In China, the traditional calendar is known as the "''agricultural calendar''" while the Gregorian calendar is known as the "''common calendar''" or "''Common calendar''" . Another name for the Chinese calendar is the " Calendar" in reference to the lunar aspect of the calendar, whereas the Gregorian calendar is the " Calendar" in reference to its solar properties. The Chinese calendar was also called the "old calendar" after the "new calendar" , i.e. the Gregorian calendar, was adopted as the official calendar. The traditional calendar is also often referred to as "the Calendar", following a comment in the Shiji which states that under the Xia Dynasty, the year began on the second moon after the winter solstice .
The current year in the Chinese calendar is 4706 the ''Year of the Earth Rat'' . It lasts from 7 February 2008 to 25 January 2009. Based on traditional beliefs, some form of the calendar has been in use for almost five millennia. Based on archaeological evidence some form of it has been in use for three and a half millennia.
History
Early history
The earliest evidence of the Chinese calendar is found on oracle bones of the Shang dynasty , which seem to describe a lunisolar year of twelve months, with a possible intercalary thirteenth, or even fourteenth, added empirically to prevent calendar ''drift''. The Sexagenary cycle for recording days was already in use. Tradition holds that, in that era, the year began on the first new moon after the winter solstice.
Early Eastern Zhou texts, such as the ''Spring and Autumn Annals'', provide better understanding of the calendars used in the Zhou dynasty. One year usually had 12 months, which were alternatively 29 and 30 days long , and intercalary months were added in an arbitrary fashion, at the end of the year.
These arbitrary rules on day and month intercalation caused the calendars of each state to be slightly different, at times. Thus, texts like the Annals will often state whether the calendar they use is in phase with the ''Royal calendar'' .
Although tradition holds that in the Zhou, the year began on the new moon which preceded the winter solstice, the ''Spring and Autumn Annals'' seem to indicate that the Yin calendar was in use until the middle of the 7th century, and that the beginning of the year was shifted back one month around 650 BC.
By the beginning of the Warring States, progress in astronomy and mathematics allowed the creation of calculated calendars . The ''sìfēn'' 四分 calendar, which began about 484 BC, was the first calculated Chinese calendar, so named because it used a solar year of 365? days , along with a 19-year Rule Cycle, known in the West as the Metonic cycle. The year began on the new moon preceding the winter solstice, and intercalary months were inserted at the end of the year.
In 256 BC, as the last Zhou king ceded his territory to Qin, a new calendar began to be used. It followed the same principles as the Sifen calendar, except the year began one month before . The Qin calendar was used during the Qin dynasty, and in the beginning of the Western Han dynasty.
Taichu calendar
The of the Western Han dynasty introduced reforms that have governed the Chinese calendar ever since. His 太初 calendar of 104 BC had a year with the winter solstice in the eleventh month and designated as intercalary any calendar month during which the sun does not pass a principal term . Because the sun's mean motion was used to calculate the until 1645, this intercalary month was equally likely to occur after any month of the year. The conjunction of the sun and moon was calculated using the mean motions of both the sun and moon until 619, the second year of the Tang dynasty, when chronologists began to use true motions modeled using two offset opposing parabolas . Unfortunately, the parabolas did not meet smoothly at the mean motion, but met with a discontinuity or jump.
The Taichu Calendar of 104 BC set the tropical year at 365 days and the lunar month at 29 days.. Using the old Beijing timezone, the New Moon occurred at 23:53 on the 2nd, so the eighth month began on a different day in the calendars. Thus people in Hong Kong celebrated the Festival on 16 September, but those in the mainland celebrated on 17 September.
Calendar rules
The following rules outline the Chinese calendar since c.104 BC. Note that the rules allow either mean or true motions of the Sun and Moon to be used, depending on the historical period.
# The months are lunar months. This means the first day of each month beginning at ''midnight'' is the day of the astronomical new moon.
