\[ **BT: [[China]] | [[technology#calculating devices the abacus, tally sticks, mechanical and electromechanical calculators]]** ] --- # the Chinese calendar ## a history of Chinese time-reckoning ### Stems-and-Branches [[Prior the 20th century, China relied solely upon the lunar calendar and used a sexagenary cycle to ‘count day and year’.]][^1] [[Historically, ancient Chinese time-keeping was calculated via the ‘Heavenly Stems’ and ‘Earthly Branches’; i.e. ‘Stems-and-Branches’ (干支, gānzhī).]][^2] [[Song (2024) writes, ‘In ancient China, the year was identified by two characters—the first from one of the 10 Stems, the second from one of the 12 Branches. The first combination is always Jia-Zi, while the last is always Gui-Hai.’]][^3] - see also: [[astrology, Chinese|Chinese astrology]] ### calculation by sound [[In early imperial China, there was a belief that sound was distributed in certain ways throughout the year; calculating and measuring this was as critical as calculating the seasons.]][^4] [^1]: Ping Yao, *[[Yao, Women, Gender, and Sexuality in China, 2022|Women, Gender, and Sexuality in China: A Brief History]]* (Routledge, 2022), p. vii. [^2]: Sophie Song, ‘[[Song, ‘Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches’, 2024|Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches: Origin and Charts]]’, *Chinese New Year*, last edited 27 September 2024, https://chinesenewyear.net/heavenly-stems-and-earthly-branches/; Ping Yao, *[[Yao, Women, Gender, and Sexuality in China, 2022|Women, Gender, and Sexuality in China: A Brief History]]* (Routledge 2022), p. viii; ‘干支 \[gān zhī]’, Chinese English Pinyin Dictionary, *yabla*, accessed 15 May 2026, https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-english-pinyin-dictionary.php?define=%E5%B9%B2%E6%94%AF%20’. [^3]: Sophie Song, ‘[[Song, ‘Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches’, 2024|Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches: Origin and Charts]]’, *Chinese New Year*, last edited 27 September 2024, https://chinesenewyear.net/heavenly-stems-and-earthly-branches/ [^4]: Noa Hegesh, ‘[[Hegesh, ‘Mind the Gap’, 2021|Mind the Gap: Acoustical Answers to Cosmological Concerns in First-Century B.C.E. China]]’, *Isis*, vol. 112, no. 4 (2021), p. 649, https://doi.org/10.1086/717069.