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Term about the Chinese calendar

This is the English-language Wikipedia, and it is supposed to be written for English readers. Therefore it is accepted that articles should use the standard English-language terms for various concepts.

In particular, usage should follow standard English terms, not Chinese popular usage. The standard English terms for the Chinese months 正月二月三月…十月十一月十二月 is "1st month," "2nd month" "3rd month"…"10th month," "11th month" "12th month," (or their written-out forms).

Using numbers apparently goes back at least about 350 years, as [3], is an expansion of a translation of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" made in 1670. This recent site [4] also uses the numbers for translating the Spring and Fall Annals Spring and Autumn Annals

It is also used in English-language books in Chinese history, as [5]

It is used in English when writing about about the calendar, as in the papers of the popular site of Aslaksen [6] , the very technical N. Sivin, 2009, Granting the Seasons : The Chinese Astronomical Reform of 1280 (New York: Springer), and in the English writings of Liu Baolin 刘宝琳, head calendrist of the Purple Mountain Observatory 紫金山天文台 (Liu Baolin and F. R. Stephenson,1998a, “A Brief Contemporary History of the Chinese Calendar”, Orion 56, no. 287, 33 –38). In fact, I have never come across anything else in a work that could be considered a good English source. Those were also the terms used on this page until the beginning of this year when they were unilaterally changed.

The romanized names are simply opaque to all except speakers of standard Chinese. So, this page should use numbered month mainly. While there is no reason not to include romanized names, it is not necessary, and certainly numbered months should not be erased. should not be preferred to numbered names.

As for the names of the solar terms and the stems and branches 干支, there does not seem to be a real consensus on the English terms. But they are used widely beyond just the speakers of standard Chinese, as other Chinese dialects, languages of SE Asia, and Korea and Japan, so the most universal usage would be the Chinese characters. I would not say that characters need to be used if some other good term can be found, but they certainly should not be deliberately erased.

One more thing to take into consideration is that the Chinese calendar has not been used only by speakers of standard Chinese, but also by speakers of other dialects and languages. For these people, the names like Lìuyuè do not mean much.

1729 calendar, which used the Jōkyō calendar procedure, published by Ise Shrine.

Japan has had an official calendar for over 1400 years, but at present it uses the Gregorian calendar, together with year designations stating the year of the reign of the current emperor.

History

The lunisolar Chinese calendar was introduced to Japan via Korea in the middle of the sixth century. After that, Japan calculated its calendar using various Chinese calendar procedures, and from 1685, using Japanese variations of the Chinese procedures. But in 1873, as part of Japan's Meiji Period modernization, a calendar based on the solar Gregorian calendar was introduced. In Japan today, the old Chinese calendar is virtually ignored.

Japan has had more than one system for disignating years.

• The Chinese sexagenary cycle was early introduced into Japan. It was often used together with era names, as in the 1729 Ise calendar to the right, which is for "the 14th year of Kyōhō, tsuchi-no-to no tori," i.e., 己酉. Now, though, the cycle is seldom used except around New Year's.
• The era name (年号, nengō) system was also introduced from China. Era names were normally changed with each emperor, but they could be changed for other reasons, also. However, now eras are always changed at the start of a new reign, and only then. Nengō are the official means of dating years in Japan, and virtually all government business is conducted using that system. It is also in general use in private and personal business.

• The Japanese Imperial year (皇紀, kōki) is based on the date of the legendary founding of Japan by Emperor Jimmu in 660 BC. It was first used in the official calendar in 1873,. However, it never replaced era names, and since World War II has been largely abandoned.
• The Western Common Era (Anno Domini) (西暦, seireki) system has gradually come into common use since the Meiji period. Now, most people know it, as well as era names.