What does the ugly year mean?

The second year of a cycle in traditional calendar years in China is called "ugly year". In the following AD years, if the number of years is divided by more than 60, or the number of years is reduced by 3, the remainder divided by 10 is 2, and the remainder divided by 12 is 2. The years from beginning of spring to beginning of spring in the following year are all "Ugly Years".

The chronology of cadres and branches begins in beginning of spring with 24 solar terms, and it is the chronology method of the calendar of cadres and branches. The same is true of the official almanac of past dynasties (that is, the Yellow Calendar). After the Republic of China, the emperor's year number was abandoned, so it was impossible to adopt a new chronology method. The lunar calendar can only record the year with dry branches, and its year range is from the first day of the first month to New Year's Eve, which is indisputable.

However, the lunar calendar and the trunk calendar are two different calendars, which are different in the starting point of a year, the rules of dividing months and the number of days in each year. Due to the use of the Gregorian calendar after the Republic of China, many people lack calendar knowledge, so they often confuse the calendar with the lunar calendar.

Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches

Heavenly stems and earthly branches, the main branch for short, originated from the observation of astronomical phenomena in ancient China. Ten dry words: encounter, enlightenment, gentleness, firmness, harmony, Tu Youyou, shangzhang, heavy light, mystery and sunshine. Twelve branches: Quinton, Chi Fenruo, She Tige,,, Luo,, Qi Tan, Zuo Meng, and Da Yuanxian.

Simplified heavenly stems and earthly branches: "A, B, C, D, E, Ji, G, Xin, Ren, Gui" is called ten heavenly stems, and "Zi, Ugly, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu and Hai" are called twelve earthly branches.

Ten heavenly stems and twelve earthly branches are matched in turn to form sixty basic units, and they cooperate with each other in a fixed order to form the chronology of the stems and branches. Heavenly stems and earthly branches's invention had a far-reaching impact, and heavenly stems and earthly branches still uses it today, which is used in calendar, art, calculation, naming and so on.