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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese calendar | 5/8 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_calendar | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T14:20:08.278657+00:00 | kb-cron |
==== Seven-day week and 28-day cycle ==== The seven-day week was adopted from the Hellenistic system by the 4th century CE, although its method of transmission into China is unclear. It was again transmitted to China in the 8th century by Manichaeans via Kangju, spoken in a variant of Sogdian language (a Central Asian kingdom near Samarkand),. Its meaning is derived from the five classical planets, along with the Sun and Moon, making a total of seven celestial bodies highly visible in the sky, in Chinese translation 七曜. At that time, people created simple handwritten almanacs, where Sunday was marked with the character 密. The seven-day week had fallen out of favour for a long time, only to be revived when Christianity gained a foothold in China and later made mandatory by the government.
In between, a 28-day cycle system was used, borrowing from the Twenty-Eight Mansions system. Originally, these mansions tracked the moon's position against the stars in the sky, much like the sun and zodiac, and became part of the Chinese constellations. However, in this context, the 28-day cycle had no connection to astronomy and was used purely for fortune-telling. This information was documented and is still referenced in the Tung Shing, a Chinese almanac. When Westerners introduced the seven-day week system to China, whether for religious, business, or colonial reasons, both the Chinese and the Westerners found the 28-day cycle useful. Sunday, for instance, was written as "星房虛昴," indicating the corresponding four days on the 28-day cycle, as easily found in the almanac. 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.
=== Month ===
Months are Moon oriented. Month (月; yuè), the time from one new moon to the next. These synodic months are about 29+17⁄32 days long. This includes the Date (日期; rìqī), when a day occurs in the month. Days are numbered in sequence from 1 to 29 (or 30). And, a Calendar month (日曆月; rìlì yuè), is when a month occurs within a year. Some months may be repeated. Months are defined by the time between new moons, which averages approximately 29+17⁄32 days. There is no specified length of any particular Chinese month, so the first month could have 29 days (short month, 小月) in some years and 30 days (long month, 大月) 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, resulting in deviations. The first new moon in 1968 was at 16:29 UTC on 29 January. Since North Vietnam used UTC+07:00 to calculate their Vietnamese calendar and South Vietnam used UTC+08:00 (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 29+43⁄81 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 (初); Chūyī (初一) is the first day of the month, and Chūshí (初十) the 10th. Days 11 to 20 are written as regular Chinese numerals; Shíwǔ (十五) is the 15th day of the month, and Èrshí (二十) the 20th. Days 21 to 29 are written with the character Niàn (廿) before the characters one through nine; Niànsān (廿三), for example, is the 23rd day of the month. Day 30 (when applicable) is written as the numeral Sānshí (三十).
=== Year ===
A year (年; nián) is based upon the time of one revolution of Earth around the Sun, rounded to whole days. Traditionally, the year is measured from the first day of spring (lunisolar year) or the winter solstice (solar year). 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 (閏月; rùnyuè). Years with 12 months are called common years, and 13-month years are known as long years. A solar year is astronomically about 365+31⁄128 days. A lunisolar calendar year is either 353–355 or 383–385 days long. The lunisolar calendar (日曆; 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, Zhēngyuè (正月; 'capital month'), and ends with the last winter month, Làyuè (臘月; 腊月; 'sacrificial month'). All other months are named for their number in the month order. See below on the timing of the Chinese New Year.
==== Solar year and solar terms ====