[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":294},["ShallowReactive",2],{"article:chinese-calendar-basics:en":3,"article-topic:date-selection:en":151,"related-articles:en:date-selection:chinese-calendar-basics:bazi-four-pillars":256},{"slug":4,"title":5,"description":6,"category":7,"topicSlug":8,"legacyPath":9,"authorId":10,"publishedAt":11,"updatedAt":12,"noindex":13,"summary":14,"sections":15,"references":115,"relatedTools":131,"seo":133,"contentImage":137},"chinese-calendar-basics","Chinese Calendar Basics: Understanding Traditional Timekeeping","A comprehensive introduction to the Chinese calendar system — solar and lunar components, stem-branch cycles, and how traditional timekeeping works.","Date Selection","date-selection","\u002Fpages\u002Farticles\u002Fzhongguo-nongli-jichu.html","chen-jun","2026-01-11","2026-10-16",false,"The Chinese calendar combines solar and lunar elements with a 60-year stem-branch cycle. Understanding it is essential for date selection and astrology.",[16,22,82,88,94,99,105,110],{"heading":17,"body":18},"Two periods that do not divide",[19,20,21],"A mean synodic month — new moon to new moon — is 29.5306 days. A tropical year is 365.2422 days. Twelve lunar months total 354.37 days, which leaves the calendar 10.88 days short of the sun every year, and the shortfall does not cancel out.","Nineteen tropical years come to 6939.60 days; 235 synodic months come to 6939.69 days. The two agree to within about two hours, which is the whole reason seven leap months in nineteen years works. Chinese calendrics named that cycle 章, and it was known long before it was explained.","The modern rule is not the nineteen-year cycle, though. Since the 時憲曆 of 1645, Chinese calendars have been built from 定朔 — the true, not the mean, new moon — plus one further rule that decides where the leap month falls.",{"heading":23,"body":24,"table":25},"The year 丙午, month by month","2026 is 丙午年. It begins on 17 February 2026 and has twelve months and no leap month. Each month holds exactly one 中氣, which is the test that decides whether a leap month is needed at all.",{"headers":26,"rows":31},[27,28,29,30],"Month","First day","Days","中氣 inside it",[32,37,42,46,50,54,58,62,66,70,74,78],[33,34,35,36],"正月","2026-02-17","29","雨水, 02-18",[38,39,40,41],"二月","2026-03-19","30","春分, 03-20",[43,44,35,45],"三月","2026-04-17","穀雨, 04-20",[47,48,40,49],"四月","2026-05-17","小滿, 05-21",[51,52,35,53],"五月","2026-06-15","夏至, 06-21",[55,56,35,57],"六月","2026-07-14","大暑, 07-23",[59,60,40,61],"七月","2026-08-13","處暑, 08-23",[63,64,35,65],"八月","2026-09-11","秋分, 09-23",[67,68,35,69],"九月","2026-10-10","霜降, 10-23",[71,72,40,73],"十月","2026-11-09","小雪, 11-22",[75,76,40,77],"十一月","2026-12-09","冬至, 12-22",[79,80,40,81],"十二月","2027-01-08","大寒, 2027-01-20",{"heading":83,"body":84},"The terms are solar longitude, not lunar dates",[85,86,87],"The 24 節氣 are not a feature of the lunar calendar at all. They divide the sun's apparent path into 24 arcs of 15° of ecliptic longitude, so 春分 is 0°, 夏至 90°, 秋分 180°, 冬至 270°, and 立春 — the start of the 八字 year — is 315°. Every term is a fixed position of the sun, and only its date moves.","That is why the terms drift against the lunar months and stay fixed against the Gregorian year: a solar marker keeps a solar date. It also explains why the 節氣 can be computed centuries ahead without any calendar at all, while the leap month cannot be decided without knowing where the new moons fall.","The split into 節 and 中氣 is a division of that same 24: the odd-numbered terms, counted from 立春, are 節 and open a solar month; the even-numbered ones are 中氣 and sit inside it. Twelve of each, alternating around the circle.",{"heading":89,"body":90},"The leap month is the month with no 中氣",[91,92,93],"The 24 節氣 alternate: twelve 節 mark the start of a solar month and twelve 中氣 sit in the middle of one. A 中氣 arrives every 30.4 days on average while a lunar month lasts 29.5, so roughly every two or three years a month slips entirely between two 中氣. That month is the leap month, and it takes the number of the month before it with 閏 prefixed.","This is why the leap month cannot be predicted by 'one every three years'. It has to be computed from the terms, and the answer moves around the year: 2026 needs none, while 2033 needs 閏十一月 beginning 22 December 2033.","2033 is the case calendrical writers keep returning to, because under slightly different 定朔 assumptions a different