Page 476 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

GANZH I 437

Table 9
STEMS AGE NTS DIRECTI ONS H OURS AN IMALS NUMBERS
I zi T water N 23- 1 rat 1. 6
2 chou B. soil NNE%E 1- 3 ox 5. 10
3 yin JiJ: wood ENE %N 3- 5 tiger 3. 8
4 mao gp wood E 5- 7 rabbit 3.8
5 chen w. soil ESE% S 7--9 dragon 5. IQ
6 si E. fire SSE% E 9-II snake 2.7
7 wu Lf fire S II- I3 horse 2.7
8 wei * soil SSW % W 13- 15 sheep 5. 10
9 shen $ metal WSW % S 15- 17 monkey 4. 9
IQ you W metal W 17- 19 rooster 4. 9
II XU fJ/; soil WNW %N 19- 21 dog 5. 10
12 hai ~ water NNW % W 21-23 pig 1.6
The twelve Earthly Branches (dizhi :It!J.J!O and their associations.
(See also tables 13 and 25.)

with guiyou ~ W as no. 10. The next decade begins with no. n . jiaxu E!3 BG.
and continues with an offset of two in the Stems relative to the Branches. This
process is continued. the offset increasing by two each decade. until we reach
guihai ~ *- as no. 60. and the cycle then repeats.
This sexagesimal day-cycle was used for civil dating independent of months
and years. and seems to have run unbroken up to the present from at least
as far back as the beginning of the first millennium BCE. Clearly any given
lunar month (of either 29 or 30 days) cannot contain more than one occur-
rence of any given cyclical day. and so ambiguity is avoided. During the Han
dynasty it also became customary to use the ganzhi cycle of sixty character
pairs to designate a cycle of sixty years in addition to its continuing use for
naming days. Because no emperor's reign apart from that of the Kangxi
Emperor (1662- 1722) lasted longer than sixty years. it is enough to know
the name of the monarch and a ganzhi year-name in order to specify a year
uniquely.
Christopher CULLEN

m Kalinowski 1983. 338-42; Kalinowski 1991. 61- 65; Needham 1956. 357-59
* COSMOLOGY