Last revised: 2026年10月18日
简体中文 ｜ 繁體中文 ｜ English ｜ 日本語 ｜ 한국어
The glossary is split into nineteen groups, one page each. Groups are listed by category; the five language pages correspond item for item.
- 1 · Calendars and calendrical computation
- 2 · The year, the months and intercalation
- 3 · Solar terms and phenology
- 4 · Counting days, years and hours
- 5 · Phases, conjunctions and eclipses
- 6 · The sky and its coordinates
- 7 · Instruments, star officials and charts
- 8 · The calendar in use
- 9 · The five planets and planetary phenomena
- 10 · The three enclosures and the circumpolar sky
- 11 · The four images and the twenty-eight mansions
- 12 · Star names, catalogues, the Milky Way and cosmology
- 13 · Lunar phases (modern names)
- 14 · Periods of year and month, and time systems (modern)
- 15 · The twelve double-hour names
- 16 · Coordinates and culmination (modern)
- 17 · Exceptional phenomena
- 18 · Observational instruments (further)
- 19 · Divination and day-selection
简体中文 ｜ 繁體中文 ｜ English ｜ 日本語 ｜ 한국어
Overview. The terms of traditional Chinese calendrics and uranography — the words you cannot get around when reading the articles on this site. 279 entries under nineteen groups, one line each, each tagged with its class and subclass. No source-criticism, no debates. Definitions follow the articles. The calendars and works behind these words are listed in Classic Book. For the computation of dates and solar-term instants, see the dataset under Publications. Every entry has its counterpart on the Chinese page.
Classes
| Class | Subclasses | Entries |
|---|---|---|
| Fundamentals | celestial bodies 10; coordinates 28; time systems 45; magnitudes 3; cosmology＊ 4 | 90 |
| Calendrical terms | solar terms 15; intercalation 7; month-building 7; calendars by age 5; computation＊ 20; general＊ 2 | 56 |
| Celestial phenomena | eclipses 5; planetary phenomena 7; other phenomena 9; lunar phases＊ 15 | 36 |
| Mansions and star officials | the twenty-eight mansions 36; the three enclosures 5; star officials 9 | 50 |
| Institutions | offices 6; institutions 6; observational methods 15; sources＊ 6 | 33 |
| Divination and day-selection | day-selection 5; day deities 8; nayin 1; day-selection＊ 5; day deities＊ 8; nayin＊ 1 | 28 |
Six classes, twenty-five subclasses. Subclasses marked ＊ — computation, general, lunar phases, sources, cosmology, day-selection, day deities and nayin — have been added so that every entry can be placed.
The fourth column gives the correspondence with Termonline, the terminology database of the China National Committee for Terms in Sciences and Technologies. An entry is linked only where that database carries a term under Astronomy; where it carries a differently named term, the near name is given after near: and is not treated as the same word. Where the database has no entry in this field, the cell is left blank; a same-named entry in another field — cosmologies under dialectics of nature, Da Huo under Chinese history, the new moon under nautical astronomy, for instance — is likewise not linked. Two entries are left blank for a further reason: the double-hour name shi-shi, for which the database returns only “eclipse duration”, and ri-die, for which it returns the single character ri.
The last group, Divination and day-selection, records the labels of the old almanacs and day-books — the twelve day-officers, the twelve deities of the yellow and black paths, the day deities, nayin and the like. Only the name, the scheme and the source are given; no judgement of good or ill fortune is made.
Terms — 术语
The words you cannot get around when reading the articles here, in nineteen groups, with their class and subclass. One line each.
Appendices
- Appendix I · Determinative stars of the twenty-eight mansions
- Appendix II · Asterisms and stars by mansion
Further reading
Calendar Reform traces the first two groups — the calendars and the year’s beginning. The complete index of this site’s datasets, code and preprints is on Publications.
Terms used above are collected in the Glossary — 279 entries arranged by class, with Chinese characters and English definitions.
Citation and version
Source and version. The explanations are written for this site; the correspondences in the fourth column were checked entry by entry against Termonline, and no entry is linked unless that database carries a term in the same field. When citing, please give the site name and address; the revision date is shown at the top of this page.
This page may be cited freely; please give the site and the revision date. The datasets published here are indexed on Publications. The Chinese Calendar Public Dataset is deposited with Zenodo and indexed by OpenAlex (ID W7213411799). Every entry here has its counterpart on the Chinese page.
All data on this page were collected and compiled by Chujia Kuang.