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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_calendar
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Chinese calendar
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Not to be confused with Minguo calendar.
The Chinese calendar is a lunisolar calendar, incorporating elements of a lunar calendar with those of a solar calendar. It is not exclusive to China, but followed by many other Asian cultures. It is often referred to as the Chinese calendar because it was first perfected by the Chinese around 500 BCE [1]. In most of East Asia today, the Gregorian calendar is used for day-to-day activities, but the Chinese calendar is still used for marking traditional East Asian holidays such as the Chinese New Year (or Spring Festival (春節), not to be confused with Lunar New Year, which is the beginning for several lunisolar calendars), the Duan Wu festival, and the Mid-Autumn Festival, and in astrology, such as choosing the most auspicious date for a wedding or the opening of a building. Because each month follows one cycle of the moon, it is also used to determine the phases of the moon.
In China, the traditional calendar is often referred to as "the Xia Calendar" (simplified Chinese: 夏历; traditional Chinese: 夏曆; pinyin: xiàlì), following a comment in the Shiji which states that under the Xia Dynasty, the year began on the second new moon after the winter solstice. (At times under some other dynasties in ancient China, the year might begin on the first or third new moon after the winter solstice.) It is also known as the "agricultural calendar" (simplified Chinese: 农历; traditional Chinese: 農曆; pinyin: nónglì) while the Gregorian calendar is known as the "common calendar" (simplified Chinese: 公历; traditional Chinese: 公曆; pinyin: gōnglì). Another name for the Chinese calendar is the "Yin Calendar" (simplified Chinese: 阴历; traditional Chinese: 陰曆; pinyin: yīnlì) in reference to the lunar aspect of the calendar, whereas the Gregorian calendar is the "Yang Calendar" (simplified Chinese: 阳历; traditional Chinese: 陽曆; pinyin: yánglì) in reference to its solar properties. The Chinese calendar was also called the "old calendar" (simplified Chinese: 旧历; traditional Chinese: 舊曆; pinyin: jiùlì) after the "new calendar" (simplified Chinese: 新历; traditional Chinese: 新曆; pinyin: xīnlì), i.e., the Gregorian calendar, was adopted as the official calendar. Since the time of Emperor Wu of Han, starting the new year on the second new moon after the winter solstice has been the norm for more than two thousand years.
The year 2010 (to early 2011) in the Chinese calendar is the Year of the Tiger. It lasts from February 14, 2010, to February 02, 2011. According to traditional beliefs, some form of the calendar has been in use for almost five millennia. Based on archaeological evidence some form of it has been in use for three and a half millennia. It is reckoned in the seldom-used continuously numbered system as 4707 or 4647 (depending on the epoch used, see below "Continuously numbered years").
History
Early history
The earliest evidence of the Chinese calendar is found on the oracle bones of the Shang Dynasty (late second millennium BCE), which seem to describe a lunisolar year of twelve months, with a possible intercalary thirteenth, or even fourteenth, added empirically to prevent calendar drift. The Sexagenary cycle for recording days was already in use. Tradition holds that, in that era, the year began on the first new moon after the winter solstice.
Early Eastern Zhou texts, such as the Spring and Autumn Annals, provide better understanding of the calendars used in the Zhou dynasty. One year usually had 12 months, which were alternately 29 and 30 days long (with an additional day added from time to time, to catch up with "drifts" between the calendar and the actual moon cycle), and intercalary months were added in an arbitrary fashion at the end of the year.
These arbitrary rules on day and month intercalation caused the calendars of each state to be slightly different, at times. Thus, texts like the Annals will often state whether the calendar they use (the calendar of Lu) is in phase with the Royal calendar (used by the Zhou kings).
Although tradition holds that in the Zhou, the year began on the new moon which preceded the winter solstice, the Spring and Autumn Annals seem to indicate that (in Lu at least) the Yin calendar (the calendar used in Shang dynasty, with years beginning on the first new moon after the winter solstice) was in use until the middle of the 7th century, and that the beginning of the year was shifted back one month around 650 BC.
By the beginning of the Warring States, progress in astronomy and mathematics allowed the creation of calculated calendars (where intercalary months and days are set by a rule, and not arbitrarily). The sìfēn 四分 (quarter remainder) calendar, which began about 484 BCE, was the first calculated Chinese calendar, so named because it used a solar year of 365¼ days (the same as the 1st century BCE Julian Calendar of Rome), along with a 19-year (235-month) Rule Cycle, known in the West as the Metonic cycle.[2] The year began on the new moon preceding the winter solstice, and intercalary months were inserted at the end of the year.
In 256 BCE, as the last Zhou king ceded his territory to Qin, a new calendar (the Qin calendar) began to be used. It followed the same principles as the Sifen calendar, except the year began one month before (the second new moon before the winter solstice, which now fell in the second month of the year). The Qin calendar was used during the Qin dynasty, and in the beginning of the Western Han dynasty.
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