# Each year has 12 regular months, which are numbered in sequence and have alternative names. Every second or third year has an intercalary month , which may come after any regular month. It has the same number as the preceding regular month, but is designated intercalary.
# Every other of the Chinese solar year is equivalent to an entry of the sun into a sign of the tropical zodiac .
# The sun always passes the during month 11.
# If there are 12 months between two successive occurrences of month 11, at least one of these 12 months must be a month during which the sun remains within the same zodiac sign throughout . If only one such month occurs, it is designated intercalary, but if two such months occur, only the first is designated intercalary.
# The times of the astronomical new moons and the sun entering a zodiac sign are determined in the Chinese Time Zone by the Purple Mountain Observatory outside Nanjing using modern astronomical equations. Chinese Americans use Nanjing Calendar instead of defining a local one. To them, the new Moon can occur on the last day of the previous month according to their local USA time. For example, A new Moon occurred on May 16 2007 by USA time, but Chinese Americans still regard May 17 2007 as the first day of a new month. Further, they define the boundaries of the day according to a USA local time zone. Thus rule number 1 is not followed in this case,.
The zodiac sign which the sun enters during the month and the ecliptic longitude of that entry point usually determine the number of a regular month. Month 1, zhēngyuè, literally means principal month. All other months are literally numbered, second month, third month, etc.
Some believe the above correspondence to be always true, but there are exceptions, which, for example, prevent Chinese New Year from always being the second new moon after the winter solstice, or that cause the holiday to occur after the ''Rain Water'' jieqi. An exception will occur in 2033-2034, when the winter solstice is the second solar term in the eleventh month. The next month is a no-entry month and so is intercalary, and a twelfth month follows which contains both the Aquarius and Pisces solar terms . The Year of the Tiger thus begins on the third new moon following the Winter Solstice, and also occurs after the Pisces jieqi, on February 19.
Another occurrence was in 1984-85, after the sun had entered both Capricorn at 270° and Aquarius at 300° in month 11, and then entered Pisces at 330° during the next month, which should have caused it to be month 1. The sun did not enter any sign during the next month. In order to keep the winter solstice in month 11, the month which should have been month 1 became month 12, and the month thereafter became month 1, causing Chinese New Year to occur on 20 February 1985 after the sun had already passed into Pisces at 330° during the previous month, rather than during the month beginning on that day.
On those occasions when a dual-entry month does occur, it always occurs somewhere between two months that do not have any entry . It usually occurs alone and either includes the winter solstice or is nearby, thus placing the winter solstice in month 11 chooses which of the two non-entry months becomes the intercalary month. In 1984-85, the month immediately before the dual-entry month 11 was a non-entry month which was designated as an intercalary month 10. All months from the dual-entry month to the non-entry month that is not to be intercalary are sequentially numbered with the nearby regular months . The last phrase of rule 5, choosing the first of two non-entry months between months 11, has not been required since the last calendar reform, and will not be necessary until the 2033-34 occasion, when two dual-entry months will be interspersed among three non-entry months, two of which will be on one side of month 11. The leap eleventh month produced is a very rare occasion.
Exceptions such as these are rare. Fully 96.6% of all months contain only one entry into a zodiacal sign , all obeying the numbering rules of the table, and 3.0% of all months are intercalary months . Only 0.4% of all months either are dual-entry months or are neighboring months that are renumbered.
It is only after the 1645 reform that this situation arose. Then it became necessary to fix one month to always contain its principal term and allow any other to occasionally not contain its principal term. Month 11 was chosen, because its principal term forms the start of the Chinese Solar year .
The Chinese lunar calendar and the Gregorian Calendar often sync up every 19 years . Most Chinese people notice that their Chinese and Western birthdays often fall on the same day on their 19th, 38th birthday etc. However, a 19-year cycle with a certain set of intercalary months is only an approximation, so an almost identical pattern of intercalary months in subsequent cycles will eventually change after some multiple of 19 years to a quite different 19-year cycle.
