Chinese calendar

Fri,Oct 11,2024

九月初九日己酉

Jiǔyuè,Jiǎchénnián

Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
				01	02	03
04	05	06	07	08	09	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

16:01:5770:48申正初刻

File:Chinese Zodiac Gregorian calendar.jpg

A combination calendar, with Gregorian system below and a Chinese zodiac chart above.

The Chinese calendar is a lunisolar calendar which arranges the year, month and day number upon the astronomical date. It is used for traditional activities in China and overseas Chinese communities. It determines the date for the Chinese traditional holidays, and instructs Chinese people in selecting the lucky day of a wedding or funeral, for opening a venture, or a relocation.

In the Chinese calendar, the days begin at the midnight and end at the next, the months begin on the day with the dark moon and end on the day before the next dark moon, the years begin on the day with the dark moon near the Vernal Commences. The solar terms are the important components of the Chinese calendar. There are one or two, and occasionally three, solar terms within a month.

The present Chinese calendar is the product of evolution. Many astronomical and seasonal factors were added by the ancient scientist, and people can reckon the date of natural phenomenons such as the moon phase and tide upon the Chinese calendar. The Chinese calendar has over 100 versions, and the characteristics of these versions reflect the evolution route of the Chinese calendar. Like Chinese characters, these versions of Chinese calendar are adopted throughout Sinosphere. In Korea, Vietnam, and Ryukyu, the Chinese calendar is adopted completely. In Japan, the Chinese calendar was used before the Edo period, and the later Japanese calendar uses the algorithm of the Chinese calendar.

The Chinese calendar is not the official calendar in China, but plays an important role there. The official name of the Chinese calendar is the Rural Calendar (traditional Chinese: 農曆; simplified Chinese: 农历; pinyin: Nónglì), but people often refer to the Chinese calendar with other names, such as the Former Calendar (traditional Chinese: 舊曆; simplified Chinese: 旧历; pinyin: Jìulì), the Traditional Calendar (traditional Chinese: 老曆; simplified Chinese: 老历; pinyin: Lǎolì), or the Yin Calendar (traditional Chinese: 陰曆; simplified Chinese: 阴历; pinyin: Yīnlì).

Structure

Codes

Several coding systems are used for some special circumstances in order to avoid ambiguity, such as continuous day or year count.

• The heavenly stems are decimal system. The characters of the heavenly stems are: jiǎ, yǐ, bǐng, dīng, wù, jǐ, gēng, xīn, rén, guì(Chinese: 甲乙丙丁戊己庚辛壬癸).
• The earthly branches are duodecimal system. The characters of the earthly branches are: zǐ, chǒu, yín, mǎo, chén, sì, wǔ, wèi, shēn, yǒu, xū, hài(Chinese: 子丑寅卯辰巳午未申酉戌亥). The earthly branches are used to mark the shí and climate terms usually.
• The stem-branches are sexagesimal system. The heavenly stems and earthly branches match together and form stem-branches. The stem-branches are used to mark the continuous day and year.

Day, Hours, and Week

In the Chinese calendar, the days begin at the midnight and end at the next midnight. But, people tend to regard the days as beginning at dawn.

Currently, days are divided into 24 hours, hours are divided into 60 minutes, and minutes are divided into 60 seconds. In ancient China, days are divided into 12 shí or 60 diǎn, and there're 10 gēng and 100 kè which are nominal timelines. shí and kè link together, and describe the specific time. gēng and diǎn link together, and describe the approximate time in the night. Template:Chinese Traditional Time

In ancient China, the days are encoded into the are used to encode the days continuously. Currently, the days are grouped into 7-day weeks and the weekdays are marked with the ordinal number except Sunday.

Month

In the Chinese calendar, the months begin on the day of the dark moon, and end on the day before the next dark moon. There are 29 or 30 days in a month, but the month length is float. The month with 30 days is called as the long month(Chinese: 大月), and the month with 29 days is called as the short month(Chinese: 小月). The days in the months are marked with the ordinal number from 1. But, in the Chinese calendar, the dates are normalized to two characters, such as Chūyī(Chinese: 初一), Shíwǔ(Chinese: 十五), Niànsān(Chinese: 廿三).

