10 Heavenly Stems.

[Manty]

Hi FSA

Hi Manty,

The book is called "The Secret Codes to Chinese Characters" Hanzi Mima 漢字密碼 by Tang Han 唐漢 published by Zhonghua Shuju 中華書局

Great.  This is in my "to buy list".  金多謝.

About the correlates, yes, I am familiar with them... but it is always nice to be reminded of.  You can never disregard the basics.

Manty

[Jlim]

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[mei yong]

Hi Manty, your post nr. 26 in this thread is absolutely so wonderfully written and explained. 
My deep gratitude. 

Hi Jlim, very much appreciated your tip on the book of chinese characters.  Will make learning the characters more digestible to a non chinese reader.      

Many many thanks to you both,
Mei 

[cocodine]

This is not a Chinese metaphysics book, but is a book that shows all the stories to every Chinese character, and can be very helpful in memorizing the character.

Thank you Jlim, I have been searching for such a book for the last 19 years!

cc

[june]

Hi

Meek the list of  HS you give will help me learning chinese characters

and Manty thank for your explanation about the way HS are presented


thanks for sharing your knowledges   

Best regards
June

[Jlim]

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[june]

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There are 10 HS and 12 EB, and I would strongly recommend that non-Chinese literate to learn these characters by heart.
Anyway the total number of characters is only 22, which is fewer than 26 characters in the Latin alphabet.

Hi again

I do not want to learn chinese characters to write chinese language  , but it will be help me to read posts and charts when written in chinese and not in english. Many websites and applications use chinese characters in plotting charts   

cheers
June

[Manty]

Greetings everyone, hi FSA:

It has been a while since FSA was kind enough to post this:

The book is called "The Secret Codes to Chinese Characters" Hanzi Mima 漢字密碼 by Tang Han 唐漢 published by Zhonghua Shuju 中華書局 ...

I still have not been able to locate it, but it is only a matter of time.

FSA also sent us a brief description of each of the heavenly stems.  I am not sure if these descriptions came from the above mentioned book or not, but they are quite interesting and since I have a bit of time today before I need to get out of my office, I thought of translating them for the benefit of all of us.

Since FSA already gave the text in Simplified Chinese (簡體字), I am giving the same text in Classical Chinese (繁體字) together with the translation.

甲：像草木破土而萌，陽在內而被陰包裹。

Jiǎ: [It represents the] image of the grassland, [the meadow, vegetation] and it is able to both break the ground and to sprout.

乙：草木初生，枝葉柔軟屈曲。

Yǐ: [It represents the image of the] new grown grassland, [or meadow or vegetation; and it is able to grow] branches and leaves that are soft, pliable and sinuous.

丙：炳也,如赫赫太陽，炎炎火光，萬物皆炳燃著，見而光明。

Bīng: [It represents the image of that which is] bright and flaring.  It is like the startling Sun, so ablaze and so scorching.  The Ten Thousand Things are all lightened up and illumined by it.  When it appears, all become clear and visible.

丁：草木成長壯實，好比人的成丁。

Dīng: [It represents the image of the] grassland [or vegetation] growing, strengthening and fully maturing.  It can be likened to the development and maturation [process] of human beings.

戊：茂盛也，象征大地草木茂盛繁榮。

Wù: [It represents the image of vegetation becoming] lush and exuberant.  It symbolizes the great land formations, the meadows and the forests, that which is lush and booming.

己：起也，紀也，萬物抑屈而起，有形可紀。

Jǐ: [It represents the image of something being] established or disciplined.  The Ten Thousand Things are restrained and humbled and, in this manner, they rise and become established.  [All which] is endowed with a form or shape can be forged and disciplined.

庚：更也，秋收而待來春。

Gēng: [It represents the image of a] night-watch, [it is the time for] the autumn harvest and the vigil for the arrival of Spring.

辛：金味辛，物成而后有味，辛者，新也，萬物肅然更改，秀實新成。

Xīn: [It represents the] metallic flavor which is coarse and pungent.  Things ripen and then they are endowed with flavor.  Xin is [the resulting thing which is] different.  The Ten Thousand Things change in amazing ways, [and when they] refine and ripen [themselves], they end up being something different [from what they were initially].

壬：妊也，陽氣潛伏地中，萬物懷妊。

Rén: [It represents the image of that which is] fruitful, fertile, productive.  Yang energy hides in the middle of the Earth and the Ten Thousand things are made fertile.

癸：揆也，萬物閉藏，懷妊地下，揆然萌芽。

Guì: [It represents the image of the] right moment or criterion.  The [activities] of the Ten Thousand Things come to a halt and they are being gathered together [whereas] the life spawning activities lie below the Earth.  At the right moment will the buds will begin to sprout.

Manty

[heroesthree]

hey guys

thanx for this introduction of the 10 heavenly stems

it really gave me a better understanding for the five arts

just a small question about the combination of the heavenly stem.
if you can't combine any of your bi az together wat does that mean?? so eg i only have HS5, HS6, HS7 and HS8
will this be a problem or the combination of the 10 HS isn't important?

