Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Beginning of the year

The day begins at the middle of the Zi hour. This is the point when yin qi is strongest and yang qi begins to grow. However, it does not mean that the beginning of the year follows this rule.

In fact, according to the Yijing, the beginning of the year is at the beginning of the Tai Gua - San Yang Qi Tai 三陽晵泰 - the hexagram with Kun on Qian. The year then begins at the beginning of the Yin month 寅月. This usually falls on the 4th of February called Li Chun Jie 立春莭。The mid-point in between two Jie is called Zhong Qi 中氣。It marks the middle of the month. Therefore, it is not natural to consider the middle of the Zi month as the beginning of a year. The following diagram describes how the twelve months correspond to the twelve hexagram.


This diagram reads outside-in.

1 comment:

AlMays said...

Joseph. Well I've been convinced in 4th of Feb. as the new year since the very beginning of dealing with chinese sciences. I've been also hearing that 22 Dec. also claims to be a New Year and it also had some logic for me. And lately I decided to make an experimental justification study. Being mainly involved into qimendunjia I may say that the political situation in Russia where I live after the solstice is clearly described by the yearly qimen chart of 2012 not 2011 any more.

May we say that for different sciences different new years are valid? For qimen as I observe it is solstice. For bazi it may be lichun? Your ideas?