Lesson 1: Introduction To Chinese Astrology - The Basics
The Chinese Calendar
In order to truly understand Chinese astrology, we first must look at the Chinese calendar - or calendars as they use both a Lunar and a Solar calendar.
Western civilization uses only one calendar, a solar calendar that was devised by Julius Caesar in 46 BC and modified by Pope Gregory in AD 1582 - but a solar calendar is not fully accurate as the rotation of the Earth around the Sun is not an even number of days. This is why we have a leap year every four years.
The Chinese blend a combination of the solar and lunar calendar- and use both in various applications of astrology. Popular astrology uses the lunar calendar, which is why we have the Chinese New year starting on different days every year. Most Feng Shui astrology (including 4 Pillars analysis) uses the solar calendar.
Evidence of the earliest calendars was dated to the Shang Dynasty (1800-1200 BCE) and was inscribed on Oracle bones. This calendar established the solar year at 365 1/4 days and lunation at 29 1/2 days. An interesting history of the Chinese calendar (as well as calendars of other civilizations) can be found at http://webexhibits.org/calendars/calenda... .
According to the Chinese lunar calendar, the Winter Solstice must occur in the 11th month of the year, and the Chinese New Year on the second new moon after the solstice. Chinese years, months, and days are also assigned a name based upon the Chinese system of Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches in both solar and lunar calendars. In this cyclical system, each year, month, and day is associated with one of the 10 Heavenly Stems and 12 Earthly Branches. A week is counted off by these 10 days or stems, and also by 12 days, or branches. Each successive time period will have a new Stem and Branch, until one has been going through the Stems 6 times and the Branches 5 times, to give a total of 60 unique combinations.
The 60 year period is a very important concept in Chinese astrology - we have just entered a new period which began in February of 2004; the 8th period. This means that many of the popular Feng Shui books which gave guidance based on auspicious circumstances for the 7th period are now out of date!
In the case of years and dates, the Stem and Branch method gives a continuous cycle for thousands of years. This is similar for months, but in the case of a leap month, it is assigned its previous month's Branch/Stem combination with the leap designation added. A leap month is added to compensate for the facts that there isn't an even number of days in a moon cycle, there isn't an even number of moon cycles in a year, and there are at least three ways of measuring the length of a moon cycle!
The Chinese also divide time differently than we do in Western culture; a day consists of 12, 120 minute hours.
The solar calendar is called the Hsia calendar, and is used by the farmers as the Sun rules the seasons. The solar calendar breaks down the year into 24 "mini-seasons" or ch'i chieh. These subdivisions relate to the equinoxes and solstices.
By now, you should have a strong sense of the complexity and accuracy of the Chinese calendar systems and have a solid basis for understanding this system of astrology.