The Chinese zodiac is only used in naming years—it is not used in the actual calculation of the calendar. In fact, the Chinese have a very different .
The twelve months are closely connected with agriculture, so they are alternatively named after plants:
# Primens 正月: Latin "primus mensis".
# Apricomens 杏月: apricot blossoms.
# Peacimens 桃月: peach blossoms.
# Plumens 梅月: '''' ripens.
# Guavamens 榴月: pomegranate blossoms.
# Lotumens 荷月: blossoms.
# Orchimens 蘭月: orchid blossoms.
# Osmanthumens 桂月: osmanthus blossoms.
# Chrysanthemens 菊月: chrysanthemum blossoms.
# Benimens 良月: good month.
# Hiemens 冬月: month.
# Lamens 臘月: last month.
Year markings
Regnal years
Traditional Chinese years were not continuously numbered in the way that the BC/AD system is. More commonly, official year counting always used some form of a regnal year. This system began in 841 BC during the Zhou dynasty. Prior to this, years were not marked at all, and historical events cannot be dated exactly.
In 841 BC, the was ousted by a civilian uprising , and the country was governed for the next fourteen years by a council of senior ministers, a period known as the . In this period, years were marked as First Year of the Regency.
Subsequently, years were marked as regnal years, ''e.g.'', the year 825 BC was marked as the 3rd Year of the . This system was used until early in the Han dynasty, when the instituted . After this, most emperors used one or more regnal names to mark their reign. Usually, the emperor would institute a new name upon accession to the throne, and then change to new names to mark significant events, or to end a perceived cycle of bad luck. In the Ming dynasty, however, each emperor usually used only one regnal name for his reign. In Qing dynasty, each emperor used only one regnal name for his reign.
This system continued until the Republic of China, which counted years as Years of the Republic, beginning in 1912. Thus, 1912 is the 1st Year of the Republic, and 1949 the 38th. This system is still used for official purposes in Taiwan. For the rest of China, in 1949 the People's Republic of China chose to use the Common Era system , in line with international standards.
The stem-branch cycle
The other system by which years are marked historically in China was by the stem-branch or sexagenary cycle. This system is based on two forms of counting: a cycle of 10 Heavenly Stems and a cycle of 12 Earthly Branches. Each year is named by a pair of one stem and one branch called a Stem-Branch . The Heavenly Stems are associated with Yin Yang and the . Recent 10-year periods began in 1984, 1994, and 2004. The Earthly Branches are associated with the twelve signs of the Zodiac. Each Earthly Branch is also associated with an animal, collectively known as the . Recent 12-year periods began in 1984 and 1996.
Since the numbers 10 and 12 have a common factor of 2, only 1/2 of the 120 possible stem-branch combinations actually occur. The resulting 60-year cycle takes the name ''jiǎzǐ'' after the first year in the cycle, being the Heavenly Stem of "jiǎ" and Earthly Branch of "zǐ". The term "jiǎzǐ" is used figuratively to mean "a full lifespan"—one who has lived more than a jiǎzǐ is obviously blessed.
At first, this system was used to mark days, not years. The earliest evidence of this were found on oracle bones dated c.1350 BC in Shang Dynasty. This system of date marking continues to this day, and can still be found on Chinese calendars today. Although a stem-branch cannot be used to deduce the actual day in historical events, it can assist in converting Chinese dates to other calendars more accurately.
Around the Han Dynasty, the stem-branch cycle also began to be used to mark years. The 60-year system cycles continuously, and determines the animal or sign under which a person is born . These cycles were not named, and were used in conjunction with declared by the . For example: 康熙壬寅 is the first 壬寅 year during the reign of 康熙 , regnal name of an emperor of the Qing Dynasty
The months and hours can also be denoted using Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, though they are commonly addressed using Chinese numerals instead. In Chinese astrology, four Stem-Branch pairs form the Eight Characters .
