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The Chinese calendar is a lunisolar calendar created by or commonly used by the Chinese people. While this description is generally accurate, it does not provide a definitive or complete answer. A total of 102 calendars have been officially recorded in classical historical texts. In addition, many more calendars were created privately, with others being built by people who adapted Chinese culture practices, such as the Koreans, Japanese people, Vietnamese, and many others, over the course of a long history.
A Chinese calendar consists of Month, each aligned with the Lunar phase, along with an intercalary month inserted as needed to keep the calendar in sync with the seasons. It also features twenty-four solar terms, which track the position of the sun and are closely related to climate patterns. Among these, the winter solstice is the most significant reference point and must occur in the eleventh month of the year. Each month contains either twenty-nine or thirty days. The sexagenary cycle for each day runs continuously over thousands of years and serves as a determining factor to pinpoint a specific day amidst the many variations in the calendar. In addition, there are many other cycles attached to the calendar that determine the appropriateness of particular days, guiding decisions on what is considered Luck or inauspicious for different types of activities.
The variety of calendars arises from deviations in algorithms and assumptions about inputs. The Chinese calendar is location-sensitive, meaning that calculations based on different locations, such as Beijing and Nanjing, can yield different results. This has even led to occasions where the Mid-Autumn Festival was celebrated on different days between mainland China and Hong Kong in 1978, as some almanacs based on old imperial rule. The sun and moon do not move at a constant speed across the sky. While ancient Chinese astronomers were aware of this fact, it was simpler to create a calendar using average values. There was a series of struggles over this issue, and as measurement techniques improved over time, so did the precision of the algorithms. The driving force behind all these variations has been the pursuit of a more accurate description and prediction of natural phenomena.
The calendar during imperial times was regarded as sacred and mysterious. Rulers, with their mandate from Heaven, worked tirelessly to create an accurate calendar capable of predicting climate patterns and astronomical phenomena, which were crucial to all aspects of life, especially agriculture, fishing, and hunting. This, in turn, helped maintain their authority and secure an advantage over rivals. In imperial times, only the rulers had the authority to announce a calendar. An illegal calendar could be considered a serious offence, often punishable by capital punishment.
Early calendars were also lunisolar, but they were less stable due to their reliance on direct observation. Over time, increasingly refined methods for predicting lunar and solar cycles were developed, eventually reaching maturity around 104 BC, when the Taichu Calendar (太初曆), namely the genesis calendar, was introduced during the Han dynasty. This calendar laid the foundation for subsequent calendars, with its principles being followed by calendar experts for over two thousand years. Over centuries, the calendar was refined through advancements in astronomy and horology, with dynasties introducing variations to improve accuracy and meet cultural or political needs.
Improving accuracy has its downsides. The solar terms, namely solar positions, calculated based on the predicted location of the sun, make them far more irregular than a simple average model. In practice, solar terms do not need to be maximally precise because climate does not change overnight. The introduction of the leap second to the Chinese calendar is somewhat excessive, as it makes future predictions more challenging. This is particularly true since the leap second is typically announced six months in advance, which can complicate the determination of which day the new moon or solar terms fall on, especially when they occur close to midnight.
While modern China primarily adopts the Gregorian calendar for official purposes, the traditional calendar remains culturally significant, influencing festivals and cultural practices, determining the timing of Chinese New Year with traditions like the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac still widely observed. The winter solstice serves as another New Year, a tradition inherited from ancient China. Beyond China, it has shaped other East Asian calendars, including the Korean, Vietnamese, and Japanese lunisolar systems, each adapting the same lunisolar principles while integrating local customs and terminology.
The sexagenary cycle, a repeating system of Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, is used to mark years, months, and days. Before adopting their current names, the Heavenly Stems were known as the "Ten Suns" (十日), having research that it is a remnant of an ancient solar calendar.
, or fixed starting points for year counting, have played an essential role in the Chinese calendar's structure. Some epochs are based on historical figures, such as the inauguration of the Yellow Emperor (Yellow Emperor), while others marked the rise of dynasties or significant political shifts. This system allowed for the numbering of years based on regnal eras, with the start of a ruler's reign often resetting the count.
The Chinese calendar also tracks time in smaller units, including months, days, double-hour, hour and quarter periods. These timekeeping methods have influenced broader fields of horology, with some principles, such as precise time subdivisions, still evident in modern scientific timekeeping. The continued use of the calendar today highlights its enduring cultural, historical, and scientific significance.