As a practice, the months are divided into 3 xún(Chinese: 旬). The first 10 days is the fore xún(Chinese: 上旬), the middle 10 days is the mid xún(Chinese: 中旬), and the last 9 or 10 days is the back xún(Chinese: 下旬).

Solar year and solar term

In the Chinese calendar, the solar year is the time from a winter solstice to the next winter solstice. The solar year isdivided into 24 solar terms which corresponding to 15° along the ecliptic each. couple of solar terms are associated into a climate term. The start point of the first term is called as pre-climate (traditional Chinese: 節氣; simplified Chinese: 节气; pinyin: Jiéqì), and the start point of the last term in the couple is called as mid-climate (traditional Chinese: 中氣; simplified Chinese: 中气; pinyin: Zhōngqì).

The ecliptic position of each solar term

Climate Term	Solar term	Date	Longitude	Zodiac	Climate Term	Solar term	Date	Longitude	Zodiac
Yín Early Spring	VC, Vernal Commences	Feb 3-5	315°	Aquarius	Shēn Early Autumn	AC, Autumn Commences	Aug 7-9	135°	Leo
	VS, Vernal Showers	Feb 18-20	330°	330-360° Pisces		EH, End of Heat	Aug 22-24	150°	150-180° Virgo
Mǎo Mid Spring	IA, Insects Waken	Mar 5-7	345°		Yǒu Mid Autumn	WD, White Dew	Sep 7-9	165°
	VE, Vernal Equinox	Mar 20-22	360°/0°	0-30° Aries		AE, Autumnal Equinox	Sep 22-24	180°	180-210° Libra
Chén Late Spring	BC, Bright and Clear	Apr 4-6	15°		Xū Late Autumn	CD, Cold Dew	Oct 8-9	195°
	CR, Corn Rain	Apr 19-21	30°	30-60° Taurus		FF, First Frost	Oct 23-24	210°	210-240° Scorpio
Sì Early Summer	SC, Summer Commences	May 5–7	45°		Hài Early Winter	WC,Winter Commences	Nov 7-8	225°
	CF, Corn Forms	May 20–22	60°	60-90° Gemini		LS, Light Snow	Nov 22-23	240°	240-270° Sagittarius
Wǔ Mid Summer	CE, Corn on Ear	Jun 5-7	75°		Zǐ Mid Winter	HS, Heavy Snow	Dec 6-8	255°
	SS, Summer Solstice	Jun 21-22	90°	90-120° Cancer		WS, Winter Solstice	Dec 21-23	270°	270-300° Capricornus
Wèi Late Summer	MH, Moderate Heat	Jul 6-8	105°		Chǒu Late Winter	MC, Moderate Cold	Jan 5-7	285°
	GH, Great Heat	Jul 22-24	120°	Leo		GC, Great Cold	Jan 20-21	300°	Aquarius

In a solar year, there're 11 or 12 whole months. The year with 11 months is a common year. The year with 12 months is a leap year, and the first month without a mid-climate is the intercalary month. The months in the solar year are marked with the ordinal number from 0, except the intercalary month.

Relations between solar terms and months

In general, the month number corresponds the climate term.

1. The pre-climates are always within 15 days before or after the first day of the corresponding months.

the Moderate Cold is always within 15 days before or after 1_st of the 0_th month(always Làyuè), the Vernal Commences is always within 15 days before or after 1_st of the 1_st momth(Zhēngyuè),

the Insects Waken is always within 15 days before or after 1_st of the 2_nd month(Èryuè 1st) the Bright and Clear is always within 15 days before or after 1_st of the 3_rd month(Sānyuè),

the Summer Commences is always within 15 days before or after 1_st of the 4_th month(Sìyuè) the Corn on Ear is always within 15 days before or after 1_st of the 5_th month(Wǔyuè),

the Moderate Heat is always within 15 days before or after 1_st of the _6th month(Lìuyuè), the Autumn Commences is always within 15 days before or after 1_st of the 7_th month(Qīyuè),

the White Dew is always within 15 days before or after 1_st of the 8_th month(Bāyuè the Cold Dew is always within 15 days before or after 1_st of the 9_th month(Jǐuyuè),

the Winter Commences is always within 15 days before or after 1_st of the 10_th month(Shíyuè), the Heavy Snow is always within 15 days before or after 1_st of the month with the winter solstice(Shíyīyuè).

