ABSTRACT
North and the winter solstice, and this was called chhi in the sources' (tsai chhiian chih chhi I ). Each one of the six Yin-Yang forms or chhi took turns at occupying these two positions. The former fixed the quality of the 'rising' half of the year, just as the latter fixed it for the' setting' half. Finally there was also a 'visiting chhi' (hho chhi2 ), i.e. the chhi which occupied the position two places behind the 'heavengoverning chhi'.a
A moment ago we spoke of alternating 'super-abundant' and 'insufficient·' years. Were there never harmonious years? There were, and the technical term for them was phing chhi;3 they came round when the consequences of their han and chih in the sixty-year cycle balanced each other.b This happened only when both were of the same sign (Yang or Yin) and both indicated the same dominant circumambulator (chu yiin4). For example, in a kuei ssu5 year the chu yiin would be F, yet both characters are Yin; and huei will be in the north while ssu will occupy position three in the south, so that their chhi will compensate for each other. From what has now been said it can be seen that no year was ever quite the same in its characteristics, and when the permutations and combinations in the system repeated in full it was at very long intervals exceeding sixty years.
