Papers 论文

Papers — 论文

Ranged by number. Summaries are quoted as written; where a Chinese title exists it is given after the English one.

002 · When Does the Year Turn: at Lichun, or at the First Day of the First Month?

preprint, not peer-reviewed. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22803746

Chinese title: 立春换岁，还是正月初一换岁？

Starting from a question that recurs every Spring Festival — for a child born between Lichun (4 February) and the New Year (17 February), which zodiac year applies? — this paper traces the two competing conventions for the turning of the year, shows how the shifting position of the first month across dynasties produced the coexistence of both, and sets out the textual clues used in deciding between them.

Chinese blog post: 立春换岁，还是正月初一换岁？

003 · Three Calendars, Three Kinds of Time

preprint, not peer-reviewed. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22821576

Chinese title: 三本历法·三种时间

Beginning with the fact that October 1582 was simply skipped over in Europe by ten days, this paper argues that a calendar is a dial inscribed on the motion of the heavens. It sets out the reference point of each of three systems — the solar calendar, the lunar calendar, and the stems-and-branches calendar — and shows why it is inaccurate to call the Chinese lunisolar calendar a “lunar” one.

Chinese blog post: 三本历法·三种时间 ｜ English blog post: read

004 · Lichun Is Not a Day; It Is a Second

preprint, not peer-reviewed. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22837998

Chinese title: 立春不是一整天，只有一秒钟

Lichun is not a day but an instant, fixed to the second. Taking a real solar-term instant as its example, the paper sets out the astronomical definition of a solar term and the computation of its time, and explains why giving only the date of a birth is insufficient.

Chinese blog post: 立春不是一整天，只有一秒钟

005 · The First Month Was Not Originally Month One

preprint, not peer-reviewed. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22851039

Chinese title: 正月本来不是一月

The characters 正月 did not originally denote the first calendar month, but whichever month the year began in. The paper traces the historical shifts in the year-beginning and explains how the direction pointed to by the handle of the Big Dipper fixed the months, giving rise to the month-建 names 寅, 卯, 辰 and the rest.

Chinese blog post: 正月本来不是一月

006 · The Old Day Began at Eleven in the Evening

preprint, not peer-reviewed. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22866122

Chinese title: 古人的一天，从晚上十一点开始

The traditional Chinese day began at eleven in the evening, that is, with the hour 子. The paper explains from the sun’s position why 子 is the point of the day furthest from the sun, and uses this to account for the twelve double-hours as a scale.

Chinese blog post: 古人的一天，从晚上十一点开始

007 · Clock Time Is Not the Hour You Were Born In

preprint, not peer-reviewed. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22884370

Chinese title: 钟表上的出生时间，不等于你出生的时辰

Clock time and true solar time are not the same thing. Taking Chengdu, where noon by the clock corresponds to 10:56 by the sun, the paper sets out the definition and conversion of true solar time, and states when the difference may be disregarded. It does not discuss any individual case.

Chinese blog post: 钟表上的出生时间，不等于你出生的时辰

008 · How Is a Day Produced?

preprint, not peer-reviewed. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22906313

Chinese title: 时间是怎么产生的？

“Twenty-four hours in a day” is not exact. The paper distinguishes the sidereal from the solar day, explains how the earth’s simultaneous rotation and revolution produce a shortfall of nearly four minutes a day, and relates that shortfall to the time-scale in ordinary use.

Chinese blog post: 时间是怎么产生的？

009 · Three Roads in the Sky: Ecliptic, Lunar Path, Celestial Equator

preprint, not peer-reviewed. DOI: forthcoming

Chinese title: 天上三条道：黄道、白道、赤道

The three roads in the sky. Beginning with the sun’s annual eastward circuit among the stars, the paper accounts for the ecliptic, and distinguishes the moon’s path from the celestial equator by their respective reference frames.

Chinese blog post: 天上三条道：黄道、白道、赤道

010 · The Ancient Chinese Sky: Three Enclosures and Twenty-Eight Mansions

preprint, not peer-reviewed. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22797854

Chinese title: 古人的星空：三垣与二十八宿

Starting from a lacquered wooden chest (archaeological no. E.66) unearthed in 1978 from the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng at Leigudun, Suixian (present-day Suizhou), Hubei. The inscription on its lid records part of the twenty-eight lunar mansions and is among the earliest surviving material evidence for their names. The paper then explains what the twenty-eight mansions are, how the sky was divided among them, their relation to the Three Enclosures (Purple Forbidden, Supreme Palace, Heavenly Market), the role of the determinative stars in astronomical measurement, and the correspondence between the four images (Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, Dark Warrior) and the mansions.

Chinese blog post: 古人的星空：三垣与二十八宿

011 · Finding North Before the Compass

preprint, not peer-reviewed. DOI: forthcoming

Chinese title: 没有指南针，古人怎么定方向

Beginning with the Song-dynasty Pingzhou Ketan, which records a sea captain navigating “by the stars at night, by the sun by day, and by the compass when overcast” — showing the compass to have been a fallback rather than the primary means — the paper examines how directions were fixed, from the Zhouli · Kaogongji and other sources, before the magnetic needle came aboard.

Chinese blog post: 没有指南针，古人怎么定方向

012 · Ganzhi: From a Tree to Twenty-Two Characters

preprint, not peer-reviewed. DOI: forthcoming

Chinese title: 干支：从一棵树到二十二个字

The term 干支 was originally written 幹枝, “trunk and branches”, and was not at first a set of ordinal signs. The paper traces its derivation through Cai Yong’s Yueling Zhangju (Eastern Han) and sets out how the ten heavenly stems and twelve earthly branches are constituted.

Chinese blog post: 干支：从一棵树到二十二个字

013 · Sixty, Not One Hundred and Twenty: The Parity Rule That Generates the Chinese Sexagenary Cycle

preprint, not peer-reviewed. DOI: forthcoming

Chinese title: 六十，而非一百二十：生成干支六十甲子的奇偶规则

Ten heavenly stems paired with twelve earthly branches yield exactly sixty designations, though two such series admit one hundred and twenty ordered pairs. This essay identifies the single generative constraint responsible for the reduction: each series is divided by parity into two classes of equal size, and pairing is permitted only within a class, so that exactly half of the conceivable pairs survive. The same total follows independently from the least common multiple of ten and twelve. Two structural consequences are then traced — the cycle’s name 花甲, and its division into six ten-day periods, each leaving two branches unpaired.

Chinese blog post: 十个字配十二个字，为什么只剩六十组 ｜ English blog post: read

---

Further reading

The datasets behind this line of work, the code that generates them and the GB/T 7714—2025 citation formats are on Publications. For the plain-language versions of these papers, see Articles. Every item above is released under CC BY 4.0 and is not peer-reviewed.