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🌺 Chinese Calendar Basic

🌺 Lunisolar Calendar

The Chinese calendar is a lunisolar calendar. It is the combination of both the lunar and the solar calendars. There are 365.242 days in a solar year and 354.367 days in a lunar year.

🌺 Leap Years and Months

Leap years are used to synchronize the solar and lunar calendars so that both calendars begin at approximately the same time each year. In the lunisolar calendar, there are 7 leap years in every 19-year cycle. A Chinese leap year has 13 months. On average there is an extra month every 2.7 years. A leap month may have 29 or 30 days. A leap month does not have a heaven-stem and earth-branch association. If a person is born on or before the 14th or 15th day of the leap month, the previous month (the month before the leap month) is considered the birth month. If a person is born on or after the 14th or 15th day of the leap month, the next month, (the after the leap month) is considered the birth month.

If a person is born in a leap month, to ensure accuracy, always generate two Life Charts and compare the results. Choose the one that is most accurate. Note: Solar terms are not used in Polaris Astrology.

🌺 Stems and Branches System (Sexagenary Cycle)

The Chinese calendar also uses the Stem and Branch system to record time. The Stems and Branches are also known as Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches or Celestial Stems and Terrestrial Branches. The terms have not been standardized. This website uses Heaven-Stems and Earth-Branches, or sometimes just Stems and Branches. The reason is that it is as close as it gets to a literal translation from Chinese to English.

There are a total of 10 Heaven Stems and 12 Earth Branches. The names of each year, month, day, and shi-chen (one shi-chen is two hours) are derived from a combination of one Heaven Stem with one Earth Branch. There are a total of 60 possible Stem and Branch combinations (10 x 12 = 60) in one cycle. The combinations are repeated after each cycle. This sixty-stem and Branch cycle is called the sexagenary cycle.

🌺 The names and sequences of heaven stems, earth branches, and their combinations

Yin

Yang

🌺 Stems and Branches Sequence Number

For ease of memorization, the website uses the stem and branch sequence numbers to refer to the names of each stem and branch.

🌲Heaven Stems: There are a total of 10 Heaven Stems, which are sequenced numbers from h1 to h10.

🌿Earth Branches: There are a total of 12 Earth Branches, which are sequenced numbers from e1 to e12.

🌺 Stems and Branches Naming System

🌺 Year Stems and Year Branches

The names of each Chinese year are named after a stem in combination with a branch, starting from h1e1(甲子) the first year to h10e12(癸亥) the last year. Each cycle is 60 years. One 60-year cycle is called a Yuan (元). 3-Yuan is 180 years, consists of Upper Yuan, Middle Yuan, and Lower Yuan. The 3-Yuan system is typically used in Feng Shui, not in Polaris Astrology. Both the year stem and year branch are used in Polaris Astrology. They are used separately, not in combination.

Sexagenary Cycle

1 甲子 Jia Zi	2 乙丑 Yi Chou	3 丙寅 Bing Yin	4 丁卯 Ding Mao	5 戊辰 Wù Chen	6 己巳 Ji Si	7 庚午 Geng Wǔ	8 辛未 Xin Wei	9 壬申 Ren Shen	10 癸酉 Gui You
11 甲戌 Jia Xu	12 乙亥 Yi Hai	13 丙子 Bing Zi	14 丁丑 Ding Chou	15 戊寅 Wù Yin	16 己卯 Ji Mao	17 庚辰 Geng Chen	18 辛巳 Xin Si	19 壬午 Ren Wǔ	20 癸未 Gui Wei
21 甲申 Jia Shen	22 乙酉 Yi You	23 丙戌 Bing Xu	24 丁亥 Ding Hai	25 戊子 Wù Zi	26 己丑 Ji Chou	27 庚寅 Geng Yin	28 辛卯 Xin Mao	29 壬辰 Ren Chen	30 癸巳 Gui Si
31 甲午 Jia Wǔ	32 乙未 Yi Wei	33 丙申 Bing Shen	34 丁酉 Ding You	35 戊戌 Wù Xu	36 己亥 Ji Hai	37 庚子 Geng Zi	38 辛丑 Xin Chou	39 壬寅 Ren Yin	40 癸卯 Gui Mao
41 甲辰 Jia Chen	42 乙巳 Yi Si	43 丙午 Bing Wǔ	44 丁未 Ding Wei	45 戊申 Wù Shen	46 己酉 Ji You	47 庚戌 Geng Xu	48 辛亥 Xin Hai	49 壬子 Ren Zi	510 癸丑 Gui Chou
51 甲寅 Jia Yin	52 乙卯 Yi Mao	53 丙辰 Bing Chen	54 丁巳 Ding Si	55 戊午 Wù Wǔ	56 己未 Ji Wei	57 庚申 Geng Shen	58 辛酉 Xin You	59 壬戌 Ren Xu	60 癸亥 Gui Hai

🌺 Month Stems and Month Branches

The names of the Chinese months are named in the same way as years. Leap months DO NOT have a stem-branch association.

🌺 Day Stems and Day Branches

The names of the Chinese days are named in the same way as the years. Among all the stems and branches, the day stem is the most important in the Four Pillar Fortune Analysis (FPFA). In FPFA, the day stem is called "Ri-Yaun (日元 Rì yuán)". It represents "the self". If a person's day stem is h1(甲), then their element is yang wood (positive wood). Although this concept is not used in Polaris Astrology, some astrologers combine it with Polaris astrology.

The FPFA is often referred to as the "Eight Characters (八字Bāzì)". It is called the Eight Characters because eight Chinese characters are used to describe a person's birthday. The eight characters are the year stem and year branch, the month stem and month branch, the day stem and day branch, and the time stem and time branch.

Traditionally, the Chinese language is written from top to bottom and then from right to left. If each of the four stems were stacked on top of the four branches, it would resemble four pillars. The FPFA is often referred to in the West as Chinese astrology. speaking, the FPFA is not Chinese astrology. It is a fortune analyzing method based mainly on the philosophy of Yin Yang and the Five Elements.

🌺 Time Branch

Time branches are named in the same way as year branches. In the Chinese calendar system, a day has "12 shi-chen (時辰 Shíchén)", which means that a day is divided into 12 sections. One shi-chen is two hours. 12 shi-chen is 24 hours (one day). Each shi-chen is associated with an earth branch. The first Shi-Chen of the day is e1(子), which begins at 23:00 and ends at 00:59 the next day. The last shi-chen of the day is e12(亥 Hài), which begins at 21:00 and ends at 22:59 the same day.

🌺 At What Time Does a Day Begins

Because the first shi-chen begins at 23:00, some fortune tellers believe that a day should begin at 23:00. Therefore, if a person is born at 23:00 (11:00 p.m.), their birth date would be considered the next day.

However, many famous Polaris astrologers firmly believe that a day should begin at mid-Zi (12:00 a.m., midnight). Using this method, there will be two one-hour e1 (子 Zi) branches on the same day. If a person is born between 23:00 and 23:59, their birth branch is called the Night Zi. If a person is born between 00:00 and 00:59, their birth branch is called the Morning Zi. This website uses Mid-Zi (12:00 midnight) as the beginning of the day. The practice of using Mid-Zi began around the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD).