Subject: bug#36918: 26.2.90; calendar: the chinese sexagesimal name for month is wrong

From: Zhang Haijun <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 5 Aug 2019 01:53:22 +0000

> p C (calendar-chinese-print-date) describes 2019-08-05 as follows:
> 
>  Cycle 78, year 36 (Ji-Hai), month 7 (Ren-Shen), day 5 (Jia-Xu)
> 
> and a quick online search revealed two websites[1][2] which give a
> similar description:
> 
>  Ji Hai Year (4717), Ren Shen Month (7), Jia Xu Day (5)
> 
> [1]: https://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/focus/calendar.htm

At the tail of the article in this page(https://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/astrology/60year-cycle.htm), it says:

 * The Gregorian year is approximate here. The accurate division is the Beginning of Spring (first of the 24 Solar Terms), although some online calendars adopt Chinese New Year as the division.

It mentions two division methods. The former is right (at the moment the ecliptic longitude is 315°). It differs too much with the latter(the first day of the first month), maybe saveral days like in this month(8 days).

> [2]: https://www.prokerala.com/general/calendar/chinese-year-converter.php
> 

The result in this page shows the month is Xin-Wei which is right:

https://www.prokerala.com/general/calendar/chinesecalendar.php

There are two seperated systems (or two calendars) in Chinese calendar. One of them is the 60-Year Cycle, which is the topic of this thread. It is standalone with the rest of Chinese calendar. It is a solar calendar. It is fully based on the 24 Solar Terms and has no relation with the rest of Chinese calendar. It is not commonly used. It is mainly used for scrying.