PART I
Sunday evening was the first full moon of the new year according to the Chinese lunar calender, and marked one of the oldest Chinese holidays 元宵节 or The Lantern Festival. There are many legends as to how and when this holiday began, and over time the observance of the festival has changed with changes in governance and shifts in spiritual believes. Nevertheless, I believe that that the underlying message remains as clear today as it was to those ancient Chinese who saw the full moon return once again in the new year. That the cycle of waxing and waning will continue, that the laws of life, death, and regeneration still govern our universe, and the hope that even during the darkest nights there will be a brighter tomorrow. This day is an ideal time for reflection and to dispose of the disappointments and short comings of the previous year and prepare ourselves for the challenges of the year to come.
The more practical message that this holiday sends is that the New Year celebration is over and that its time to get back to work! With this in mind, it seems planning for the year ahead can wait no longer.
As practitioners of Chinese medicine it is our duty to anticipate the changes in the elements of nature that may influence or hinder our health in this new year. Fortunately, we have a system to help us make these predictions called “五运六气”. This system was developed over 3,000 years ago in ancient China and became more and more complex as they gained a better understanding of astronomy and how geological influences can adversely affect ones health. The “五运六气” system is based on the concept that there are ten heavenly stems and twelve earthly branches. Each stem is paired witha branch to make sixty different combinations that come to fruition on a reoccurring basis. The stem-branch combination can change yearly, monthly, daily, or even every two hours. With the stem of the year determining the stem-branch combination of the month, the stem of the month determining the stem-branch of the day and so forth. For an understandable explanation of the system, as well as explanatory charts that show the sixty year cycle in its entirety please go to the Hong Kong observatory’s web site: http://www.hko.gov.hk/gts/time/stemsandbranches.htm.
The correspondences of the ten stems and twelve branches are numerous. Originally used to keep time, each of the branches represent the twelve different positions of Jupiter at the end of each earth year of its twelve year orbit (approximated, in actuality it is takes 11.86 years) around the sun. One branch has also been used to denote each of the twelve months of the year, the names of the twelve branches were used to keep track of the days, and each branch also represents a two hour time period of our twenty-four hour day. In addition each branch is associated with one animal of the Chinese zodiac, a thirty degree position within a 360 degree circle, a season of the Chinese lunar year, an organ of the body and an element of the weather. The story of the ten stems is a more recent one. They were in practical use during the Shang dynasty (1600-1100 BC), as a means of keeping the date. Later two stems were assigned to each of the five elements (metal, wood, water, fire, earth) to represent both the yin and yang qualities of each element. For example 甲(jiǎ) is the yang aspect of the element wood and represents the tree’s ability to branch out, grow, and reach the heavens, a very yang like quality. While 乙(yǐ) is the yin aspect of the element wood representing the trees ability to take nutrients from the soil and store them in the form of fruit and leaves, wood’s yin function. Each element has similar examples from nature which demonstrate their yin and yang qualities. The five element theory is quite complex, it categorizes numerous elements of nature and the human condition into these five broad categories, encompassing everything from color to emotions. A full explanation of the five element theory exceeds the scope of this paper, we will reduce it to the fact that each element has two organs of the body (in the case of fire four) attached to it, one being predominately yin (storing) in nature and the other being predominately yang (moving) in nature. So the assignment of each of the ten stems and twelve branches to one organ of the body is not a difficult matter, making the integration of this theory into Chinese medicine an elementary matter.
Over the next few weeks I hope to write a series of articles that will illuminate the use of “五运六气” in Chinese medicine and what influence this year’s stem-branch combination may have on our health. I must state that I am by no means as expert on this theory and as the series continues I hope those readers who are more familiar with this system will chime in with their comments and insight. Thank you for reading and I look forward to your comments.
PART II
Last week we began our discussion of五运六气, the ten heavenly stems and twelve earthly branches, its use in Chinese medicine, and its implications toward our health in the year to come. Now that we have glossed over the basic theory and hopefully you have had a chance to visit the Hong Kong Observatory website (see last week’s posting) to view the tables I would like to discuss the basic premises behind this system of prediction in an effort to determine as best as we can if it is valid or reliable.