2. The mid-climates are always within the corresponding months.

the Great Cold is always within Làyuè, the Vernal Showers is always within Zhēngyuè the Vernal Equinox is always within Èryuè,the Corn Rain is always within Sānyuè,

the Corn Forms is always within Sìyuè, the Summer Solstice is always within Wǔyuè the Moderate Heat is always within Lìuyuè, the End of Heat is always within Qīyuè,

the Autumnal Equinox is always within Bāyuè, the First Frost is always within Jǐuyuè the Light Snow is always within Shíyuè, and the Winter solstice is bound to Shíyīyuè.

• The Chinese calendar follows the Metonic cycle in general.

1. The pre-climates and mid-climates are about at the same date in the Chinese calendar 19 years later.

For example, the vernal commences is about at the New years day of 1905,1924, 1943, ...; and the winter solstice is about at Shíyīyuè 1st of 2014, 2033, 2052,....

2. A representative sequence of common and leap years is clc clc lc clc clc lc clc, and intercalary months are about following the 4_th, 2_nd, 7_th, 5_th, 3_rd, 8_th, 6_th month in each section.

The intercalary month of the leap year between 1905 and 2132 in the Chinese calendar is list as below:

Metonic cycle	1905~1923		1924~1942		1943~1961		1962~1980		1981~1999		2000~2018		2019~2037		2038~2056		2057~2075		2076~2094		2095~2113		2114~2132
leap 4	1906	4	1925	4	1944	4	1963	4	1982	4	2001	4	2020	4	2039	5	2058	4	2077	4	2096	4	2115	4
leap 2/3	1909	2	1928	2	1947	2	1966	3	1984	10	2004	3	2023	2	2042	2	2061	3	2080	3	2099	2	2118	3
leap 6/7	1911	6	1930	6	1949	7	1968	7	1987	6	2006	7	2025	6	2044	7	2063	7	2082	7	2101	7	2120	7
leap 5	1914	5	1933	5	1952	5	1971	5	1990	5	2009	5	2028	5	2047	5	2066	5	2085	5	2104	5	2123	5
leap 3/4	1917	2	1936	3	1955	3	1974	4	1993	3	2012	4	2031	3	2050	3	2069	4	2088	4	2107	4	2126	4
leap 8/9/11	1919	7	1938	7	1957	8	1976	8	1995	8	2014	9	2033	11	2052	8	2071	8	2090	8	2109	9	2128	11
leap 6	1922	5	1941	6	1960	6	1979	6	1998	5	2017	6	2036	6	2055	6	2074	6	2093	6	2112	6	2131	6

Year

In the Chinese calendar, the years are beginning on the 1_st day of the 1_st month, and the first and last month are named as Zhēngyuè(Chinese: 正月) and Làyuè(traditional Chinese: 臘月; simplified Chinese: 腊月) specially. The month crossing the solar new year is named as the 11th month(Shíyīyuè), and the intercalary month is named with the name of the previous month, such as Intercalary Wǔyuè. The stem-branches are used to count the year, and according to usual practice, each branches corresponds an animal zodiac. people used to call the animal zodiac. After the era system was abolished, the stem-branches is the only formal year numbering method.

There are 12 or 13 months in a year. The years with 12 months are common years, there are 353, 354 or 355 days in the common year. The years with 13 months are leap years, there are 383, 384 or 385 days in the leap year. For example, the year from Template:Chinese Traditional Year is a Template:Chinese Traditional Year or Template:Chinese Traditional Year (Template:Chinese Traditional Year), Template:Chinese Traditional Year, Template:Chinese Traditional Year long.

