Heavenly Stems
The list of ten Heavenly Stems (天干; pinyin: tiāngān) was an enumeration of discrete entities, as in years and dates often employed in Chinese astrology. It has been in use in China since the Shang Dynasty (1600 BC).
The phonetic characters are:
- Jiǎ (甲)
- Yǐ (乙)
- Bǐng (丙)
- Dīng (丁)
- Wù (戊)
- Jǐ (己)
- Gēng (庚)
- Xīn (辛)
- Rén (壬)
- Guǐ (癸)
Heavenly Stems are associated with Yin Yang and the Five Elements. They are combined with the twelve Earthly Branches to form the 60-year Stem-Branch (干支) cycle in the Chinese calendar.
The Branches are still commonly used nowadays in China in counting systems similar to the way the alphabet is used in English, namely,
- Students' grades: with an additional Yōu (優 "Excellence") before Jiǎ.
- Choices on multiple choice exams, surveys, and etc.
- Vitamins' names (although currently, in this case, the ABC system is more popular)
- Organic chemicals' names (e.g. Methanol=甲醇; Ethanol=乙醇.)
The kings of the Shang Dynasty have characters of the Branches in their given names.
See also
Chinese numerals
