26 definitions
Read a calendar page precisely
Similar-sounding ideas often belong to different parts of the system: a lunar month begins with the Moon, a solar branch month begins at a jie, and the familiar zodiac year changes at Chinese New Year. These definitions keep those boundaries explicit.
- Gregorian date
- A civil date in the internationally widespread Gregorian calendar, written on this site as YYYY-MM-DD.
- Chinese lunar date
- A year, lunar month and lunar day in the modern Chinese lunisolar calendar. A complete date must also say whether the month is a leap month.
- Lunisolar calendar
- A calendar whose months follow lunar cycles while solar rules keep the year aligned with the seasons.
- Lunar month
- A month beginning on a new-moon day and containing 29 or 30 numbered days. It is not the same as an almanac solar branch month.
- Leap month · 闰月
- A repeated lunar month inserted when the calendar rule requires it. It has the same month number as the preceding regular month but is a distinct month.
- Lunar year
- The interval from one Chinese New Year to the day before the next. It contains 12 lunar months in an ordinary year and 13 when a leap month is inserted.
- Solar term · 节气
- One of 24 equal 15-degree divisions of the Sun's apparent annual path. Each begins at an exact instant, displayed here in UTC+8.
- Jie · 节
- One of the 12 alternating solar terms that opens an almanac solar branch month. A jie does not directly open a lunar month.
- Qi · 气
- One of the 12 alternating solar terms between the jie. A qi marks solar longitude but does not open a branch month.
- Solar branch month
- A seasonal month used for sexagenary and almanac calculations, opened by a jie term and named for an Earthly Branch.
- Pentad · 候
- One of three inherited seasonal observations attached to each solar term, making 72 pentads across the annual cycle.
- Heavenly Stem · 天干
- One of ten signs that combines with an Earthly Branch to form the sexagenary cycle. A year's stem supplies the element in labels such as Wood Dragon.
- Earthly Branch · 地支
- One of 12 signs used in years, months, days and hours. The familiar zodiac animals are conventional labels for the 12 branches.
- Sexagenary cycle · 干支
- The 60-step cycle formed by pairing the ten Heavenly Stems with the twelve Earthly Branches in sequence.
- Zodiac animal · 生肖
- The animal conventionally associated with a year's Earthly Branch. The lunar-year animal changes at Chinese New Year, not on 1 January.
- Day pillar · 日柱
- The day's stem-and-branch pair in the 60-day cycle.
- Day officer · 建除十二神
- One of 12 recurring officers derived from the day's branch relative to the current solar-term month branch.
- Lunar mansion · 二十八宿
- One of 28 traditional sky lodges. Here the names repeat as daily almanac labels, independently of the Moon's measured sky position.
- Day god · 值日天神
- One of twelve traditional day deities, carrying a Huang Dao (auspicious) or Hei Dao (inauspicious) classification. This is separate from an individual activity's Yi/Ji list.
- Moon phase
- The changing appearance of the Moon's illuminated half. Its four principal phase moments are new moon, first quarter, full moon and last quarter.
- Na Yin · 纳音
- A fixed named Five-Phase image assigned to each pair of sexagenary pillars, yielding 30 names across 60 pillars.
- Peng Zu lines · 彭祖百忌
- Two traditional caution lines selected by the day's Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch.
- Yi · 宜
- Activities listed as suitable for a date in a traditional Chinese almanac.
- Ji · 忌
- Activities listed as unsuitable or to be avoided for a date in a traditional Chinese almanac.
- Sui · 虚岁
- Traditional nominal age: one at birth, increasing at each Chinese New Year. It is distinct from completed Gregorian years.
- China Standard Time · UTC+8
- The fixed UTC+8 offset used for exact solar-term instants on this site. Hong Kong standard time uses the same offset.