Age recognition in China

In China, age for official use is based on the Gregorian calendar. But for traditional use, age is based on the Chinese calendar. From birthday to the end of the year, it's one year old. After each New Year's Eve, add one year. Such as, if one's birthday is Làyuè 29th 2013, he is 2 years old at Zhēngyuè 1st 2014. On the other hand, people say months old instead of years old, if someone is too young. It's that the age sequence is "1 month old, 2 months old, ... 10 months old, 2 years old, 3 years old...".

After the actual age(traditional Chinese: 實歲; simplified Chinese: 实岁) was introduced into China, the Chinese traditional age was referred to as the nominal age(traditional Chinese: 虛歲; simplified Chinese: 虚岁). Divided the year into two halves by the birthday in the Chinese calendar, the nominal age is 2 older than the actual age in the first half, and the nominal age is 1 older than the actual age in the second half(traditional Chinese: 前半年前虛兩歲,後半年虛一歲; simplified Chinese: 前半年前虚两岁,后半年虚一岁).

Year number system

• Era system

In ancient, the years are numbered from 1 when the new emperor ascended the throne or the authority release the reign title. The first reign title is Jiànyuán (Chinese: 建元, from 140BC), the last reign title is Xuāntǒng(traditional Chinese: 宣統; simplified Chinese: 宣统, from 1908). The era system is abolished in 1910. The Christian era or ROC era are took over to express the year in the Chinese calendar.

on the other hand, the Christian era is simulated in the 20th century, such as:

   Anno Huángdì  (Chinese: 黄帝紀年), upon the regal of Huángdì, who is honored as the first ancestor of all Han Chinese,           2698+AD=AH
   Anno Yáo      (Chinese: 唐尧紀年), upon the regal of Emperor Yao, 2156+AD=AY
   Anno Gònghé   (Chinese: 共和紀年), upon Gònghé 1, when there's faithful historical records.                                   841+AD=AG
   Anno Confucius(Chinese: 孔子紀年), upon the birth year of Confucius, who is considered the greatest sages of the ancient Chinese, 551+AD=AC
   Anno Unity   (Chinese: 秦統一紀年), upon the regal of the First Emperor of Qin, who unify China for the first time,                221+AD=AU

Generally, no reference date is widely accepted. At January 2, 1912, Sun Yat-sen declared to change the official calendar and era. In his declaration, Jan 1, 1912 is called as Shíyīyuè 13th, 4609 AH which implied an epoch of 2698 BC. The implication was adopted by many overseas Chinese communities outside Southeast Asia such as San Francisco's Chinatown.

In the 17th century, the Jesuits tried to determine what year should be considered the epoch of Han calendar. In his Sinicae historiae decas prima (first published in Munich in 1658), Martino Martini (1614–1661) dated the royal ascension of Huangdi to 2697 BC, but started the Chinese calendar with the reign of Fu Xi, which he claimed started in 2952 BC. Philippe Couplet's (1623–1693) Chronological table of Chinese monarchs (Tabula chronologica monarchiae sinicae; 1686) also gave the same date for the Yellow Emperor. The Jesuits' dates provoked great interest in Europe, where they were used for comparisons with Biblical chronology. Modern Chinese chronology has generally accepted Martini's dates, except that it usually places the reign of Huangdi in 2698 BC and omits Huangdi's predecessors Fu Xi and Shennong, who are considered "too legendary to include".

Starting in 1903, radical publications started using the projected date of birth of the Yellow Emperor as the first year of Han calendar. Different newspapers and magazines proposed different dates. Jiangsu, for example, counted 1905 as year 4396 (use an epoch of 2491 BC), whereas the Minbao (traditional Chinese: 明報; simplified Chinese: 明报, the organ of the Tongmenghui) reckoned 1905 as 4603 (use an epoch of 2698 BC). Liu Shipei([劉師培] Error: {{Lang}}: unrecognized language tag: zh-t (help); 1884–1919) created the Yellow Emperor Calendar, now often used to calculate the date, to show the unbroken continuity of the Han race and Han culture from earliest times. Liu's calendar started with the birth of the Yellow Emperor, which he determined to be 2711 BC. There is no evidence that this calendar was used before the 20th century. Liu calculated that the 1900 international expedition sent by eight foreign powers to suppress the Boxer Uprising entered Beijing in the 4611th year of the Yellow Emperor.

