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U. S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION SERVICE CHINESE-AMERICAN CALENDAR FOR THE 40TH THROUGH THE 89TH YEAR OF THE CHINESE REPUBLIC FEBRUARY 6, 1951 TO JANUARY 23, 2001 Compiled and Verified by WINDON CHANDLER WELCH, A. B. UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON 1953

(III) PREFACE This 1953 Supplement to the Chinese-American Calendar has been prepared, as was the 1928 edition, for use by officers of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. However, others who have dealing; with Chinese may also find it helpful. Because the Preface to the 1928 Edition (now out of print) contained information helpful in the interpretation and utilization of the calendar, it is reprinted in this Supplement. In preparing the present calendar the Peking, China, time of every conjunction has been computed, and the intercalary months have been determined in accordance with the rule set forth in the 1928 Preface. The Calendar covers the fifty Chinese years beginning February 6, 1951, and ending January 23, 2001. There is a separate page for each Chinese year, and a separate column of black figures for each Chinese month. The red figures show the corresponding dates by our Gregorian calendar. The present official calendar of China is the same as our own with the exception that the year we call 1912 is designated as the first year of the era of the Chinese Republic, 1913 as the second year of that era, and so on, and that the months are numbered instead of named. However, this method of reckoning time has not yet become popular in China, and, so far as I am aware, has not been applied to the period preceding its adoption. The vast majority of the Chinese people still follow the lunisolar calendar which, with some variations, has been in use among them since the earliest times. During the period of the Empire the common method of designating the years was to regard the reign of each Emperor as constituting an era by itself, and numbering the years as the first, second, third, etc., of his reign. Since the overthrow of the Empire the era has been that of the Chinese Republic. The day is now recognized as beginning at midnight, and this has been the practice for a number of

centuries, though the Chinese did not originally consider the day as beginning at that time. The date of the astronomical new moon, even though its occurrence be barely before midnight by local time at Peking, China, is always the first day of a month. The Chinese year commences with the day on which occurs the second new moon after the day of the winter solstice, and, therefore, can not begin earlier than January 20 nor later than February 20. Individual months vary a few hours in length, but average 29.530588 days. Therefore Chinese calendar months, being regulated by the (IV) moon, are never more than 30 days in length and nearly half of them but 29. From this it will be seen that every two or three years, or, to be more exact, about 7 times in every 19 years, or, still more exactly, 22 times in 60 years, an extra month must be inserted in order that all calendar years shall begin during the specified period. Furthermore, these extra months can not be inserted at the same place in different years for the reason that this would nullify the requirement that the vernal equinox must occur in the second month, the summer solstice in the fifth, the autumnal equinox in the eighth, and the winter solstice in the eleventh. Such an extra month is intercalary and may be inserted after any month of the year with the exception of the first, eleventh, and twelfth, being always considered as the second month of the same number as that which precedes it. Which month shall be intercalary is determined by the rule already mentioned concerning the times of the occurrences of the equinoxes and solstices and by the further provision that the intercalary month shall be one in which the sun enters no sign of the zodiac. In the seventeenth century an official Chinese calendar, known as the Wan Nien Shu, based on these principles and covering the period of 397 years from 1624 to 2020, was prepared. Calendars based on this have been prepared by Petrus Hoang (Pub. A. D. 1885), Dr. Herman Peter Heinrich Fritsche (A. D. 1886), Carles Kliene (A. D. 1906), and Dr. Robert Schram (A. D. 1908). Each of these calendars, except that of Doctor Fritsche, includes within its period all the time covered by the calendar now being presented to the Immigration Service; but two of them are in foreign languages, and none is arranged in a manner suitable for use by immigration officers or others who desire a Chinese- American calendar in a form as compact and convenient as possible. In fact, not one of them is a Chinese- American or Chinese-English calendar. Furthermore, an accurate Chinese calendar can not be produced b copying from any of these without changes other than those due to different arrangement; for the Wan Nien Shu itself contained some