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 was also relevant in predicting abnormalities of the Earth and celestial bodies, such as lunar and solar . 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 ＿＿曆 and recorded in a dedicated calendar section in history books of different eras. The last one in imperial era 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 of some territories.
There are various Chinese terms for the calendar including:
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 the Chinese calendar to force everyone to use the Gregorian calendar, and even abolished the Chinese 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 the agricultural calendar in 1947, depreciating the calendar to merely agricultural use.
| + Some modern names of Chinese calendar and Gregorian calendar ! Chinese calendar !! Gregorian calendar |
| 西洋曆, 洋曆, 西曆, Western calendar |
| 新曆, new calendar |
| 陽曆, yang calendar |
| 公曆, public calendar, namely universal calendar or common calendar |
| 國曆, national calendar |
| 皇曆, Imperial calendar (obsoleted) |
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. Later these almanacs moved to new calculation based on the location of Purple Mountain Observatory, with longitude of 120°E.
| Yellow Emperor (Huángdì) year | 黄帝紀年 | Yellow Emperor (YE) began reigning | 2697 BCE or 2698 BCE | or |
| Yáo year | 唐堯紀年 | Emperor Yao began reigning | 2156 BCE | |
| Gònghé year | 共和紀年 | Gonghe Regency began | 841 BCE | |
| Confucius year | 孔子紀年 | Confucius's birth year | 551 BCE | |
| Unity year | 統一紀年 | Qin Shi Huang completes unification | 221 BCE |
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 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 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 2025 CE is ), and the newspaper Ming Pao (t=明報) reckoned 1905 as 4603 (using a year 1 of 2698 BCE, and implying that 2025 CE is ). 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 2025 CE is ). There is no evidence that this calendar was used before the 20th century. Liu calculated that 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 year 4809.11.14, assuming a year 1 of 2698 BCE, making 2025 CE year . Many overseas Chinese communities like San Francisco's Chinatown adopted the change.
The modern Chinese standard calendar uses the epoch of the Gregorian calendar, which is on 1 January of the year 1 CE.
One version of the solar calendar is the five-elements (or phases) calendar (), which derives from the Wu Xing. A 365-day year was divided into five phases of 72 days, with each phase preceded by an intercalary day associated with the claimed beginning of the following 72 day period of domination by the next Wu Xing element; thus, the five phases each begin with a governing-element day (行御), followed by a 72-day period characterized by the ruling element. Years began on a day and a 72-day wood phase, followed by a day and a 72-day fire phase; a day and a 72-day earth phase; a day and a 72-day metal phase, and a day followed by a water phase. Each phase consisted of two three-week months, making each year ten months long. Other days were tracked using the Yellow River Map ( He Tu).
Another version is a four-quarters calendar (p=sìshí bājié lì, or l=quarters calendar). 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 the tropical year. The 10 Heavenly Stems and 12 Earthly Branches were used to mark days.
A third version is the balanced calendar (p=tiáo lì). 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 ( BCE) was a balanced calendar with 12 to 14 months in a year; the month after the winter solstice was .
A solar calendar called the Tung Shing, the Yellow Calendar or Imperial Calendar (both alluding to Yellow Emperor) continued to see use as an almanac and agricultural guide throughout Chinese history.
Modern historical knowledge and records are limited for the earlier calendars. These calendars are known as the six ancient calendars (s=古六历), or quarter-remainder calendars, (p=sìfēnlì), since all calculate a year as 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 the end of the year.
The state of Lu issued its own Lu calendar (s=鲁历).
The state of Jin issued the Xia dynasty calendar (s=夏历) with a year beginning on the day of the new moon nearest the March equinox.
The state of Qin issued the Zhuanxu calendar (s=颛顼历), with a year beginning on the day of the new moon nearest the winter solstice.
The Qiang and Dai calendars are modern versions of the Zhuanxu calendar, used by highland peoples.
The Song state's Shang dynasty calendar (s=殷历) began its year on the day of the new moon after the winter solstice.
This calendar introduced the 24 , 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 (labels=no), and the second was a mid-climate (labels=no). Months were named for 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.
