Happy Year of the Dog!

Today is the Chinese New Year. This is the year of the Brown Earth Dog.

So what can we expect from the upcoming year? The Dog is an ethical and idealistic sign, and the year that bears its name will also bring increased social awareness and interest in society’s less powerful members. Any tendencies to take, take, take will be replaced by a widespread sentiment of generosity and selflessness. In general, we will all be imbued with the Dog’s keen sense of right and wrong. You can also get a feel for the year to come by checking the compatibility between your Chinese sign and the sign of the dog — the better your compatibility, the better your year.

Happy New Year and Gong Xi Fa Cai (may you have wealth and prosper)!

Happy Chinese New Year: Year of the Monkey

Happy Year of the Monkey!

Happy Year of the Water Snake

From ChineseFortuneCalendar.com. To read the whole post, follow the link.

2013 is Year of the Snake and it will arrive on February 4, 2013. (Note: Chinese New Year Day is on February 10, 2013. The first day of 2013 Chinese Astrology Year is on February 4, 2013.) Many people are eager to know if they will have better luck in the forthcoming year than previous years. Here, we want to use Chinese Astrology's Five Elements (Metal, Water, Wood, Fire and Earth) theory to explain people's fortune in 2013 and foresee what will happen in their lives in the Water Snake year.

According to the Chinese Five Element Astrology Calendar, 2013 is the Year of Water Snake Female Water. The color of Water in Five Elements system is related to Black. Therefore we can say 2013 is a Black Snake, Water Snake or Black Water Snake year.

Chinese Astrology is a Balance Theory of Five Elements. Each animal can be converted into Five Elements. Snake contains mainly Fire. It also contains some Metal and Earth. Snake is in the File group. Water of 2013 and Fire of Snake are opposite elements. Therefore most of people will experience mix of good and bad fortune.

Water Snake is Fire under Water. Snake is a clam, shy, cautious and low-key animal in Chinese Horoscope. Snake won't attack its opponent, unless it's disturbed or hungry. If Fire is not your favorite element, then you should keep a distance from Fire in 2013. Otherwise, if you fool with Fire, then you may get burn.

Snake is the 6th animal in the Chinese horoscope order sequence. Six (6) is an even number, Chinese horoscope treats Snake is a Yin (female) animal. However, Snake contains Male Fire , Male Metal and Male Earth . The outside of Snake looks soft, but the inside is tough. Male Metal in the Snake is very special. Metal's mother element is Earth and Earth's mother element is Fire. Snake is a birth place of Male Metal. Male Metal will become mature when the Autumn comes. If there are Chicken and Cow in the birth chart, then Male Metal will become very active during the Fall season. Since Fire and Metal are opposite elements, people's fortune may start to change direction after Summer.

Snake is a no-limb animal with fork-like tongue. Although, Snake uses its tongue to smell, people don't like the spitting tongue which is associated with moth action, possibly argumentation. Therefore, the Snake has the potential to hurt people relationship, especially, when Tiger and Monkey are around.

2012 Year of Black Dragon was the last year of Wood cycle. 2013 Snake year is the beginning year of the Fire cycle (Snake, Horse and Sheep). If people's lucky element is Wood, then their fortune will slow down. If the people's lucky element is Fire, then their fortune will begin to take off. The energy of Wood is on the East side. The energy of Fire is on the South side. The Element's Luck is turning from East (Wood) to South (Fire) in 2013.

Before predicting your luck in 2013, you have to know what Type of Element you are and what your Lucky Element is from your Astrology Birth Chart. The Lucky Element is the major factor to determine people's fortune. 2013 is the Year of the Black Water Snake, which contains Fire, Metal and Earth. If your Lucky Element is Fire, Metal or Earth, then 2013 will bring you some degree of fortune. Since 2013 is Water Snake year, people whose lucky element is Water will obtain fortune in 2013. Fire is the opposite element of Water. People whose lucky element is Fire can get some benefits, however, will reach the limitation.

Enter the Dragon

Today begins Chinese New Year. This is the Year of the Dragon. Specifically, the is the year of the Water Dragon.

Metal Animation has a great article on Chinese Dragons, as well as pictures of some outstanding sculptures. I've copied a portion of the article below. The picture is of one of their sculptures. Follow this link for read the whole thing.

Chinese Imperial Water Dragon - Mythology

In Chinese mythology there are five types of dragon:-

1. Those guarding the gods and emperors
1. 2. Those controlling the wind and rain
2. 3. Earthly dragons which deepened the rivers and seas
3. 4. Guardians of hidden treasure
4. 5. The first dragon

The First dragon appeared to the mythical emperor Fu-hsi, and filled the hole in the sky made by the monster Kung Kung. Its waking, sleeping and breathing determined day and night. Season and weather. 

There are many differences between the classical dragon and the Chinese dragon, these include the ability to fly even without wings, shape-shifting abilities, and of course the general benevolent behaviour to the populace.

The Chinese dragon is made up of nine entities. The head of camel, the eyes of a demon, the ears of a cow, the horns of a stag, the neck & body of a snake, It's claws that of an eagle, while the soles of his feet are that of a tiger, and the scales that cover it's body are that of a carp.

The Chinese dragon has four claws as standard, but the Imperial dragon has five, this is to identify it above the lesser classes. Anyone other than the emperor using the 5 claw motif was put to death.

