This page is the index of my work on traditional Chinese calendrics and uranography. Everything listed here is released openly: the datasets carry a Zenodo DOI, the code is on GitHub, and the papers are posted as preprints.
Author identity. Chujia Kuang (邝楚嘉), pen-name Jiayan-Yide (嘉言一得) — Independent Researcher, Jieyang, Guangdong, China.
Preprint notice. Every item marked preprint below is a preprint and has not been peer-reviewed. A preprint is a manuscript posted publicly before or alongside journal review; it should not be read as a validated finding.
Citation: If you use any dataset or preprint listed here, please cite the Zenodo concept DOI rather than this blog page.
Section 1 — Dataset
中国历法公共数据集（Chinese Calendar Open Datasets）
Chujia Kuang (邝楚嘉). Dataset, v1.0.0. CC BY 4.0.
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22788686 ｜ Code: github.com/Kuangchujia/chinese-calendar-dataset
A downloadable, citable and independently verifiable collection of Chinese calendrical data. Three interlinked assets: (A1) the exact instants of the 24 solar terms for 1900–2052, to the second (3,672 records), computed from JPL DE421 with the definition set by GB/T 33661-2017 and matching the Purple Mountain Observatory’s published 2026 values 24/24; (A2) a chronology of 52 historical calendar reforms with their periods of use, compilers and year-beginnings; (A3) a day-by-day sexagenary (ganzhi) day-count for 1900–2052 (55,883 days). The collection contains calendrical facts only — no predictions and nothing referring to individuals.
Section 2 — Preprints
Note on section 2. Twelve preprint entries follow. Seven carry a DOI; the remaining five are forthcoming. Where a DOI is given, it is the version of record for that preprint. All preprints in this section are released under CC BY 4.0.
002 · 立春换岁，还是正月初一换岁？ / 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preprint, not peer-reviewed.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
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.
Blog post (Chinese): 立春换岁，还是正月初一换岁？ — see the Articles section for a plain-language walkthrough.
003 · 三本历法·三种时间 / Three Calendars, Three Kinds of Time
preprint, not peer-reviewed. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22821576
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.
Blog post (Chinese): 三本历法·三种时间 — see the Articles section for a plain-language walkthrough.
Blog post (English): Three Calendars, Three Kinds of Time — the English version of this preprint.
004 · 立春不是一整天，只有一秒钟 / Lichun Is Not a Day; It Is a Second
preprint, not peer-reviewed. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22837998
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.
Blog post (Chinese): 立春不是一整天，只有一秒钟 — see the Articles section for a plain-language walkthrough.
005 · 正月本来不是一月 / The First Month Was Not Originally Month One
preprint, not peer-reviewed. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22851039
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.
Blog post (Chinese): 正月本来不是一月 — see the Articles section for a plain-language walkthrough.
006 · 古人的一天，从晚上十一点开始 / The Old Day Began at Eleven in the Evening
preprint, not peer-reviewed. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22866122
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.
007 · 钟表上的出生时间，不等于你出生的时辰 / Clock Time Is Not the Hour You Were Born In
preprint, not peer-reviewed. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22884370
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.
008 · 时间是怎么产生的？ / How Is a Day Produced?
preprint, not peer-reviewed. DOI: —
“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.
009 · 天上三条道：黄道、白道、赤道 / Three Roads in the Sky: Ecliptic, Lunar Path, Celestial Equator
preprint, not peer-reviewed. DOI: —
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.
010 · 古人的星空：三垣与二十八宿 / The Ancient Chinese Sky: Three Enclosures and Twenty-Eight Mansions
preprint, not peer-reviewed.
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22797854
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.
011 · 没有指南针，古人怎么定方向 / Finding North Before the Compass
preprint, not peer-reviewed. DOI: —
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.
012 · 干支：从一棵树到二十二个字 / Ganzhi: From a Tree to Twenty-Two Characters
preprint, not peer-reviewed. DOI: —
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.