• Calendric epoch

There's a epoch for each version of the Chinese calendar, which is called as Lìyuán(traditional Chinese: 曆元; simplified Chinese: 历元). The epoch is optimal origin of the calendar, and it's a Jiǎzǐrì, the first day of a lunar month, and the dark moon and solstice is just at the mid-night(Chinese: 日得甲子夜半朔旦冬至). And tracing back to a perfect day, such as that the day with magical star sign, there's a supreme epoch(Chinese: 上元; pinyin: shàngyuán). The continuous year base on the supreme epoch is shàngyuán jīnián(traditional Chinese: 上元積年; simplified Chinese: 上元积年). More and more factors was added into the supreme epoch, and the shàngyuán jīnián became a huge number. So, the supreme epoch and shàngyuán jīnián was neglected from Shòushí calendar. From Tàichū calendar, all versions of the Chinese calendar follows the frame of the Tàichū calendar, and straights down. So, the epoch of the Tàichū calendar(the winter solstice of 105BC), is the general calendaric epoch of the Chinese calendar.

     The years before 105 BC,       105-BC, such as: 2698 BC is -1594th year
     The year of 105 BC,            105-BC,           105 BC is     0th year
     The years form 104 BC to 1 BC, 105-BC, Such as:   87 BC is    18th year
     The years after 1 BC,          AD+104, such as:   2013  is  2117th year

• Yuán-Huì-Yùn-Shì system

Shao Yong (Chinese: 邵雍, 1011–1077, Courtesy name: Yáofū, Posthumous title: Kāngjié, a philosopher, cosmologist, poet and historian who greatly influenced the development of Non-Confucianism in China.) introduced a timing system in his The Ultimate which Manages the World(traditional Chinese: 皇極經世; simplified Chinese: 皇极经世; pinyin: Huángjíjīngshì) In his time system, 1 yuán(Chinese: 元), which contains 12'9600 years, is a lifecycle of the world. Each yuán is divided into 12 huì(traditional Chinese: 會; simplified Chinese: 会).Each assembly is divided into 30 yùn(traditional Chinese: 運; simplified Chinese: 运), and each run is divided into 12 shì(Chinese: 世). So, each shì is equivalent to 30 years. The yuán-huì-yùn-shì is corresponded with nián-yuè-rì-shí. So the yuán-huì-yùn-shì is called as the major tend or the numbers of the heaven, and the nián-yuè-rì-shí is called as the minor tend or the numbers of the earth.

The minor tend of the birth is adapted by people for predicting destiny or fate. The numbers of nián-yuè-rì-shí is encoded with stem-branches and show a form of Bāzì. The nián-yuè-rì-shí are called as Four Pillars of Destiny. For example, the Bāzì of Emperor Qiánlóng is Xīnmǎo,Dīngyǒu,Gēngwǔ,Bǐngzǐ (辛卯、丁酉、庚午、丙子). Shào's Huángjíjīngshì recorded the history the timing system from the first year of the 180_th yùn or 2149_th shì (HYSN 6-30-1-1, 2577 BC) and marked the year with reign title from the Jiǎchénnián of the 2156_th shì (HYSN 6-30-8-11, 2357 BC, Tángyáo 1, traditional Chinese: 唐堯元年; simplified Chinese: 唐尧元年).According to this timing system, 2014-1-31 is HYS/NYR 7-12-10/1-1-1.

The table below shows kinds of year number system, correspondences to the Western (Gregorian) calendar. Alternatively, see this larger table of the full 60-year cycle.

