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81-643: The traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar divides a year into 24 solar terms . Qiūfēn , Shūbun , Chubun , or Thu phân is the 16th solar term. It begins when the Sun reaches the celestial longitude of 180° and ends when it reaches the longitude of 195°. It more often refers in particular to the day when the Sun is exactly at the celestial longitude of 180°. In the Gregorian calendar , it usually begins around September 23 and ends around October 8. Chinese lunisolar calendar The traditional Chinese calendar

162-485: A rénzǐ day ( 壬子 ) followed by a water phase. Other days were tracked using the Yellow River Map ( He Tu ). Another version is a four-quarters calendar ( 四時八節曆 ; 四时八节历 ; 'four sections', 'eight seasons calendar', or 四分曆 ; 四分历 ). The weeks were ten days long, with one month consisting of three weeks. A year had 12 months, with a ten-day week intercalated in summer as needed to keep up with

243-661: A 60-year cycle based on 12 animals and 5 elements, but while the first year of the Chinese cycle is always jiǎzǐ (the year of the Wood Rat ), the first year of the Tibetan cycle is dīngmǎo ( 丁卯 ; year 4 on the Chinese cycle, year of the Fire Rabbit ). *The names of several animals can be translated into English in several different ways. The Vietnamese Earthly Branches use cat instead of Rabbit . As mentioned above,

324-406: A Day 1 Wu Xing element. A phase began with a governing-element day ( 行御 ), followed by six 12-day weeks. Each phase consisted of two three-week months, making each year ten months long. Years began on a jiǎzǐ ( 甲子 ) day (and a 72-day wood phase), followed by a bǐngzǐ day ( 丙子 ) and a 72-day fire phase; a wùzǐ ( 戊子 ) day and a 72-day earth phase; a gēngzǐ ( 庚子 ) day and a 72-day metal phase, and

405-735: A Gregorian calendar beginning in October and ending in September. The intercalary month, known as the second Jiǔyuè ( 後九月 ; 后九月 ; 'later Jiǔyuè'), was placed at the end of the year. The Qin calendar was used going into the Han dynasty. Emperor Wu of Han r.  141 – 87 BCE introduced reforms in the seventh of the eleven named eras of his reign, Tàichū ( Chinese : 太初 ; pinyin : Tàichū ; lit. 'Grand Beginning'), 104 BCE – 101 BCE. His Tàichū Calendar ( 太初曆 ; 太初历 ; 'grand beginning calendar') defined

486-469: A calendar useful for agricultural. For farming purposes and keeping track of the seasons Chinese solar or lunisolar calendars were particularly useful. Thus, over time, the publication of multipurpose and agricultural almanacs has become a longstanding tradition in China Various other astronomical phenomena have been incorporated into calendars besides the cycles of the sun and the moon, for example,

567-527: A chronological list of events from 722 to 481 BC, use this system in combination with regnal years and months ( lunations ) to record dates. Eclipses recorded in the Annals demonstrate that continuity in the sexagenary day-count was unbroken from that period onwards. It is likely that this unbroken continuity went back still further to the first appearance of the sexagenary cycle during the Shang period. The use of

648-484: A solar year as 365 + 385 ⁄ 1539 days (365;06:00:14.035), and the lunar month had 29 + 43 ⁄ 81 days (29;12:44:44.444). Since ( 365 + 385 1539 ) × 19 = ( 29 + 43 81 ) × ( 19 × 12 + 7 ) {\displaystyle \left(365+{\frac {385}{1539}}\right)\times 19=\left(29+{\frac {43}{81}}\right)\times \left(19\times 12+7\right)}

729-480: A special effort to correlate the solar and lunar cycles experienced on earth—an effort which is known to mathematically require some degree of approximation. One of the major features of some traditional calendar systems in China (and elsewhere) has been the idea of the sexagenary cycle . The Chinese lunisolar calendar has had several significant variations over the course of time and history. Many historical variations in