month can lose its 中氣 and the leap month shifts. The national standard GB\u002FT 33661-2017, 農曆的編算和頒行, fixed the procedure so that published calendars agree with each other.",{"heading":95,"body":96},"The stem-branch count runs on its own track",[97,98],"干支紀日 is a continuous sixty-day cycle with no reset. It has run without a break for more than two thousand years, which is why any date can be assigned a day pillar — 7 June 2026 is 壬子 — and why the day pillar is the most reliable of the four.","干支紀年 is where the ambiguity lives, because two different events start the year. The 農曆 year turns at 正月初一; the 八字 year turns at 立春. In 2026 those fall on 17 February and 4 February respectively, so for thirteen days the two systems disagree: 5 to 16 February is already 丙午 on a chart and still 乙巳 on a calendar. Anyone who has seen two sources give different animals for the same birth date has met this gap.",{"heading":100,"body":101},"A date read three ways",[102,103,104],"Take 7 June 2026. The 農曆 date is 丙午年四月廿二, the day pillar is 壬子, and the 節氣 in force is 芒種, which fell on 5 June.","The month is where the readings separate. 農曆 四月 runs from 17 May to 14 June, so the lunar month is the fourth. But the 八字 month changes at the 節, not at the new moon, and 芒種 on 5 June opened 午月. For the ten days between 5 June and 14 June the same date is 四月 on the calendar and 午月 in the chart: 丙午 甲午 壬子.","That ten-day window is the most common error in date-selection advice. A day chosen as 'the fourth lunar month' and a day chosen as '午月' are not the same set of days, and the difference is invisible unless the two cut points are named.",{"heading":106,"body":107},"Clock time is not chart time",[108,109],"農曆 dates and 節氣 are computed for UTC+8, the standard meridian. 八字 historically used local apparent solar time, 真太陽時. West of 120°E the sun crosses the meridian later than the clock says, so a recorded birth time needs correcting by longitude and by the equation of time before it becomes an hour pillar.","China also ran daylight saving from 1986 to 1991, which means a summer birth in those years was written down an hour ahead of standard time. That single hour can move the hour pillar into the previous 時辰, and the hour pillar is one of the four the whole reading rests on. Correcting it is not pedantry; it is the difference between two different charts.",{"heading":111,"body":112},"What the calendar decides, and what it does not",[113,114],"It decides nothing about events. What it provides is a coordinate system: every moment gets a year, month, day and hour pillar, and the relations between pillars — 沖, 合, 刑, 害 — are then computable rather than arguable. That is what 擇日 works on.","The distinction matters because the coordinate system is genuinely rigorous while the interpretation is not. Two people can check the pillars of a date and agree completely; they can then disagree about what the pillars mean, and no further computation settles it. Keeping those two steps apart is most of what makes the calendar usable.",[116,124],{"id":117,"kind":118,"title":119,"detail":120,"publisher":121,"url":122,"accessedAt":123},"jingchuSuishiji","traditional","Seasonal Customs of Jing-Chu (荆楚歲時記)","A sixth-century record of regional seasonal customs. Cited for the earliest written description of the ninth-day outing and the use of 茱萸; it is a historical text, not evidence for any effect of the date.","Wikisource digital text","https:\u002F\u002Fzh.wikisource.org\u002Fwiki\u002F%E8%8D%8A%E6%A5%9A%E6%AD%B2%E6%99%82%E8%A8%98","2026-10-14",{"id":125,"kind":126,"title":127,"detail":128,"publisher":129,"url":130,"accessedAt":12},"ianaTimeZones","practical","IANA Time Zone Database (tzdata)","The reference dataset for historical UTC offsets and daylight-saving transitions. Its Asia\u002FShanghai rules are the source for the 1986–1991 China summer-time dates used above.","Internet Assigned Numbers Authority","https:\u002F\u002Fiana.org\u002Ftime-zones",[132],"bazi-four-pillars",{"title":134,"description":135,"path":136},"Chinese Calendar Basics: Traditional Timekeeping","Learn Chinese calendar basics: solar and lunar components, stem-branch cycles, and traditional timekeeping.","\u002Farticles\u002Fchinese-calendar-basics",{"src":138,"srcByLocale":139,"alt":141,"altByLocale":142,"captionByLocale":145,"width":149,"height":150},"\u002Fimg\u002Farticles\u002Fchinese-calendar-basics.svg",{"tw":140},"\u002Fimg\u002Farticles\u002Fchinese-calendar-basics-tw.svg","Five