CE[1]	Timestamp[2]	AH[3]	Jiǎzǐxù[4]	Stem,branch	Year of the[5]...	AD[6]	AM[7]	From... to ...	Notes
2114	01-07-12-09 /27	4707	79:26(73)	庚寅GY gēngyín	Metal Tiger	2010	99	Feb 14 - Duo 2	1. calendaric year number     from the Winter Solstice of 104BC 2. timestamp of Huángjíjīngshì system 3. Anno Huángdì, Using an epoch of 2698BC    -60 if using an epoch of 2637BC    -1 if using an epoch of 2697BC 4. the order in the stems-branches cycle 5. phase and zodic 6. year number upon Christian era.    the year number of the larger overlapping 7. Anno Mínguó, year number upon Minguo era 8. Und(Undecember) is Jan of the next year 9. Duo(Duodecember) is Feb of the next year
2115	01-07-12-09 /28	4709	79:27(84)	辛卯XM   xīnmǎo	Metal Rabbit	2011	100	Feb 3 - Und[8] 22
2116	01-07-12-09 /29	4710	79:28(95)	壬辰RC  rénchén	Water Dragon	2012	101	Jan 23 - Duo[9] 9
2117	01-07-12-09 /30	4711	79:29(T6)	癸巳GS    guǐsì	Water Snake	2013	102	Feb 10 - Und 30
2118	01-07-12-10 /01	4712	79:30(17)	甲午JW    jiǎwǔ	Wood Horse	2014	103	Jan 31 - Duo 18
2119	01-07-12-10 /02	4713	79:31(28)	乙未YW    yǐwèi	Wood Goat	2015	104	Feb 19 - Duo 7
2120	01-07-12-10 /03	4714	79:32(39)	丙申BS bǐngshēn	Fire Monkey	2016	105	Feb 8 - Und 27
2121	01-07-12-10 /04	4715	79:33(4T)	丁酉DY  dīngyǒu	Fire Rooster	2017	106	Jan 28 - Duo 15
2122	01-07-12-10 /05	4716	79:34(5E)	戊戌WX     wùxū	Earth Dog	2018	107	Feb 16 - Duo 14
2123	01-07-12-10 /06	4717	79:35(6D)	己亥JH    jǐhài	Earth Pig	2019	108	Feb 5 - Und 24

Holiday, special days, and birthday

• The important traditional holiday upon the date

The preliminary eve(Chinese: 小年) is Làyuè 23_rd or 24_th.The following preliminary eve is at 2014-11-04 in north China, and at 2014-11-04 in south China

The new year's eve(Chinese: 除夕) is the last day of the year, Làyuè 29_th or 30_th. The following new years eve is at 2015-02-19, which is a statutory holiday.

The new year's day(Chinese: 春节) is Zhēngyuè 1_st.The following new years day is at 2015-02-19, which is a statutory holiday.

The Yuanxiao(Chinese: 元宵) is Zhēngyuè 15_th. The following Yuanxiao is at 2015-02-19

The Shangsi(Chinese: 上巳) is Sānyuè 3_rd. The following Shangsi is at 2015-02-21

The Buddha's Birthday(Chinese: 佛诞) is Sìyuè 8_th. The following Buddha's Birthday is at 2015-02-22

The Duanwu(Chinese: 端午) is Wǔyuè 5_th. The following Duanwu is at 2015-02-23, which is a statutory holiday.

The Qixi(Chinese: 七夕) is Qīyuè 7_th. The following Qixi is at 2015-02-23

The Zhongyuan(Chinese: 中元) is Qīyuè 15_th. The following Zhongyuan is at 2015-02-25

The Mid-Autumn Festival(Chinese: 中秋) is Bāyuè 15_th. The following Mid-Autumn Festival is at 2015-02-26, which is a statutory holiday.

