Thursday, January 01, 2004

welcome 2004!



Year 2004 is a Chinese Green Wooden Monkey Year. Why did the Chinese name the year 2004 as the Green Monkey Year? Chinese calendar used the Stem-Branch system to count the days, months and years. There are 10 Stems and 12 Branches in this system. Stems are named by the Yin-Yang and Five Elements (Metal, Water, Wood, Fire and Earth). The Stem sequence order is Yang Wood, Yin Wood, Yang Fire, Yin Fire, Yang Earth, Yin Earth, Yang Metal, Yin Metal, Yang Water and Yin Water. Branches use the animal names.

The Branch sequence order is Rat, Cow, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Chicken, Dog and Pig. Stem and Branch are used together to form a cycle of 60 counting systems which begin with Wooden Rat and end with Water Pig. You can see the entire sequence from the Chinese New Year's page. From Year 1924 to 1983 is a complete cycle. Year 2004 is Male Wooden Monkey , the 21st of the Stem-Branch in the system. Because Wood(Tree) is equivalent to color Green in the Five-Element system, Year 2004 is also called Green Monkey year.

Snake (2001), Horse (2002) and Sheep (2003) are the cycle of Fire years. The cycle of Fire has already ended. The Monkey is the beginning of the Metal cycle. This means that 2004 is a turning point for people whose lucky element is Metal.

The 2004 is the beginning of Metal cycle. Now it's the turn for the Metal business. Metal stands for gold, jewelry or money. Therefore the financial business will boom in these coming two years. You can see the mother nature is very fair. Everyone takes turn to share the luck.

The major elements in the Green Monkey are Wood and Metal. According to the Five Element Relationship, we know there is a conflict between Wood and Metal. So the disputes and arguments are there for many people in 2004. Fortunately, there are some Water inside the Monkey. Water is the key to make Wood and Metal get along peacefully. The reason is from Five Element relationships. Metal supports Water. Water supports Wood. A Water person is a good friend of a Metal and a Wood person. So Metal people and Wood people have the chance to shake hands. Water stands for wisdom in Chinese astrology. That means it always has a solution for the disagreement from Wood and Metal using your wisdom(Water) in 2004

posted by jaded fool @ 1:06 AM