己丑年 (Ji Chou Year) : 2009, Year of Ox

Dear Friends,

image from www.dailymail.co.uk/news

Yesterday was December 26. It was Boxing Day.

It was also the 1st day of 12th Month of Chinese Calendar. So 春节, “Chun Jie”, Chinese New Year) is just a month away.  It is Ox Year.

For purposes of observing the cosmic forces of 己丑年 (Ji Chou Year), it will start  from Jan 20 and ends on around Jan 22, 2010.

立春, as you may recall from earlier posting, is the day when conditions of Spring has been established in Northern Hemispshere.

When 春节 occurs before 立春, as will be in 2009, it is considered as a smoother year. The reverse such as that of 2008,  is tougher and more things need to be observed.

• 己丑年 (Ji Chou Year) is governed by the main cosmic force of Lesser Earth,  accompanied by Damp Earth and Cold Water as two additional sub-forces.

The element Earth is considered as the  Central Qi, and in human body, corresponds to the Middle Qi (that of the digestive and distribution/expulsion of nutrients and waste system). Cow produces meat and milk by eating produces of the Earth and possession of a healthy Middle Qi system. (please refer to postings  Harmonious Cosmic Motion and  The 5 Pointers: South, North, East, West & Middle).

That’s why 丑 (“chou” year) is represented by Ox. (please refer to posting  The Cosmic Forces in Year 2008 and Red Underwear & Your Birthday in Anno F.X. ? for a brief description of the 60-year cycle, within which we will find 5 Ox years, each 12 years apart, each having a different characteristics, pending on its combination with the main cosmic force of that year. Similarly, there are 5 different type of characteristics for each of the remaining 11 animal signs).

Earth, like dam, blocks water from flooding.  So a Lesser Earth is weaker in controlling Cold Water and with additional Damp Earth, will result in lesser digestive and distribution/expulsion of waste systems  in the body.

The human bodies, all else being equal, are therefore more prone to sicknesses involving the Gastrointestinal system and the distribution of nutrients and expulsion of waste systems, especially the stagnation of fluid in the system.

Strengthen your Middle Qi.

Enjoy your Year End Holiday Season and Have a great 2009 !

 

Notes on Chinese Calendar :

己丑年 is a leap-Month year in Chnese calendar with a leap-month in the 5th Lunar Month. How does this work ?

Chinese calendar is actually Lunisolar, i.e. it uses movement of moon around the sun as well as movement of earth around the sun as pointers for measuring a year + seasonal markers.

For the Lunar calendar, each Lunar Month is either 29 or 30 days (Moon’s full orbit is about 29.5 days), so a normal year will only have 354.37 days, short of the 365.25 days of Earth full orbit around the Sun.

For the Solar system, represented by 24 节气 (”jie-qi”) which is addressed in posting “Revision : 4 Seasons and 24 Jieqi (节气)”.
24 Jie-qi is a very accurate system as markers of the position of the Earth vs the Sun, important for the farmers. Therefore the Chinese calendar is also known as 农历 (”nong li”, “agricultural calendar).

To address the gap between the Lunar and the Solar system, there are 2 adjustments :
1. Leap-year : for every 30-year cycle, there are 11 years where an additional day is added to the 12th Lunar Month, (therefore a normal year is either 354 or 355 days),

2. Leap-Month : every 3 years there is a Leap-Month, every 5-yrs 2 leap-Months and every 19-yrs 7 leap-Months. 19 years is a complete cycle and it will corresponds to the Gregorian calendar exactly.

The 24 Jie-qi, each of about 15 days, is further divided into 2 groups, called “节气” (jie-qi) and “中气” (zhong-qi). (note the use of the same word Jie-qi).
If we numbered the 24 Jie-qi as 1,2,3,4,5,….,24, then the Odd numbered jie-qi is called “节气” and the Even-numbered jie-qi called “中气”.

What’s the relevance ? In a Chinese leap-Month year, the first month that does not have a complete “中气” (zhong-qi) within it will have a leap-month immediately after it, called 闰月 (”run yue”, leap month), so if it is 5th Month, it is simply called 闰五月.

Another important marker in a Chinese Calendar is 冬至 (”dong zhi”, Winter Solstice).
It is one of the most important celebration in Chinese customs and it must occured in the 11th Month.

And when there are 13 New Moons between the 1st day of 11th Month to the 1st day of the 11th Month the following year, that will be the leap-Month year and a leap-Month inserted within the 13 “moons” period.

The pattern is therefore less regular as to which Month will be leaped, due to above calculation between Lunar and Solar systems. In general, the Earth is further from the Sun around Summer Solstice (夏至, “xiazhi”), therefore each jie-qi will tend to be longer, around 16 days. It is therefore more likely to see a “zhong-qi” straddling over two Lunar months, making the Leap-Month more likely to occur in the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Lunar Month.
2nd Lunar Month is further away from the 5th Lunar Month (when xiazhi usually occurs), therefore it is more rare leap-Month.

As for CNY (chun-jie, Spring Festival), it falls on the 3rd New Moon after Dong-zhi (Winter solstice).