The Chongyang(Chinese: 重阳) is Jǐuyuè 9_th. The following Chongyang is at 2015-02-27

The Xiayuan(Chinese: 下元) is Shíyuè 15_th. The following Xiayuan is at 2015-02-28

The Laba Festival(Chinese: 臘八節) is Làyuè 8_th. The following Laba Festival is at 2014-11-04

• The important traditional holiday upon solar term

The Hanshi(Chinese: 寒食) is the 105_th day after the Winter Solstice. The following Hanshi is

The Qingming Festival(Chinese: 清明) is just on the day of the Bright and Clear. The following Qingming Festival is , which is a statutory holiday.

The Winter Solstice(Chinese: 冬至) is just on the day of the Winter Solstice. The following Winter Solstice is .

The Vernal/Autumn Sacrifice(Chinese: 春社/秋社) is the fifth Wùrì after Vernal/Autumn Commences.

The Shujiu cold days are the nine sections from the winter solstice, and each section is 9 days long. The shǔjǐu are the coldest days, and named with ordinal number, such as Sìjǐu(Chinese: 四九).

The Sanfu days are the three sections from the first Gēng-day after the summer solstice. The first section is 10 days long, and named as the fore fu(Chinese: 初伏; pinyin: chūfú); the second section is 10 or 20 days long, and named as the mid fu(Chinese: 中伏; pinyin: zhōngfú); and the last section is 10 days long from the first Gēng-day after autumn commences, and named as the last fu(Chinese: 末伏; pinyin: mòfú).

• The traditional business festivals

In the old days, the merchants are used to open the stores from Zhēngyuè 5_th, and host a prayer service at that day. Zhēngyuè 5_th is called as God of wealth's Day, and the prayer service is called as God of wealth is welcome

In Fujian and Taiwan areas, the businesses are used to a year-end dinner for employees at Làyuè 16_th. Làyuè 16_th is called as Weiya(Chinese: 尾牙).

History

Earlier Chinese calendar

Before the Spring and Autumn period, the Chinese Calendars are solar calendars. According to literature, the first version is the five-phases calendar(traditional Chinese: 五行曆; simplified Chinese: 五行历). In the five-phases calendar, the years begin at the Vernal Commences, and there're 10 months and a transition. Each months are 36 days long, and the transitions are 5 or 6 days long. the months are named with the heavenly stems, and couple of months form a phase which are named with five-phases. The second version is the four-seasons calendar(traditional Chinese: 四時八節曆; simplified Chinese: 四时八节历). In the four-seasons calendar, the years begin at the Vernal Commences, and there're 12 months and a year day.

Ancient Chinese calendars

• Pre-Qin calendars

During the Warring States period, the primitive lunisolar calendars are established by royal of Zhou Dynasty and vassal states. Several representative calendars are Huangdi's calendar(traditional Chinese: 黃帝曆; simplified Chinese: 黄帝历), Zhuanxu's calendar(traditional Chinese: 顓頊曆; simplified Chinese: 颛顼历), Xia's calendar(traditional Chinese: 夏曆; simplified Chinese: 夏历), Yin's calendar(traditional Chinese: 殷曆; simplified Chinese: 殷历), Zhou's calendar(traditional Chinese: 周曆; simplified Chinese: 周历), and Lu's calendar (traditional Chinese: 魯曆; simplified Chinese: 鲁历). These 6 calendars are called as the six ancient calendars(traditional Chinese: 古六曆; simplified Chinese: 古六历), and are the quarter remainder calendars (traditional Chinese: 四分曆; simplified Chinese: 四分历; pinyin: sìfēnlì). The months of these calendars begin on the day with the darkmoon, and there're 12 or 13 month within a year. The intercalary month is placed at the end of the year, and called as 13th month. But, the year beginning is different in these calendars. The years in the Xia's calendar begin on the day with the darkmoon close to the Vernal Commences. The years in the Yin's calendar end on the last day of the month with the Winter Solstice. The years in the Huangdi's calendar, Zhou's calendar, and Lu's calendar begin on the first day of the month with the Winter Solstice. And, the years in the Zhuanxu's calendar begin on the day with the darkmoon close to the Winter Commences.