Continuously-numbered years
There is no universally agreed upon "" or starting point for the Chinese calendar. Tradition holds that the calendar was invented by Huang Di in the 61st year of his reign in what is now known under the proleptic Gregorian calendar as 2637 BC. Many have used this date as the epoch, ''i.e.'' the first year of the first sixty-year cycle, of the Chinese calendar, but others have used the date of the beginning of his reign in 2697 BC as the epoch. Since these dates are exactly sixty years apart, it does not matter which is used to determine the stem/branch sequence or the astrological sign for any succeeding year. That is, 2006 is a bingxu year and the Year of the Dog regardless of whether years are counted from 2637 BC or 2697 BC.
For the most part, the imposition of a continuous numbering system on the Chinese calendar was of interest mostly to Jesuit missionaries and other Westerners who assumed that calendars obviously had to be continuous. However, in the early 20th century, some Chinese s began to advocate widespread use of continuously numbered years, so that year markings would be independent of the Emperor's . When Sun Yat-sen became the provisional president of the Republic of China, he sent telegrams to leaders of all provinces and announced the 13th day of 11th Month of the 4609th year of the Yellow Emperor's reign to be the 1st year of the Republic of China. His choice was adopted by many overseas Chinese communities outside Southeast Asia such as .
Correspondence between systems
The following link provides conversion of Chinese calendar dates to Western calendar dates: http://www.sinica.edu.tw/~tdbproj/sinocal/luso.html
This table shows the stem/branch year names, correspondences to the Western calendar, and other related information for the current decade.
Or see of the full 60-year cycle.
Notes
1 The beginning of each zodiac year should correspond to the first day of the lunar year.
2 As discussed above, there is considerable difficulty in establishing a basis for the chronology of the continuous year numbers. The numbers listed here are too high by 60 if an epoch of 2637 BCE is accepted. They may be too low by 1 if an epoch of 2698 BCE is accepted. That is, according to some sources, Gregorian 2006 could alternatively correspond to 4643, or perhaps 4704.
3 In any case, the correspondence between a lunisolar Chinese year and a solar Gregorian year is of course not exact. The first few months of each Gregorian year—those preceding Chinese New Year—belong to the previous Chinese year. For example, January 1 – January 28 of 2006 correspond to yǐyǒu or 4702. Thus, it might be more precise to state that Gregorian 2006 corresponds to 4702–4703, or that continuous Chinese 4703 corresponds to 2006–2007.
Solar year versus lunar year
There is a distinction between a solar year and a lunar year in the Chinese calendar because the calendar is lunisolar. A lunar year is from one Chinese new year to the next. A solar year is either the period between one Spring Equinox and the next or the period between two s . A lunar year is exclusively used for dates, whereas a solar year, especially that between winter solstices, is used to number the months.
Hours of the day
Under the traditional system of hour-marking, each day is divided into 12 units . Each of these units is equivalent to two hours of international time. Each is named after one of the twelve Earthly Branches. The first unit, Hour of Zi , begins at 11 p.m. of the previous day and ends at 1 a.m. Traditionally, executions of condemned prisoners occur at the midpoint of Hour of Wu , ''i.e.'', noon.
A second system subdivided the day into 100 equal parts, , each of which equalling 14.4 minutes or a familiar rough quarter of a standard Western hour. This was valid for centuries, making the Chinese first to apply decimal time - long before the French revolution. However, because 100 could not be divided equally into the 12 "hours", the system was changed to variously 96, 108, and 120 ''ke'' in a day. During the Qing Dynasty, the number was officially settled at 96, making each ''ke'' exactly a quarter of a Western hour. Today, ''ke'' is often used to refer to a quarter of an hour.
Twelve animals
The Twelve animals representing the twelve Earthly Branches are, in order, the , , , , , , , , , , , and .