In 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 (seasonal) calendar. In this calendar, the are 15° each along the ecliptic and it can be used as a solar calendar. However, the length of the climate term near the Apsis is less than 30 days and there may be two mid-climate terms. The calendar changed the mid-climate-term rule to "decide the month in sequence, except the intercalary month."
The present "traditional calendar" follows the Shíxiàn calendar, except:
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 Calendar published by the government no longer listed 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 , revised edition", edited by Beijing Purple Mountain Observatory, People's Republic of China.
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 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 the People's Republic of China continues to announce the months and dates in both the Gregorian and the traditional lunisolar calendar.
To optimize the Chinese calendar, astronomers have proposed a number of changes. Kao Ping-tse (c=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 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.
Many Chinese astronomers have contributed to the development of the Chinese calendar. Many were of the scholarly or shi class (p=shì), including writers of history, such as Sima Qian.
Notable Chinese astronomers who have contributed to 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 the establishment of observatories.
| 1 | between 21 January – 20 February * | l=corner month. square of Pegasus month | l=tiger month | l=first month |
| 2 | between 20 February – 21 March * | p=xìngyuè | p=mǎoyuè | p=èryuè |
| 3 | between 21 March – 20 April * | l=peach month | l=dragon month | l=third month |
| 4 | between 20 April – 21 May * | Prunus mume]] month | l=snake month | l=fourth month |
| 5 | between 21 May – 21 June * | l=pomegranate month | l=horse month | l=fifth month |
| 6 | between 21 June – 23 July * | p=héyuè | p=wèiyuè | p=liùyuè |
| 7 | between 23 July – 23 August * | p=lányuè | p=shēnyuè | p=qīyuè |
| 8 | between 23 August – 23 September * | p=guìyuè | p=yǒuyuè | p=bāyuè |
| 9 | between 23 September – 23 October * | l=chrysanthemum month | p=xūyuè | p=jiǔyuè |
| 10 | between 23 October – 22 November * | l=dew month | p=hàiyuè | p= shíyuè |
| 11 | between 22 November – 22 December * | l=winter month; l=reed month | p=zǐyuè | l=eleventh month or p=dōngyuè |
| 12 | between 22 December – 21 January * | l=ice month | p=chǒuyuè | l=twelfth month or l=end-of-year month |
Though the numbered month names are often used for the corresponding month number in the Gregorian calendar, it is important to realize that the numbered month names are not interchangeable with the Gregorian months when talking about Chinese calendar dates.
The Chinese calendar is lunisolar, similar to the Hindu calendar, Hebrew calendar and ancient Babylonian calendars. In this case the calendar is in part based in objective, observable phenomena and in part by mathematical analysis to correlate the observed phenomena. Lunisolar calendars especially attempt to correlate the solar and lunar cycles, but other considerations can be agricultural and seasonal or phenological, or religious, or even political.
Basic horologic definitions include that days begin and end at midnight, and months begin on the day of the new moon. Years start on the second (or third) new moon after the winter solstice. govern the beginning, middle, and end of each month. A sexagenary cycle, comprising the heavenly stems (p=gān) and the earthly branches (p=zhī), is used as identification alongside each year and month, including intercalary months or leap months. Months are also annotated as either long (l=big for months with 30 days) or short (l=small for months with 29 days). There are also other elements of the traditional Chinese calendar.
The structure of led to public holidays every five or ten days. Officials of the Han dynasty were legally required to rest every five days (twice a , or 5–6 times a month). The name of these breaks became out=p.
Grouping days into sets of ten is still used today in referring to specific natural events. "Three Fu" (), a 29–30-day period which is the hottest of the year, reflects its three- length. After the winter solstice, nine sets of nine days were counted to calculate the end of winter.
