Current Usage
The Stems are still commonly used nowadays in Chinese counting systems similar to the way the alphabet is used in English. For example:
- Names in legal documents and contracts where English speakers would use A, B, C, etc. Korea and Japan also use heavenly stems on legal documents in this way. In Korea, letters gap (甲) and eul (乙) are consistently used to denote the larger and the smaller contractor (respectively) in a legal contract, and are sometimes used as synonyms for such; this usage is also common in the Korean IT industry.
- Choices on multiple choice exams, surveys, etc.
- Organic chemicals (e.g. methanol: 甲醇 jiǎchún; ethanol: 乙醇 yǐchún). See Organic nomenclature in Chinese.
- Diseases (Hepatitis A: 甲型肝炎 jiǎxíng gānyán; Hepatitis B: 乙型肝炎 yǐxíng gānyán)
- Sports leagues (Serie A: 意甲 yìjiǎ)
- Vitamins (although currently, in this case, the ABC system is more popular)
- Characters conversing in a short text (甲 speaks first, 乙 answers)
- Students' grades in Taiwan: with an additional Yōu (優 "Excellence") before the first celestial stem Jiǎ. Hence, English grades A, B, C, D and F correspond to 優, 甲, 乙, 丙 and 丁 (yōu, jiǎ, yǐ, bǐng, dīng).
Read more about this topic: Celestial Stem
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