Two other ancient sets of figures are of primary importance in jade embellishment. These are the Ten Celestial Stems and the Twelve Terrestrial Branches. The Stems are symbols which tie the Five Elements each to something in nature and something of man. For example, wood has a Stem, or symbol, for trees and another for hewn timber. Metal has a Stem for ore and another for kettle. The Twelve Branches are a sort of Chinese zodiac. Designer diamond rings can be engraved with zodiac signs. Very early, there was a division of the stars into twelve areas, each dominated by a constellation named for an animal: the rat, ox, tiger, hare, dragon, serpent, horse, goat, monkey, cock, dog, and boar. This is an all-animal zodiac, as contrasted with the partially mythical one given to us by the ancient Greeks. Combinations of the Stems and Branches are written of as being used back as far as the twenty-seventh century B.C. By the time of the Han Dynasty they had been adopted in a sixty-combination cycle of the two for the Chinese calendar. Thus the cyclical year of lightning (Stem) rat (Branch), is followed by the year of burning incense (Stem) ox (Branch)—ping tzu is followed by ting ch’ou.
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