Following the calendrical reforms in China during the era of the Republic of China, a period marked by both rejection and integration, the seven-day week system became the most widely used, aligning with the Western world.
| +Seven-day week comparison | Chinese | 日 | 月 | 火星 | 水星 | 木星 | 金星 | 土星 |
| Literal meaning | sun | moon | fire star | water star | wood star | metal star | earth star | |
| English meaning | Sun | Moon | Mars | Mercury | Jupiter | Venus | Saturn | |
| 七曜, the seven shiny | 日曜日 | 月曜日 | 火曜日 | 水曜日 | 木曜日 | 金曜日 | 土曜日 | |
| literal meaning | Sun-day | Moon-day | Mars-day | Mercury-day | Jupiter-day | Venus-day | Saturn-day | |
| Sogdian names | Mīr | Māq | Wnqān | Tīr | Wrnzt | Nāqit | Kēwān | |
| Chinese phonic translation | 密/蜜 | 莫 | 雲漢 | 咥/嘀 | 溫沒司/嗢沒司/鶻勿斯 | 那頡/那歇/般頡 | 雞緩/枳浣 | |
| Modern English | Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | |
| Modern Chinese | 星期日 | 星期一 | 星期二 | 星期三 | 星期四 | 星期五 | 星期六 | |
| Hong Kong variant | 禮拜日 | 禮拜一 | 禮拜二 | 禮拜三 | 禮拜四 | 禮拜五 | 禮拜六 | |
| 28-day cycle, borrowing from Twenty-Eight Mansions | 星 | 張 | 翼 | 軫 | 角 | 亢 | 氐 | |
| 房 | 心 | 尾 | 箕 | 斗 | 牛 | 女 | ||
| 虛 | 危 | 室 | 室 | 壁 | 奎 | 婁 | ||
| 昴 | 畢 | 觜 | 參 | 井 | 鬼 | 柳 |
Months are defined by the time between , which averages approximately days. There is no specified length of any particular Chinese month, so the first month could have 29 days (short month, ) in some years and 30 days (long month, ) in other years.
Since the beginning of the month is determined by when the new moon occurs, other countries using this calendar use their own time standards to calculate it; this results in deviations. The first new moon in 1968 was at 16:29 UTC on 29 January. Since North Vietnam used to calculate their Vietnamese calendar and South Vietnam used (Beijing time) to calculate theirs, North Vietnam began the Tết holiday at 29 January at 23:29 while South Vietnam began it on 30 January at 00:15. The time difference allowed asynchronous attacks in the Tet Offensive.
Because astronomical observation determines month length, dates on the calendar correspond to moon phases. The first day of each month is the new moon. On the seventh or eighth day of each month, the first-quarter moon is visible in the afternoon and early evening. On the 15th or 16th day of each month, the full moon is visible all night. On the 22nd or 23rd day of each month, the last-quarter moon is visible late at night and in the morning.
Different eras used different systems to determine the length of each month. The synodic month of the Taichu calendar was days long. The 7th-century, Tang-dynasty Wùyín Yuán Calendar was the first to determine month length by synodic month instead of the cycling method. Since then, month lengths have primarily been determined by observation and prediction.
The days of the month are always written with two characters and numbered beginning with 1. Days one to 10 are written with the day's numeral, preceded by the character Chū (); Chūyī () is the first day of the month, and Chūshí () the 10th. Days 11 to 20 are written as regular Chinese numerals; Shíwǔ () is the 15th day of the month, and Èrshí () the 20th. Days 21 to 29 are written with the character Niàn () before the characters one through nine; Niànsān (), for example, is the 23rd day of the month. Day 30 (when applicable) is written as the numeral Sānshí ().
A 12-month-year using this system has 354 days, which would drift significantly from the tropical year. To fix this, traditional Chinese years have a 13-month year approximately once every three years. The 13-month version has the same long and short months alternating, but adds a 30-day leap month (p=rùnyuè). Years with 12 months are called common years, and 13-month years are known as long years.
A solar year is astronomically about days. A lunisolar calendar year is either 353–355 or 383–385 days long. The lunisolar calendar (p=rìlì) year usually begins on the new moon closest to Lichun, the first day of spring. This is typically the second and sometimes third new moon after the winter solstice.
The lunisolar year begins with the first spring month, (l=capital month), and ends with the last winter month, (l=sacrificial month). All other months are named for their number in the month order. See below on the timing of the Chinese New Year.
The solar year ( suì, s=岁) begins on the December solstice and proceeds through the 24 solar terms. Since the speed of the Sun's apparent motion in the elliptical is variable, the time between major terms/mid-climates is not fixed. This variation in time between major terms results in different solar year lengths. There are generally 11 or 12 complete lunisolar months, plus two incomplete lunisolar months around the winter solstice, in a solar year. The complete lunisolar months are numbered from 0 to 10, and the incomplete lunisolar month is considered the 11th month. If there are 12 complete (and one incomplete) lunisolar months within a solar year, it is known as a leap year (a year possessing an intercalary month).
