Re: Chinese Day & month names

On Mon, 1 May 2000, Jonathan Chang wrote:

>     Based on the ancient _I Ching_, the Taoists have the concept of "The
> Cycle of the Twelve Earthly Forces":
>
> 1st month -> "Ein" (element: Yang Wood)   Spring
> 2nd  "         -> "Mao" (   "   : Yin Wood)    Spring
> 3rd            -> "Chen" (      : Yang Earth)   Spring
> 4th         -> "Sze" (      : Yin Fire)    Summer
> 5th         -> "Wu"  (    :Yang Fire)   Summer
> 6th         -> "Wei"  (    :Yin Earth)    Summer
> 7th         -> "Shen"  (   : Yang Metal)   Fall
> 8th         -> "Yu"   (    : Yin Metal)    Fall
> 9th         -> "Shu"   (   : Yang Earth)   Fall
> 10th             -> "Hai"   (  : Yin Water)   Winter
> 11th        -> "Tze"  (  : Yang Water)    Winter
> 12th        -> "Chui"  (   : Yin Earth)    Winter
>
>     Everything from _Feng Shui_ to _Dim Mak_ is based on these cycles,
> besides the usual basic agricultural stuff. (there are other cycles involved
> too: in example, the day has its own cycle... then there is also the Chinese
> Zodiac with it's 12 year cycle, etc.).  hehe, Cycles within Cycles upon
> Cycles...
>     This has its basis in early pre-Taoist thought (late shamanistic Chinese
> period
> roughly 16th Century B.C.E. & earlier). The Taoists refined the shamanistic
> observations & developed an incipient science... out of which arose
> acupunture,
> gunpowder, paper, printing, etc..
But let's not forget their counterparts, the "Ten Heavenly Branches"!

And, for that matter (and more specifically calendrical, the 24 "divided
pneuma" (or whatever; jie2 qi) -- the 15 day periods.  Do people use them
any more at all?

(On a side note, I've heard & read it claimed that the associations of the
elements with the day names is in fact a Tang (or slightly earlier) import
from Central Asia, brought to China by those omnipresent yet elusive
Sogdian merchants.  In any case, it's not attested in pre-Han, or so far
as I know, Han-period texts.)

Kenji