It has been suggested that this article be
merged with
Earthly Branches and
Sexagenary cycle to
Chinese cyclical signs. (
Discuss) Proposed since July 2024. |
Heavenly Stems | |||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 天干 | ||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
Vietnamese name | |||||||||||||||||
Vietnamese alphabet | thiên can | ||||||||||||||||
Chữ Hán | 天干 | ||||||||||||||||
Korean name | |||||||||||||||||
Hangul | 천간 | ||||||||||||||||
Hanja | 天干 | ||||||||||||||||
|
The ten Heavenly Stems (or Celestial Stems [1]) are a system of ordinals indigenous to China and used throughout East Asia, first attested c. 1250 BCE during the Shang dynasty as the names of the ten days of the week. They were also used in Shang-era rituals in the names of dead family members, who were offered sacrifices on the corresponding day of the Shang week. Stems are no longer used as names for the days of the week, but have acquired many other uses. Most prominently, they have been used in conjunction with the associated set of twelve Earthly Branches in the compound sexagenary cycle, an important feature of historical Chinese calendars. [2]
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 leading scholar of ancient China and its bronzes, believes that the gān names were chosen posthumously through divination. [3] 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.
Jonathan Smith has proposed that the heavenly stems predate the Shang and originally referred to ten asterisms along the ecliptic, of which their oracle bone script characters were drawings; he identifies similarities between these and asterisms in the later Four Images and Twenty-Eight Mansions systems. These would have been used to track the moon's progression along its monthly circuit, in conjunction with the earthly branches referring to its phase. [4]
The literal meanings of the characters were, and are now, roughly as follows. [5] Among the modern meanings, those deriving from the characters' position in the sequence of Heavenly Stems are in italics.
Heavenly Stem |
Meaning | |
---|---|---|
Original meaning | Modern | |
甲 | turtle shell | first (book I, person A etc.), methyl group, helmet, armor, words related to beetles, crustaceans, fingernails, toenails |
乙 | fish-guts | second (book II, person B etc.), ethyl group, twist |
丙 | fishtail [6] | third, bright, fire, fishtail (rare) |
丁 | nail | fourth, male adult, robust, T-shaped, to strike, a surname |
戊 | halberd | (not used) |
己 | threads on a loom [7] | self |
庚 | evening star | age (of person) |
辛 | to offend superiors [8] | bitter, piquant, toilsome |
壬 | burden [9] | to shoulder, to trust with office |
癸 | grass for libation [10] | (not used) |
The Stems are still commonly used nowadays in East Asian counting systems similar to the way the alphabet is used in English. For example:
It has been suggested that this article be
merged with
Earthly Branches and
Sexagenary cycle to
Chinese cyclical signs. (
Discuss) Proposed since July 2024. |
Heavenly Stems | |||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 天干 | ||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
Vietnamese name | |||||||||||||||||
Vietnamese alphabet | thiên can | ||||||||||||||||
Chữ Hán | 天干 | ||||||||||||||||
Korean name | |||||||||||||||||
Hangul | 천간 | ||||||||||||||||
Hanja | 天干 | ||||||||||||||||
|
The ten Heavenly Stems (or Celestial Stems [1]) are a system of ordinals indigenous to China and used throughout East Asia, first attested c. 1250 BCE during the Shang dynasty as the names of the ten days of the week. They were also used in Shang-era rituals in the names of dead family members, who were offered sacrifices on the corresponding day of the Shang week. Stems are no longer used as names for the days of the week, but have acquired many other uses. Most prominently, they have been used in conjunction with the associated set of twelve Earthly Branches in the compound sexagenary cycle, an important feature of historical Chinese calendars. [2]
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 leading scholar of ancient China and its bronzes, believes that the gān names were chosen posthumously through divination. [3] 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.
Jonathan Smith has proposed that the heavenly stems predate the Shang and originally referred to ten asterisms along the ecliptic, of which their oracle bone script characters were drawings; he identifies similarities between these and asterisms in the later Four Images and Twenty-Eight Mansions systems. These would have been used to track the moon's progression along its monthly circuit, in conjunction with the earthly branches referring to its phase. [4]
The literal meanings of the characters were, and are now, roughly as follows. [5] Among the modern meanings, those deriving from the characters' position in the sequence of Heavenly Stems are in italics.
Heavenly Stem |
Meaning | |
---|---|---|
Original meaning | Modern | |
甲 | turtle shell | first (book I, person A etc.), methyl group, helmet, armor, words related to beetles, crustaceans, fingernails, toenails |
乙 | fish-guts | second (book II, person B etc.), ethyl group, twist |
丙 | fishtail [6] | third, bright, fire, fishtail (rare) |
丁 | nail | fourth, male adult, robust, T-shaped, to strike, a surname |
戊 | halberd | (not used) |
己 | threads on a loom [7] | self |
庚 | evening star | age (of person) |
辛 | to offend superiors [8] | bitter, piquant, toilsome |
壬 | burden [9] | to shoulder, to trust with office |
癸 | grass for libation [10] | (not used) |
The Stems are still commonly used nowadays in East Asian counting systems similar to the way the alphabet is used in English. For example: