In the Spring and Autumn period (722 BCE – 481 BCE), China was divided into many states. Each state used its own calendar. In this period, we only have fragmented information about the calendar used by the Lu state from the chronicle Chunqiu revised by Confucius. This calendar is called Chunqiu here. The Chunqiu calendar here is reconstructed based on the information in Section 3.5 of the book Zhōng Guó Gǔ Dài Lì Fǎ (《中国古代历法》 or Ancient Chinese Calendars and Almanacs) written by Zhāng Péiyú (張培瑜), Chén Měidōng (陳美東), Bó Shùrén (薄樹人), and Hú Tiězhū (胡鐵珠), published by China Science Press (Beijing) in March 2008. Our computation method is explained on our Chunqiu Calendar page.
In addition to the Chunqiu calendar, three calendars Zhou, Yin and Xia (three of the gǔliùlì or ancient six calendars) are also provided for reference, although it is believed that they were developed in a later period. The calendars in gǔliùlì here are reconstructed based on the information in Section 3.6 of the book Ancient Chinese Calendars and Almanacs mentioned above. Our computation method is explained on our ancient six calendars page.
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In the Warring States period (480 BCE – 222 BCE), China was divided into many states. Each state used its own calendar. It was believed that there were six versions of calendars used by the states at that time. They are collectively called gǔliùlì or ancient six calendars. These six calendars were Zhou, Lu, Huangdi, Yin, Xia and Zhuanxu. They were all based on a similar algorithm. However, the first month of a year was not the same. The epoch (used to specify the initial data for the lunar conjunction and winter solstice) used in each calendar was also different. The calendars in gǔliùlì here are reconstructed based on the information in Section 3.6 of the book Zhōng Guó Gǔ Dài Lì Fǎ (《中国古代历法》 or Ancient Chinese Calendars and Almanacs) written by Zhāng Péiyú (張培瑜), Chén Měidōng (陳美東), Bó Shùrén (薄樹人), and Hú Tiězhū (胡鐵珠), published by China Science Press (Beijing) in March 2008. Our computation method is explained on our ancient six calendars page.
The calendar that is currently shown is the calendar. You can select a different calendar by clicking one of the buttons below.