Cycles in Taoist theory: the 60-year Chinese calendar cycle

Sixty years completes a full calendar cycle in the ancient Taoist or Chinese system. It is so ancient that it predates the invention of Chinese characters. This system considers 10 "Heavenly Stems" and 12 "Earthly Branches" which pair up or combined in a manner that yields a cycle of 60 counting systems. You may already know about the 12 animals that correspond to the 12 Earthly Branches, and even the little story that recites that the rat crossed the water first and hence starts each 12-year cycle. Well, the complete 60-year cycle with the "Wooden Rat" and ends with the "Water Pig." The references to wood and water, as well as to fire, earth and metal, refer to the Five Elements. Each of the Five Elements has a yin and yang aspect - thus providing the 10 Heavenly Stems. Pairing each of the 12 animals repeatedly with the Five Elements calculates as 5 times 12 = 60.

I've considered that applying the Five Elements to the cycles could mean 5 times 60 = 300, and then allowing an in-between cycle (as a sort of return to center) could correlate to the 360 degrees of a full circle. Just a thought. Then again, there's apparently a system called the Purple White Flying Stars that is supposed to be related to the Five Elements and has a cycle of 180 years, which would of course be half a circle. I'm not personally familiar with this system so will just copy in below some information available about it, from the website I've referenced below:


As described by one website that posts a fair amount of information on these things (with the interesting name, http://www.fortuneangel.com/), the time span from the western Year 1924 to Year 1983 was a complete cycle. Also, Year 1999 was the Brown Rabbit which marks the 16th year in the 60-year Stem-Branch system. And the Year 2000 was the White (Golden) Dragon.

So 1984 started a new 60-year cycle in this system, that will continue through 2043. Half-way through this cycle will be the year 2013. It will be quite interesting from a stock market trading perspective if we see that the huge rise from 1984 through 1999 might be completely corrected by or during the year 2013! But - I do not know if we can necessarily or always draw such glaring primary conclusions from these numbers.

There is much more that can be understood about this cycle system, so this is just a beginning. At least, shouldn't we take some comfort from the notion that this system - unlike the Mayan calendar that also had cycles of about 50 or 60 years - continues to project past the year 2012?!

For now, I will just copy in some more information from that FortuneAngel website - this is information that is well known among those who study Taoism, t'ai chi and the like, I just refer to that website because they have posted a lot of the information in a way that's rather easy to access. Just be aware that the simple way of explaining these relationships makes it easier to remember. But these relationships also have many dimensions and can be respected for their explanatory power in many aspects of life.

The ancient Chinese YIN-YANG scholars believed that there are two natural, complementary and contradictory forces in our universe. The scholars named them as YIN and YANG. YIN represents the female, negative, darkness, softness, moisture, night-time, even numbers and docile aspects of things. YANG represents the male, positive, brightness, hardness, dryness, day-time, odd numbers and dominant aspects. YIN and YANG are continually in the state of flux and always looking for the BALANCE point. One moves, the other responds. Therefore,ancient scholars treated this natural phenomenon as a natural universal law.

These scholars also believed that our universe consisted of five basic elements, which are Metal, Water, Wood, Fire and Earth (Soil). Everything, including humans, in the universe (between Heaven and Earth) must have a relationship with these five elements. So they tried to apply the five elements not only to every physical thing in the world, but also to the Colors, Directions, Seasons and Sounds. They even applied to the Years, Months, Days, Hours, Minutes and Seconds of the Chinese Calendar. Now, people are able to know their five-element weights from their birth date and time. Based on the combination of these five-element weights plus the concept of the natural phenomenon, they can tell the rise and fall of human destiny (fate) cycle.

FIVE ELEMENTS does not only mean metal, water, wood, fire and earth. The "element" in Chinese also means MOVEMENT, CHANGEABLE and DEVELOPMENT. These elements have their Ying and Yang sides too. They are moving, waning, waxing and changing all the time. Just like Ying and Yang, the movements of five elements are slow and stable when they are in kind of balance. If they are out of balance, then the movements are unstable and unpredictable. When a person is in a stable (five-element) environment, he should live peacefully. When a person is in an unpredictable environment, he is easily out of control. A person will feel lucky when everything is under control. A person will feel bad "luck" when everything is out of control. If you want to be a "lucky" person, you have to move to an environment to bring your five elements into balance. [Another way of thinking about this is to be in tune, or wu wei (the subject of a prior post here).]


FIVE ELEMENTS

[We] use metal, water, wood, fire and earth as the five elements to explain everything. Metal stands for mineral, gold, jewelry, iron, rock or something hard. Water stands for liquid or something cold. Wood stands for tree or something to do with wood. Fire stands for Sun, fire, heat, light or something hot. Earth stands for soil, dust or ground. There are affinity and enmity relationships between five elements.

The affinity relationship means supporting, helping, producing, constructive, generating etc.
*Water can help tree (Wood) grow.
*Wood can help Fire to burn.
*Fire can help to produce dust (Earth).
*Earth can help mineral (Metal) to form.
*Metal can hold Water.

We can say that :-
*Water is the supporting element of Wood. Wood can release the power of Water.
*Wood is the supporting element of Fire. Fire can release the power of Wood.
*Fire is the supporting element of Earth. Earth can release the power of Fire.
*Earth is the supporting element of Metal. Metal can release the power of Earth.
*Metal is the supporting element of Water. Water can release the power of Metal.

The enmity relationship means fighting, conflicting, rejecting, destructive etc.
*Water can extinguish Fire, but Fire might evaporate Water.
*Wood can break the ground (Earth), but Earth can buries Wood too.
*Fire can melt Metal, but Metal might not melt before Fire is extinguished.
*Earth can absorb Water, but Water can cover the land (Earth).
*Metal can cut Wood, but Metal might become dull before breaking Wood.

We can say that :-
*Water and Fire are enemies. Water overwhelms the movement of Fire.
*Wood and Earth are enemies. Wood overwhelms the movement of Earth.
*Fire and Metal are enemies. Fire overwhelms the movement of Metal.
*Earth and Water are enemies. Earth overwhelms the movement of Water.
*Metal and Wood are enemies. Metal overwhelms the movement of Wood.

A final word to close this post: many thanks to my teacher's teacher, Master Ni, Hua-Ching; who chose to include so much of this valuable information in his books and teachings, and included an incredibly complete presentation of this cycle system as part of the prefatory material in his book, I Ching: The Book of Changes and the Unchanging Truth.