Today is Chinese New Year. I wish every one who read my blog have a prosperous and abundant health Monkey Year. Because Chinese New year is based on the Chinese calendar, it has a different date every year according to the Gregorian calendar. Chinese calendar is a lunisolar calendar which computes years, months and days according to the moon phase and the time of the solar year. It is a very complicate calculated system. In Chinese medicine when we treat or prevent the disease and analysis the organ and meridian function time, we will use the Chinese calendar to determine the time and the season. It is also used for traditional activities in China and overseas Chinese communities to determine the dates of traditional Chinese holidays.

In traditional Chinese time system, the Earthly Branches (地支) is used to describe the time, it is used for a double hour, the days begin and end at midnight. According to the Chinese calendar, we combine the Heavenly Stems（天干） with the Earthly Branches(地支) to produce a compound cycle of sixty years, this forms one Chinese calendrical year. Chinese seasons are based on observations of the sun and stars, it divides by 24 time period, we call it JIeqi(节气)。Those are all important concepts to you to know if you want to learn Chinese medicine.

For example, every organ in your body have their five elements belong and their working time, in the Heavenly Stems（天干), the organ work time order is JIA(甲), gall blader. WOOD, Yi(乙), liver, WOOD, Bing(丙),small intestine, FIRE, Ding(丁),heart, FIRE, Wu(戊),Stomach, EARTH, Ji(己)，spleen, EARTH, Geng(庚), large intestine, Xin(辛),METAL lung, Ren(壬), METAL, bladder and triple burner( Sanjiao), WATER, Gui(癸), kidney and pericardium, WATER. The twelve meridian also have their circle time based on the Earthly Branches (地支) : it starts from the Lung channel begins the clock flow at 3 am to 5 am to the liver 1am to 3am then back to the lung, the circle will be on and on until you die. If the circulation is disturbed or slow down then you will get sick. So we have to keep the Qi circulation in their order and on time in order to keep your body in a good condition.

©Dr.Li Zhang