Stop arguing! Should the Chinese zodiac sign be changed according to the Spring Festival or the Beginning of Spring? Finally there is an answer

As to when to change the zodiac sign, the " Lichun faction " and the " Spring Festival faction " would have heated debates around the New Year.

The "Lichun faction" believes that although the New Year starts on the first day of the Lunar New Year, the zodiac sign should be counted from the beginning of spring, and the zodiac sign should be changed "at the beginning of spring". They believe that the Lichun solar term cycle is fixed (365/366 days), and the time cycle of each zodiac sign is the same, which is consistent with the cycle of the sun and is more in line with the natural rhythm. Some even believe that the zodiac sign should change according to the time of the Lichun solar term.

The "Spring Festival School" advocates that the first day of the Lunar New Year is the beginning of the new year and the beginning of the zodiac sign, which is a distinctive feature of the traditional Chinese calendar.

For example, this year's Lichun is on February 4, and the Spring Festival is on February 10. According to the "Lichun School", babies born after February 4, 2024 should be dragons, and according to the "Spring Festival School", babies born before February 10, 2024 should be rabbits.

Who is right and who is wrong? To clear up the fog of this case, we need to understand the characteristics of the lunar calendar and its status in traditional society.

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Ancient Lunar Calendar

A symbol of dynastic power

The calendar was sacred in ancient society, because the central dynasty had the power to issue the calendar, and accepting and using it represented submission to the dynasty. In ancient times, the first day of each month was the beginning of the month, and the first day of the first lunar month was the beginning of the year, which was called " zhengshuo ".

The vassal states had to accept the calendar bestowed by the central dynasty and live according to the calendar regulations. This was called "issuing the orthodox calendar" and "following the orthodox calendar." The word "orthodox calendar" changed from an astronomical calendar term to a political term.

In ancient times, a new calendar was printed every year, which recorded the new year's reign, the zodiac signs, the new moon and full moon, the solar terms, and other time information, as well as some information on divination. Only the central dynasty could formulate and print such a "yellow calendar" or "imperial calendar". Private printing was prohibited, let alone compiling it by the people. Violators would be beheaded.

For example, the cover of the Ming Dynasty's Datong Calendar reads, "The Imperial Astronomical Observatory has approved the printing of the Datong Calendar, which is distributed throughout the country. Counterfeiters will be executed according to the law. Anyone who can report the arrest will be rewarded with 50 taels of silver. If there is no seal of the Imperial Astronomical Observatory, it will be regarded as a private calendar."

Chinese zodiac signs in ancient times

It is a method of dating

What we should understand is that the Chinese zodiac was a way of recording years in ancient times . The so-called recording years is to tell people what year it is.

The Ganzhi calendar is a cycle of 10 Heavenly Stems and 12 Earthly Branches. Jiazi, Yichou, etc., exactly 60 Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches make up one cycle. The Ganzhi calendar begins on the first day of the first lunar month each year.

Ten Heavenly Stems: Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, Gui

The twelve earthly branches: Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu, Hai

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The Chinese zodiac is not unique to China. Using animals to record years is a common phenomenon in many civilizations around the world. The earliest explanation of the twelve zodiac signs using the twelve earthly branches was found in Wang Chong's Lun Heng: The Chapter on Things and Situations in the Eastern Han Dynasty. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Chinese zodiac became the official method of recording years.

The "Book of Northern History: Biography of Yuwen Hu" records a letter written by Yuwen Hu's mother to him, which says: "Your brothers were born in Wuchuan Town. The eldest is a rat, the second is a rabbit, and you are a snake." Other historical books that explicitly mention the zodiac are "The Book of Southern Qi: Records of the Five Elements", which records that "Donghun Hou was a pig" and "Cui Huijing was a horse."

The "ji nian" in the "ganzhi zodiac calendar" refers to the "nian" that starts on the first day of the first lunar month. When the ancients calculated their age, they also used the lunar year, month and day instead of the 24 solar terms.

The practice of using the year, month and day as the standard even affected the ancients' understanding of the Lichun solar term, leading to misunderstandings. For example, there is a saying among the people that there are "early Lichun and late Lichun", such as "early Lichun means full grain, late Lichun means full people", which means that the years with "early Lichun" are good years with full grain warehouses, while the years with "late Lichun" are bad years.

This shows that in ancient times when the royal family monopolized astronomical knowledge, the general public regarded the lunar year, month and day as the "standard timekeeping", not knowing that there was no difference between the beginning of spring and the beginning of spring, but that its date in the lunar calendar drifted back and forth.

The saying of "changing zodiac signs at the beginning of spring"

It arose from the people

So why do many people now believe that the Chinese zodiac should be calculated from the beginning of spring? This is because after the establishment of the Republic of China, the government switched to the Gregorian calendar, and the traditional calendar was called the "Xia calendar" or "old calendar", and later unified as the "Lunar calendar".

The Republic of China initially wanted to directly abolish the lunar calendar, which would have resulted in a phenomenon that had never happened in Chinese history—the central government removed the sacred veil of the calendar and gave up the right to formulate the old calendar.

So at this time , folk fortune tellers began to publicly print private calendars, and by the way, seized the right to interpret divination information . At the same time, with the introduction of the Gregorian calendar, the "solar calendar" that is synchronized with the earth's revolution cycle became commonly understood knowledge and was taken seriously by fortune tellers. "Zodiac signs" as part of traditional divination were also reinterpreted by fortune tellers.

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Of course, if we trace the history of so-called numerology, we can indeed find that ancient fortune tellers also used the practice of changing the zodiac sign during the Beginning of Spring. But it is more of a trick than a "science" . Because one of the skills of fortune tellers is to replace familiar things (such as the year, month and day of birth) with unfamiliar symbols (the eight characters of the heavenly stems and earthly branches) to achieve the purpose of fooling people.

As mentioned earlier, calendar knowledge such as the Beginning of Spring is not generally mastered by people, so using it can also gain people's trust in the "professionalism" of fortune tellers - this is also one of the reasons why today's "fortune-telling" scholars strongly advocate changing the zodiac sign at the Beginning of Spring.

But we must not forget that the Chinese zodiac is a way for people to record years and calculate age, while the lunar calendar calculates age based on the year, month, and day, not the solar terms. The practice of "changing the Chinese zodiac at the beginning of spring" will not bring any benefits except to cause confusion and facilitate fortune tellers to fool people .

“Change your zodiac sign on the first day of the Lunar New Year”

It is the official conclusion

In Chinese tradition, the most important day is the first day of the Lunar New Year. Its significance is reflected in Wang Anshi's poem "New Year's Day":

The year ends with the sound of firecrackers.

The spring breeze brings warmth to the Tu Su.

The sun shines brightly in every house.

Always replace the old talisman with a new one.

Furthermore, even if we talk about the solar terms, the most important solar term is not the Beginning of Spring, but the Winter Solstice . Because among the four seasons and eight solar terms (Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, Autumnal Equinox, Winter Solstice, Beginning of Spring, Beginning of Summer, Beginning of Autumn, Beginning of Winter), the equinoxes and solstices are the easiest to observe, and the "Four Beginnings" are calculated based on the former.

During the winter solstice, the sun is at its lowest altitude at noon and its shadow is the longest. Therefore, for astronomers, accurately measuring and calculating the winter solstice is the basis for calculating the calendar date. The winter solstice must be set in the eleventh month of the lunar calendar. In folk customs, it is commonly known as "the first yang is born on the winter solstice" and "the winter solstice is as important as the New Year."

The "changing zodiac sign at the beginning of spring" is just a new invention after the rise of private calendars, and it is not an original setting of the traditional lunar calendar. The only unit in China that studies and compiles calendars, the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has a Gregorian and lunar calendar query on its official website, as well as all published astronomical calendars and almanacs, People's Daily, etc. All official zodiac and astronomical calendars start on the first day of the first lunar month .

The national standard "Compilation and Issuance of the Lunar Calendar" (standard number: GB/T 33661-2017) promulgated in 2017 also clearly stipulates the cyclic reference time of the zodiac year, which corresponds to the Ganzhi year system. For example, the lunar year from 0:00 on February 2, 1984 (the first day of the Lunar New Year) to 24:00 on February 19, 1985 is the Jiazi year, and the corresponding zodiac sign is the Year of the Rat.

With the above standards, combined with our understanding of the lunar calendar, we can be clear that the zodiac signs are changed starting from the first day of the Lunar New Year. This is the true Chinese cultural tradition.

In fact, the easiest way is to open the calendar software on your phone, and you will find that the zodiac sign changes on the first day of the first lunar month.

Image source: Mobile phone screenshot

Planning and production

This article is a work of Science Popularization China-Starry Sky Project

Produced by: Science Popularization Department of China Association for Science and Technology

Producer｜China Science and Technology Press Co., Ltd., Beijing Zhongke Xinghe Culture Media Co., Ltd.

Author: Sun Zhengfan, PhD in Astronomy, popular science author

Reviewer: Wang Hongzhi, Associate Professor, School of Humanities, Shanghai Normal University

Planning丨He Tong

Editor: He Tong