stacked layers showing the lunar month, solar term, leap month, stem-branch day and almanac label that together make up a Chinese calendar date.",{"zh":143,"tw":144},"中国历法五层示意图：农历月、节气、闰月、干支日与通书宜忌标签，共同构成一个历法日期。","中國曆法五層示意圖：農曆月、節氣、閏月、干支日與通書宜忌標籤，共同構成一個曆法日期。",{"en":146,"zh":147,"tw":148},"Read the four arithmetic layers together — lunar month, solar term, leap month and day pillar — and treat the almanac entry underneath them as a label, not a measurement.","历法的四层是纯算术，可以复算；最下面那层通书标签属于传统分类，引用时应说明它是分类。","曆法的四層是純算術，可以複算；最下面那層通書標籤屬於傳統分類，引用時應說明它是分類。",1280,960,{"topic":152,"articles":183,"tools":249},{"slug":8,"title":153,"eyebrow":154,"description":155,"relatedTools":156,"articleIdeas":158,"seo":163,"sections":167},"Date Selection and Auspicious Timing","Chinese calendar and timing","Chinese date selection (择日, ze ri) read method-first: what the calendar fixes, what the almanac only labels, and the order in which a date should actually be chosen.",[157],"qi-men-dun-jia",[159,160,161,162],"Chinese Calendar Basics","Auspicious Wedding Dates","Best Days for Moving House","Business Opening Date Selection",{"title":164,"description":165,"path":166},"Date Selection and Auspicious Timing Guide","Chinese date selection read method-first: what the calendar fixes, what the almanac only labels, and the order in which a wedding, moving, opening or travel date should be chosen.","\u002Ftopics\u002Fdate-selection",[168,171,174,177,180],{"heading":169,"body":170},"What date selection actually is","Date selection is the traditional practice of matching an important event to a day the almanac treats as suitable. It is built on the Chinese calendar rather than on a separate oracle: the same solar terms, lunar months and stem-branch day cycle that underlie BaZi also produce the day's label. That makes it the most checkable corner of the tradition, because the arithmetic underneath it can be reproduced by anyone who knows where each solar month begins and how the day pillar is counted. The part that cannot be reproduced is the label itself. The 宜 and 忌 entries, the duty officer (建除) and the yellow-path and black-path markers belong to a particular almanac lineage. They are consistent inside that lineage and genuinely useful for organising a schedule, but they are classifications of a day, not measurements of one.",{"heading":172,"body":173},"Two layers: what the calendar fixes and what the almanac labels","Splitting a date-selection claim into two layers is the single most useful habit in this topic. The first layer is arithmetic. Which solar term opens the month, what the day pillar is, whether the day branch clashes with a given year branch, whether the hour falls inside the correct two-hour branch — these are fixed, repeatable, and two competent tools will agree on them. The second layer is the label. Whether the day is marked suitable for a wedding or unsuitable for breaking ground, which of the twelve duty officers is on duty, whether the day sits on the yellow path or the black path. This second layer is the tradition's own classification, and it should be quoted as such. Mixing the two layers is what turns a reproducible calculation into an unfalsifiable claim.",{"heading":175,"body":176},"What a chosen date can and cannot be checked for","What date selection can do is narrow a set of candidate dates down to the ones the tradition considers suitable, and give a family, a couple or a business a shared and legible reason for choosing among options that are otherwise equally practical. That is a real function: it converts an arbitrary decision into a deliberate one, and it marks the occasion as significant. What it cannot do is decide how a marriage, a business or a journey turns out. Those outcomes depend on the people, the market, the maintenance and the preparation. The defensible formulation is that the date is a symbol of intention the participants can act on, not a cause of the outcome they are hoping for. Keep the date on one side of that line and the decision on the other.",{"heading":178,"body":179},"Reading a date-selection claim in proportion","Date-selection advice usually arrives with more confidence than the method supports. A day marked favourable for a wedding, a move or an opening is a day the tradition classifies as suitable; it is not a day shown to produce better results. The reassuring specificity of an 宜 and 忌 