I wouldn't say the Chinese lunisolar calendar is complicated as such - the rules are actually very few and quite straightforward, but because they are based on the positions of the sun and moon relative to the Earth, you need good astronomical models to be able to generate an accurate calendar in advance.
Also, regarding the calendar numbers, 廿 is a shorthand for twenty when talking about numbers between 21-29 (so 廿一 is functionally equivalent to 二十一), and the entries that aren't numbers are indicating the start of a new solar term, which are as important to determining the Chinese lunisolar calendar as the moon phases.
...most of this is probably stuff you've read about already but I like wittering on about calendars. I shall stop now.
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kake's journal
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Date: 2011-02-05 03:07 pm (UTC)Another useful link (IME anyway) is the Hong Kong Observatory's conversion tables of Gregorian/Chinese lunisolar dates for years from 1901 to 2100. I also feel obliged to mention the Java applet based on the inimitable Calendrical Calculations, which will convert between Gregorian, Chinese lunisolar, and a couple dozen other systems.
I wouldn't say the Chinese lunisolar calendar is complicated as such - the rules are actually very few and quite straightforward, but because they are based on the positions of the sun and moon relative to the Earth, you need good astronomical models to be able to generate an accurate calendar in advance.
Also, regarding the calendar numbers, 廿 is a shorthand for twenty when talking about numbers between 21-29 (so 廿一 is functionally equivalent to 二十一), and the entries that aren't numbers are indicating the start of a new solar term, which are as important to determining the Chinese lunisolar calendar as the moon phases.
...most of this is probably stuff you've read about already but I like wittering on about calendars. I shall stop now.