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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese calendar | 6/8 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_calendar | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T14:20:08.278657+00:00 | kb-cron |
The solar year (traditional Chinese: 歲; simplified Chinese: 岁; pinyin: Suì), the time between winter solstices, is divided into 24 periods. Each period corresponds to a 15°-portion of the ecliptic. The 24 moments of transition, known as jié qì (節氣), solar terms or solar nodes, mark off the seasons (both Western and Chinese), corresponding to equinoxes, solstices, and other Chinese events. The solar terms are paired–one corresponding to the sun being a multiple of 30° from a solstice, called "major" terms, or Zhōngqì, and the other corresponding to the sun being 15° further west (earlier in the year), called "minor" terms. (The word jié qì can also be used to refer just to these.) The solar terms qīng míng (清明) around 5 April and dōng zhì (冬至) around 22 December are celebrated events in China. The solar year (suì, 歲; 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 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 lunisolar month split between two solar years is considered the 11th month. If there are 12 complete 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+385⁄1539 (365.25016) days. A solar year of the 13th-century Shòushí calendar is 365+97⁄400 (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.
If there are 12 complete lunisolar months within a solar year, the first lunisolar month that does not contain a major term is designated the leap, or intercalary, month. (Quite rarely there is a year having a month that contains no major term but which is not counted as a leap month because there is another month later which contains two. This will happen in 2033.) Leap months are numbered with rùn 閏, the character for "intercalary", plus the name of the month they follow. In 2017, the intercalary month after month six was called Rùn Liùyuè, or "intercalary sixth month" (閏六月) and written as 6i or 6+. The next intercalary month (in 2020, after month four) is called Rùn Sìyuè (閏四月) and written 4i or 4+. Leap months occur on average once in 2+5⁄7 years, or 33+4⁄7 months (because of the Metonic cycle of 19 years equaling 235 months), but this varies because the speed of the moon, and of the sun, varies.
=== Planets === The movements of the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn (sometimes known as the seven luminaries) are the references for calendar calculations.
The distance between Mercury and the sun is less than 30° (the sun's height at chénshí:辰時, 8:00 to 10:00 am), so Mercury was sometimes called the "chen star" (辰星); it is more commonly known as the "water star" (水星). Venus appears at dawn and dusk and is known as the "bright star" (啟明星; 启明星) or "long star" (長庚星; 长庚星). Mars looks like fire and occurs irregularly, and is known as the "fire star" (熒惑星; 荧惑星 or 火星). Mars is the punisher in Chinese mythology. When Mars is near Antares (心宿二), it is a bad omen and can forecast an emperor's death or a chancellor's removal (荧惑守心). Jupiter's revolution period is 11.86 years, so Jupiter is called the "age star" (歲星; 岁星); 30° of Jupiter's revolution is about a year on earth. Saturn's revolution period is about 28 years. Known as the "guard star" (鎮星), Saturn guards one of the 28 Mansions every year.
=== Stars ===
==== Big Dipper ====
The Big Dipper is the celestial compass, and its handle's direction indicates the season and month.
==== 3 Enclosures and 28 Mansions ====
The stars are divided into Three Enclosures and 28 Mansions according to their location in the sky relative to Ursa Minor, at the center. Each mansion is named with a character describing the shape of its principal asterism. The Three Enclosures are Purple Forbidden, (紫微), Supreme Palace (太微), and Heavenly Market (天市). The eastern mansions are 角, 亢, 氐, 房, 心, 尾, 箕. Southern mansions are 井, 鬼, 柳, 星, 張, 翼, 軫. Western mansions are 奎, 婁, 胃, 昴, 畢, 參, 觜. Northern mansions are 斗, 牛, 女, 虛, 危, 室, 壁. The moon moves through about one lunar mansion per day, so the 28 mansions were also used to count days. In the Tang dynasty, Yuan Tiangang (袁天罡) matched the 28 mansions, seven luminaries and yearly animal signs to yield combinations such as "horn-wood-flood dragon" (角木蛟).
===== List of lunar mansions ===== The names and determinative stars of the mansions are:
== Sexagenary system == Several coding systems are used to avoid ambiguity. The Heavenly Stems is a decimal system. The Earthly Branches, a duodecimal system, mark dual hours (時; 时; shí or 時辰; 时辰; shíchen) and climatic terms. The 12 characters progress from the first day with the same branch as the month (first Yín day (寅日) of Zhēngyuè; first Mǎo day (卯日) of Èryuè), and count the days of the month.
Years, months, days of the month and hours could traditionally numbered by the terminology of the Chinese sexagenary cycle. The stem-branches is a sexagesimal system. The Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches make up 60 stem-branches. The stem branches mark days and years. The five Wu Xing elements are assigned to each stem, branch, or stem branch.