810-491: A spectrum beginning with a prehistorical/mythological time to and through well attested historical dynastic periods. Many individuals have been associated with the development of the Chinese calendar, including researchers into underlying astronomy; and, furthermore, the development of instruments of observation are historically important. Influences from India, Islam, and Jesuits also became significant. Early calendar systems often were closely tied to natural phenomena. Phenology

891-474: A year, the earliest use of branches to indicate a twelve-fold division of a year was in the 2nd century BC. They were coordinated with the orientations of the Big Dipper , ( 建子月 : jiànzǐyuè , 建丑月 : jiànchǒuyuè , etc.). There are two systems of placing these months, the lunar one and the solar one. One system follows the ordinary Chinese lunar calendar and connects the names of the months directly to

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972-457: A year; the month after the winter solstice was Zhēngyuè . Modern historical knowledge and records are limited for the earlier calendars. These calendars are known as the six ancient calendars ( 古六曆 ; 古六历 ), or quarter-remainder calendars, ( 四分曆 ; 四分历 ; sìfēnlì ), since all calculate a year as 365 + 1 ⁄ 4 days long. Months begin on the day of the new moon, and a year has 12 or 13 months. Intercalary months (a 13th month) are added to

1053-507: Is 4515), and the newspaper Ming Pao ( 明報 ) reckoned 1905 as 4603 (using a year 1 of 2698 BCE, and implying that 2024 CE is 4722). Liu Shipei ( 劉師培 , 1884–1919) created the Yellow Emperor Calendar ( 黃帝紀元, 黃帝曆 or 軒轅紀年 ), with year 1 as the birth of the emperor (which he determined as 2711 BCE, implying that 2024 CE is 4735). There is no evidence that this calendar was used before the 20th century. Liu calculated that

1134-589: Is a lunisolar calendar dating from the Han dynasty that combines solar, lunar, and other cycles for various social and agricultural purposes. While the Gregorian calendar has been adopted and adapted in various ways, and is generally the basis for China's standard civic purposes, aspects of the traditional lunisolar calendar remain, including the association of the twelve animals of the Chinese Zodiac in relation to months and years. The traditional calendar used

1215-532: Is above 10, subtract 10 until the result is between 1 and 10. If the sum for the branches' N is above 12, subtract 12 until the result is between 1 and 12. For any date before October 15, 1582, use the Julian century column to find the row for that century's N. For dates after October 15, 1582, use the Gregorian century column to find the century's N. When looking at dates in January and February of leap years, use

1296-540: Is significantly notable. Various similar calendar systems are also known from various regions or ethnic groups of Central Asia , South Asia , and other ethnic regions. Indeed, the Chinese calendar has influenced and been influenced by most parts of the world these days. One particularly popular feature is the Chinese zodiac . The Chinese calendar and horology includes many multifaceted methods of computing years, eras, months, days and hours (with modern horology even splitting

1377-494: Is the Gregorian calendar-based official version of Mainland China , though diaspora versions are also notable in other regions of China and Chinese-influenced cultures. The logic of the various permutations of the Chinese calendar has been based on considerations such as the technical form from mathematics and astronomy, the philosophical considerations, and the political, and the resulting disparities between different calendars

1458-476: Is the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate , as well as habitat factors (such as elevation ). The plum-rains season ( 梅雨 ), the rainy season in late spring and early summer, begins on the first bǐng day after Mangzhong ( 芒種 ) and ends on the first wèi day after Xiaoshu ( 小暑 ). The Three Fu ( 三伏 ; sānfú ) are three periods of hot weather, counted from

1539-481: The Gregorian calendar , the traditional Chinese calendar governs holidays, such as the Chinese New Year and Lantern Festival , in both China and overseas Chinese communities. It also provides the traditional Chinese nomenclature of dates within a year which people use to select auspicious days for weddings , funerals, moving or starting a business. The evening state-run news program Xinwen Lianbo in

1620-500: The People's Republic of China continues to announce the months and dates in both the Gregorian and the traditional lunisolar calendar. The Chinese calendar system has a long history, which has traditionally been associated with specific dynastic periods . Various individual calendar types have been developed with different names. In terms of historical development, some of the calendar variations are associated with dynastic changes along

