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This year’s second “Year of the Dragon, Dragon Moon, Dragon Sun, Dragon Hour” is here. But maybe you’ve missed it.

April 22 from 7:00 to 9:00 is the second “Year of the Dragon, Dragon Moon, Dragon Sun, Dragon Hour” this year. Many office workers may be in a hurry and only discover today is a special day when they arrive at work. “What should I do if I miss it? When is the next time?” The gathering of the four “dragons” sparked heated discussions. At the same time, many people also expressed such regrets and sighs. In fact, you may not know how this day came about and what it means. Let’s take a look today.

If you miss the “Four Dragons Gathering” today, you still have another chance to see it

“This year is the Year of the Dragon in the Jiachen Year. The so-called Dragon Moon, Dragon Sun, and Dragon Hour are Chen Yue, Chen Ri, and Chen Hour.” Wang Kechao, director of science popularization at the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, introduced that the Dragon Moon in the Jiachen Year of the Dragon in 2024 includes: 3 Dragon Suns, so there will be 3 “Dragon Years, Dragon Moons, Dragon Suns, Dragon Hours”, respectively inApril 10, April 22 and May 4 from 7 to 9 p.m.

That is to say,The last “Dragon Year, Dragon Moon, Dragon Sun, and Dragon Hour” this year will be from 7 to 9 o’clock on May 4.

Hyperion, a traditional culture research enthusiast, said in an interview with the Beijing News, “It is actually easier to see Chen, year, month, Chen, and sun, but Jiachen is more special, because Jiachen cycles every 60 years. Chen, year, month, and month Chen, Ri and Chen also represent a change for the better. ”Details>>>

How are “Year of the Dragon, Moon of the Dragon, Sun of the Dragon, Hour of the Dragon” calculated?

The dragon is the only animal in the Chinese zodiac that does not actually exist, but it occupies a unique position in traditional Chinese culture and is endowed with sacred and auspicious meanings. What is the meaning of Dragon Year, Dragon Moon, Dragon Sun and Dragon Hour? This is actually a saying formed after the transformation of the stems and branches and the zodiac in the traditional Chinese timekeeping method, which refers to the Chen year, Chen month, Chen day, Chen hour, and Chen matches the dragon in the Chinese zodiac. So this moment is the so-called Year of the Dragon, Dragon Moon, Dragon Sun, Dragon Hour.

The chronology of the stems and branches is closely related to the heavenly stems and earthly branches. What is the chronology of the stems and branches? How are the heavenly stems and earthly branches matched?

Yang Fan, deputy director of the Ancient Astronomy Research Center of the Beijing Planetarium, said that the chronology of the stems and branches is established on the basis of the ten heavenly stems and the twelve earthly branches. The ten heavenly stems are nails, Yi, C, D, E, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, Gui, the twelve earthly branches refer to Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu and Hai. The Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches are matched in order. For example, the first ranked A among the Heavenly Stems and the first ranked Zi among the Earthly Branches are paired to form Jia Zi. The second ranked B among the Heavenly Stems and the second ranked Chou among the Earthly Branches are paired to form B. Ugly, and so on. After the 10th-ranked Gui among the heavenly stems is paired with the 10th-ranked You among the earthly branches to form Guiyou, the heavenly stems start again from A and are matched with the 11th-ranked Xu among the earthly branches to form Jiaxu, and the order continues. The least common multiple of 10 and 12 It is 60, so when it reaches the sixtieth pairing, it happens to be the last Gui of the heavenly stem. It matches with the last Hai of the earthly branches to form Guihai to complete a cycle. The next reincarnation will start again from Jiazi.

Year of the Dragon

Yang Fan, deputy director of the Ancient Astronomy Research Center of the Beijing Planetarium, said that the chronology of the stems and branches corresponds to each year and the stems and branches. The so-called sixty-one years means that the stems and branches reincarnate every 60 years. The ancients also matched the 12 animal signs with the twelve earthly branches in sequence. The dragon ranked fifth corresponds to Chen, and there are five years of the dragon every 60 years.

How to quickly convert the AD year into the stem and branch year? Lai Dihui, a member of the Chinese Astronomical Society and director of the Tianjin Astronomical Society, said that the positive remainder obtained after subtracting 3 from the AD year and dividing it by 60 is the stem and branch number of that year. If the remainder is 1, then the stem and branch number of that year is 1. From the sixty stems and branches table, we can know that the year is the year of Jiazi; and so on, if the remainder is 2, then the year is the year of Yichou; if the remainder is 59, Then that year is the year of Renxu. If the remainder is 0, the year is the year of Guihai.

Take 2023 and 2024 as examples. Subtract 3 from 2023 and divide it by 60. The quotient can be calculated as 33 and the remainder is 40. This remainder is the number of the stems and branches of 2023. You can check the year’s number from the sixty stems and branches table. Guimao year; subtract 3 from 2024 and divide by 60, the quotient can be calculated as 33, and the remainder is 41. This remainder is the stem and branch number of 2024. From the sixty stems and branches table, you can find that the year is the year of Jiachen.

dragon moon

The Dragon Moon is a year that is also divided into 12 months in the traditional Chinese calendar, but this month is divided based on the synodic month. We may now be more familiar with using numbers to represent months, but the ancients also associated the twelve earthly branches with December. More than 2,000 years ago, it was determined that the month where the winter solstice is located is the sub-month, and the month where the winter solstice is located in the next year is the sub-month. Leap months are not counted.

Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, the traditional Chinese lunar calendar has essentially been the Yin Zheng calendar, which means that the Yin month is regarded as the first month. Therefore, the child month where the winter solstice is located is the eleventh month of the lunar calendar. Therefore, if the earthly branches of the month match the zodiac signs, the third month of the year in the lunar calendar is the Chen month, which is the Dragon month.

Longri

In addition to counting days with numbers like 123, ancient Chinese also used the method of counting days with stems and branches. Astronomers calculated the stems and branches of the winter solstice in advance, and then arranged the calendar days of the following year according to the order of the stems and branches, so that every 60 days There are 5 chen days, which are 5 dragon days.

dragon time

Regarding the Dragon Time, the ancients also divided the day and night into 12 hours, which corresponded to the twelve earthly branches. They designated the current 23:00 to 1:00 as the Zi hour, and the Chen hour was 7:00 to 9:00 in the morning, using the zodiac signs. Expressed in order, Chenshi is Dragonshi.