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Year
2000 is a Chinese Golden Dragon
Year. Why do the Chinese name year 2000 as the Golden Dragon
Year? Chinese calendar uses the Stem-Branch system to count
the day, month and year. There are 10 Stems and 12 Branches
in the 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 from Wooden Rat and end
with Water Pig. You can see the entire sequence from the Chinese
New Year's page. From Year 1924 to Year 1983 is a complete
cycle. Year 2000 is Yang Metal Dragon, the 17th of the Stem-Branch
in the system. The Chinese use the same Chinese character
for Gold and Metal, and as Gold sounds more valuable, the
Chinese like to call year 2000 the Golden Dragon rather than
the Metal Dragon. Year 2000 is also called the White Dragon,
because Metal is equivalent to White in the Five Elements
system.
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The
Year 2000 (Golden Dragon) was the 4697th Chinese year. The
Chinese believe that the first king of China was the Yellow
King (he was not the first emperor of China who completed
the Great Wall). The Yellow King became king in 2697 B.C.,
therefore China entered the 4697th year on February 5th. 2000.
Also, the Chinese Year uses the cycle of 60 Stem-Branch counting
systems and the Golden Dragon is the 17th Stem-Branch in the
cycle. Since 4697 = (60 *78) + 17, therefore this Golden Dragon
Year is the 4697th Chinese Year. Some web sites say the year
2000 is the 4698th Chinese year. If you cannot find the explanation
from there, here is a possible answer for you.Yellow King's
inauguration was held in the spring of 2697 B.C.. But the
calendar of Yellow King used the winter solstice day as the
first day of the year. So the first winter solstice was on
around December 23rd. 2698 B.C.. Today's January 1st means
nothing to Yellow King. If we count that extra eight days
in 2698 B.C. for a year, then year 2000 is the 4698th Chinese
year.
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