Chinese kinship

The system is classified as a Sudanese kinship system used to define family. Identified by Lewis Henry Morgan in his 1871 work ''Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family'', the Sudanese system is one of the six major kinship systems together with , , , , and .

The Sudanese kinship system , is the most complicated of all kinship systems. It maintains a separate designation for almost every one of ego's kin based on their generation, their lineage, their relative age, and their gender.

In the Chinese kinship system:
* Maternal and paternal lineages are distinguished. For example, a mother's brother and a father's brother have different terms.
* The relative age of a sibling relation is considered. For example, a father's younger brother has a different terminology than his older brother.
* The gender of the relative is distinguished, like in .
* The generation from ego is indicated, like in English.

Chinese kinship is agnatic, emphasising patrilineality.

Kinship and Chinese societies

Literature and history

Kinship terms have already appeared in the earliest Chinese lexicon ''Erya''. Chapter Four 釋親 is dedicated to explain kinship and marriage. Another lexicon from late Han Dynasty ''Shiming'' has a detail list of form of address of all relatives.

With the influence of Confucianism, the concepts of kinship and consanguinity are deeply ingrained in Chinese culture. One of Confucian teachings is filial piety, where it is extended to a series of five relationships known as the ''Five Cardinal Relationships'', . three of which are related to the family:

*ruler and subject ,
*father and son ,
*elder and younger brother ,
*husband and wife ,
*between friends

In the ''Three Character Classic'', the nine agnates are listed in the following stanza:

Culture

In Chinese culture where the extended family is still valued, kinship terms are ensured to survive well into current usage. Also, since it is taboo to refer to or address a more senior family relation by his or her given name, the kinship term is the only possible term of address. In the case where there are multiple siblings such as found in many Post-World War II baby boom families, the relation is distinguished and addressed according to their age or rank. For example 大 is address for 大姨 ; 二姨 ; 三姨 etc.

Because some of these terms have no equivalent in foreign languages, they are not easily translated and the descriptiveness often lost in translation. On the other hand, translating kinship terms from other languages often presents the problem of ambiguity as there is no equivalent general term like "aunt" for example.

Despite the complexity of the kinship address system , it is common to simplify it for the sake of familiarity. Some formal kinship terms are not familiar to many people, cumbersome, or that it is not preferred by the addressee. For example, a cousin-once-removed may at her discretion be referred to as simply a cousin if she is of a similar age as the speaker. In cases where a junior ranked family member is older than his more senior relation, such as an uncle, it is common to address the senior relation with a diminutive suffix.

Law

The ''Great Qing Legal Code'' was the last set of Chinese laws where the complete kinship terms were shown. The Qing code not only confirmed the importance of defining kinship relations, but also defined the legal and moral conducts between family relations. Although there was no specific statute in the Qing code to define kinship terms, it specified the mourning attire and ritual appropriate according to the relation between the mourner and the deceased. Kinship relationships also played a crucial role in the administration of justice under the Qing. Penalties were more severe for crimes committed against senior relatives within the family hierarchy. Crimes committed against those outside of the extended family were punished less harshly. Crimes committed by senior family members against their inferiors were least likely to elicit harsh sentences.

Among the 47 statutes added in 1740 under Qianlong Emperor, Statute 2 and Statute 3 dealt with mourning attire completed with charts. According to Qing law, one had to observe a period of mourning when a relative died. The closer and more senior the deceased family member, the longer the period of mourning is dictated by law. The mourning period range from three months to three years. During this period, the bereaved had to stay at home, excuse himself from public service, refrain from celebrations of all sorts, and practice abstinence, among other things.

The "extermination of nine kindreds" is considered one of the most severe punishments found in traditional Chinese law enforced until the end of Qing. The practice of exterminating the kins had been established since when Emperor Qin Shi Huang declared "Those who criticize the present with that of the past: ''Zu''" . ''Zu'' referred to the "extermination of three kindreds" : father, son and grandson. The extermination was to ensure the elimination of challenges to the throne and political enemies. Emperor Wen of Sui abolished the practice but it was reintroduced by succeeding . Not only did he bring back the punishment, but he also extended it to the nine kindreds.

In the first year of reign of Yongle Emperor , prominent historian Fāng Xìao-rú elicited the offense worthy of the "extermination of nine kindreds" for refusing to write the and for insulting the Emperor. He was recorded as saying in defiant to the would-be Emperor: "莫說九族，十族何妨！" . Thus he was granted his wish with perhaps the only and infamous case of "extermination of ten kindreds" in the history of China. In addition to the blood relations from his nine-agnates family hierarchy, his students and peers were added to be the 10th group. Altogether 873 people were said to have been executed.

