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Chinese Genealogical Word List: Difference between revisions
Chinese Genealogical Word List (view source)
Revision as of 16:41, 27 February 2018
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As demonstrated above, the four-digit year in Chinese is represented by the individual digits, rather than fully writing out the number in thousands, hundreds, tens and ones. For example, 1805 is not recorded as one-thousand-eight-hundred-and-eighty-five, but rather, one-eight-zero-five, e.g. 一八〇五. | |||
===Chinese/Lunar Calendar=== | |||
The above dates apply only to the Gregorian calendar, which was adopted in China in 1912. Prior to 1912, the Chinese exclusively utilized the Chinese calendar, which is still used in China today (including Taiwan and Hong Kong) albeit to a much lesser degree. The Chinese calendar is known officially as the Rural Calendar (農曆; Nónglì), but is often referred to by other names, such as the Former Calendar (舊曆; Jiùlì), or the Lunar Calendar (陰曆; Yīnlì).<ref>Wikipedia contributors, "Chinese Calendar," in ''Wikipedia: the Free Encyclopedia'', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_calendar , accessed 1 February 2018.</ref> <br> | |||
Understanding the Chinese calendar is a critical component in conducting Chinese genealogy research; otherwise, dates of events, including births, deaths, marriages, and so forth, cannot be correctly recorded. Unlike the Gregorian calendar, which is based on 100-year periods, or centuries, the Chinese calendar is based on sixty-year periods comprising what is referred to as the sexagenary cycle (六十花甲; liù shí huā jiǎ). The sexagenary cycle, also referred to as the Stems and Branches (干支; Gān zhī), is divided up into a combination of ten Heavenly Stems (天干; tiān gān) and twelve Earthly Branches (地支; dì zhī) as follows: | |||
{| width="65%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" border="1" | |||
|- | |||
| width="30%" bgcolor="#CFF3FF" align="left" | '''Heavenly Stems''' | |||
| width="35%" bgcolor="#CFF3FF" align="left" | '''Pinyin''' | |||
| width="35%" bgcolor="#CFF3FF" align="left" | '''Earthly Branches''' | |||
| width="35%" bgcolor="#CFF3FF" align="left" | '''Pinyin''' | |||
|- | |||
| align="left" | 甲 | |||
| align="left" | jiǎ | |||
| align="left" | 子 | |||
| align="left" | zǐ | |||
|- | |||
| align="left" | 乙 | |||
| align="left" | yǐ | |||
| align="left" | 丑 | |||
| align="left" | chǒu | |||
|- | |||
| align="left" | 丙 | |||
| align="left" | bǐng | |||
| align="left" | 寅 | |||
| align="left" | yín | |||
|- | |||
| align="left" | 丁 | |||
| align="left" | dīng | |||
| align="left" | 卯 | |||
| align="left" | mǎo | |||
|- | |||
| align="left" | 戊 | |||
| align="left" | wù | |||
| align="left" | 辰 | |||
| align="left" | chén | |||
|- | |||
| align="left" | 己 | |||
| align="left" | jǐ | |||
| align="left" | 巳 | |||
| align="left" | sì | |||
|- | |||
| align="left" | 庚 | |||
| align="left" | gēng | |||
| align="left" | 午 | |||
| align="left" | wǔ | |||
|- | |||
| align="left" | 辛 | |||
| align="left" | xīn | |||
| align="left" | 未 | |||
| align="left" | wèi | |||
|- | |||
| align="left" | 壬 | |||
| align="left" | rén | |||
| align="left" | 申 | |||
| align="left" | shēn | |||
|- | |||
| align="left" | 癸 | |||
| align="left" | guǐ | |||
| align="left" | 酉 | |||
| align="left" | yǒu | |||
|- | |||
| align="left" | | |||
| align="left" | | |||
| align="left" | 戌 | |||
| align="left" | xū | |||
|- | |||
| align="left" | | |||
| align="left" | | |||
| align="left" | 亥 | |||
| align="left" | hài | |||
|- | |||
|} | |||
<br> | |||
Within the sexagenary cycle, the Heavenly Stems repeat six times (10 x 6 = 60) and the Earthly Branches repeat five times (12 x 5 = 60). Using this pattern, the first year of every sexagenary cycle is 甲子 (jiǎ zǐ) and the 60th year is 癸亥 (guǐ hài). A complete table showing all sixty years of the sexagenary cycle can be found [http://www.hko.gov.hk/gts/time/stemsandbranches.htm here]. <br> | |||
Another step in converting the Chinese calendar to the Gregorian calendar is to identify the reign year (帝號; dì hào) or the reign title (年號; nián hào), which corresponds to which emperor was on the throne at the time. A complete listing of Chinese imperial reigns can be found [http://pages.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/chin/chinahistory/dyn17-u.html#d-21 here]]. Identifying both the reign year and the sexagenary cycle designator (i.e. Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch combination) on a historical record will then allow accurate conversion to the Gregorian calendar.<br> | |||
As an example of a conversion, a record containing 大清乾隆己未 (dà qīng qián lóng jǐ wèi) would refer to the Qing Dynasty (大清), which lasted from 1644-1912; followed by the reign of Emperor Qianlong (乾隆), which lasted from 1736-1795; and the year 己未. Using Qianlong’s reign from 1736-1795 as a point of reference, one could then utilize online resources (such as [https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B7%B1%E6%9C%AA here]) to determine that己未refers to the Gregorian year of 1739. <br> | |||
In addition to the Chinese and Gregorian calendars, the Minguo or Republic of China calendar (民國紀元; mín guó jì yuán) is also in use today, but almost exclusively in Taiwan. This calendar originated in 1912, the year in which the Republic of China was established. To convert a Minguo calendar date to the Gregorian calendar, add 1911 to the Minguo year. For instance, Minguo year 107 is Gregorian year 2018. | |||
==Key Words== | |||
To find and use specific types of Chinese records, you will need to know some key words in Chinese. This section gives key genealogical terms in English and the Chinese words with the same or similar meanings. Due to the inability to arrange Chinese characters alphabetically (this could be done by pinyin, but that would assume the researcher knows the pronunciation of the character), this Key Words list as well as the following General Word List are arranged alphabetically by the English words. The first column contains the English word, followed by the Chinese-character translation in the second column, and the pinyin romanization in the third column. | |||
[[Category:Word List]] | [[Category:Word List]] | ||