Last revised: 2026-10-18
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Overview. The papers of this site — 15 entries in all: 3 in the 天文历法研究考证 collection (preface, 001, 002; see below) and 12 numbered 002 to 013. Each carries its Chinese and English title, its DOI where one has been assigned (all 12 numbered items; the three collection items carry none) and a summary. Every item is a preprint and has not been peer-reviewed; a preprint is a manuscript posted before or alongside journal review and should not be read as a validated finding. The datasets, the code and the citation formats are on Publications; the plain-language blog versions are on Articles. Every entry has its counterpart on the Chinese page.
The Tianwen Lifa Yanjiu Kaozheng Collection
The three items below belong to the collection 天文历法研究考证 (Tianwen Lifa Yanjiu Kaozheng, “Studies and Verifications in Ancient Chinese Astronomy and Calendrics”). They appear here in the order of that collection and keep its original numbers — 序篇 (preface), 001, 002 — and are not numbered into the 002—013 series above.
Preface · Between Looking Up and Looking Down: The Origin of an Empirical Study of Ancient Chinese Astronomy and Calendrics
preprint, not peer-reviewed.
Chinese title: 抬头与低头之间：古天文历法实证研究的缘起
The preface to the collection Tianwen Lifa Yanjiu Kaozheng. Beginning with the present moment — point a phone at the night sky and a star chart rises on the screen — it asks why, when star charts are within reach, one should still turn back to the records of the ancients, and sets out the questions the collection undertakes and the sources it draws on.
Chinese blog post: 抬头与低头之间：古天文历法实证研究的缘起
001 · The Four Fixed Stars of the Yaodian: A Set of Numbers That Will Not Agree
preprint, not peer-reviewed.
Chinese title: 尧典四仲中星：一组对不上的数字
A passage of fewer than fifty characters in the “Canon of Yao” (Shangshu · Yaodian) names one star for each of the four mid-season positions. This paper sets that set of numbers against the successive commentaries and against the modern computation of precession, shows why they cannot be made to agree, and states what may and may not be inferred from them.
Chinese blog post: 尧典四仲中星：一组对不上的数字
002 · The Verifiability of the Oracle-Bone Records of 「日有食之」
preprint, not peer-reviewed.
Chinese title: 甲骨文「日有食之」诸条的可核验性
Most readers first meet the four characters 日有食之 in the Chunqiu. A further set of records of the same kind occurs among the oracle-bone divination inscriptions. This paper lists them one by one, states which can be checked against astronomical computation and which cannot, and sets out the limits to be observed in doing so.
Chinese blog post: 甲骨文「日有食之」诸条的可核验性
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: The Solar Term Is an Instant
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 · “Zhengyue” Was Not Originally the First Month of the Year
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 Day Began at Eleven at Night: The Double-Hour and Its Measure
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 Double-Hour of Your Birth
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 Time 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: the Ecliptic, the Lunar Path and the Celestial Equator
preprint, not peer-reviewed. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22926807
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 Ancients’ Sky: The Three Enclosures and the 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 · Without a Compass: How the Ancients Determined Direction
preprint, not peer-reviewed. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22948873
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 · Stems and Branches: From One Tree to Twenty-Two Characters
preprint, not peer-reviewed. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22949963
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 · Ten Stems, Twelve Branches: Why Only Sixty Pairings Remain
preprint, not peer-reviewed. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22990186
Chinese title: 十个字配十二个字，为什么只剩六十组
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
015 · Jupiter Does Not Go Round in Twelve Years
preprint, not peer-reviewed. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.23131796
Chinese title: Jupiter走一圈不是十二年
Jupiter is called the Year Star (岁星) because it was used to reckon years.
Chinese blog post: Jupiter走一圈不是十二年
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.
All data on this page were collected and compiled by Chujia Kuang; the preprints listed on this page are authored by Chujia Kuang.