The Hsia Calendar is a dating system that accounts for the position of the sun with reference from the earth.
It is thus often called the solar calendar (夏历). Over the centuries, it has also adopted various aliases including the ten thousand year calendar (万年历) which has become very common in modern times.
In ancient times, as farmers found the shortcomings of the lunar calendar in scheduling the planting and harvesting of crops, they needed a solar calendar to make the most of their crops. The Hsia calendar was what they used. And the nickname of farmers calendar became widespread.
Legend says that the Hsia calendar was a creation of the Yellow Emperor with the original title of yin yang li (陰陽历). It was a lunar-solar calendar formulated from studying the movements of the moon and sun.
It was only with the widespread adoption of the calendar during the Hsia dynasty that the name Hsia calendar stuck.
During the age of warlords, changes were made to the Hsia calendar as each new ruler yearned to make their mark. This resulted to the starting month of Hsia calendar to change various times between yin (寅), chou (丑) and Xu (戌). However when the Han dynasty took over, the starting month was restored to to yin (寅), a change that has stood till this day.
Key variables of Hsia Calendar
This calendar specifies which heavenly stem and earthly branch reigns supreme on any single day.
With each day resulting in a forward moving sequence of the 10 stems and 12 branches. There are a total of 60 possible pairings of stems and branches. This is a micro mechanics of the larger 60 year JiaZi cycle at play.
Each set of stem and branch is often labelled as a pillar.
The 12 phases of the solar year is marked by the 12 earthly branches. Implying that each branch is permanently designated a particular month. This does not occur with stems as there are only 10 stems.
With the 4 seasons in each year, it can be determined that 3 branches and 6 sub-seasons (节气) take up each season.
The table below better illustrates this.
Season | Month | Earthly Branch |
Sub- Season |
Spring | 1 | 寅 | 立春 (li chun) 雨水 (yu shui) |
Spring | 2 | 卯 | 惊蛰 (jing zhe) 春风 (chun feng) |
Spring | 3 | 辰 | 清明 (qing ming) 谷雨 (gu yu) |
Summer | 4 | 巳 | 立夏 (li xia) 小满 (xiao man) |
Summer | 5 | 午 | 芒种 (mang zhong) 夏至 (xia zhi) |
Summer | 6 | 未 | 小署 (xiao shu) 大署 (da shu) |
Summer | 7 | 申 | 立秋 (li qiu) 外署 (wai shu) |
Summer | 8 | 酉 | 白露 (bai lu) 秋分 (qiu fen) |
Summer | 9 | 戌 | 寒露 (han lu) 霜降 (shuang jiang) |
Summer | 10 | 亥 | 立冬 (li dong) 小雪 (xiao xue) |
Summer | 11 | 子 | 大雪 (da xue) 冬至 (dong zhi) |
Summer | 12 | 丑 | 小寒 (xiao han) 大寒 (da han) |
Usage of Hsia calendar
While the Chinese lunar calendar is more used and recognized by the masses in modern times, the Hsia calendar is one that is more widely referenced in the metaphysical realm of feng shui, rituals and spirituality.
That is not to say that the lunar calendar has no place in metaphysics. After all, zi wei dou shu (紫微斗数) which is one of the oldest forms of Chinese astrology practiced at the imperial level makes use of the lunar calendar.
The Hsia calendar is commonly used in various forms of the 5 arts including bazi, flying stars feng shui, xuan kong da gua, dynamic date selection, and even divination, etc.
It is the fundamental text for generating a set of 4 pillars for bazi analysis. Which is also often how Chinese metaphysics enthusiasts usually first come across this calendar.
The use of it in bazi can encompass numerous life aspects.
For example in basic use, if Wu earth has been identified as a wealth star of an individual, a day of Wu can be an auspicious day to conduct certain wealth generating activities.