Systems of Enumeration

Chinese Occultism, by Paul Carus, [1907], at sacred-texts.com

SYSTEMS OF ENUMERATION.

The twelve animals which are pictured on our Tibetan tablet are a curious relic of prehistoric civilisation. They represent at once the twelve months, the twelve divisions of the zodiac, and the twelve double hours of the day. Kindred systems of designating duodecimal divisions of the cosmos, both in time and space, by a cycle of animals can be traced in Babylon, Egypt, primitive America, and modern Europe, where to the present day the constellations along the ecliptic are divided into twelve groups, called the Zodiac, or Thierkreis, i.e., the animal cycle.

The duodenary cycle is an ancient method of counting, expressed by animal names, a custom which has only been abolished in Japan since the Great Reform under the influence of Western civilisation. Up to that time people spoke there of "the rat hour," "the ox hour," "the tiger hour," etc., and these terms had no other significance than in Western countries, one o'clock, two o'clock, or three o'clock.

The twelve animals are affiliated with the twelve branches, so-called, which practically possess the same significance, being also a duodenary cycle. The twelve branches may be summarily characterised as the twelve months, beginning with the eleventh in which the yang principle begins to prepare for its appearance in the new year, and ending in the tenth month of the ensuing year. The twelve branches are correlated not only to the twelve animals, but also to the five elements as indicated in our diagram. The fifth element "earth" is missing because it represents the center around which the twelve branches are grouped.

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THE DUODENARY CYCLE.

THE TWELVE BRANCHES							THE TWELVE ANIMALS
NO.	NAME	TRANSCRIPTION	USUAL MEANING	SIGNIFICANCE IN THE DUODENARY CYCLE	SYMBOL	ELEMENT TO WHICH RELATED	NAME	MEANING
1		tze	child	Regeneration of vegetation	Yang stirring underground	water		rat
2		chu	cord	Relaxation; untying a knot	Hand half-opened			ox
3		yin	to revere	Awakening of life.	Wriggling earthworm	wood		tiger
4		mao	a period of time	Plants breaking through the soil	Opening a gate			hare
5		chen	vibration	First vegetation; seed-time	Thunderstorm			dragon
6		ssu	end	Supremacy of Yang	Snake	fire		serpent
7		wu	to oppose	Yin reasserting itself	Female principle in hidden growth			horse
8		wei	not yet	Taste of fruit	Tree in full bloom			goat
9		shen	to expand	Yin growing strong	Clasped hands	metal		monkey
10		yu	ripe	Completion	Cider or wine-press			cock
11		shu	guard	Exhaustion	Yang withdrawing underground			dog
12		hai	[Kernel] *.	Kernel or root	Yang in touch with Yin	water		boar

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There is another system of counting, which however is decimal, and is called "the ten stems"; and it appears that it is simply an older method of counting the months of the year. In their original here also the explanation of the several symbols has reference to the progress of the year.

It is not impossible that the decimal system was the original and indigenous Chinese method of counting, while the duodecimal system

THE TEN STEMS.

was imported at a very early date from Accad or Sumer, the country of the founders of Babylonian civilisation.

The existence of these two systems suggests the occurrence of a calendar reform such as was introduced in Rome under Numa Pompilius, and we are confronted with the strange coincidence that in China as well as in Rome the two additional months (January

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and February) were inserted at the beginning as a result of which we call even to-day the last month of the year December, i.e., "the tenth." We must leave the question as to the plausibility of a historical connection to specialists familiar with the influence of Babylonian thought on the rest of the world. It is not impossible that a Babylonian (perhaps Sumerian) calendar reform traveled in both directions, rapidly toward the more civilised East, and very slowly toward the West. producing in these remote countries and at different times this startling coincidence of a similar calendar reform.

We might parenthetically state that the original meaning of the ten stems and twelve branches has practically been lost sight of, and both systems have become simply series of figures, the former from one to ten, the latter from one to twelve; while their symbolical relations, the former with the elements, the latter with the twelve animals, are of importance merely to occultists.

The ten stems are also called "the ten mothers," and the twelve branches, "the twelve children." That the former is the older arrangement appears from another name which is "the ten hoary characters.

By a combination of the ten stems with the twelve branches in groups of two in which the former are repeated six times and the latter five times, a series of sixty is produced which is commonly called by sinologists the sexagenary cycle, and is used for naming years as well as days. The invention of the sexagenary cycle and its application to the calendar is attributed to Nao the Great, one of the prime ministers of Hwang Ti, the Yellow Emperor, ¹⁵ who had solicited this work in the sixtieth year of his reign. Nao the Great, having accomplished .the task, set the beginning of the new era in the succeeding year, 2637 B.C. Accordingly we live now in the seventy-sixth cycle which began in 1863 and will end in 1922.

A convenient method of translating the properly Chinese names of the sexagenary cycle would be to render the two characters by their equivalent relations to the twelve animals and the five elements,

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Click to enlarge
The Sexagenary Cycle

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so as to speak of the "fir-rat" year, the "bamboo-ox" year, the "torch-tiger" year, etc.

Footnotes

51:* This character has now no meaning except in its relation to the duodenary cycle. Formerly it denoted kernel, but now the character for tree is added to give that meaning.

53:15 According to traditional chronology, Hwang Ti reigned from 2697 to 2597 B.C.