To this day, a three-character Cantonese term citing the "death to the entire family" remains a powerful term in the Cantonese language.

Clan

A Chinese clan is a patrilineal and patrilocal group of related Chinese people with a common surname sharing a common ancestor. In southern China, clan members could form a village known as an ancestral village. In Hong Kong, clan settlement is exemplified by . An ancestral village usually features a hall and shine honouring ancestral clan members. A clan can be found recording male members of the clan. A married woman is considered part of her husband's clan.

Marriage and divorce

Marriage is an important rite signifying the coming together of two clans, and the beginning of a new family unit.

Polygamy

Polygamy had been practised in Chinese societies for thousands of years. Since the Han Dynasty, Chinese men have been able to legally have only one wife. It was common for privileged Chinese men to have a wife and various , however. For those who could afford a dowry and support a family of multiple concubines and children, polygyny provided a better chance of issuing heirs. The importance of this was apparent in the imperial court usually housing hundreds of concubines. Aside from concubinage, having multiple wives with equal status was also accepted prior to the ban of polygamy.

In a concubinage situation, the wife, concubines and their children would live in the same household. Wives and concubines would often refer to each other as "sisters". As a concubine was not wedded in a marriage ceremony, she had fewer rights in the household. There was also no inter-clan relation between the man's clan and the concubine's own kin.

Polygamy was banned in China in 1930 when the Republic of China government promulgated Civil Code where Section 985 states "A person who has a spouse may not contract another marriage. A person shall not marry with two or more persons simultaneously." . This is still in effect today in the territories under effective administration of the Republic of China including Taiwan and Kinmen and Matsu. After the establishment of the People's Republic of China by the Chinese Communists on the mainland, this banning is reaffirmed in the passage of the Marriage Code of 1950. In Hong Kong, new polygomous marriages were no longer legally allowed after 1971 with the passage of the Marriage Act. Despite this, incidents of extramarital affairs are rising. Some men have even established a family with their mistresses and children kept secret to their wives. There is a phenomenon of cross-border polygyny usually involving Hong Kong men and their mistresses living in Mainland China.

Heir-apparent

Demographics

With modern Chinese governments advocating for smaller families through family planning campaigns and policy-making, large extended family may be a thing of the past. The People's Republic of China introduced its One-child policy in 1979 while The Family Planning Association of Hong Kong began its "Two is enough!" campaign in the 1970s. Contrasted with the large extended families created over pre-war and baby boom years, the average modern Chinese families now have much fewer children.

As of 2006, the fertility rates in Hong Kong and Macau in the world. Hong Kong, ranked the lowest in the world, was the only territory with less than one child born per woman on the average. Both Mainland China and Taiwan were ranked well below the world average. Similarly, the birth rates in Hong Kong and Macau in the world. Both Mainland China and Taiwan were ranked below the median.

A product of rising divorce rates in Chinese societies is the breakdown of the traditionally close-knitted kinship relation. On the other hand, re-marriage could provide more than two sets of paternal or maternal relatives.

Defining kins

Nine grades of relations

The "nine grades of relations" is an important concept when it comes to application of laws and observing rituals. Since the Han Dynasty, there have been two separate interpretations of what is defined by the nine grades. Each interpretation is based on societal and political needs as the ruler of the day see fit.

The "older" interpretation defined the nine grades of relations strictly in the paternal line. That is, nine generations from great-great-grandfather down to great-great-grandchildren. This interpretation was officially recognised after and dynasties. By and dynasties, laws have defined the patrilineality of the nine kindreds. This interpretation was cited in Part III Chapter 2 of Lewis Henry Morgan's 1877 book ''Ancient Societies''.

The "contemporary" interpretation defines the nine grades of relations to be four generations from the paternal line, three from the maternal line, and two from the wife's. Historically, this definition has been used during award, punishment and family annihilation.

Yet another interpretation suggests that "nine" is actually an arbitrary number as nine is considered a large number in Chinese culture. As such, it means anyone and everyone related is to be executed in the context of family annihilation.

