Page 363 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols 356
Ten Heavenly Stems Ten Heavenly Stems

tian-gan

The cycle of Ten Heavenly Stems coexisted in early Chinese thought along with the cycle
of Twelve Earthly Branches ( zodiac), and it is frequently mentioned in the
oldest texts. The signs in the cycle of ten are known as gan and are arranged over a
rectangular coordinate system giving the ‘Heavenly Stems’ (tian-gan). The signs in the
cycle of twelve are arranged in a circle, and are known as ‘Earthly Branches’ (di-zhi).
The cycle of twelve is based on the number six. Cømbination of the two cycles gives the
great cycle of sixty years, which is the Chinese equivalent of our century.
The individual ten signs (gan) have so far proved indecipherable. It has
been suggested that they may refer to an early ten-day week, but there is
no evidence for this, and it is in any case unlikely, as, very early on, the
Chinese calendar was geared to the phases of the moon, which
precluded runs of thirty days.
Ten Thousand Ten Thousand

wan

‘From one comes two, from two comes three, from three come the ten thousand things’
was Lao-zi’s pithy way of summing up Chinese

The sign for ‘ten thousand’ written as a meandering watercourse