Quick Translation - Calendar Readings

[theotherlee]

Hello Chinese-Forum! I've been researching how corresponding calendar dates are read and spoken, without referring to the numerical year. I've gotten some great input on this elsewhere, but I figure this is a topic that could benefit from a second (or third or fourth) opinion.

 

Take the year 1984. In English, one could say 'year of the wood rat', in accordance with the old-school sexagenary cycle. How would 'year of the wood rat' be properly read and used in speech?

 

My understanding is the literal translation (木鼠年 - mù shǔ nián/Wood Rat Year) would not be correct. A heritage speaker of Chinese tipped me off that years are referred to by their respective earthly branches. 1984's (and for that matter, 1924 and 2044) earthly branch would be 甲子/jiǎzǐ. So, would it be better to go with 甲子 over 木鼠年?

 

Do either of those expressions have any…interesting alternative readings I should be aware of? Thank you in advance.

[Kamille]

Never heard about 甲子 but I'm sure it's not bullshit. The lunar calendar is full of weird characters/combinations. 巳, 廿, whatever...

 

Regarding the elements, in Taiwan at least they don't talk about any 木, 金, 火 or anything (don't know about the mainland). It's just "鼠年" and the cycle is 12 years, that's it. But yeah, if you want to add the element that should be 木鼠年. I don't see what else...

[889]

Colloquially, I have only ever heard 明年马年！and such. Never the 60-year cycle stems and branches, which is commonly used only on inscriptions and such. For example, a painting will commonly be dated with stem and branch.

[dwq]

Actually, 甲 is the heavenly stem and 子 is the earthly branch.

甲子年 is the correct way to say it.

 

The sexagenary cycle used to be a very common way of naming the year (and in even older times, the month, date and hour), it is how you get terms like 甲午戰爭 or 辛亥革命, but its use have been in decline along with the lunar calendar.  Nowadays you're most likely to see it used around Chinese New Year.

 

Also modern Chinese people might know this year is 猴年 but probably not know it is 丙申年.

 

e.g. You can clearly see 戊辰年 (reading from right to left) on the 叻報(1928) image.

http://bbs.voc.com.cn/topic-212169-1-1.html

 

Haha, I just checked and 文匯報 and 東方日報 are still printing the year using it nowadays

 

http://pdf.wenweipo.com/index.html

http://home.on.cc/epaper/home.html?pub=odn

 

They are in small print in the rectangle containing the logos on the A1 pages.