1701-691: The Yellow Emperor 's ascension at 2697 BCE and began the Chinese calendar with the reign of Fuxi (which, according to Martini, began in 2952 BCE). Philippe Couplet 's 1686 Chronological table of Chinese monarchs ( Tabula chronologica monarchiae sinicae ) gave the same date for the Yellow Emperor. The Jesuits' dates provoked interest in Europe, where they were used for comparison with Biblical chronology. Modern Chinese chronology has generally accepted Martini's dates, except that it usually places

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1782-404: The sexagenary cycle-based ganzhi system's mathematically repeating cycles of Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches . Together with astronomical, horological, and phenologic observations, definitions, measurements, and predictions of years, months, and days were refined to an accurate standard. Astronomical phenomena and calculations emphasized especially the efforts to mathematically correlate

1863-634: The winter solstice . Song 's Yin calendar ( 殷曆 ; 殷历 ) began its year on the day of the new moon after the winter solstice. After Qin Shi Huang unified China under the Qin dynasty in 221 BCE, the Qin calendar ( 秦曆 ; 秦历 ) was introduced. It followed most of the rules governing the Zhuanxu calendar, but the month order was that of the Xia calendar; the year began with month 10 and ended with month 9, analogous to

1944-414: The 19 years cycle used for the 7 additional months was taken as an exact one, and not as an approximation. This calendar introduced the 24 solar terms , dividing the year into 24 equal parts of 15° each. Solar terms were paired, with the 12 combined periods known as climate terms. The first solar term of the period was known as a pre-climate (节气), and the second was a mid-climate (中气). Months were named for

2025-652: The 1900 international expedition sent by the Eight-Nation Alliance to suppress the Boxer Rebellion entered Beijing in the 4611th year of the Yellow Emperor. Taoists later adopted Yellow Emperor Calendar and named it Tao Calendar ( 道曆 ). On 2 January 1912, Sun Yat-sen announced changes to the official calendar and era. 1 January was 14 Shíyīyuè 4609 Huángdì year, assuming a year 1 of 2698 BCE, making 2024 CE year 4722. Many overseas Chinese communities like San Francisco's Chinatown adopted

2106-608: The Chinese calendar also includes variations of the modern Chinese calendar, influenced by the Gregorian calendar . Variations include methodologies of the People's Republic of China and Taiwan . In China, the modern calendar is defined by the Chinese national standard GB/T 33661–2017, "Calculation and Promulgation of the Chinese Calendar", issued by the Standardization Administration of China on 12 May 2017. Although modern-day China uses

2187-439: The Chinese calendar are associated with political changes, such as dynastic succession. Solar and agricultural calendars have a long history in China. Purely lunar calendar systems were known in China; however, purely lunar calendars tended to be of limited utility, and were not widely accepted by farmers, who for agricultural purposes needed to focus on predictability of seasons for planting and harvesting purposes, and thus required

2268-466: The Chinese calendar to force everyone to use the Gregorian calendar, and even abolished the Lunar New Year, but faced great opposition. The public needed the astronomical Chinese calendar to do things at a proper time, for example farming and fishing; also, a wide spectrum of festivals and customs observations have been based on the calendar. The government finally compromised and rebranded it as

2349-576: The Christian era has occasionally been used: No reference date is universally accepted. The most popular is the Gregorian calendar ( 公曆 ; 公历 ; gōnglì ; 'common calendar'). During the 17th century, the Jesuit missionaries tried to determine the epochal year of the Chinese calendar. In his Sinicae historiae decas prima (published in Munich in 1658), Martino Martini (1614–1661) dated

2430-421: The Gregorian calendar has been used as the standard basis for civic calendars. The name of calendar is in Chinese : 曆 ; pinyin : lì , and was represented in earlier character forms variants ( 歷, 厤 ), and ultimately derived from an ancient form (秝). The ancient form of the character consists of two stalks of rice plant ( 禾 ), arranged in parallel. This character represents the order in space and also

