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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 Year and Month

Leap years are used to synchronize the solar calendar and the lunar calendar so that both calendars begin at approximately the same time each year. There are 7 leap years in every 19 years. 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 used as the birth month; if a person is born on or after the 14th or 15th day of the leap month, the next month, the month after the leap month, is used as the birth month.

If you or someone you know was born in a leap month. To ensure accuracy, always make two astrological charts and compare the results. Choose the most accurate one. Note: Solar terms are not used of Polaris Astrology.

🌺 Stems and Branches System (Sexagenary Cycle)

The Chinese calendar also uses the Stem and Branch system to record times. The Stems and Branches may also be called Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches or Celestrial Stems and Territorial Branches. The terms have not been standardized. This website uses the terms Heaven-Stems and Earth-Branches, or sometimes just Stems and Branches. The reason for this is that it is as close as possible 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 named with one heaven stem in combination 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, the sequence numbers are from h1 to 10.

🌿Earth Branches: There are a total of 12 Earth Branches, the sequence numbers are 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. A 60-year cycle is called a yuan (元). 3-Yuan is 180 years, consisting of Upper Yuan, Middle Yuan, and Lower Yuan. 3-Yuan is used in Feng Shui, not of Polaris Astrology. Both the year stem and year branch are used of 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

Months are named in the same way as years. Leap months DO NOT have a stem-branch association.

🌺 Day Stems and Day Branches

Day stems and day branches are named the same way as year stems and year branches.

Among all the stems and branches, the day stem is the most important in the Four Pillar Divination. In the Four Pillar Divination, the day stem is called Ri-Yaun (日元). 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 of Polaris Astrology, some astrologers combine it with Polaris astrology.

The Four Pillar Divination is often referred to as the Eight Divination method. 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 Four Pillar Divination is offended called Chinese Astrology in the West. Strictly speaking, the Four Pillar Divination is not Chinese astrology. It is a fortune-telling 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. But what time does the day start? In the Chinese calendar system, a day has 12 shi-chen (時辰), 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 last shi-chen of the day is e12(亥), which begins at 21:00 and ends at 22:59. The first Shi-Chen of the day is e1(子), which begins at 23:00 and ends at 00:59 the next day.

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 were 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 am, midnight), and using this method, there will be two one-hour e1(子) branches on the same day. If a person is born between 21:00 and 21:59, 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).