list is exactly the kind of detail that makes a general statement feel personally accurate, which is why the practice survives so comfortably alongside practical planning. The useful response is not to dismiss it but to keep the claim where it belongs. Use the almanac to organise and to mark an occasion. Keep the decisions that carry real consequences — contracts, safety, health, money, custody of documents — on their own evidence, and let the date be a ritual that sits beside them rather than a reason to skip them.",{"heading":181,"body":182},"A working order for choosing a date","Choose a date in this order. Fix the practical constraints first: the venue, the movers, the permits, the flights, the people who have to be there. A date that fails those is unusable however it is labelled. Then write the surviving candidates in the ordinary calendar and compute the day pillar, checking the day branch against the year branch of the people involved — this is the one traditional test with a mechanical answer, and about half of all days will clash with any given year branch. If a chart has already established a favourable element, compare the day's stem with it. Then stop. Choosing a date does not require a second opinion, a third almanac, or a hunt for the single best day of the year. When two candidates both pass, the one that is easier for everyone involved is the better date.",[184,187,200,211,223,235],{"slug":4,"title":5,"description":6,"category":7,"topicSlug":8,"legacyPath":9,"authorId":10,"publishedAt":11,"updatedAt":12,"summary":14,"relatedTools":185,"seo":186},[132],{"title":134,"description":135,"path":136},{"slug":188,"title":189,"description":190,"category":7,"topicSlug":8,"legacyPath":191,"authorId":10,"publishedAt":192,"updatedAt":12,"summary":193,"relatedTools":194,"seo":196},"auspicious-wedding-dates","Selecting Auspicious Wedding Dates: A Complete Guide","A practical guide to selecting auspicious wedding dates using Chinese date selection principles — avoiding clashes, favorable elements, and personal compatibility.","\u002Fpages\u002Farticles\u002Fhunjia-ze-jiri.html","2026-01-13","Wedding date selection combines traditional calendar knowledge with personal BaZi compatibility to find the most harmonious day for marriage.",[195],"bazi-marriage",{"title":197,"description":198,"path":199},"Selecting Auspicious Wedding Dates: Complete Guide","Learn wedding date selection: avoiding clashes, favorable elements, and personal compatibility for harmonious marriage timing.","\u002Farticles\u002Fauspicious-wedding-dates",{"slug":201,"title":202,"description":203,"category":7,"topicSlug":8,"legacyPath":204,"authorId":10,"publishedAt":205,"updatedAt":12,"summary":206,"relatedTools":207,"seo":208},"moving-date-selection","Best Days for Moving House: Date Selection Guide","A practical guide to selecting the best days for moving house — traditional principles, personal compatibility, and modern practical considerations.","\u002Fpages\u002Farticles\u002Fbanjia-ze-jiri-wanquan.html","2026-01-15","Moving date selection considers traditional auspicious markers, personal birth chart compatibility, and practical factors like weather and logistics.",[157],{"title":202,"description":209,"path":210},"Learn moving date selection: traditional principles, personal compatibility, and practical considerations.","\u002Farticles\u002Fmoving-date-selection",{"slug":212,"title":213,"description":214,"category":7,"topicSlug":8,"legacyPath":215,"authorId":10,"publishedAt":216,"updatedAt":12,"summary":217,"relatedTools":218,"seo":220},"business-opening-dates","Auspicious Business Opening Dates: Selection Guide","A comprehensive guide to selecting auspicious dates for business openings — traditional principles, industry considerations, and owner compatibility.","\u002Fpages\u002Farticles\u002Fkaiye-ze-jiri.html","2026-01-17","Business opening date selection combines traditional timing principles with industry-specific factors and the owner personal chart for optimal launch timing.",[219],"bazi-career-wealth",{"title":213,"description":221,"path":222},"Learn business opening date selection: traditional principles, industry factors, and owner compatibility.","\u002Farticles\u002Fbusiness-opening-dates",{"slug":224,"title":225,"description":226,"category":7,"topicSlug":8,"legacyPath":227,"authorId":10,"publishedAt":228,"updatedAt":12,"summary":229,"relatedTools":230,"seo":232},"travel-date-selection","Safe