Chinese calendar and history

The Chinese calendar (see also Chinese horoscope) is related to certain repetitions of historical events. There are 12 sacred animals (rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig) and five natural forces in this calendar. A repetition of a given combination (sacred animal, natural force) occurs for the first time after 60 years. And it is indeed possible to find many examples of analogous couples of historical events that have taken place after a period which is a multiple of 60 years. We mean important events related to changes of the parameters of power, such as gain and loss of independence or territory, large scale rebellions, change of dynasty etc. Here we give some examples in this sense. The reader can find a lot more in the book [1] and also some in the book [2].

Mexico has been conquered by the Spaniards in 1521. In 1821 (five cycles of 60 years later) it has declared its independence of Spain.

Cuba has ceased to be a Spanish colony in 1898, after the Spanish-American War. On January 1, 1959, the revolutionary movement of Fidel Castro stripped the pro-American dictator Fulgencio Batista of power.

Europe was shattered by revolutions in 1848. In 1968 (2x60 years later) the continent witnessed the Prague Spring, May 68 in France, the students' movement in Western Germany. In Mexico there was the Tlatelolco massacre.

Austria has lost its influence upon the other German states once in 1806, following the defeats at Ulm and Austerlitz in 1805 against Napoleon Bonaparte, and again in 1866=1806+60, in the aftermath of the defeat at the battle of Sadowa in the war against Prussia.

In 1588 the defeat of the Invincible Armada was a severe blow for the Catholic countries. In 1648=1588+60 the peace of Westphalia which put an end to the Thirty Years War was more favourable to the Protestants than to the Catholics.

The Spanish Civil War ended in 1939. Two years after that the attack on Pearl Harbor took place. In 1999=1939+60 the wars of ex-Yugoslavia ended with the one of Kosovo. And two years after that the attack on World Trade Center took place.

In 1950, the Belgian king Leopold III abdicated in favour of his son Baudoin in order to avoid the splitting of the country along ethnic lines. His decision was dictated by the results of a referendum on which the majority of Wallonians voted against while most of the Flemish voted in favour of him. (The total score was in his favour.) Whether he should remain or not king of the country was to be decided by a referendum because his behaviour during the German occupation was considered as ambiguous. In 2010=1950+60, Belgium remained several months without government and many Belgians consider the separation of the two ethnic groups as highly probable.

There have been two congresses of Vienna that have taken important decisions about the future of Europe. The first one, of 1515, has decided to limit the power of the Jagiellon dynasty in favour of the one of the Habsburgs. The second one, of 1815=1515+5x60, has fixed the European borders in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars.

There are many examples of similar couples of events which combine analogy with contrast and the period between which is an odd multiple of 30 years. We list here some of them:

In 1870 France and Germany were at war with one another. In 1900=1870+30 their troops were quelling together the Boxer rebellion in China.

In 1878 Austria-Hungary occupied Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Bosnian milice resisted by arms. In 1908=1878+30 the empire annexed the province. There was no armed resistance. The annexation of 1908 (a refusal of independence to another people) contrasts with the Anschluss of 1938=1908+30, when the Austrians by their own will decided their country to become part of Germany.

The years 1618 and 1648 marked the beginning and the end of the Thirty Years War.

In 1795 the Third Partition of Poland, between Russia, Prussia and Austria, made this country disappear from the geographic maps until 1945=1795+150, when Eastern Prussia disappeared (its territory was shared between the USSR and Poland).

The Berlin wall was built in 1961 (year of the Ox of Metal). It was a boundary which separated the two parts of the German nation. In 1991=1961+30 (year of the Goat of Metal) after the fall of the USSR (the country that had built the wall) its internal borders became external ones between its 15 republics. It is also remarkable that the last ruler of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev and the first president of Russia Boris Yeltsin are both born in 1931 (Goat of Metal), 60 years before the breakup of the country.

In 1979, the Islamic revolution in Iran ousted the shah. In 2009=1979+30, the students' protests against the power of the ayatollahs were brutally suppressed.

In 1857, the revolt of the Sepoys in India played the role of a war of independence. This war failed. India became independent (peacefully) on August 15, 1947, 90 years later.

The Chinese calendar has been considered in another aspect in the book [3] (see also [4]). The author Григо́рий Семёнович Кваша́ has considered triples of events having taken place in one of the triples of years: (rat, dragon, monkey) or (ox, snake, rooster) or (tiger, horse, dog) or (rabbit, goat, pig). According to the Chinese horoscope, people born under two of the years of one and the same of these triples can easily get along with one another.

For instance, the triple (ox, snake, rooster) is rich in revolutions and plots: the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917 (snake), the French revolution of 1789, the Decembrist revolt of 1825 and the tentative of October 1993 to oust Eltsin (rooster), the abortive attempt of 1961 to oust Fidel Castro (the Bay of Pigs Invasion) and the coup d'état of 1973 staged by the general Augusto Pinochet in Chile (ox).

The author of [3] and [4] has considered also triples of political figures (from one of these triples of years) having played a role in one and the same historical event. He has studied the qualities of these persons and the aspects of the given events. For instance, several famous women rulers from Russian and world history are born in years of the above triple: Elizabeth Petrovna (1709–1762) and Margaret Thatcher (b. 1925) (ox), Catherine the Great (1729–1796) and Sofia Alekseyevna (1657–1704) (rooster), Indira Gandhi (1917–1984) and Benazir Bhutto (1953–2007) (snake). One could add to the list also the former United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (b. 1937, ox).

Among the men this triple of years has given many outstanding military commanders: Alexander the Great (b. 356 B.C.), Mikhail Kutuzov (b. 1745), Napoleon Bonaparte (b. 1769), Alexander Menshikov (b. 1673), Alexei Brusilov (b. 1853) (ox), Pyotr Rumyantsev (b. 1725), Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly (b. 1761), Alfred von Schlieffen (b. 1833), Mikhail Tukhachevsky (b. 1893) (snake), Alexander Suvorov (b. 1729), Pyotr Bagration (b. 1765), Mikhail Frunze (b. 1885), George S. Patton (b. 1885) (rooster).

In the book [3] there are several examples of important wars that have taken four years to finish. This time interval is connected to the above triples because four years is the time between two consecutive years of a triple. Examples of such wars are: the Great Patriotic War of the USSR (1941–1945, part of World War II), the Russian Civil War (the military actions took part between 1918 and 1922), the American Civil War (1861–1865), the Turkish War of Independence (1919–1923). One can add to this list wars having lasted eight years, such as the wars of the ex-Yugoslavia (they started in 1991, they finished with the Kosovo War of 1999 and in the middle there was the Dayton agreement of 1995) or the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783).

References

1. Vladimir Petrov Kostov, L'histoire et ses règles. Editions Bénévent, 2010, ISBN 978-2-7563-1841-7.

2. Vladimir Petrov Kostov, Les règles de l'histoire. Editions Bénévent, 2009, ISBN 978-2-7563-1204-0.

3. Григо́рий Семёнович Кваша́, Принципы истории, Москва, издательство «Астрель», «АСТ», 2001, ISBN 5-17-006898-0 ISBN 5-271-01796-6, http://www.xsp.ru/sh/pub/outbook.php?id=7 and http://www.xsp.ru/sh/pub/outbook.php?id=10

4. Григо́рий Семёнович Кваша́, Принципы истории. Россия: от Востока через Империю к Западу, Москва, издательство «Поколение», ISBN 5-9763-0009-X