Vasco Posted October 31, 2007 at 12:58 AM Report Posted October 31, 2007 at 12:58 AM Hi there! I have these stickers that a friend got for me to put in my car but i have no idea what it means... could you help me please? Thank You Quote
OracleBone Posted October 31, 2007 at 05:55 PM Report Posted October 31, 2007 at 05:55 PM Ancient Chinese use these special characters to record a period of time:year, month, day, hour, i.e. No need to learn the exact means of them. They are very complicated, mysterious, and impractical. Some people still insist on that these magical things could bring lucky to our people. Just think it as some kind of talismans. Quote
BrandeX Posted November 1, 2007 at 04:41 AM Report Posted November 1, 2007 at 04:41 AM My gf didn't immediately recognize these, thinking at first they might be a Japanese version (kanji), but if it is chinese, it is very old pictographs, and seem to relate to the time of your birth she said. As for the one that is a picture of a japanese flag with 2 characters on it, that reads "May" (as in the month). Quote
Lu Posted November 1, 2007 at 06:30 AM Report Posted November 1, 2007 at 06:30 AM Except for the first character, that is a more complicated way of writing '5', the others are all heavenly stems and/or earthly branches, I'm not sure which, maybe both. These are characters used to indicate the year, and also other things to do with time, I suppose. Try googling 'heavenly stems and earthly branches' for more details. Quote
fireball9261 Posted November 1, 2007 at 07:03 AM Report Posted November 1, 2007 at 07:03 AM 伍 is the formal writing for the number 5 when you write on checks or debt notes, and it doesn't mean May (unless that is a Japanese word for May). The rest are all units for indicating Chinese years, months, and days. They are called tian gan 天干and di zhi 地支. The arrangement here are a random mix of tian gan 天干and di zhi 地支, and they don't seem to mean anything. Also, I have no idea why there is a 伍 on top of the vertical line as well as the center of the horizontal line. In addition, I don't understand why 庚 was seperated out by itself at the right and left of the horizontal line. They are definitely not indicating your birthday. In order to represent year, month,day, and time, they must be paired with tian gan first and followed by di zhi. The list of tian gan and di zhi are as below, and you can see that this is a random mix of both without any order. 天干(tian gan): 甲、乙、丙、丁、戊、己、庚、辛、壬、癸 地支(di4 zhi):子、丑、寅、卯、辰、巳、午、未、申、酉、戌、亥 Since there is a Japanese flag there, I would think it might mean something to the Japanese, but I can't think of any sense for this design outside of being an art design. Personally, I wouldn't use it as a tailsman due to the chaotic arrangement of the tian gan and di zhi. It gave me an upsetting feeling. Quote
Vasco Posted November 6, 2007 at 12:07 AM Author Report Posted November 6, 2007 at 12:07 AM Thank you so much for your help! Best Regards Vasco Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and select your username and password later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.