A legend explains the sequence in which the animals were assigned. Supposedly, the twelve animals fought over the precedence of the animals in the cycle of years in the calendar, so the Chinese gods held a contest to determine the order. All the animals lined up on the bank of a river and were given the task of getting to the opposite shore. Their order in the calendar would be set by the order in which the animals managed to reach the other side. The cat wondered how he would get across if he was afraid of water. At the same time, the ox wondered how he would cross with his poor eyesight. The calculating rat suggested that he and the cat jump onto the ox's back and guide him across. The ox was steady and hard-working so that he did not notice a commotion on his back. In the meanwhile, the rat sneaked up behind the unsuspecting cat and shoved him into the water. Just as the ox came ashore, the rat jumped off and finished the race first. The lazy pig came to the far shore in twelfth place. And so the rat got the first year named after him, the ox got the second year, and the pig ended up as the last year in the cycle. The cat finished too late to win any place in the calendar, and vowed to be the enemy of the rat forevermore.
Solar term
Chinese months follow the phases of the moon. As a result, they do not accurately follow the seasons of the solar year. To assist farmers to decide when to plant or harvest crops, the drafters of the calendar put in 24 seasonal markers, which follow the solar year, and are called '''' 節氣.
The term ''Jiéqì'' is usually translated as "Solar Terms" . Each node is the instant when the sun reaches one of twenty-four equally spaced points along the ecliptic, including the solstices and equinoxes, positioned at fifteen intervals. Because the calculation is solar-based, these ''jiéqì'' fall around the same date every year in solar calendars , but do not form any obvious pattern in the Chinese calendar. The dates below are approximate and may vary slightly from year to year due to the intercalary rules of the Gregorian calendar. ''Jiéqì'' are published each year in farmers' almanacs. Chinese New Year is usually the new moon closest to ''lìchūn''.
In the table below, these measures are given in the standard astronomical convention of ecliptic longitude, zero degrees being positioned at the vernal equinox point. Each calendar month under the heading "M" contains the designated ''jiéqì'' called a principal term, which is an entry into a sign of the zodiac, also known as a cusp. Here ''term'' has the archaic meaning of a limit, not a duration. In Chinese astronomy, seasons are centered on the solstices and equinoxes, whereas in the standard Western definition, they begin at the solstices and equinoxes. Thus the term ''Beginning of Spring'' and the related Spring Festival fall in February, when it is still very chilly in temperate latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere.
Note: The third jiéqì was originally called 啓蟄 but renamed to 驚蟄 in the era of the Emperor Jing of Han to avoid writing his given name 啓 .
Holidays
The Chinese calendar year has nine main festivals, seven determined by the lunisolar calendar, and two derived from the solar agricultural calendar. The two special holidays are the Qingming Festival and the , falling upon the respective solar terms, at ecliptic longitudes of 15° and 270°, respectively. As for all other calendrical calculations, the calculations use civil time in China, UTC+8.
Purpose of the intercalary months
Most people, upon using or studying the Chinese calendar, are perplexed by the intercalary month because of its seemingly unpredictable nature. As mentioned above, the intercalary month refers to additional months added to the calendar in some years to correct for its deviation from the astronomical year, a function similar to that of the extra day in February in leap years.
However, because of the complex astronomical knowledge required to calculate if and when an intercalary month needs to be inserted, to most people, it is simply a mystery. This has led to a superstition that intercalary months in certain times of the year bring bad luck.
The main purpose of the intercalary month is to correct for deviations of the calendrical year from the astronomical year. Because the Chinese calendar is mainly a lunar calendar, its standard year is 354 days, whereas the astronomical year is approximately 365? days. Without the intercalary month, this deviation would build up over time, and the Spring festival, for example, would no longer fall in Spring. Thus, the intercalary month serves a valuable purpose in ensuring that the year in the Chinese calendar remains approximately in line with the astronomical year.