Five degrees of mourning attire

The ''five degrees of mourning attire'' define not only the proper attire, but also the proper mourning ritual one should observe when a relative has died. Appearing in writings as early as the ''Rites of Zhou'', mourning rituals developed over the years. By the time of the Qing dynasty, it was set down in law that there were five degrees, or grades of mourning according to the relationship one has with the deceased. The closer a person is related to the deceased, the higher the degree of mourning that is observed. A married female belongs to her husband's clan and observes a similar but lower degree of mourning than her husband. She would observe mourning for a small portion of the members from her own clan. A married man would observe mourning for an even smaller number of relatives of his in-laws.

In a concubinage situation, a concubine was only required to mourn for her husband, his wife, his parents, and all his children including her own, whereas a wife was required to mourn for almost all of her husband's near relatives. In addition, there was no requirement to mourn the death of a concubine except by the man's children.

Since the end of feudal China, the rituals of the five degrees of mourning have largely given way to simpler and less elaborate observance.

Conventionally, clans adopted the five degrees of mourning according to unwritten definitions that determines the difference between close and distant relatives. As such, marriage between relatives that were covered within the five degrees of mourning was considered taboo and immoral. These definitions, unlike the mourning ritual, are still applicable in determining whether a marriage is acceptable, albeit fewer people are familiar with the mourning rituals themselves.

It must be noted however that according to these definitions, many relatives considered "distant" in Western cultures are regarded as close relatives in Chinese culture.

The five degrees of mourning attire in decreasing order of severity are:

* 1. 斬榱 - 3 years
* 2. 齊榱 - 3 years, 1 year, 1 year with staff of mourning, 5 months, 3 months
* 3. 大功 - 9 months, 7 months
* 4. 小功 - 5 months
* 5. 緦麻 - 3 months

Common extended family and terminology

This section covers members and their spouses in the immediate and extended family that is commonly found in the first nine corner cells on the table of consanguinity or cousin chart . The terms are listed in Standard Chinese, regional and dialectal usages are listed in the corresponding row. The degrees of mourning attire are included as an indication of how close the relation is to ego and what level of respect is expected. "1" being the highest; "5" being the lowest. "0" means they are not within the definition of the five degrees of mourning. Some of these are common relations and are included for completeness. The degrees of mourning indicated in the table are based on ego as an unmarried member of the family.

General prefixes

* 外 - prefix to indicate maternal lineage on some of the relations
* 堂 - cousins that shares the same surname as ego
* 表 - cousins that do not share the same surname as ego
* 高 - prefix for relations four generations removed senior of ego, ie: great-great-grandparents
* 曾 - prefix for relations three generations removed, ie: great-grandparents; great-grandchildren
* 祖 - prefix for relations two generations removed senior of ego, ie: grandparents , also a general prefix for relations two or more generations senior of ego.
* 孫 - prefix for relations two generations removed junior of ego, ie: grandchildren , also a general prefix for relations two or more generations junior of ego.
* 玄/元 - prefix for relations four generations removed junior of ego, ie: great-great-grandchildren

Members of the nuclear family

Members of the extended family

Larger extended family and terminology

This section covers members and their spouses found beyond the first nine corner cells on the table of consanguinity or cousin chart. Although some of the relations seem distant, they are considered close relatives and it is common for Chinese families to have regular contact with these members.

Distant relations

Other than some of the relations mentioned in the previous sections that are not covered under the five degrees of mourning attire, the following are kin that are also considered distant.
* 來孫 - great-great-great-grandchildren
* 昆孫 - great-great-great-great-grandchildren
* 雲孫 - great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren
外 - prefix for maternal line relations; essentially anyone not sharing the same surname as ego

Partial or no consanguinity

The following familial relationship suggests partial or no consanguinity. Most of them are not a modern phenomenon, however. In fact, polygamy was widely accepted in pre- China.

The saying of "three fathers and eight mothers" refers to:
* Cohabiting stepfather
* Non-cohabiting stepfather
* Stepfather from re-marriage of father and mother
* 嫡母 - father's official wife
* 繼母 -
* 養母 - mother
* 慈母 - concubine replacing ego's birth mother who died
* 嫁母 - widowed birth mother who has remarried
* 出母 - birth mother who has been divorced
* 庶母 - father's concubine who is also a mother
* 乳母 - wet nurse
Another saying of "five fathers and ten mothers" refers to
* 生父 - birth father
* 養父 - adopted father
* 繼父 - stepfather
* 義父 -
* 師父 - teacher/coach/master
and two mothers added to the eight mentioned above:
* 生母 - birth mother
* 諸母 - father's concubine