[tylerjrowe]

Hi guys,

Here's a brief article I wrote recently on the ten stems their early origins and developments.  Some of the information is fairly similar to what fsa provided us with, but perhaps there is a little something else of interest.
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The 天干 Tiān gàn, the ‘Heavenly stems’ also known as the ‘Celestial stems’ are a group of ten ordinals of great antiquity.  Older than the earliest records of the 五行Wǔxíng or ‘Five Elemental Phases’ they predate their counterparts, the 地支Dì zhī, ‘earthly branches’ by some hundreds of years.  Unfortunately in modern times there seems to be a convention developing to replace these stems with numbers or recognise them only by their elemental equivalents (eg. Yang Wood).  This is a misrepresentation however, neglecting their true meanings and placing an unnecessary limit on the depth of our knowledge.
The stems are some of the oldest Chinese characters known.  Their first recorded use seems to be during the 商 Shāng dynasty, around 1500 BC, where they appeared on oracle bones.  These ‘oracle bones’ were usually the scapula of oxen or tortoise plastrons that were drilled with small holes then subjected to fire to form many tiny cracks, the relative auspiciousness (or inauspiciousness) of which could be read by a skilled diviner.
   The original use of the stems was as Calendrical symbols, an early demarcation of what was then a 10 day week in the Chinese empire, known as a旬xún.  It is theorised that these names for days of the week were taken after various celestial deities, now long forgotten, similar to our own western culture and use of the Norse and other gods, in our days of the week.

   The philosophy of the heavenly stems was developed over time and recorded in ancient classical texts.  They were adopted to describe the circulation of the qì of the Wǔxíng in the sky (the earthly branches referring to its material forms on earth) its motion and rest, expansion and contraction etc.  The early pictograms and characters symbolise these transformations, information from which is summarised in the table below.
   The famous court astrologer of the former Han Dynasty 司马迁 Sīmǎ Qiān in his epic work the Shǐjì史记 ‘Records of the Grand Historian’ written around 109 – 91BC, describes the stems thus - ‘The growing, thriving, declining and dying of all living things in the universe and the development and transformation of all natural phenomena.’ 
Sīmǎ Qiān and authors of other classic texts such as the 內經素問 Nèijīng sùwèn, ‘Simple Questions of the Inner Classic’ authorship attributed to Huangdi the Yellow Emperor in approximately 300BC, talk of the stems in terms of analogy, using the growth of crops to describe the energetic changes. 
Perhaps some of the most extensive information though can be found in the more recent清Qīng Dynasty classic work by Yunlu MeiJuecheng & He Guozhong the协纪辨方书Xiéjì Biàn fāng shū – ‘Treatise on Harmonizing Times and Distinguishing Directions’.  Written in 1740 by imperial decree, it borrows heavily from many of the earlier sources and interpretations. 
   
   Evolution of the stems continued and scholars classified the odd numbered as yang, the even as yin.  They then combined with the earthly branches (yin to yin and yang to yang) to make up the 干支 Gānzhī or 甲子 Jiǎzǐ (named after 1st combination) the ‘60 binomials’.  Stems were assigned the elemental correlations they are perhaps best known for, as well as trigrams – the纳甲 Nàjiǎ ‘Received stem’ system.  It was also determined that opposite stems combined to form additional elemental energies according to the 河图 Hétú ‘river map’, along with varied other permutations of lesser fame.
   This theoretical construct was then associated with various fields of Chinese philosophical science.  Examples of which include in Astronomy – for the location of the four major constellations of seven star clusters (also known as the 28 Lunar mansions) in Feng Shui - to directions and their auspices as the 24 mountains; and in medicine – to body parts via the channels, opening acupuncture points, pulse diagnosis and days upon which death may occur! 
It is in术数Shùshù ‘astrology and divination’ that the stems are perhaps most extensively used though.  In the子平Zǐpíng method (Bazi/4 Pillars) they represent the upper layers of interpretation of a chart.  The 紫微Zǐwéi (purple star) calculations place them according to the lunar calendar, allowing location of certain major and minor ‘stars’.  They also appear on the cosmological divination boards of the 遁甲 Dùnjiǎ (Hidden Stem), 六壬Lùi Rén (Six Stem) and 太乙 Tàiyǐ  (Great Stem) techniques.
It is through greater understanding of these foundations that we can better fathom the wisdom of the Chinese Metaphysical arts.  This knowledge can also help to establish the future directions of our own practices.  There are of course many other applications of the heavenly stems, beyond the scope of this brief essay and too numerous to mention here.  This is in itself a testament to the humble stem’s longevity, flexibility, and willingness to be interwoven with a myriad of things.

References
Aylward, T (2007) ‘The Imperial Guide to Feng Shui & Chinese Astrology’ Watkins Publishing
Maoshing Ni (1995) ‘The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine - A New Translation of the 'Neijing Suwen' with Commentary’ Shambhala Publications
Yoke Ho Peng (2003) ‘Chinese Mathematical Astrology: Reaching Out to the Stars’ Routledge Curzon

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Unfortunately my copy of the new Huainanzi translation, with much additional information on this topic, didn't arrive until after the article was written, hence its conspicuous absence...
 
The full article with the character table mentioned (the best bit!) is attached

Auspicious fortunes,
Tyler

[Bazisuanming]

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[T S]

Yes,It is a good article !

It can also be said as an intelligent article in the sense that it tries to explain "The What Aspect" of 10 HS in a systematic manner based on the reliable sources.

I hope Tyler would continue this article after reading the new translation of Huainanzi.

       Truthfully

          T S

[tylerjrowe]

Thank you very much Bazisuanming & T S

I am currently working on a presentation of 'Introduction to Fengshui classic texts and their translations' and looking into the new 淮南子 Huáinánzǐ translation.  I will certainly be doing some further (re)writing on 10 HS after thorough investigation of the 天文Tiānwén chapter. 

Cheers,
T