The ancients had 72 elements. Which 72 elements?

The Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches is as early as two thousand six hundred and ninety-seven years B.C., in the Chinese founder of the Yellow Emperor when he founded the country, the order of the Great Flexibility to explore the chi of heaven and earth, to explore the Five Elements (Jin, Mu, Shui, Huo and Tu), began to make the ten Heavenly Stems of a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, xin, nong, kai, and the Zi, U, C, M, C, S, N, Wu, W, S, You, Xuxu, H, and other twelve Earthly Branches, and each other with the sixty A with a symbol for the calendar.

China's calendar to the moon around the Earth for a week of time (29.5306 days) for January, to the Earth around the Sun for a week of time (365.2419 days) for a year, in order to make the average number of days in a year and the return of the year of the number of days in line with the setting of intercalary months. It is recorded that in the sixth century B.C., China began to harmonize its lunar and solar calendars by adopting the nineteen-year, seven-leap-month method.

The Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches are symbols that were used in the past to build calendars to make it easier to make the 60th percentile. For the ancient Chinese, the existence of the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches was as simple as the Arabic numerals, and as they began to use these symbols on maps, directions, and in time (both temporal and spatial axes), these numbers were given more and more meanings.

The ancients (or the Yellow Emperor) observed the lunar month and realized that two lunar months were about 59 days, and that 12 lunar months were roughly 354 days (similar to the length of a regression year), which is how the ancients came up with the idea that there were 12 months in a year. In collocation with the diary method (ten heavenly stems), produce yin and yang combined calendar, the development of the current heavenly stems and earthly branches; more mature should be in the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties.

Tian Gan and Di Zhi for short, is the summer calendar used to organize the year and date with.

The calendar uses the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches to organize the year and date, the Heavenly Stems*** ten words, so it is also known as the "Ten Stems", which are arranged in the following order: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, C, C, N, N, K. The Earthly Branches*** twelve words, which are arranged in the following order: Zi, U, C, M, C, F, S, W, W, Y, X, X, H. The calendar also uses the Heavenly Stems and the Earthly Branches to arrange the year and date. Among them, A, C, E, G, G, N for the yang stem, B, D, F, H, J for the yin stem. Zi, Yin, Chen, Wu, Shen, Hundred Days for the Yang branch, ugly, Mao, Si, Wei, You, Ohio for the Yin branch.

To a dry and a branch of the earth, arranged up, the trunk in the front, the earth's branches in the back, the trunk from the A, the earth's branches from the son, the yang stem on the yang branch, yin stem on the yin branch (yang stem does not match the yin branch, yin stem does not match the yang branch) to get sixty years of a cycle of a cycle back to the circle of a. The circle is called the "60 A Zi", and it is called "60 A Zi". Known as the "sixty A" or "flower A". Our people in the past is to sixty a cycle to chronicle the year, the month, the day, the time.

The Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches this *** twenty-two symbols are intricate, full of roundness and regularity. It shows the law of nature's operation, the interaction of instant (time) and space (orientation), and the result of the action of "yin" and "yang". The Chinese calendar contains the ideas of yin and yang, the five elements, and the laws of nature.

Year: Each stem and branch is a year, and after sixty stems, it is counted from the beginning again, and the cycle continues. From the beginning of the Azi, full of sixty years called as a Azi or a flower Azi. Known as the stem and branch chronology.

Month: the first month is the beginning of the first month by the c, each month of the earth's branches fixed, and then in turn with the combination of the heavenly stems; from the first year of the first month of the month of c, February is the month of the d d, March is the wu Chen. From the month of A Zi to the month of Kui Hai, *** sixty A Zi, just five years.

Day: starting from the day of A Zi, in sequential order successive, sixty days is just a cycle of the stem and branch.

Time: from the beginning of the first son of the hour, but remember the time of the earth's branches fixed, twelve hours a day.

It originated from the observation of the sky in ancient times, which is called "Hetu".

The Hetu and Luoshu, which were derived from the observation of celestial phenomena, became invaluable to the emperors during the Three Dynasties period. The construction of the Hetu and Luoshu is simple and concise, and it is one of the cultural cornerstones of ancient China. Liao Ping, a scribe of the Qing Dynasty, has repeatedly verified the Poetry Scripture, the I Ching, and the Nei Jing, confirming that the theory of the Nei Jing originated from the I Ching, and the mathematical theory of the I Ching was taken from the Hetu and Luoshu.

The Hetu is a ten-numbered chart that combines the five directions, the five elements, yin and yang, and the images of heaven and earth. The white circle is the yang, the sky, the odd number; the black dot is the yin, the earth, the even number. And to heaven and earth and five parties, to yin and yang and five elements, so the structure of the distribution of the chart as follows:

One with the six **** Zong live in the north, because of the sky a life of water, the ground into the six; two with the seven for the friends live in the south, because of the earth two inflammation, the sky into the seven; three with the eight for the friends live in the east, because of the three days of the wood, the earth into the eight; four with nine with the way to the west, because of the earth four gold, the sky into the nine; five with the ten to guard each other, living in the center, because of the sky five earth, earth ten into the. The earth was formed by the ten. The Hetu was drawn according to the time of the five stars. Five stars, known as the five latitude, is the sky five planets, wood is said to be the age of the star, fire is said to be fluorescent star, earth is said to town star, gold is said to be Taibai star, water is said to be the star. Five lines of operation, with twenty-eight hosts for the division, because it is not far from the orbit of the sun, the ancients used to chronicle the day. Five stars generally according to the order of wood, fire, earth, gold and water, appearing one after another in the Arctic sky, each star line 72 days, five stars and 360 degrees of the circumference of the sky. It can be seen that the Hetu is the five-star infested sky and draw, which is also the source of the five elements. Because in November every year before the winter solstice, Mercury seen in the north, just as the winter season, everything hibernates, the ground only ice and water, the concept of water is so formed. After the summer solstice in July, Mars is seen in the south, just when the summer air, the ground is hot, the concept of fire is so formed. March equinox, Jupiter is seen in the east, just when the spring season, grass and trees sprouting growth, the so-called "spring to the earth, grass and trees know", the concept of the wood line is so formed. Autumn equinox in September, Venus is seen in the west, the ancient to more on behalf of the weapon, to show that the fall killing gas when the order, all things old and withered, the gold line thus formed. May Saturn seen in the middle of the sky, said the long summer wet soil when the order, wood, fire, gold and water are the center point, wood, fire, gold and water caused by the four seasons of climate change, are observed from the ground, the concept of the earth line is so formed.