lushcity ([personal profile] lushcity) wrote in [personal profile] ljwrites 2017-04-24 07:36 pm (UTC)

I would note in the real world the Branches and Stems system is often amended by a regnal year.

That is, because it is limited to a 60 year cycle, the years are distinguished from each other by placing the name of the emperor by the year. For classical human Chinese lifespans, 60 years was wide enough to not have many problems with overlap (in fact, the longest Imperial reign in history was 61 years).

So the simplest solution that makes sense then is they use a 192 year cycle prenoted with the current Avatar to distinguish periods beyond 192 years.
The only “womp” this would have would be the reign of Kyoshi which would have a second “mini cycle” of 38 years because of her long age. (Which as we know, was canonized by a mistake in writing, in old China this was called a gaiyuan and was usually cuased by political shifting of an era name midstream). So something like “The Year of the Dragon of Brilliant Light of Kyoshi’s Second Age” would work.

So for example the events of the first book of Avatar take place in 安昂 氜武申年 (Aang’s Year of the Monkey of Superior Arms) with the name of the Avatar being considered implicit.

Thoughts?

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