Different versions of the traditional calendar might have different average solar year lengths. For example, one solar year of the 1st century BCE Tàichū calendar is (365.25016) days. A solar year of the 13th-century Shòushí calendar is (365.2425) days, identical to the Gregorian calendar. The additional .00766 day from the Tàichū calendar leads to a one-day shift every 130.5 years.
| +24 solar terms !Number !Pinyin name !Chinese name !Translation !Approximate date !Corresponding astrological sign | |||||
| J1 | 立春 | Beginning of spring | 5 February | ♒️ Aquarius | |
| Z1 | 雨水 | Rain water | 19 February | ♓️ Pisces | |
| J2 | 驚蟄；惊蛰 | Waking of insects | 6 March | ||
| Z2 | 春分 | Spring divide | 21 March | ♈️ Aries | |
| J3 | 清明 | Pure brightness | 5 April | ||
| Z3 | 穀雨；谷雨 | Grain rain | 20 April | ♉️ Taurus | |
| J4 | 立夏 | Beginning of summer | 6 May | ||
| Z4 | 小滿；小满 | Grain full | 21 May | ♊️ Gemini | |
| J5 | 芒種；芒种 | Grain in ear | 6 June | ||
| Z5 | 夏至 | Summer extremity | 22 June | ♋️ Cancer | |
| J6 | 小暑 | Slight heat | 7 July | ||
| Z6 | 大暑 | Great heat | 23 July | ♌️ Leo | |
| J7 | 立秋 | Beginning of autumn | 8 August | ||
| Z7 | 處暑；处暑 | Limit of heat | 23 August | ♍️ Virgo | |
| J8 | 白露 | White dew | 8 September | ||
| Z8 | 秋分 | Autumn divide | 23 September | ♎️ Libra | |
| J9 | 寒露 | Cold dew | 8 October | ||
| Z9 | 霜降 | Descent of frost | 24 October | ♏️ Scorpio | |
| J10 | 立冬 | Beginning of winter | 8 November | ||
| Z10 | 小雪 | Slight snow | 22 November | ♐️ Sagittarius | |
| J11 | 大雪 | Great snow | 7 December | ||
| Z11 | 冬至 | Winter extremity | 22 December | ♑️ Capricorn | |
| J12 | 小寒 | Slight cold | 6 January | ||
| Z12 | 大寒 | Great cold | 20 January | ♒️ Aquarius |
If there are 12 complete lunisolar months within a solar year, the first lunisolar month that does not contain any mid-climate is designated the leap, or intercalary, month. Leap months are numbered with , the character for "intercalary", plus the name of the month they follow. In 2017, the intercalary month after month six was called , or "intercalary sixth month" () and written as 6i or 6+. The next intercalary month (in 2020, after month four) will be called () and written 4i or 4+.
| Azure Dragon (p=Dōngfāng Qīnglóng) Spring | Spica |
| Kappa Virginis | |
| Zubenelgenubi | |
| Pi Scorpii | |
| Alpha Scorpii | |
| μ¹ Sco | |
| Gamma Sagittarii | |
| Black Tortoise (p=Běifāng Xuánwǔ) Winter | Phi Sagittarii |
| Dabih | |
| Albali | |
| Sadalsuud | |
| Sadalmelik | |
| Alpha Pegasi | |
| Gamma Pegasi | |
| White Tiger of the West (p=Xīfāng Báihǔ) Fall | Eta Andromedae |
| Sheratan | |
| 35 Ari | |
| 17 Tau | |
| Epsilon Tauri | |
| Meissa | |
| Alnitak | |
| Vermilion Bird (p=Nánfāng Zhūquè) Summer | Tejat Posterior |
| Theta Cancri | |
| Delta Hydrae | |
| Alphard | |
| υ¹ Hya | |
| Alkes | |
| Gienah Corvi |
Years, months, days of the month and hours could traditionally numbered by the terminology of the Chinese sexagenary cycle.