2511-697: The Warring States, especially by states fighting Zhou control during the Warring States period (perhaps 475 BCE - 221 BCE). The state of Lu issued its own Lu calendar( 魯曆 ; 鲁历 ). Jin issued the Xia calendar ( 夏曆 ; 夏历 ) with a year beginning on the day of the new moon nearest the March equinox . Qin issued the Zhuanxu calendar ( 顓頊曆 ; 颛顼历 ), with a year beginning on the day of the new moon nearest

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2592-418: The agricultural calendar in 1947, depreciating the calendar to merely agricultural use. After the end of the imperial era, there are some almanacs based upon the algorithm of the last Imperial calendar with longitude of Peking . Such almanacs were under the name of "universal book" 通書 , or under Cantonese name 通勝 , transcribed as Tung Shing . And later these almanacs moved to new calculation based on

2673-433: The birth of Confucius. Also, many dynasties had their own dating systems, which could include regnal eras based on the inauguration of a dynasty, the enthronement of a particular monarch, or eras arbitrarily designated due to political or other considerations, such as a desire for a change of luck. Era names are useful for determining dates on artifacts such as ceramics, which were often traditionally dated by an era name during

2754-453: The central solar term ( 中氣 ; zhōngqì ). The jiànzǐyuè (( 建 ) 子月 ) is the month containing the winter solstice (i.e. the 冬至 Dōngzhì ) zhōngqì . The jiànchǒuyuè (( 建 ) 丑月 ) is the month of the following zhōngqì , which is Dàhán ( 大寒 ), while the jiànyínyuè (( 建 ) 寅月 ) is that of the Yǔshuǐ ( 雨水 ) zhōngqì , etc. Intercalary months have the same branch as the preceding month. In

2835-529: The change. The modern Chinese standard calendar uses the epoch of the Gregorian calendar, which is on 1 January of the year 1 CE. Lunisolar calendars involve correlations of the cycles of the sun (solar) and the moon (lunar). A solar calendar (also called the Tung Shing , the Yellow Calendar or Imperial Calendar , both alluding to Yellow Emperor ) keeps track of the seasons as the earth and

2916-448: The coldest days of the year. Each nine-day unit is known by its order in the set, followed by "nine" ( 九 ). In traditional Chinese culture , "nine" represents the infinity, which is also the number of "Yang". According to one belief nine times accumulation of "Yang" gradually reduces the "Yin", and finally the weather becomes warm. Lunar months were originally named according to natural phenomena. Current naming conventions use numbers as

2997-461: The combinations—such as jiǎchǒu ( 甲丑 )—unused; this is traditionally explained by reference to pairing the stems and branches according to their yin and yang properties. This combination of two sub-cycles to generate a larger cycle and its use to record time have parallels in other calendrical systems, notably the Akan calendar . The sexagenary cycle is attested as a method of recording days from

3078-405: The corresponding sexagenary year in the dates before the Lunar New Year would require the Gregorian year to be decreased by 1. As for example, the year 2697 BC (or −2696, using the astronomical year count), traditionally the first year of the reign of the legendary Yellow Emperor , was the first year (甲子; jiǎzǐ ) of a cycle. 2700 years later in 4 AD, the duration equivalent to 45 60-year cycles,

3159-596: The country's official calendar at the beginning of the 20th century, its use has continued. The Republic of China Calendar published by the Beiyang government of the Republic of China still listed the dates of the Chinese calendar in addition to the Gregorian calendar. In 1929, the Nationalist government tried to ban the traditional Chinese calendar. The Kuómín Calendar published by the government no longer listed

3240-406: The cycle first started to be used for indicating years during the Han dynasty, but it also can be used to indicate earlier years retroactively. Since it repeats, by itself it cannot specify a year without some other information, but it is frequently used with the Chinese era name ( 年号, 年號 ; niánhào ) to specify a year. The year starts with the new year of whoever is using the calendar. In China,