The intercalary month is inserted whenever the Chinese calendar moves too far from the stage of progression of the earth in its orbit. Thus, for example, if the beginning of a certain month in the Chinese calendar deviates by a certain number of days from its equivalent in a solar calendar, an intercalary month needs to be inserted.
The practical benefit of this system is that the calendar is able to approximately keep in pace with the solar cycle, while at the same time retaining months that roughly correspond with lunar cycles. Hence the term ''lunisolar'' calendar. The latter is important because many traditional festivals correspond to significant events in the moon's cycle. For example, the mid-autumn festival is always on a day of the full moon.
The relevance of the calendar today
There have been calls for reform in recent years from experts in China, because of the increasing irrelevance of the Chinese calendar in modern life. They point to the example in Japan, where during the Meiji Restoration the nation adopted the Western calendar, and simply shifted all traditional festivities onto an equivalent date. However, the Chinese calendar remains important as an element of cultural tradition, and for certain cultural activities.
Practical uses
The original practical relevance of the lunisolar calendar for date marking has largely disappeared. First, the Gregorian calendar is much easier to compute and more in line with both international standards and the astronomical year. Its adoption for official purposes has meant that the traditional calendar is rarely used for date marking. This, in turn, means that it is more convenient to remember significant events such as birth dates by the Gregorian rather than the Chinese calendar.
Second, the 24 solar terms were important to farmers who would not be able to plan agricultural activities without foreknowledge of these terms. However, the 24 solar terms are more predictable on the Gregorian calendar than the lunisolar calendar since they are based on the solar cycle. It is easier for the average Chinese farmer to organize their planting and harvesting with the Gregorian calendar.
Cultural issues
However, the Chinese calendar remains culturally essential. For example, most of the traditional festivals, such as Chinese New Year and the Mid-Autumn Festival, traditionally occur at new moon or full moon. Furthermore, the traditional Chinese calendar, as an element of traditional culture, is invested with much cultural and nationalistic sentiment.
The calendar is still used in the more traditional Chinese households around the world to pick 'lucky dates' for important events such as weddings, funerals, and business deals. A special calendar is used for this purpose, called Huang Li, literally "Imperial Calendar", which contains auspicious activities, times, and directions for each day. The calendar follows the Gregorian dates but has the corresponding Chinese dates. Every date would have a comprehensive listing of astrological measurements and fortune elements.
Thus, while the traditional calendar could be removed without much practical effect, its sentimental and cultural significance will probably see its retention for some time yet.
Influence
Other traditional East Asian calendars are very similar to if not identical to the Chinese calendar: the Korean calendar is identical; the substitutes the cat for the rabbit in the ; the Tibetan calendar differs slightly in animal names, and the traditional Japanese calendar uses a different method of calculation, resulting in disagreements between the calendars in some years.
The twelve year cycle, with the animal names translated into the vernacular, was adopted by the G?ktürks , and spread subsequently among many if not most Turkic peoples, as well as the Mongols. calendar seems to have been used by the Bulgars, as attested in the Nominalia of the Bulgarian Khans and in some other documents. The main differences between the Bulgar and the Chinese calendar are the different calculating system, the tiger has been replaced with a wolf, and the dragon and monkey - with an unknown animal. Also, the Bulgar calendar is a solar one.
Chinese-Uighur calendar
In 1258, when both China and the Islamic world were part of the Mongol Empire, Hulagu Khan established an observatory in Maragheh for the astronomer Nasir al-Din al-Tusi at which a few Chinese astronomers were present, resulting in the Chinese-Uighur calendar that al-Tusi describes in his ''Zij-i Ilkhani''. The twelve year cycle, including Turkish/Mongolian translations of the animal names remained in use for chronology, historiography, and bureaucratic purposes in the Persian and Turkish speaking world from Asia Minor to India throughout the Medieval and Early Modern periods. In Iran it remained common in agricultural records and tax assessments until .
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