CALENDAR FOUNDATIONS
What a date-only year reading can and cannot say
A year placement is one calendar label, not a complete personal chart.
Go deeper: the full reference
What it means
This calculator does not use birth time, birthplace or a converted instant. It does not calculate solar-term month, day or hour pillars, luck cycles, compatibility, health or life events. Symbolic examples are for reflection and never override a person's lived experience.
An example
Two people with the same year placement can have different histories, choices and circumstances.
A question to carry with you
Which part of this symbol is useful to reflect on without treating it as a rule?
Find your own lunar-year placement
Use your birth date to find the year animal, stem, branch, stem phase and Yin/Yang. This calculator follows Chinese New Year; it does not calculate a full Four Pillars (BaZi) chart.
Connect the ideas
A lunisolar calendar
Chinese calendar months follow lunar phases while the year stays aligned with seasons.
1 min readThe Lunar New Year boundary
This calculator changes the year placement on the first day of the first lunar month.
1 min readThe sixty-year stem-branch cycle
Ten Heavenly Stems pair in order with twelve Earthly Branches to form sixty year names.
1 min readAn intercalary lunar month
Some lunar years repeat a month number to keep the calendar in seasonal alignment.
1 min read