3321-561: The cyclic year normally changes on the Chinese Lunar New Year . In Japan until recently it was the Japanese lunar new year, which was sometimes different from the Chinese; now it is January 1. So when calculating the cyclic year of a date in the Gregorian year, one has to consider what their "new year" is. Hence, the following calculation deals with the Chinese dates after the Lunar New Year in that Gregorian year; to find

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3402-516: The dates of the Chinese calendar. However, Chinese people were used to the traditional calendar and many traditional customs were based on the Chinese calendar. The ban failed and was lifted in 1934. The latest Chinese calendar was " New Edition of Wànniánlì , revised edition", edited by Beijing Purple Mountain Observatory, People's Republic of China. From 1645 to 1913 the Shíxiàn or Chongzhen

3483-424: The day. Since the intercalary month is determined by the first month without a mid-climate and the mid-climate time varies by time zone, countries that adopted the calendar but calculate with their own time could vary from the time in China. Sexagenary cycle This traditional method of numbering days and years no longer has any significant role in modern Chinese time-keeping or the official calendar. However,

3564-404: The development of the calendar include Gan De , Shi Shen , and Zu Chongzhi Early technological developments aiding in calendar development include the development of the gnomon . Later technological developments useful to the calendar system include naming, numbering and mapping of the sky, the development of analog computational devices such as the armillary sphere and the water clock, and

3645-532: The earliest written records in China, records of divination on oracle bones , beginning c.  1100 BC . Almost every oracle bone inscription includes a date in this format. This use of the cycle for days is attested throughout the Zhou dynasty and remained common into the Han period for all documentary purposes that required dates specified to the day. Almost all the dates in the Spring and Autumn Annals ,

3726-544: The early Qing dynasty , Johann Adam Schall von Bell submitted the calendar which was edited by the lead of Xu Guangqi to the Shunzhi Emperor . The Qing government issued it as the Shíxiàn (seasonal) calendar. In this calendar, the solar terms are 15° each along the ecliptic and it can be used as a solar calendar . However, the length of the climate term near the perihelion is less than 30 days and there may be two mid-climate terms. The Shíxiàn calendar changed

3807-482: The end of the year. The Qiang and Dai calendars are modern versions of the Zhuanxu calendar, used by mountain peoples. The first lunisolar calendar was the Zhou calendar ( 周曆 ; 周历 ), introduced under the Zhou dynasty (1046 BCE – 256 BCE). This calendar sets the beginning of the year at the day of the new moon before the winter solstice. Several competing lunisolar calendars were also introduced as Zhou devolved into

3888-478: The establishment of observatories. From the Warring States period (ending in 221 BCE), six especially significant calendar systems are known to have begun to be developed. Later on, during their future course in history, the modern names for the ancient six calendars were also developed, and can be translated into English as Huangdi, Yin, Zhou, Xia, Zhuanxu, and Lu. There are various Chinese terms for calendar variations including: The traditional Chinese calendar

3969-421: The first gēng day after the summer solstice. The first fu ( 初伏 ; chūfú ) is 10 days long. The mid- fu ( 中伏 ; zhōngfú ) is 10 or 20 days long. The last fu ( 末伏 ; mòfú ) is 10 days from the first gēng day after the beginning of autumn. The Shujiu cold days ( 數九 ; shǔjǐu ; 'counting to nine') are the 81 days after the winter solstice (divided into nine sets of nine days), and are considered

4050-640: The first being one of the ten Heavenly Stems of the Shang-era week and the second being one of the twelve Earthly Branches representing the years of Jupiter 's duodecennial orbital cycle. The first term jiǎzǐ ( 甲子 ) combines the first heavenly stem with the first earthly branch. The second term yǐchǒu ( 乙丑 ) combines the second stem with the second branch. This pattern continues until both cycles conclude simultaneously with guǐhài ( 癸亥 ), after which it begins again at jiǎzǐ . This termination at ten and twelve's least common multiple leaves half of