013 · Sixty, Not One Hundred and Twenty: The Parity Rule That Generates the Chinese Sexagenary Cycle
preprint, not peer-reviewed. DOI: — ｜ English essay, under submission to preprints.org
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.
Section 3 — Elsewhere
| Where | Link |
|---|---|
| Homepage (this site) | https://kuangchujia.com |
| GitHub — code and repository mirrors | https://github.com/Kuangchujia |
| Zenodo — datasets and preprints | https://zenodo.org/search?q=metadata.creators.person_or_org.name%3A%22%E9%82%9D%E6%A5%9A%E5%98%89%22 |
Section 4 — Code / Software
chinese-calendar-dataset
Chujia Kuang (邝楚嘉). Source repository, no tagged release. CC BY 4.0.
GitHub: github.com/Kuangchujia/chinese-calendar-dataset
The generation code behind Section 1: Python scripts that build the solar-term instants, the calendar-reform chronology and the sexagenary day-count, together with the data files themselves, a
CITATION.cffand the Zenodo deposit metadata.
kuangchujia-preprints
Chujia Kuang (邝楚嘉). Source repository, no tagged release. CC BY 4.0.
GitHub: github.com/Kuangchujia/kuangchujia-preprints
Chinese and English source files for the preprint series in Section 2, with their Zenodo deposit metadata. Cite the individual Zenodo DOI rather than the repository.
(The items above are released under CC BY 4.0 unless stated otherwise. Preprints have not been peer-reviewed.)
Section 5 — Citation in GB/T 7714—2025 form
China’s national standard GB/T 7714—2025《信息与文献 参考文献著录规则》（2025-12-02 发布，2026-07-01 实施）newly lists dataset（DS） and preprint（PP） as document types, with /OL as the carrier code for online resources. The entries below follow that standard and may be copied directly; replace the access date with your own.
Blog post (English): Ten Stems, Twelve Branches: Why Only Sixty Pairings Remain — the blog version of this essay.
Dataset — 数据集 [DS/OL]
邝楚嘉. 中国历法公共数据集: 二十四节气交节时刻、历代历法改革年表、干支纪日对照表[DS/OL]. V1.0.0. Zenodo(2026-09-16)[2026-09-19]. https://zenodo.org/records/22788686. DOI:10.5281/zenodo.22788686.
Preprints — 预印本 [PP/OL]
邝楚嘉. 立春换岁, 还是正月初一换岁?[PP/OL]. Zenodo(2026-09-17)[2026-09-19]. https://zenodo.org/records/22803746. DOI:10.5281/zenodo.22803746.
邝楚嘉. 三本历法·三种时间[PP/OL]. Zenodo(2026-09-18)[2026-09-19]. https://zenodo.org/records/22821576. DOI:10.5281/zenodo.22821576.
邝楚嘉. 立春不是一整天, 只有一秒钟[PP/OL]. Zenodo(2026-09-18)[2026-09-20]. https://zenodo.org/records/22837998. DOI:10.5281/zenodo.22837998.
邝楚嘉. 正月本来不是一月[PP/OL]. Zenodo(2026-09-20)[2026-09-20]. https://zenodo.org/records/22851039. DOI:10.5281/zenodo.22851039.
邝楚嘉. 古人的一天, 从晚上十一点开始[PP/OL]. Zenodo(2026-09-21)[2026-09-21]. https://zenodo.org/records/22866122. DOI:10.5281/zenodo.22866122.
邝楚嘉. 钟表上的出生时间, 不等于你出生的时辰[PP/OL]. Zenodo(2026-09-22)[2026-09-22]. https://zenodo.org/records/22884370. DOI:10.5281/zenodo.22884370.
邝楚嘉. 古人的星空: 三垣与二十八宿[PP/OL]. Zenodo(2026-09-16)[2026-09-19]. https://zenodo.org/records/22797854. DOI:10.5281/zenodo.22797854.
Note. Entries above without a DOI are listed as forthcoming and should not be cited as preprints until a DOI is assigned. Every item marked preprint on this page is not peer-reviewed.