The beginnings of the Chinese calendar can be traced back to the 14th century B. Legend has it that the Emperor Huangdi invented the calendar in B. The Chinese calendar is based on exact astronomical observations of the longitude of the sun and the phases of the moon.
This means that principles of modern science have had an impact on the Chinese calendar. It is not surprising that a few similarities exist between the Chinese and the Hebrew calendar:. When determining what a Chinese year looks like, one must make a number of astronomical calculations:. First, determine the dates for the new moons. Here, a new moon is the completely "black" moon that is, when the moon is in conjunction with the sun , not the first visible crescent used in the Islamic and Hebrew calendars.
The date of a new moon is the first day of a new month. These dates are called the Principal Terms and are used to determine the number of each month:. In rare cases, a month may contain two Principal Terms; in this case the months numbers may have to be shifted.
Principal Term 11 Winter Solstice must always fall in the 11th month. All the astronomical calculations are carried out for the meridian degrees east of Greenwich. This roughly corresponds to the east coast of China. Leap years have 13 months. To determine if a year is a leap year, calculate the number of new moons between the 11th month in one year i.
If there are 13 new moons from the start of the 11th month in the first year to the start of the 11th month in the second year, a leap month must be inserted. In leap years, at least one month does not contain a Principal Term. The first such month is the leap month.
It carries the same number as the previous month, with the additional note that it is the leap month. Unlike most other calendars, the Chinese calendar does not count years in an infinite sequence. Instead years have names that are repeated every 60 years. Historically, years used to be counted since the accession of an emperor, but this was abolished after the revolution. The second component is a Terrestrial Branch. The names of the corresponding animals in the zodiac cycle of 12 animals are given in parentheses.
Each of the two components is used sequentially. Thus, the 1st year of the year cycle becomes jia-zi, the 2nd year is yi-chou, the 3rd year is bing-yin, etc. When we reach the end of a component, we start from the beginning: The 10th year is gui-you, the 11th year is jia-xu restarting the Celestial Stem , the 12th year is yi-hai, and the 13th year is bing-zi restarting the Terrestrial Branch.
Finally, the 60th year becomes gui-hai. This way of naming years within a year cycle goes back approximately years. A similar naming of days and months has fallen into disuse, but the date name is still listed in calendars. It is customary to number the year cycles since B. In that year the first year cycle started. The current year cycle started on 2 Feb That date bears the name bing-yin in the day cycle, and the first month of that first year bears the name gui-chou in the month cycle.
This means that the year wu-yin, the 15th year in the 78th cycle, started on 28 Jan The 20th year in the 78th cycle, started on 1 Feb In the early s, Chinese astronomers discovered that there was an error in the Chinese calendar for The traditional calendar claimed that the leap month would follow the 7th month, while in fact it comes after the 11th month. But many Chinese astronomers still claim that there will never be a leap month after the 12th and 1st month.
In addition, there will be a leap month after the 1st month in in fact, it should have happened in , but they got the calculations wrong! Since the Chinese calendar is an astronomical calendar, predictions require delicate astronomical calculations, so my computations for should probably be taken with a grain of salt. If the Chinese calendar started in B. The Chinese calendar does not use a continuous year count!
They used a 60 year cycle and a system of regional years starting with each emperor. Before the revolution, Sun Yat-sen wanted to establish a republican alternative to the imperial reign cycles. According to Chinese tradition, the first year of the Yellow Emperor was B. Under this system, is year An alternative system is to start with the first historical record of the day cycle from March 8, B.
Based on this system, is year In the calendar that the Shang used, the seasons of the year and the phases of the Moon were all supposedly accounted for. In China, the calendar was a sacred document, sponsored and promulgated by the reigning monarch. For more than two millennia, a Bureau of Astronomy made astronomical observations, calculated astronomical events such as eclipses, prepared astrological predictions, and maintained the calendar. People born in this year are kind, speak gently, peaceful, quiet and loving persons.
They like to live easy lives. They are reserved persons, love arts and have a strong sense of justice. Whatever they do, they will start well and end well.
This feature can make them learned scholars. Chinese Horoscopes - The Rabbit. Rabbits are private individuals, a bit introverted and withdrawn. People e born into this sign would rather work behind-the-scenes instead of being the center of attention in any situation. In fact, he is a reasonably friendly individual who enjoys the company of a group of good friends whether at a business dinner or a holiday party.
Rabbits just like to be a part of the gang as opposed to the leader of it. That is a solar calendar? What is a lunar calendar?
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