Digression :
There is a difference between 岁 (”sui”) and 年 (”nian”).
岁 (”sui”) referes to the time period between 2 consecutive Dong-zhi, whereas
年 (”nian”) refers to the time period between 2 consecutive Chun-jie.

Separately, cycles of time has many layers, in Chinese system :
十九岁为一章。 (19 sui’s is 1 zhang),
四章为一蔀，七十六岁。(4 zhang’s is 1 bu, 76 sui’s),
二十蔀为一遂，遂千五百二十岁。(20 bu’s is 1 sui, 1,520 sui’s)
三遂为一首，首四千五百六十岁。( 3 sui’s is 1 shou, 4,560 sui’s)
七首为一极，极三万一千九百二十岁。(7 shou’s is 1 ji, 31,920 sui’s)

What happen after 1 ji the biggest cycle ?
All things are destroyed and a new cycle of life begins.

As for the Buddhism world, time frame takes on a different meanning :
1 regular kalpa = 16 million years,
1 small kalpa = 1,000 regular kalpas,
1 medium kalpa = 20 small kalpa = 320 billion years,
1 great kalpa = 4 medium kalpa = 1.28 trillion years
In Buddhism, it is about space-time frame, Not time in modern sense.

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冬至 (“Dong Zhi”) – Longest Night in Northern Hemisphere

Dear Friends,

image from yeinjee.com/food/2007/12/

Today is December 21, 2008, the Winter Solstice of  this Wuzi Year.

This is an important day in a year, and should be celebrated with enthusiasm and optimism.

冬至 (Dong Zhi) literally means the Peak of Winter, when the night is the longest in Northern Hemisphere in the year and thereafter it will get shorter. Dong Zhi therefore is a day when the Yang Energy starts to emerge from the deep of the Earth, slowly ascending towards the surface of the Earth, preparing for growth in the coming Spring.  (some people interpret 冬至 as “arrival of winter”, which is not really correct since the night will get shorter from here. The reason the temperature will continue to drop from here for another 45 days is that the Earth is such a big resevoir of energy, it will take some time for it to reverse the course of the temperature, just like it will take a big ship some time  to reverse its course after the engine has gone into reverse gear earlier.)

冬至 therefore is the time when internally a system has started to enter into a new cycle, though it may not be expressed externally. This is an important change-0ver and we should all getting ready for the next phase of growth. This we do by not disturbing the tender Yang energy which is slowly ascending, making sure we do  not exhaust it while it slowly gathers strength over the next 45 days.

Philosophically 冬至 means many thing. It is the end of an old cycle as well as the beginning of a new one. It is the baton pass day. This tradition should be remembered and passed down to younger generations.

冬至 is celebrated with the traditional 湯圓 (“tangyuan”), glutinous rice balls cooked in sweet soup. I like them prepared in 2 colours, white and red, either plain or stuffed with either red bean paste or sesame seed paste. In colder region, add some ginger to the sweet soup to suit the season.

Have fun enjoying your 湯圓 (“tangyuan”)

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*** Notes on Tangyuan “technical details” :

Strictly speaking, the “correct” number of Tangyuan per serving should be 6.
For “6″ is the number for winter. It is also the number of strokes for “Ba Gua” system. The Bagua diagram for Dongzhi is 5 Yin strokes on top of a Yang stroke.

Additionally, red tangyuan represents “Yang” energy and white represents “Yin” energy.Therefore, the “correct” combination should be 1 red and 5 white tangyuan per serving.

Why 1 red tangyuan with 5 white ones? As per posting, Dong Zhi is the Peak of Winter though the Yang energy has just started to ascend. Therefore we are seeing the first sign of Yang energy with mostly Yin energy.

The soup represents Water. Water is the basic essence of life, the beginning of life. It is given number “1″. With number “6″, it completes “North”, “Winter”, “Foundation of life” etc.
The relationship between “1″ and “6″ is “1″+”5″=”6″, where “5″ is the Central energy.

Therefore the tangyuan has to be served in a soup with 6 per serving, preferably clear soup.
7 is for summer, 8 for Spring and 9 for Autumn. tangyuan served in these numbers will not correspond to the season of Dong Zhi. This may seems trivial, but trivial they are not.

You can also guess that in “Xia Zhi” (i.e. Summer Solstice), the day is the longest and therefore it gets shorter towards winter. It is also the day when Yang energy started to descend, thereby Yin energy started to increase on a relatively basis. There isn’t a “celebration” for “xia zhi”, guess all are already celebrating with all sorts of activities outdoor in the summer.

Similar to Dong Zhi, the number for Xia Zhi is “7″, with “Fire” (number “2″) to completes “South”, “Summer”, “Full Expressions” etc. Again you can see the relationship between “2″ and “7″ is “2″+”5″=”7″.
Central energy “5″ again appears here, signifying the great importance of Central energy throughout the four seasons of a cycle. In human internal energy, “5″ corresponds to our Middle Qi, our ability to absorb nutrients and ability to distribute them throughout the body as well as removing waste from all over the body. Central energy is therefore the most important in sustaining life, though it is not normally explicitly expressed in any of the 4 phases of life.