finger

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sf.airnet.ne.jp)

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