(V) errors due to mistakes in computation or to the use of tables which have since been shown not to be sufficiently accurate. During the time of the Empire, many of these errors were corrected in the official almanac published each year by the astronomical board of the Chinese Government, such corrections being made less than a year before the beginning of the year affected. Whether or not the astronomical board has continued to do this since the establishment of the Republic and the official adoption of another calendar, I am not certain; but I do know that calendars published in China for years since the establish of the Republic have not always agreed in cases where the Wan Nien Shu contained errors. In such instances, I have adopted as correct the one which agrees with the principles upon which the calendar is supposed to be based. The only Chinese-American calendars of convenient size or suitable arrangement of which I have knowledge are the "American- Chinese Calendar" prepared by John Endicott Gardner and published in 1904 by the Bureau of Immigration and the "Supplement to American-Chinese Calendar," published in 1917 by the same bureau. The former of these covered the 66 Chinese years commencing in January, 1849, and closing in February, 1915, but is incorrect in every date after about the middle of K. S. 33 (1907). Prior to that time, however, it requires but two corrections. One of these is the addition of a 30th day to the 12th month of K. S. 12 (1886), this day as well as its equivalent, January 23, 1887, having been omitted. The other is the changing of the number of the first of the two 6th months shown by that calendar as being in K. S. 2 (1876). This month was, in fact, the second 5th month, and there was but one 6th month in that year. The "Supplement" was for the 17 Chinese years beginning in January, 1909, and ending in February, 1926. In the main, it is correct, though there are errors in the years C. R. 3 (1914) and C. R. 13 (1924); and most of C. R. 14 (1925) is incorrect according to the rules governing the Chinese calendar, though it may be true that some Chinese in China used calendars for that year which had not been corrected (VI) while others used corrected calendars. The supplement shows the 10th month of C. R., 9 as beginning on November 11, 1920. The older calendars based on the Wan Nien Shu indicated that the month would begin on November 10, 1920. The fact is that the new moon occurred a few minutes before the local mean midnight at Peking, China, but after midnight if midnight be considered as the middle point of time between sunset on November 10 and sunrise on November 11, 1920. In this instance this Chinese- American Calendar is following the supplement, although I am not certain what authority was followed by its compiler. For the period prior to the middle of K. S. 33 (August, 1907), the "Chinese-American Calendar" is practically a reprint of the so-called "American-Chinese Calendar," which is, in fact, a Chinese- American

instead of an American-Chinese calendar, and, for the years from S. T. 1 (1909) to C. R. 13 (1924), it is, practically a reprint of the supplement thereto, in both cases, however, necessary corrections being made. In correcting these calendars and in preparing the additional matter found in this calendar, I have carefully compared all the calendars heretofore mentioned and also certain calendars for individual years published in China in the Chinese language, and have verified the date of the. beginning of nearly every Chinese month during the years 1886 to 1925, inclusive, by means of tables showing the exact time of the occurrences of the new moons. I have also computed the time of each conjunction of the moon with the sun for the years designated as C. R. 15 to C. R. 39, and. that of many other new moons, including all those which took place between the middle of K. S. 33 (August 9, 1907) and the beginning of S. T. 1 (January, 22, 1909). In computing the time of the conjunctions, or new moons, referred to, I made use of the tables prepared by the astronomer, Prof. 'Theodor von Oppolzer, by the use of which it is possible to determine within one minute the time of the occurrences of every new moon for thousands of years already past and many years to come. I have also made certain that the date of every equinox and solstice is in the correct month of the Chinese year. This (VII) work was made necessary by the fact that there were some disagreements between the published calendars, some of these being due to typographical errors and some to the fact that a few changes had been made by the Chinese astronomical board since the publication of the calendars of Hoang and Fritsche, and by the desire to know whether or not changes might be expected to be made in future years. Some may be interested to know that for the years C. R. 15 to C. R. 39 there are no variations between the "Chinese-American Calendar" and the correct dates according to the principles upon which the Chinese calendar is based and very few, if any, during the whole period covered by this calendar. The Chinese brought their day east with them when they came to America, and until recently have generally considered each day that reaches China as identical with the one which commences here at Washington, D.C., approximately 11 hours earlier. This calendar, like those of Fritsche, Hoang, Kliene, and Schram, and like the calendar which has heretofore been used by the Immigration Service, is made correct for China. The Gregorian date of an occurrence taking place in America on a given Chinese date prior to C. R. 15 (1926) should, therefore, usually be regarded as one day earlier than would be indicated by this calendar. It is understood, however, that the Chinese have now accepted the date line recognized by Europeans and Americans, and that this difference will not exist in the future. WINDON CHANDLER WELCH, A. B.

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