As a result of polygamy there would be half-siblings:
* 同父異母兄弟姐妹 - siblings sharing the same father
* 同母異父兄弟姐妹 - siblings sharing the same mother

Chinese incense culture

Chinese incense culture refers to the incense formulations and production techniques that were developed in China by the Chinese cultures as well as their usage in daily life. Records on the use and production of Chinese incense can be traced as far back as Spring and Autumn Period where incense play a part in religions and secular life and came into great prominence around Han dynasty

The production of Chinese incense has always been strongly tied to the Traditional Chinese medicine and similar ingredients and processing techniques are used in both incense and medicine production. Consequently Chinese incense also features itself prominently in TCM and is often indicated with physiological and psychological benefits. Although modern Chinese use and contact with incense is primarily though religious ceremonies, traditional Chinese use in dynastic time is largely for bodily wellbeing. Mencius stated regarding incense that it is not simply a item for enjoyment but important for health and wellbeing

Incense use in both secular and religious Chinese culture however was necessitated as time keeping devices, which used calibrated incense sticks and powders note the passage of time.

Chinese ghost marriage

Chinese ghost marriage, also referred to as ''spirit marriage'', is a marriage in which one or both parties are deceased.. Other forms of ghost marriage are practiced worldwide, from Sudan, to India, to post-WWI France . The origins of Chinese ghost marriage are largely unknown, and reports of it being practiced today can still be found.

Types of ghost marriage

Chinese ghost marriage was usually set up by the family of the deceased and performed for a number of reasons, including: the marriage of a couple previously engaged before one member’s death, to integrate an unmarried daughter into a patrilineage, to ensure the family line is continued, or to maintain that no younger brother is married before an elder brother.

Previously engaged

Upon the death of her fiancé, a bride could choose to go through with the wedding, in which the groom was represented by a white cockerel at the ceremony. However, some girls were hesitant since this form of ghost marriage required her to participate in the funeral ritual, mourning customs , take a vow of celibacy, and immediately take up residence with his family. A groom also had the option of marrying his late fiancée, with no disadvantages, but there have been no records of such weddings.

Women and ghost marriage

Providing a deceased daughter with a patrilineage

When it comes to death customs, an unmarried Chinese woman has no to worship her or care for her as part of a lineage. In every household, an altar is prominently displayed with the tablets of the paternal ancestors and the images of the gods. A married woman’s tablet is kept at the altar of her husband’s family, however, should a woman of eligible age pass away unmarried, her family is prohibited from placing her tablet on the altar of her natal home. Instead, she will be “given a temporary paper tablet, placed not on the domestic altar but in a corner near the door.” Hence, the important duty of Chinese parents in marrying off their children becomes increasingly important for their daughters. Since women are only able to acquire membership in descent lines through marriage, ghost marriage became a viable solution to ensure that unmarried, deceased daughters still had “affiliation to a male descent line”and could be appropriately cared for after death.

Another death custom concerning an unmarried daughter prohibited her from dying in her natal home. Instead, a temple or “Death House” for spinsters was, or families take their daughter to a shed, empty house, or outlying buildings to die.

Living, unmarried daughters

Not only did the Chinese customs concerning death greatly burden the family, but an unmarried daughter became a source of great embarrassment and concern. In Charlotte Ikels “Parental Perspectives on the Significance of Marriage” she reports, “Traditionally, girls who did not marry were regarded as a threat to the entire family and were not allowed to continue living at home. Even in contemporary Hong Kong, I was told that unmarried women are assumed to have psychological problems. Presumably no normal person would remain unmarried voluntarily”. For girls that did in fact choose spinsterhood, “bride-initiated spirit marriage” was a successful “marriage-resistance practice” that allowed them to remain single while still being integrated into a lineage. However, it did come with some negative connotations, being called a “fake spirit-marriage,” or referred to as “marrying a spirit tablet,” and “a way to avoid marriage.”

Continuing the family line

If a son died before marriage, his parents arranged a ghost marriage in order to provide him with to continue the lineage and give him his own descendants. “A man in China does not marry so much for his own benefit as for that of the family: to continue the family name; to provide descendants to keep up the ancestral worship; and to give a daughter-in-law to his mother to wait on her and be, in general, a daughter to her”. A living bride was preferable as a spouse for their deceased son, but if unavailable, a suitable marriage could be set up with a young girl who had recently died. The ceremony itself took on characteristics of both a marriage and a funeral, with the spirit of the deceased bride being ‘led’ by a medium or priest, while her body is transferred from her grave to be laid next to her husband.