4131-402: The first method, the equivalent sexagenary year for 2012 AD is the 29th year (壬辰; rénchén ), as (2012–3) mod 60 = 29 (i.e., the remainder of (2012–3) divided by 60 is 29). Using the second, the equivalent sexagenary year for 221 BC is the 17th year (庚辰; gēngchén ), as 60- [(221+2) mod 60] = 17 (i.e., 60 minus the remainder of (221+2) divided by 60 is 17). Step-by-step example to determine

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4212-450: The first month was jiànzǐyuè (during the Zhou dynasty ) or jiànchǒuyuè (traditionally during the Shang dynasty ) as well. For astrological purposes stems are also necessary, and the months are named using the sexagenary cycle following a five-year cycle starting in a jiǎ ( 甲 ; 1st) or jǐ ( 己 ; 6th) year. The first month of the jiǎ or jǐ year is a bǐngyín ( 丙寅 ; 3rd) month,

4293-468: The location of Purple Mountain Observatory , with longitude of 120°E. An epoch is a point in time chosen as the origin of a particular calendar era , thus serving as a reference point from which subsequent time or dates are measured. The use of epochs in Chinese calendar system allow for a chronological starting point from whence to begin point continuously numbering subsequent dates. Various epochs have been used. Similarly, nomenclature similar to that of

4374-476: The lunar month was first described in the Tang dynasty Wùyín Yuán Calendar ( 戊寅元曆 ; 戊寅元历 ; 'earth tiger epoch calendar'). The Yuan dynasty Shòushí calendar ( 授時曆 ; 授时历 ; 'season granting calendar') used spherical trigonometry to find the length of the tropical year . The calendar had a 365.2425-day year, identical to the Gregorian calendar . Although the Chinese calendar lost its place as

4455-496: The mid-climate to which they were closest, and a month without a mid-climate was an intercalary month. The Taichu calendar established a framework for traditional calendars, with later calendars adding to the basic formula. The Dàmíng Calendar ( 大明曆 ; 大明历 ; 'brightest calendar'), created in the Northern and Southern Dynasties by Zu Chongzhi (429 CE – 500 CE), introduced the equinoxes. The use of syzygy to determine

4536-522: The mid-climate-term rule to "decide the month in sequence, except the intercalary month." The present traditional calendar follows the Shíxiàn calendar, except: To optimize the Chinese calendar, astronomers have proposed a number of changes. Gao Pingzi ( 高平子 ; 1888–1970), a Chinese astronomer who co-founded the Purple Mountain Observatory , proposed that month numbers be calculated before the new moon and solar terms to be rounded to

4617-547: The month names. Every month is also associated with one of the twelve Earthly Branches . The Chinese calendar has been a development involving much observation and calculation of the apparent movements of the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars, as observed from Earth. Many Chinese astronomers have contributed to the development of the Chinese calendar. Many were of the scholarly or shi class ( Chinese : 士 ; pinyin : shì ), including writers of history, such as Sima Qian . Notable Chinese astronomers who have contributed to

4698-420: The next one is a dīngmǎo ( 丁卯 ; 4th) month, etc., and the last month of the year is a dīngchǒu ( 丁丑 , 14th) month. The next year will start with a wùyín ( 戊寅 ; 15th) month, etc. following the cycle. The 5th year will end with a yǐchǒu ( 乙丑 ; 2nd) month. The following month, the start of a jǐ or jiǎ year, will hence again be a bǐngyín (3rd) month again. The beginning and end of the (solar) months in

4779-427: The order in time. As its meaning became complex, the modern dedicated character ( 曆 ) was created to represent the meaning of calendar. Maintaining the correctness of calendars was an important task to maintain the authority of rulers, being perceived as a way to measure the ability of a ruler. For example, someone seen as a competent ruler would foresee the coming of seasons and prepare accordingly. This understanding

