Coined Chinese characters: The 24 solar terms, part 4
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As is usually the case, the Wikipedia article on the Chinese calendar is comprehensive and built on consensus. It states:
The Chinese calendar, as the name suggests, is a lunisolar calendar created by or commonly used by the Chinese people. While this description is generally accurate, it does not provide a definitive or complete answer. A total of 102 calendars have been officially recorded in classical historical texts. In addition, many more calendars were created privately, with others being built by people who adapted Chinese cultural practices, such as the Koreans, Japanese, Vietnamese, and many others, over the course of a long history.
A Chinese calendar consists of twelve months, each aligned with the phases of the moon, along with an intercalary month inserted as needed to keep the calendar in sync with the seasons. It also features twenty-four solar terms, which track the position of the sun and are closely related to climate patterns. Among these, the winter solstice is the most significant reference point and must occur in the eleventh month of the year. Each month contains either twenty-nine or thirty days. The sexagenary cycle for each day runs continuously over thousands of years and serves as a determining factor to pinpoint a specific day amidst the many variations in the calendar. In addition, there are many other cycles attached to the calendar that determine the appropriateness of particular days, guiding decisions on what is considered auspicious or inauspicious for different types of activities.
Multiple versions
The variety of calendars arises from deviations in algorithms and assumptions about inputs. The Chinese calendar is location-sensitive, meaning that calculations based on different locations, such as Peking and Nanking, can yield different results. This has even led to occasions where the Mid-Autumn Festival was celebrated on different days between mainland China and Hong Kong in 1978, as some almanacs based on old imperial rule. The sun and moon do not move at a constant speed across the sky. While ancient Chinese astronomers were aware of this fact, it was simpler to create a calendar using average values. There was a series of struggles over this issue, and as measurement techniques improved over time, so did the precision of the algorithms. The driving force behind all these variations has been the pursuit of a more accurate description and prediction of natural phenomena.
The calendar during imperial times was regarded as sacred and mysterious. Rulers, with their mandate from Heaven, worked tirelessly to create an accurate calendar capable of predicting climate patterns and astronomical phenomena, which were crucial to all aspects of life, especially agriculture, fishing, and hunting. This, in turn, helped maintain their authority and secure an advantage over rivals. In imperial times, only the rulers had the authority to announce a calendar. An illegal calendar could be considered a serious offence, often punishable by capital punishment.
Early calendars were also lunisolar, but they were less stable due to their reliance on direct observation. Over time, increasingly refined methods for predicting lunar and solar cycles were developed, eventually reaching maturity around 104 BC, when the Taichu Calendar (太初曆), namely the genesis calendar, was introduced during the Han dynasty. This calendar laid the foundation for subsequent calendars, with its principles being followed by calendar experts for over two thousand years. Over centuries, the calendar was refined through advancements in astronomy and horology, with dynasties introducing variations to improve accuracy and meet cultural or political needs.
What I've quoted above is just a small part of the Wikipedia article. It would be pointless to address all aspects of the traditional, much less modern, Chinese calendars. The first in this series of posts was about coined Chinese characters for the 24 solar terms, and it remains so up to the present post. During the ensuing discussions, we have heard from the three most authoritative 21st century historians of Chinese astronomy in the English-speaking world. Now, in the present installment of this series, I have quoted from the encyclopedic coverage provided by Wikipedia. In my estimation, it would be unproductive, unnecessary, and unhelpful for gaining a better understanding of the original topic (the monographicization of the 24 disyllabic, digraphemic solar terms) if we were to continue pursuing sidetracks as we have in much of the recent commentary.
For a pleasant way to end this series of posts, here is a mnemonic "Song of Solar Terms" (simplified Chinese: 节气歌; traditional Chinese: 節氣歌; pinyin: jiéqìgē) that may be useful for easing the memorization of jieqi:
春雨驚春清穀天 |
春雨惊春清谷天 |
chūn yǔ jīng chūn qīng gǔ tiān, |
The first four lines provide a concise version of the names of the 24 jieqi. The last four lines provide some rules of thumb about the Gregorian dates of jieqi, namely:
- Two jieqi per month;
- Gregorian dates are off by one or two days at most;
- In the first half of the year, jieqi happens around the 6th and 21st day of each (Gregorian) month;
- In the second half of the year, jieqi happens around the 8th and 23rd day of each (Gregorian) month.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation in these deliberations.
finis
Selected readings
- "Coined Chinese characters: The 24 solar terms" (7/31/25)
- "Coined Chinese characters: The 24 solar terms, part 2" (8/6/25)
- "Coined Chinese characters: The 24 solar terms, part 3" (8/7/25)