Travel Date Selection: Traditional Guidelines","A practical guide to selecting safe and auspicious travel dates — traditional principles, direction considerations, and personal compatibility for journeys.","\u002Fpages\u002Farticles\u002Fchuxing-ze-jiri.html","2026-01-19","Travel date selection considers traditional safe travel markers, directional compatibility, and personal birth chart factors for smooth journeys.",[231],"meihua-yi-shu",{"title":225,"description":233,"path":234},"Learn travel date selection: safe travel markers, direction compatibility, and personal birth chart factors.","\u002Farticles\u002Ftravel-date-selection",{"slug":236,"title":237,"description":238,"category":239,"topicSlug":8,"legacyPath":240,"authorId":10,"publishedAt":241,"updatedAt":241,"summary":242,"relatedTools":243,"seo":244},"double-spring-blind-years","Double Spring and Blind Years: Calendar Arithmetic, Not a Verdict","Why one lunar year can hold two Start of Spring and the next none at all: the 354-day arithmetic behind it, the two-hundred-year count, and what the day table still lists.","Chinese Calendar","","2026-10-26","A lunar year holds two Start of Spring when it has thirteen months, and none when its 354 days fall between two of them. Over 1900-2099 that is 74 double years, 73 blind years and 53 with one, and the day table lists 宜嫁娶 about as often in a blind year as in a double one.",[132],{"title":245,"description":246,"path":247,"type":248},"Double Spring and Blind Years Explained","A lunar year gets two Start of Spring when it has thirteen months and none when it has twelve. The 200-year count, and why the day table is unaffected.","\u002Farticles\u002Fdouble-spring-blind-years","article",[250],{"slug":157,"title":251,"shortTitle":252,"description":253,"category":254,"status":255},"Qi Men Dun Jia Planning Board","Qi Men Dun Jia","Use a simplified Qi Men Dun Jia board to document a question, compare options, and keep practical evidence separate from symbolic planning prompts.","Divination","live",{"articles":257},[258,271,284],{"slug":259,"title":260,"description":261,"category":262,"topicSlug":263,"legacyPath":264,"authorId":10,"publishedAt":265,"updatedAt":56,"summary":266,"relatedTools":267,"seo":268},"bazi-five-elements-lookup","BaZi Five Elements Lookup","A practical introduction to the five elements in BaZi and how Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water are used in birth profile interpretation.","BaZi","bazi","\u002Fpages\u002Farticles\u002Fbazi-wuxing-chaxun.html","2025-09-01","The five elements are one of the easiest ways to begin reading BaZi. Learn what each element represents and why balance matters more than a simple good-or-bad label.",[195,132],{"title":260,"description":269,"path":270,"type":248},"Learn how the five elements are used in BaZi birth profile interpretation and relationship compatibility reports.","\u002Farticles\u002Fbazi-five-elements-lookup",{"slug":272,"title":273,"description":274,"category":7,"topicSlug":275,"legacyPath":276,"authorId":277,"publishedAt":278,"updatedAt":279,"summary":280,"relatedTools":281,"seo":282},"moving-day-auspicious-date","Auspicious Moving Day Selection","A practical guide to choosing an auspicious moving day with traditional date selection and modern moving logistics.","feng-shui-cures","\u002Fpages\u002Farticles\u002Fbanjia-ze-jiri.html","zhang-hao","2025-09-19","2026-10-15","Moving day selection works best when traditional timing supports real preparation, safety, cleaning, utilities, and a calm first entry.",[132,157],{"title":273,"description":274,"path":283},"\u002Farticles\u002Fmoving-day-auspicious-date",{"slug":285,"title":286,"description":287,"category":262,"topicSlug":263,"legacyPath":288,"authorId":10,"publishedAt":289,"updatedAt":56,"summary":290,"relatedTools":291,"seo":292},"is-bazi-fortune-telling-accurate","Is BaZi Fortune Telling Accurate?","Examine how birth-data quality, chart rules, school differences, and the Barnum effect shape the perceived accuracy of a BaZi reading.","\u002Fpages\u002Farticles\u002Fbazi-suanming-zhun-ma.html","2025-09-21","Chart calculation and interpretation are two different things, and two methods can disagree on the same chart. The limits that follow cover health, finance, law, and relationship decisions.",[132],{"title":286,"description":287,"path":293},"\u002Farticles\u002Fis-bazi-fortune-telling-accurate",1793614151622]