{{subst:Mergerproposal|Ti-yong|Talk:Essence-Function#Merger proposal}} Essence-Function
The Ten Celestial (Heavenly) Stems - 天干 tiāngān edit
| Celestial Stem |
Pinyin | Yin and Yang (陰陽) |
Wu Xing (五行) |
Wu Xing correlations | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 甲 | jiǎ | 陽 (yang) | 木 (tree|wood) | 東 East |
| 2 | 乙 | yǐ | 陰 (yin) | ||
| 3 | 丙 | bǐng | 陽 (yang) | 火 (fire) | 南 South |
| 4 | 丁 | dīng | 陰 (yin) | ||
| 5 | 戊 | wù | 陽 (yang) | 土 (earth) | 中 Middle |
| 6 | 己 | jǐ | 陰 (yin) | ||
| 7 | 庚 | gēng | 陽 (yang) | 金 (metal) | 西 West |
| 8 | 辛 | xīn | 陰 (yin) | ||
| 9 | 壬 | rén | 陽 (yang) | 水 (water) | 北 North |
| 10 | 癸 | guǐ | 陰 (yin) |
The literal meaning of the characters was roughly as follows:[1]
| Celestial Stem |
Meaning | |
|---|---|---|
| Original | Modern | |
| 甲 | shell | first (book I, person A etc.), helmet, armor, words related to beetles, crustaceans, methyl group, fingernails, toenails |
| 乙 | fishguts | second (book II, person B etc.), twist, words related to the ethyl group |
| 丙 | fishtail [2] | third, bright, fire, fishtail (rare) |
| 丁 | nail | fourth, male adult, robust, T-shaped, to strike, a surname |
| 戊 | lance | (not used) |
| 己 | threads on a loom [3] | self |
| 庚 | evening star | age (of person) |
| 辛 | to offend superiors [4] | bitter, piquant, toilsome |
| 壬 | burden[5] | to shoulder, to trust with office |
| 癸 | disposed grass [6] | (not used) |
The Twelve Earthly Branches - 地支 dìzhī edit
Arctic Side
| Earthly Branch |
Pinyin | Chinese zodiac | Japanese zodiac | Direction | Season | Lunar Month | Double Hour | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 子 | zǐ | 鼠 Rat |
鼠 | 0° (north) | winter | Month 11 | 11pm to 1am (midnight) |
| 2 | 丑 | chǒu | 牛 Ox |
牛 | 30° | Month 12 | 1am to 3am | |
| 3 | 寅 | yín | 虎 Tiger |
虎 | 60° | spring | Month 1 | 3am to 5am |
| 4 | 卯 | mǎo | 兔 Rabbit |
兔 | 90° (east) | Month 2 | 5am to 7am | |
| 5 | 辰 | chén | 龍 (龙） Dragon |
竜 | 120° | Month 3 | 7am to 9 am | |
| 6 | 巳 | sì | 蛇 Snake |
蛇 | 150° | summer | Month 4 | 9am to 11am |
| 7 | 午 | wǔ | 馬 (马） Horse |
馬 | 180° (south) | Month 5 | 11am to 1pm (noon) | |
| 8 | 未 | wèi | 羊 Goat |
羊 | 210° | Month 6 | 1pm to 3pm | |
| 9 | 申 | shēn | 猴 Monkey |
猿 | 240° | autumn | Month 7 | 3pm to 5pm |
| 10 | 酉 | yǒu | 雞 (鸡） Rooster |
鶏 | 270° (west) | Month 8 | 5pm to 7pm | |
| 11 | 戌 | xū | 狗 Dog |
犬 | 300° | Month 9 | 7pm to 9pm | |
| 12 | 亥 | hài | 豬 (猪） Pig |
猪 | 330° | winter | Month 10 | 9pm to 11pm |
Some cultures assign different animals: Vietnam replaces the Ox and Rabbit with the water buffalo and cat respectively; Japan replaces the Pig (豚) with the boar (猪) as the character 猪 means Pig in Chinese but "boar" in Japanese; Tibet replaces the Rooster with the bird. In the traditional Kazakh version of the 12-year animal cycle (Kazakh: мүшел, müşel), the Dragon is substituted by a snail (Kazakh: ұлу, ulw), and the Tiger appears as a leopard (Kazakh: барыс, barıs).[7]
poem edit
This is explained by Fuxi in the following way:
無極生有極、
有極是太極、
太極生兩儀、
即陰陽。
兩儀生四象:
即少陰、太陰、
少陽、太陽、
四象演八卦、
八八六十四卦。Wújí shēng yǒují,
yǒují shì tàijí.
Tàijí shēng liǎngyí,
jí yīnyáng.
Liǎngyí shēng sìxiàng:
jí shǎoyīn, tàiyīn,
shǎoyáng, tàiyang
Sìxiàng yǎn bāguà,
bā bā liùshísì guàThe Limitless (無極; wuji) produces the Delimited (有極; youji),
and this Delimited is equivalent to the Absolute (太極; Taiji), or the Highest Limit.
The Taiji (the two opposing forces in embryonic, unmanifested form) produces two forms Liangyi ({{lang|zh|兩儀),
namely yin-yang(陰陽), the manifested opposing forces.
These two forms produce four phenomena:
namely: lesser yin (少陰, shaoyin), greater yin (太陰; taiyin, which also refers to the Moon),
lesser yang (陽, shaoyang), and greater yang (太陽; taiyang, which also refers to the Sun).
The four phenomena (四象; Sìxiàng) act on the eight trigrams (八卦; Bagua).
Eight 'eights' results in sixty-four hexagrams.
Dasgupta edit
Dasgupta [8]
Liangyi, Sixiang, Bagua edit
易有太極，
是生兩儀，
兩儀生四象，
四象生八卦。
Yì yǒu tàijí,
shì shēng liǎngyí,
liǎngyí shēng sìxiàng,
sìxiàng shēng bāguà.Legge's translation:
[I]n (the system of) the Yi there is the Grand Terminus,
which produced the two elementary Forms.
Those two Forms produced the Four emblematic Symbols,
which again produced the eight Trigrams.Adler's translation
In Change there is the Supreme Polarity,
which generates the Two Modes (兩儀; liangyi).
The Two Modes generate the Four Images (sixiang),
and the Four Images generate the Eight Trigrams.
Footnotes or References edit
- ^ William McNaughton. Reading and Writing Chinese. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1979.
- ^ Wenlin Dictionary: Picture of a fish tail.
- ^ Wenlin Dictionary: 己 may have depicted thread on a loom; an ancient meaning was 'unravel threads', which was later written 紀 jì. 己 was borrowed both for the word jǐ 'self', and for the name of the sixth Heavenly Stem (天干).
- ^ Wenlin Dictionary: "The seal has 𢆉 'knock against, offend' below, and 亠 above; the scholastic commentators say: to offend (亠 = ) 上 the superiors"
- ^ Wenlin Dictionary: 壬 rén depicts "a 丨 carrying pole supported 一 in the middle part and having one object attached at each end, as always done in China" --Karlgren(1923). (See 扁担 biǎndan). Now the character 任 rèn has the meaning of carrying a burden, and the original character 壬 is used only for the ninth of the ten heavenly stems (天干).
- ^ Wenlin Dictionary: 癶 "stretch out the legs" + 天; The nicely disposed grass, on which the Ancients poured the libations offered to the Manes
- ^ А. Мухамбетова (A. Mukhambetova), Казахский традиционный календарь The traditional Kazakh calendar (in Russian)
- ^ Dasgupta, Shashibhusan (1946). Obscure Religious Cults. Caldutta: Calcutta University Press. pp. 384–385.
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