The Revered Chinese Calendar

大家好！(I feel great to be here again!) This is the second article on the Chinese New Year series. In the last article, we learned how to greet Chinese during the New Year and how to appreciate the Spring Couplets. Today we will look at the Chinese calendar, which is more in tune with the natural rhythm of the universe and the earth compared to the regular calendar. We will mainly talk about the Chinese numerals and the Solar terms, the 24 points in the Chinese calendar that match particular astronomical events and signify some natural phenomenon, followed by how the Chinese use the calendar as guidance for their agricultural activities and celebrations. We will have fun!

First, the Chinese calendar, or 农历/nóng lì/, is a lunar calendar which arranges the year, month and day numbers based upon the astronomical date. It is also called 旧历/jiù lì/ or 阴历/ yīn lì/. In the Chinese calendar, the months begin on the day with the dark moon and end on the day before the next dark moon. There are 29 or 30 days in a month. A Month with 30 days is referred to as a long month (大月), and a month with 29 days is referred to as a short month (小月). Surprisingly,the Chinese calendar is not the official calendar of China, but it is no less important than the regular calendar: it determines the date for the Chinese traditional holidays. It also decides other things such as when to get married,have a funeral, when to open a business, or when to relocate.

In the Chinese calendar, the dates are normalized to two characters. The basic Chinese numerals are:

一、二、三、四、五、六、七、八、九、十。

yī ,   èr ,   sān , sì ,  wǔ ,  liù ,  qī ,  bā ,   jiǔ ,  shí .

The first 10 days in a month are: 初一、初二、初三、初四、初五、初六、初七、初八、初九、初十。初 /chū/ means the beginning. The first 10 days is also known as the fore xún (上旬).

The next 10 days in the month are: 十一、十二、十三、十四、十五、十六、十七、十八、十九、二十。Like arabic numerals, double digits are simply two numbers side by side with the tens digit on the left and the single unit digit on the right. 十一/shí yī/ represents the number 11. 二十/èr shí/ is the Chinese character for 20 and is often written as 廿 /niàn/ to make sure the numbers from 21 to 29 are still two characters. These middle 10 days is called the mid xún(中旬).

The last 10 days in the month are: 廿一、廿二、廿三、廿四、廿五、廿六、廿七、廿八、廿九、(三十)。三十 represents the number 30. These last 9 or 10 days is the back xún(下旬).

The solar terms, or 节气/jié qì/, are important components of the Chinese calendar. The solar terms are any of the 24 points in Chinese calendars that are spaced 15° apart along the ecliptic and are used to stay synchronized with the seasons. The solar terms are crucial for China which is traditionally an agrarian society. In the solar terms map below, the four seasons are marked clockwise with shades of green, red, yellow and blue:

                                                                        The List of Solar Terms

Folks created the “the song of Solar Terms” for easy memory.