The idea that changes in climate and seasons can have a real effect on ones health is not a controversial one. Ask any suffer of rheumatoid arthritis how their symptoms fair on cold damp mornings, or someone with hay fever if they enjoy spending time outside in the spring or autumn, or how the slightest changes in barometric pressure can multiply the sufferings of those with sciatica and you should have enough evidence to satisfy even the most sceptical. At one point in time all of us have come down with an illness due to rapid changes in climate when our constitution was in a weakened state. This may be due to traveling between multiple areas with vastly different climates or simply the whims of nature throwing different elements at us in rapid secession. Lastly, for any of us that have lived in different cities for an extended period of time, we have all seen how new health problems never before experienced occur and old problems are simply left behind given enough time in our new environment. This includes those of us who chose to emigrate to Maryland and our eventual nasal infections that seem to persist and reoccur at whim.
So based on the above examples and our personal experience let us assume that ones local environment and climate has an effect on ones health, and that changes in ones geographic location brings new elements into play which can have both detrimental and beneficial effects on ones health. We can also take for granted that some of these changes are based on the earth’s position relative to the sun. That indeed some diseases and conditions become worse or disappear during certain seasons due to a slight tilt (23.5 degrees) of the earth on its axis. Is it possible then that the planet’s location in relation to that of Jupiter during its twelve year orbit can also have an effect on our planet and in turn our health? That each year of this twelve year cycle may be marked by some overall climatory trend? That perhaps there is a sixty year repeating cycle taking place as each branch stem pair in turn comes to pass? These are all difficult questions to answer and an enormous leap of faith for even the most dedicated astrologist/astronomer or sinophile. Let us examine some of the basic assumptions involved to determine if there is any validity to these claims.
The first question that we must satisfy then is does Jupiter have an effect on our planet, and if so then to what degree. One force that we all know can have a great effect over astronomical distances is that of gravity. We know that Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system and that its mass is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets combined, and 300 times larger than the Earth. Which would make a good case for it exerting a large gravitational pull. The only problem being that even Jupiter, being the heavy weight that it is, is still only 1/1,048 the mass of the Sun. If the Sun and Jupiter were each pulling the Earth in opposite or tangential directions its seems that Jupiter’s contribution would be completely negligible. If all that we were concerned with was mass then we would have to conclude that the Earth was completely at the whims of the Sun given its gargantuan stature. Nevertheless, if you remember your high school physics, then there is another factor that we need to consider, and an important one at that. That is the distance between the two objects, which when calculating gravitational force must be squared. Which is precisely why the Moon has a greater effect on the tides of the ocean then the Sun, even though the Sun is 27,000,000 times more massive then the Moon. So what is the relative distance of Jupiter to the Earth, 778 million km, more then five times the distance of the Earth to the Sun. Given those lengths we have to be doubtful that Jupiter could have any real gravitational pull on the earth. Even with the most sophisticated models that we have today Jupiter’s effect on Earth’s orbit is considered extremely slight. In fact on March 10th 1982 all of the planets were on the same side of the sun, though separated by over 98 degrees, with the
only measurable effect on the earth being that high tide was calculated as being 0.04mm higher then normal. Although, an extremely slight effect on a planet as delicate as ours where a 23.5 degrees tilt leads to a new season may still be extremely significant. In fact the orbits of most of the system’s planets, with the exception of Mercury, lie closer to Jupiter’s orbital plane than the Sun’s equatorial plane.In addition there are also other elements of the solar system that are under Jupiter’s gravitational influence, most obviously Jupiter’s sixty-three moons, as well as causing obvious gaps within the asteroid belt known as the Kirkwood gaps, and Jupiter has also been implicated in controlling the pathways of certain asteroids (over 2,000) and comets. Jupiter is a juggernaut, with its fair share of gravitational pull, though this may only be enough to cause Earth slightly elliptical orbit.
Is gravity are only consideration? Hardly. Energy can also by transmitted through space. Jupiter sends out radio waves strong enough to be picked up by radio telescopes on Earth. These radio waves come in two forms, bursts of radio energy and continuous radiation due to the movements of Jupiter’s four large moons and the movements of high-energy particles in the radiation belts. Jupiter’s magnetic field is the strongest in the solar system, with the exceptions of certain small regions on the sun’s surface. All of these are due to or propitiate Jupiter’s high speed of rotation, which allows the planet to complete a full rotation in around nine hours.
In conclusion I believe that it is not entirely impossible for Jupiter to have some effect on Earth. This may form a basis, albeit an unstable one, but a basis none the less on which we can put some degree of trust into the 五运六气 system and begin to look for patterns in nature that may be a result of the planet’s interactions with Jupiter. In our next post I hope to illuminate some of these examples and further our discussion about this system’s use in Chinese Medicine. Thank you for reading and as always your comments are encouraged and welcomed.
