The Origin of 20-Year Cycle in Feng Shui and the 12 Earthly Branches

 So how does the 12 earthly branches came to appear in Chinese culture?

Jupiter is the largest planet within the solar system, and visible to the naked eye. It takes about 12 years for Jupiter to orbit around the Sun. Hence, ancient Chinese dedicate each branch to a specific position of Planet Jupiter and this is the origin of the 12 earthly branches. 

1. Rat                        2. Ox 

3. Tiger                     4. Rabbit 

5. Dragon                  6. Snake 

7. Horse                    8. Goat 

9. Monkey                10. Rooster 

11. Dog                    12. Pig

Below is a chart of the equity return categorized by zodiac: 



On the other hand, Saturn takes about 30 years to orbit around the Sun. 


The Origin of the 20-year cycle in Feng Shui

This is due to the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. The former is the largest planet in the Solar System, while the latter is the second largest planet. 

Great Conjunction happens every 19.859 years or approximately every 20 years. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_conjunction




The most recent great conjunction took place on 21 Dec 2020, and the previous one was on 28 May 2000. 


However, in feng Shui, the cycle changes on every even number of the year ending 4, 1964, 1984, 2004 etc. Hence, there is a difference of 4 years compared to the actual conjunction found in wikipedia. Perhaps, this can be attributed to the rounding effect to 20 year. 



Above are all the historical great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, which showed that great conjunction does not occur on every even year ending 0. 


Every 60 years, Jupiter and Saturn will conjunct 3 times, completing a 360 degree orbit, and this is also how the Chinese metaphysics, 六十甲子, sexagenarian cycle came about. 

In Feng Shui, there is a total of 9 periods, which also correspond to the square of 9 you see in different cultures. 
9 x 20 years = 180 years

There were 9 stars in Feng Shui, and each star is in charge of a 20-year cycle (ruling star). 

三元九运, 一运 = 20年. What is surprising is that the feng shui cycle coincided with a book - "The Fourth Turning", written by William Strauss and Neil Howe . This is also called Strauss–Howe generational theory. 




Each turning is about 20 years, and a complete Strauss–Howe generational theory cycle would be about 80 years. In the book, fourth turning is a crisis. 






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