Chinese Lunisolar Calendar

The Chinese calendar (Zhongli 中历) is the traditional calendar that was used in China before the official introduction of the Julian calendar in 1912. The Chinese calendar is also called "peasant calendar" (nongli 农历) or "old calendar" (jiuli旧历). It is still widely used among the people in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Chinese abroad. The peasant calendar divides a year into 24 solar terms (ershisi jieqi 二十四节气) whose names indicate agricultural activities. This traditional calendar has been used since the Xia Dynasty and therefore is also called "Xia calendar" (Xiali 夏历). Because the calculation of this calendar is based on the phases of the Moon that has a nature of yin (阴), it is also called "Yin calendar" (yinli 阴历). The course of the months is related to the new-moon phase. In order to make the calendar align with the seasons, it is necessary to add an intercalary month (runyue 闰月) every two or three years. A year with an intercalary month is called runnian 闰年. The Chinese calendar is also a lunisolar calendar. At present, a day starts from midnight. But in ancient China, the starting time of a day can be inferred from the historically recorded lunar and solar eclipses. The astronomers in the Shang Dynasty (1781-1116 BC) recorded many lunar and solar eclipses along with the cyclic numbers of days (1 to 60). Interestingly, the cyclic number of days did not change from one sunset to another. This implies that a day should have started at sunset just like in the nation of Israel. The first month is called zhengyue (正月), but the other months are given regular numbers, like eryue (二月,second month), sanyue  (三月,third month), and so on. Each month begins on a new-moon (dark-moon) day. This day is called the first day (chuyi 初一) of the month. There are "long months" (dayue 大月) with lengths of 30 days, and "small months" (xiaoyue 小月) with lengths of 29 days. The beginning of the first month of the traditional peasant calendar is oriented towards the Winter Solstice, the day on which the day is the shortest and the night the longest (December 21 according to the Julian calendar). The New-Year's Day (yuandan 元旦) of the traditional Chinese calendar (Xia calendar) is the day of the second new moon following the Winter Solstice. During the Xia Dynasty (2218-1781 BC) the beginning of the year was on the first day of the first month (zhengyue chuyi 正月初一). During the Shang Dynasty, the first day of the twelfth month of the Xia calendar was the beginning of the year. During the Zhou Dynasty (1116-314 BC), the first day of the eleventh month of the Xia calendar was the beginning of the year. During the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD), the beginning of the year was shifted back to the first day of the first month of the Xia calendar, which has not been changed until today. Chinese New Year in the Xia calendar shall fall on the new moon that is closest to the solar term li chun (start of spring) that typically falls on February 4. In many normal years, the first month of the Xia calendar corresponds to the 12^th month of the Hebrew calendar. The first day of a month and the beginning of a day in ancient China are almost identical to those in ancient and modern Israel.