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The list of ten Heavenly Stems (天干; pinyin: tiāngān) was an enumeration of discrete entities, as in years and dates often employed in Chinese astrology. It has been in use in China since the Shang Dynasty ( 1600 BC). The phonetic characters are:
- Jiǎ (甲)
- Yǐ (乙)
- Bǐng (丙)
- Ding (丁)
- Wù (戊)
- Jǐ (己)
- Geng (庚)
- Xin (辛)
- Rén (壬)
- Guǐ (癸)
Heavenly Stems are associated with Yin Yang and the Five Elements. They are combined with the twelve Earthly Branches to form the 60-year Stem-Branch (干支) cycle in the Chinese calendar.
The Branches are still commonly used nowadays in China in counting systems similar to the way the alphabet is used in English, namely,
- Students' grades: with an additional You (優 "Excellence") before Jiǎ.
- Choices on multiple choiceMultiple choice is a type of form to be filled out by checking one or more of the "choices" in a list. It is used in education (for testing), in elections (choose between multiple candidates, parties, or policies), in market research, and many more things exams, surveys, and etc.
- VitaminVitamins are a class of essential nutrients that cannot be synthesized (either at all or in sufficient quantities) by a given organism and must be taken (in trace quantities) with food for that organism's continued good health. Humans require 13 differents' names (although currently, in this case, the ABC system is more popular)
- Organic chemicalOrganic chemistry is the scientific study of the structure, properties, composition, reactions, and synthesis of organic compounds. Organic nomenclature Organic nomenclature is the system established for naming and grouping organic compounds. Aliphatic cos' names (e.g. Methanol=甲醇; Ethanol=乙醇.)
The kings of the Shang Dynasty have characters of the Branches in their given nameA given name specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name. The given name may be single, or several names may be given (the latter are known as middles.
See also
Chinese numeralsToday, speakers of Chinese use three numeral systems: There is the ubiquitous system of Arabic digits and two ancient Chinese numeral systems. The "Hua1 Ma3 ( U+82B1, U+78BC for "flowery or fancy numbers")" system has gradually been supplanted by the Arab
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