If the family was “suitably rich to tempt a girl,” the ghost marriage might also profit them with the asset of having a daughter-in-law. Since a daughter is not considered “a potential contributor to the lineage into which she is born,” but rather “it is expected that she will give the children she bears and her adult labor to the family of her husband”, the wife of a deceased son would benefit her husband’s family by becoming a caregiver in their home.

Once the deceased son had a wife, the family could adopt an heir, or a “grandson” to continue on the family line. The purpose of the daughter-in-law was not to produce offspring, as she was to live a chaste life, but she became the “social instrument” to enable the family to adopt. The family preferred to adopt patrilineally-related male kin, usually through a brother assigning one of his own sons to the lineage of the deceased. The adoption was carried out by writing up a contract, which was then placed under the dead man’s tablet. As an adopted son, his duties were to make ancestral offerings on his birth and death dates, and he was additionally “entitled to inherit his foster father’s share of the family estate."

Requests from the afterworld

Ghost marriages are often set up by request of the spirit of the deceased, who, upon “finding itself without a spouse in the other world,” causes misfortune for its natal family, the family of its betrothed, or for the family of the deceased’s married sisters. “This usually takes the form of sickness by one or more family members. When the sickness is not cured by ordinary means, the family turns to divination and learns of the plight of the ghost through a séance."

More benignly, a spirit may appear to a family member in a dream and request a spouse. Marjorie Topley, in “Ghost Marriages Among the Singapore Chinese: A Further Note,” relates the story of one fourteen-year old Cantonese boy who died. A month later he appeared to his mother in a dream saying that he wished to marry a girl who had recently died in Ipoh, Perak. The son did not reveal her name, but his mother used a Cantonese female spirit medium and “through her the boy gave the name of the girl together with her place of birth and age, and details of her horoscope which were subsequently found to be compatible with his."

Other instances of ghost marriage

Because Chinese custom dictates that younger brothers should not marry before their elder brothers, a ghost marriage for an older, deceased brother may be arranged just prior to a younger brother’s wedding to avoid “incurring the disfavour of his brother’s ghost."
Additionally, in the days of immigration, ghost marriages were used as a means to “cement a bond of friendship between two families." However, there have been no recent cases reported.

Arranging a Ghost Marriage

If a family wishes to arrange a ghost marriage, they may consult with a matchmaker of sorts: In a Cantonese area of Singapore “there is in fact a ghost marriage broker’s sign hung up in a doorway of a Taoist priest’s home. The broker announces that he is willing to undertake the search for a family which has a suitable deceased member with a favourable horoscope."

Others do not use the aid of any priest or diviner, but believe that the groom the ghost-bride has chosen “ somehow identify himself." Typically, the family lays a red envelope as bait in the middle of the road. They then take hiding, and when the envelope is picked up by a passer-by, they come out and announce his status of being the chosen bridegroom.

Dowries and bridewealth

The exchange of bridewealth and dowries between the two families involved in a ghost marriage is quite “variable,” and families may exchange both, one or the other, or even just red money packets. There is no standard amount exchanged, but several of Janice Stockard’s informants reported that the groom’s family provided the bride with a house. In another reported ghost-marriage, the groom’s family sent wedding cakes and NT $120 to the brides family, who returned it with a dowry of a gold ring, gold necklace, several pairs of shoes, and six dresses “all fitted for the use of the groom’s living wife."

Rites of the ghost marriage ceremony

In a ghost-marriage, many of the typical marriage rites are observed. However, since one or more parties is predeceased, they are otherwise represented, most often by effigies made of paper, bamboo, or cloth.



A ghost couple at their wedding feast. Featured in "Ghost Marriages Among the Singapore Chinese: A Further Note," Vol. 56 of Man . Pp 71-72.

In the picture above, depicting a ghost-couple at their marriage feast, the bride and groom are constructed of paper bodies over a bamboo frame with a papier m?ché head. On either side of them stands their respective paper servants, and the room contains many other paper effigies of products they would use in their home, such as a dressing table , a table and six stools, a money safe, a refrigerator, and trunks of paper clothes and cloth. After the marriage ceremony is complete, all of the paper belongings are burned to be sent to the spirit world to be used by the couple.