The Sexagenary cycle is a sexagesimal system. The Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches make up Sexagenary cycle. The stem branches mark days and years. The five Wu Xing elements are assigned to each stem, branch, or stem branch.
| first (book I, person A etc.), methyl group, helmet, armor, words related to beetles, crustaceans, fingernails, toenails |
| second (book II, person B etc.), ethyl group, twist |
| third, bright, fire, fishtail (rare) |
| fourth, male adult, robust, T-shaped, to strike, a surname |
| (not used) |
| self |
| age (of person) |
| bitter, piquant, toilsome |
| to shoulder, to trust with office |
| (not used) |
| 11 pm to 1 am (midnight) |
| 1am to 3 am |
| 3 am to 5 am |
| 5 am to 7 am |
| 7 am to 9 am |
| 9 am to 11 am |
| 11 am to 1 pm (noon) |
| 1 pm to 3 pm |
| 3 pm to 5 pm |
| 5 pm to 7 pm |
| 7 pm to 9 pm |
| 9 pm to 11 pm |
For example, the year from 12 February 2021 to 31 January 2022 was a year () of 12 months or 354 days. The 60 stem-branches have been used to mark the year since the Shang dynasty (1600 BCE – 1046 BCE). Astrologers knew that the orbital period of Jupiter is about 12×361 = 4332 days, which they divided into 12 years (p=suì) of 361 days each. The stem-branches system solved the era system's problem of unequal reign lengths.
Current naming conventions use numbers as the month names, although each month is also associated with one of the twelve Earthly Branches. Correspondences with Gregorian dates are approximate and should be used with caution. Many years have intercalary months.
Historically, Chinese had days of the month numbered with the 60 stem-branches:
Fortune-tellers identify the heavenly stem and earthly branch corresponding to a particular day in the month, and those corresponding to its month, and those to its year, to determine the Four Pillars of Destiny associated with it, for which the Tung Shing, also referred to as the Chinese Almanac of the year, or the Huangli, and containing the essential information concerning Chinese astrology, is the most convenient publication to consult. Days rotate through a sexagenary cycle marked by coordination between and , hence the referral to the Four Pillars of Destiny as, "Bazi", or "Birth Time Eight Characters", with each pillar consisting of a character for its corresponding heavenly stem, and another for its earthly branch. Since Huangli days are sexagenary cycle, their order is quite independent of their numeric order in each month, and of their numeric order within a week (referred to as True Animals in relation to the Chinese zodiac). Therefore, it does require painstaking calculation for one to arrive at the Four Pillars of Destiny of a particular given date, which rarely outpaces the convenience of simply consulting the Huangli by looking up its Gregorian date.
The Tang dynasty used the Earthly Branches to mark the months from December 761 to May 762. Over this period, the year began with the winter solstice.
China has used the Western hour-minute-second system to divide the day since the Qing dynasty. Several systems were in use historically; systems using multiples of twelve and ten were popular, since they could be easily counted and aligned with the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches.
After the Gregorian calendar was introduced in China, the Chinese traditional-age was referred to as the "nominal age" (l=incomplete age) and the Gregorian age was known as the "real age" (l=whole age). In Hong Kong, they are named as hui ling 虛齡 and sut ling 實齡 respectively.
The invariant between years is that the winter solstice, Dongzhi is required to be in the eleventh month of the year This means that Chinese New Year will be on the second new moon after the previous winter solstice, unless there is a leap month 11 or 12 in the previous year.
This rule is accurate, however there are two other mostly (but not completely) accurate rules that are commonly stated:
It has been found that Chinese New Year moves back by either 10, 11, or 12 days in most years. If it falls on or before 31 January, then it moves forward in the next year by either 18, 19, or 20 days.
The Double Third Festival is on the third day of the third month.
The Dragon Boat Festival, or the Duanwu Festival (端午節), is on the fifth day of the fifth month and is an official holiday in China including Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan regions.
The Qixi Festival (七夕節) is celebrated in the evening of the seventh day of the seventh month.
The Double Ninth Festival (重陽節) is celebrated on the ninth day of the ninth month.
The Zhong Yuan Festival is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the seventh month.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the eighth month.
The Xia Yuan Festival is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the tenth month.
The Kitchen God Festival is celebrated on the twenty-third day of the twelfth month in northern regions of China and on the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth month in southern regions of China.
Chinese New Year's Eve is also known as the Chuxi Festival and is celebrated on the evening of the last day of the traditional Chinese calendar. It is celebrated wherever the traditional Chinese calendar is observed.
The Dongzhi Festival (冬至) or the Winter Solstice is celebrated.
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