4860-407: The other system ( 節月 ; jiéyuè ) the "month" lasts for the period of two solar terms (two 氣策 qìcì ). The zǐyuè ( 子月 ) is the period starting with Dàxuě ( 大雪 ), i.e. the solar term before the winter solstice. The chǒuyuè ( 丑月 ) starts with Xiǎohán ( 小寒 ), the term before Dàhán ( 大寒 ), while the yínyuè ( 寅月 ) starts with Lìchūn ( 立春 ), the term before Yǔshuǐ ( 雨水 ), etc. Thus in

4941-413: The planets and the constellations (or mansions) of asterisms along the ecliptic. Many Chinese holidays and other areas both in ancient and modern times have been determined by the traditional lunisolar calendar or considerations based upon the lunisolar calendar; and, which now are generally combined with more modern calendar considerations. The traditions of the lunisolar calendar remain very popular and

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5022-474: The position of the 60-cycle term yǐmǎo ( 乙卯 , 52 of 60), corresponding to that year. Use of the cycle to record years became widespread for administrative time-keeping during the Western Han dynasty (202 BC – 8 AD). The count of years has continued uninterrupted ever since: the year 1984 began the present cycle (a 甲子 — jiǎzǐ year), and 2044 will begin another. Note that in China the new year , when

5103-440: The production process. Historical variations of the lunisolar calendar are features of the Chinese calendar system. The topic of the Chinese calendar includes various traditional types of the Chinese calendar. As is generally the case with calendar systems, the Chinese calendars tend to focus on basic calendar functions, such as the identification of years, months, and days according to astronomical phenomena and calculations, with

5184-406: The reign of the Yellow Emperor at 2698 BCE and omits his predecessors Fuxi and Shennong as "too legendary to include". Publications began using the estimated birth date of the Yellow Emperor as the first year of the Han calendar in 1903, with newspapers and magazines proposing different dates. Jiangsu province counted 1905 as the year 4396 (using a year 1 of 2491 BCE, and implying that 2024 CE

5265-402: The seconds into very tiny sub-units using atomic methods). Epochs are one of the important features of calendar systems. An epoch is a particular point in time at which a calendar system may use as its initial time reference, allowing for the consecutive numbering of years from a chosen starting year, date, or time. In the Chinese calendar system, examples include the inauguration of Huangdi or

5346-428: The sexagenary count increments, is not January 1, but rather the lunar new year of the traditional Chinese calendar . For example, the jichou 己丑 year (coinciding roughly with 2009) began on January 26, 2009. (However, for astrology, the year begins with the first solar term "Lìchūn" ( 立春 ), which occurs near February 4.) In Japan, according to Nihon shoki , the calendar was transmitted to Japan in 553. But it

5427-414: The sexagenary cycle for recording years is much more recent. The earliest discovered documents showing this usage are among the silk manuscripts recovered from Mawangdui tomb 3 , sealed in 168 BC. In one of these documents, a sexagenary grid diagram is annotated in three places to mark notable events. For example, the first year of the reign of Qin Shi Huang ( 秦始皇 ), 246 BC, is noted on the diagram next to

5508-719: The sexagenary cycle is used in the names of many historical events, such as the Chinese Xinhai Revolution , the Japanese Boshin War , the Korean Imjin War and the Vietnamese Famine of Ất Dậu , Tết Mậu Thân . It also continues to have a role in contemporary Chinese astrology and fortune telling . There are some parallels in this with Tamil calendar . Each term in the sexagenary cycle consists of two Chinese characters,

5589-458: The sign for 1967: Step-by-step example to determine the cyclic year of first year of the reign of Qin Shi Huang (246 BC): Start from the AD year (1967), take directly the remainder mod 60, and look into column AD of the table "Sexagenary years" (just above). Remainder is therefore 47 and the AD column says 'Fire Goat ' as it should be. For a BC year: discard the minus sign, take the remainder of

5670-447: The solar and lunar cycles from the perspective of the earth, which, however, are known to require some degree of numeric approximation or compromises. The general use of the Gregorian calendar includes the observing traditional lunisolar holidays. There are many types and subtypes of the Chinese calendar, partly reflecting developments in astronomical observation and horology , with over a millennium's worth of history. The major modern form