China Resources Page

I just Stumbled onto Jordan's China Resource Page. There's all kinds of good stuff there. Please pay him a visit.


Below is an excerpt from an essay on the Five Elements. 

1. Introduction

Traditional Chinese thought about nature often involves a set of five xíng 行, named after natural entities (wood, fire, earth, metal, and water). The word xíng, which usually means "walking" or "moving," is sometimes translated "elements" when speaking of the five xíng, but many authors prefer translations like "forces," "natures," "phases," or "transformations" in order to capture the idea that the xíng are in dynamic interaction with each other, i.e., that they are in some sense "walking." Despite its misleadingly concrete implications, I still prefer the translation "elements," since it fits best with the basic terms always used for them: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. (It is hard for an English speaker to think of wood as a "phase.")

Underlying the utility (or, some would say, wackiness) of the concept are a number of additional assumptions:

1. Each of the five elements has a wide number of correspondences with other parts of the natural world. Thus the element wood corresponds with the color blue, the direction east, and the flavor sour. In general, anything that can be subdivided into five categories, can be aligned to the five elements.
2. Each of the five elements tends to strengthen, support, feed, give way to, or create one of the others. For example, wood/blue/east tends to support or strengthen fire/scarlet/south.
   (Mnemonic: Wood burns to create fire; fire creates ash/earth; it is from earth that we get metal; metal can be heated to produce liquid/water; water poured on a seedling allows it to grow into wood.)
3. Each of the five elements also tends to weaken, undercut, or destroy one of the others. Thus wood/blue/east tends to weaken earth/yellow/center.
   (Mnenomic: Wood can grow through earth; fire can melt metal, earth can absorb water, metal tools can cut through wood, water can put out a fire.)
4. A deficiency or an excess of any element tends to exert unnatural strengthening or weaking influence on other elements, potentially causing illness or distress.
5. Illness and misfortune can be corrected by restoring the element that is too strong or weak. One way to do this is to supplement those elements that will tend to strengthen or diminish the unbalanced element. Usual applications are in religious ritual (including geomancy) and in medicine.

Happy Year of the Hare

Happy Chinese New Year!
 
The following is an excerpt from a post at the Language Log Blog, by noted Sinologist Victor Mair. The full post my be read here.

Happy New Year Rabbit You

January 4, 2011 @ 9:55 am · Filed by Victor Mair under Language and culture

Two years ago, the favored lunar New Year's greeting in China was "Happy 牛 Year!" where 牛 ("bovine") is pronounced niú in Mandarin and is standing in for "New" in the Year of the Ox / Bull / Cow.

Last year, the Year of the Tiger, "I 老虎 U", where lǎohǔ 老虎 (which means "tiger") sounds like "love" to some Chinese speakers, was conveniently and concurrently being used to celebrate the New Year, Valentine's Day, and a famous golfer's amorous escapades.

Well, this is the year of the rabbit, so you can be sure the Chinese would come up with a clever way to incorporate their word for rabbit (or hare) in this year's favored New Year's greeting, and indeed they have.

What we have for the current year is "Happy New Year 兔 you", where tù 兔 ("rabbit, hare") is standing in for English "to," hence "Happy New Year to You!"

This clever New Year's greeting, which is already flying around the Chinese cybersphere, seems to have won out over two other less catchy attempts to incorporate a bunny wabbit into the mandatory New Year's Sino-English salutation.

Happy Year of the Tiger!

Any holiday is a good time to think about food! A friend sent me a link to an article from which I am posting an excerpt below. Enjoy.

Savoring sweet somethings to ring in new year

Lynne Char Bennett, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, February 11, 2010

The Year of the Tiger roars in on Sunday - a relatively late start to Lunar Year 4078. Festivities continue for two weeks, with Bay Area restaurants featuring special eight- and 10-course menus filled with culinary symbolism and - unlike most Chinese meals - plenty of sweets.
That's because candied fruits and vegetables, along with special cookies and candies, represent hopes for a year of sweet life and good fortune - two qualities restaurateurs wish for their patrons with a variety of offerings.

At Chef Chu's in Los Altos, chef-owner Lawrence Chu doesn't take any chances. He welcomes diners with candied winter melon and other fat choy candies on each banquet table instead of serving hors d'oeuvres.
Peanut- and coconut-filled glutinous rice balls, representing longevity, fill the sweet soup dessert at Sichuan Fortune House in Pleasant Hill, where chef-owner Shaobin Zhang also offers a crisp sesame pancake filled with sweet bean paste.

"The rice ball's name sounds similar to having a whole year where everything comes to fruition," explains Terry Chan, co-owner of South Sea Seafood Village in San Francisco, where the unfilled rice balls are served in a traditional red bean and tapioca soup.

South Sea's kitchen also turns out a firm, crunchy doughnut. "We call them Happy Face Doughnuts to symbolize a year full of joy," Chan says.

Sweets aren't the only edible symbols for the new year. Any food with a name that sounds similar or is a play on the Chinese words for things like luck, abundance and good fortune are prominent on Year of the Tiger menus.

Both Chu and Zhang serve a whole fried fish with a reddish sweet-and-sour sauce. "The Chinese phonetic sound for fish sounds similar to abundance and blessing, and the sauce is red for joy and luck," Chu says.