Two spirit brides at their wedding ceremony. Featured in David K. Jordan’s Gods, Ghosts, and Ancestors: The Folk Religion of a Taiwanese Village, p. 145.

In another ceremony that married a living groom to a ghost bride, the effigy was similar, but instead constructed with a wooden backbone, arms made from newspaper, and the head of “a smiling young girl clipped from a wall calendar." Similarly, after the marriage festivities, the dummy is burned.
In both cases, the effigies wore real clothing, similar to that which is typically used in marriage ceremonies. This includes a pair of trousers, a white skirt, a red dress, with a lace outer dress. Additionally, they were adorned with jewelry; though similar in fashion to that of a typical bride’s, it was not made of real gold. If a living groom is marrying a ghost-bride, he will wear black gloves instead of the typical white.
Most of the marriage ceremony and rites are performed true to Chinese custom. In fact, “the bride was always treated as though she was alive and participating in the proceedings” from being fed at the wedding feast in the morning, to being invited in and out of the cab, to being told of her arrival at the groom’s house. One observable difference in a ghost marriage is that that the ancestral tablet of the deceased is placed inside the effigy, so that “the bride’s dummy animated with the ghost that to be married,” and then placed with the groom’s family’s tablets at the end of the marriage festivities.

Modern Ghost Marriage in the News

Brea, Jen. “ ‘Ghost bride’ returns to haunt Chinese trio.” The Scotsman. 26 January 2007.
http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=134732007

“Asia: Wet and dry goods; China’s corpse brides”. The Economist Newspaper. 26 July 2007.
http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9558423

Kramer, Michael. "A Day in The Life ...... Of China". Time Magazine. 2 October 1989.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,958650-1,00.html

Other Links
“Ghost Marriages.” Singapore Paranormal Investigation. 23 May 2005. http://www.spi.com.sg/spi_files/ghost_marriage/main00.htm

Citations

Chinese clan

A Chinese clan is a patrilineal and patrilocal group of related people with a common sharing a and, in many cases, an ancestral home .

Clan loyalties tend to be strong in southern China, reinforced by ties to an ancestral village, common property, and often a common spoken Chinese dialect unintelligible to people outside the village. Clan structures tend to be weaker in northern China, with clan members that do not usually reside in the same village nor share property.

In Imperial times, a consort clan was a clan with special status due to its connection with an Emperor. Throughout Chinese history consort clans have exercised great power at various times. There have been several usurptions of power by consort clans, the most notable being the Han Dynasty's Empress Dowager Lü , the Tang Dynasty's Empress Wu , and the Qing Dynasty's Empress Dowager Cixi . The Han Dynasty usurper Wang Mang was a relative of the Grand Empress Dowager Wang.

During the Qing dynasty, the Imperial government encouraged Chinese clans to take up some quasi-governmental functions such as those involved social welfare and primary education.

Chinese calendar correspondence table

This table shows the stem/branch year names, correspondences to the Western calendar, and other related information for the current, 79th sexagenary cycle of the Chinese calendar .

Chinese calendar

The Chinese calendar is , incorporating elements of a lunar calendar with those of a solar calendar. This measure of time is not exclusive to China, but followed by many other Asian cultures. It is often referred to by the Western cultures as the Chinese calendar because it was first used by the Chinese. In most of Asia today, the Gregorian calendar is used for day to day activities, but the Chinese calendar is still used for marking traditional East Asian holidays such as the Lunar New Year , and in China the Duan Wu festival, and the Mid-Autumn Festival, and in astrology, such as choosing the most auspicious date for a wedding or the opening of a building. Because each month follows one cycle of the moon, it is also used to determine the phases of the moon.

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 $\backslash tfrac$ days and the lunar month at 29 $\backslash tfrac$ 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 .

Chinese State Circus

The Chinese State Circus is a touring circus which aims to present the circus arts to European audiences. The show is based on Chinese acrobatic acts. All the performers come from China and are trained in the Chinese Tradition of ''horse theatre'' or ''Ma Xi''.

It combines Kung-Fu martial arts from the Shaolin Temple, artists from the Peking Opera and other Chinese speciality acts brought together to produce a single show. is provided by the figure of the who appears between acts. The show also includes a Dragon dance, Lion dance. and an excerpt from Chinese opera.

The circus has toured in the UK since 1992. It is currently touring North East Scotland. The Chinese State Circus was part of the Brighton Festival Fringe during May.

The BBC produced a critical report revealing that the members of the circus are poorly paid and have been mistreated when injured.