5751-431: The solar system a month starts anywhere from about 15 days before to 15 days after its lunar counterpart. The branch names are not usual month names; the main use of the branches for months is astrological. However, the names are sometimes used to indicate historically which (lunar) month was the first month of the year in ancient times. For example, since the Han dynasty , the first month has been jiànyínyuè , but earlier

5832-415: The sun move in the solar system relatively to each other. A purely solar calendar may be useful in planning times for agricultural activities such as planting and harvesting. Solar calendars tend to use astronomically observable points of reference such as equinoxes and solstices, events which may be approximately predicted using fundamental methods of observation and basic mathematical analysis. The topic of

5913-406: The table below are the approximate dates of current solar terms; they vary slightly from year to year depending on the leap days of the Gregorian calendar. Month of Mao ( 卯月 ) The table above allows one to find the stem & branch for any given date. For both the stem and the branch, find the N for the row for the century, year, month, and day, then add them together. If the sum for the stems' N

5994-418: The tropical year. The 10 Heavenly Stems and 12 Earthly Branches were used to mark days. A third version is the balanced calendar ( 調曆 ; 调历 ). A year was 365.25 days, and a month was 29.5 days. After every 16th month, a half-month was intercalated. According to oracle bone records, the Shang dynasty calendar ( c.  1600  – c.  1046 BCE) was a balanced calendar with 12 to 14 months in

6075-497: The year mod 60 and look into column BC. Applied to year -246, this gives: When doing these conversions, year 246 BC cannot be treated as −246 AD due to the lack of a year 0 in the Gregorian AD/BC system. The following tables show recent years (in the Gregorian calendar) and their corresponding years in the cycles: The branches are used marginally to indicate months. Despite there being twelve branches and twelve months in

6156-430: Was 時憲曆 . A ruler would issue an almanac before the commencement of each year. There were private almanac issuers, usually illegal, when a ruler lost his control to some territories. Various modern Chinese calendar names resulted from the struggle between the introduction of Gregorian calendar by government and the preservation of customs by the public in the era of Republic of China . The government wanted to abolish

6237-539: Was also relevant in predicting abnormalities of the Earth and celestial bodies , such as lunar and solar eclipses . The significant relationship between authority and timekeeping helps to explain why there are 102 calendars in Chinese history, trying to predict the correct courses of sun, moon and stars, and marking good time and bad time. Each calendar is named as XX曆 and recorded in a dedicated calendar section in history books of different eras. The last one in imperial era

6318-399: Was also the starting year of a 60-year cycle. Similarly 1980 years later, 1984 was the start of a new cycle. Thus, to find out the Gregorian year's equivalent in the sexagenary cycle use the appropriate method below. The result will produce a number between 0 and 59, corresponding to the year order in the cycle; if the remainder is 0, it corresponds to the 60th year of a cycle. Thus, using

6399-582: Was developed between 771 BCE and 476 BCE, during the Spring and Autumn period of the Eastern Zhou dynasty. Solar calendars were used before the Zhou dynasty period, along with the basic sexagenary system. One version of the solar calendar is the five-elements calendar ( 五行曆 ; 五行历 ), which derives from the Wu Xing . A 365-day year was divided into five phases of 73 days, with each phase corresponding to

6480-532: Was developed. During the late Ming dynasty , the Chinese Emperor appointed Xu Guangqi in 1629 to be the leader of the ShiXian calendar reform. Assisted by Jesuits, he translated Western astronomical works and introduced new concepts, such as those of Nicolaus Copernicus , Johannes Kepler , Galileo Galilei , and Tycho Brahe ; however, the new calendar was not released before the end of the dynasty. In

6561-490: Was not until the Suiko era that the calendar was used for politics. The year 604, when the Japanese officially adopted the Chinese calendar , was the first year of the cycle. The Korean ( 환갑; 還甲 hwangap ) and Japanese tradition ( 還暦 kanreki ) of celebrating the 60th birthday (literally 'return of calendar') reflects the influence of the sexagenary cycle as a count of years. The Tibetan calendar also counts years using

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