It’s one of those things that weren’t invented in China but took off in China: 简谱jiǎn pǔ is a way of writing down music using numbers and dots and dashes. It was invented because the standard notation can be difficult to read, especially to beginners:

But this is (arguably) more accessible:

Wikipedia (en, zh) says this notation was invented in France in the 1700s and came to China by way of Germany and Japan in the early 1900s. I haven’t seen it used anywhere outside of China, though — which is a shame, because it’s such a handy tool.

The Notes

简谱 uses the numbers 1 through 7 to denote the seven notes on a major scale — that is, do, re, mi, fa, so, la, si (ti) — and uses a 0 to denote a pause. Very often, this translates to 1 = C, 2 = D, …, 6 = A, 7 = B.

Continue reading “Jianpu (simplified staff)” →

At this point, most of the English-speaking world has an awareness that the Chinese New Year happens somewhere around January or February. Some might even know that it moves around relative to the western calendar because the Chinese calendar is lunar. But did you know that the Chinese calendar is actually half-lunar, half-solar? It even relies on the same solstices and equinoxes that we know and love in the west.

Through the thousands of years in China’s ancient history, the Chinese calendar has been revised multiple times, so the rules we describe below will not perfectly backdate to ye olden days. The basic principles have always been the same, but the details (leap years and such) haven’t been consistent throughout.

The Chinese calendar currently follows the Chinese national standard GB/T 33661-2017, which was last revised in 2017 (as the name suggests). For some reason, you can purchase the full text through the (American) ANSI webstore for the low, low price of $180 (lol).

Following the GB/T, we’ll reach this conclusion: the Chinese New Year happens on the second, occasionally the third, new moon following the winter solstice.

Continue reading “When is the Chinese New Year?” →