• Calendar of Qin and earlier Han dynasty

After Emperor Qin Shihuang unified China, the Qin's calendar (traditional Chinese: 秦曆; simplified Chinese: 秦历) was released. The Qin's calendar follows the rules of the Zhuanxu's calendar, but the months order follows the Xia's calendar. The months in the year are from the 10th month to the 9th month, and the intercalary month is called as the second Jiuyue(traditional Chinese: 後九月; simplified Chinese: 后九月). In the earlier Han dynasty, Qin's calendar is continue to use.

• Taichu calendar and the calendars from Han to Ming dynasty.

Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty introduced reforms in the halfway of his administration. His Taichu or Grand Inception Calendar (traditional Chinese: 太初曆; simplified Chinese: 太初历) introduced 24 solar terms which decides the month names. The solar year was defined as 365 ³⁸⁵/₁₅₃₉ days, and divided into 24 solar terms. Each couples of solar terms are associated into 12 climate terms. The lunar month was defined as 29 ⁴³/₈₁ days and named according to the closest climate term. The mid-climate in the month decides the month name, and a month without mid-climate is an intercalary.

The Taichu calendar setablished the frame of the Chinese calendar, Ever since then, there are over 100 official calendars in Chinese which are consecutive and follow the structure of Tàichū calendar both. There're several innovation in calendar calculation in the history of over 2100 years, such as:

In the Dàmíng Calendar released in Tiānjiān 9(Chinese: 天监九年, 510) of Liáng Dynasty, Zhǔ Chōngzhī introduced the equation of equinoxes.

Actual syzygy method was adopted to decide the month from the Wùyín Yuán Calendar, which was released in Wǔdé 2(Chinese: 武德二年, 619) of Táng Dynasty.

The real measured data was used in calendar calculation from Shòushí Calendar, which was released in Zhìyuán 18(Chinese: 至元十八年,1281) of Yuán Dynasty. And the tropical year is fixed at 365.2425 days, the same as the Gregorian calendar established in 1582., and derived spherical trigonometry.

Modern Chinese calendars

• Shíxiàn calendar

In the late Ming dynasty, Xu guangqi and his colleagues worked out the new calendar upon the western astronomical arithmetic. But, the new calendar is not released before the end of the Ming Dynasty. In the earlier Qing Dynasty, Johann Adam Schall von Bell submit the calendar to Emperor of Shunzhi. The authority of Qing Dynasty release the calendar with a name, theShíxiàn calendar, which means seasonal charter. In the Shíxiàn calendar, the solar terms are corresponding to 15° along the ecliptic each. It makes the Chinese calendar develops into an astronomical calendar. But, on the other hand, the length of the climate term near the perihelion is shorter than 30 days, and there may be two mid-climate terms. The rule of the mid-climate terms decides the months, which is used for thousands years, lose its validity. The Shíxiàn calendar changed the rule to "decides the month in sequence, except the intercalary month".

• Current Chinese calendar

Currently, the Chinese calendar follows the rules of the Shíxiàn calendar, except that: changed the baseline to the Chinese Standard Time, and adopt the real astronomical data of observatories against the theoretical calculation.

See also

• Culture of China
• Dates in Chinese
• East Asian age reckoning
• Festivals of Korea
• Guo Shoujing, an astronomer tasked with calendar reform during the 13th century
• List of festivals in Vietnam
• Public holidays in China
• Sexagenary cycle

Further reading

• Cohen, Alvin (2012). "Brief Note: The Origin of the Yellow Emperor Era Chronology" (PDF). Asia Major. 25 (pt 2): 1–13. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Apps

iPhone app

1. https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/vedicpanchangam/id862232382?mt=8
2. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/chinese-calendars/id878174465?mt=8

Android app

1. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.yourchineseastrology.chinesecalendar

Mobile App Developers

1. http://www.midgr.com/

External links

Calendars

• Chinese months
• Gregorian-Lunar calendar years (1901–2100)
• Chinese calendar and holidays
• Chinese calendar with Auspicious Events

Calendar conversion

• Western-Chinese calendar converter

Rules

• Mathematics of the Chinese Calendar
• The Structure of the Chinese Calendar