before 1949, it was usually called by the year of the emperor plus the year of his reign. For example, thirty years of Qianlong and thirty years of Guangxu. After the death of the previous emperor, the new emperor ascended the throne, which was the emperor's title plus the first year. For example, Tongzhi collapsed after becoming the thirteenth emperor, and the following year Guangxu succeeded to the throne, which was the thirteenth year of Tongzhi (1874) and the following year was the first year of Guangxu (1875). "Yuan" means "first", such as "New Year's Day".
parallel to it, it is the date of Jiazi. With heavenly stems and earthly branches, there is a cycle of 6 years. For example, the thirteenth year of Tongzhi was Jiaxu, and the first year of Guangxu in the following year was Yihai. How the Jiazi calendar corresponds to the AD calendar and the Emperor calendar came out after a search on the Internet. No need to remember.
there is another kind called "the year of the year", which is too partial, so I won't say much.
Now answer your question:
In ancient times, the most commonly used title was "eight characters". The eight characters, also called four pillars, are heavenly stems and earthly branches characters found from the calendar, which represent the year, month, day and hour of a person's birth with the heavenly stems and earthly branches of heaven and earth, and add up to eight words. Eight-character (eight-character numerology, eight-character numerology) is a method of deducing fate according to eight characters.
"eight characters" are also called four pillars (year pillars, moon pillars, sun pillars and time pillars), each with two characters, with heavenly stems (A, B, C, D, E, Ji, G, Xin, Ren and Gui) at the top and earthly branches (Zi, Ugly, Yin, Mao, Chen and Si) at the bottom.
the eight characters come from the Book of Changes. Eight-character fortune-telling means that our destiny is known and predictable, and we can predict the direction of our destiny through the time of birth. It provides a theoretical basis for us to reveal the movement law of human life in the natural "qi" of heaven and earth. "Qi" here is a variant of "shua". The heavenly stems are "heavenly stems" and the earthly branches are "earthly branches". Eight-character fortune-telling is also called "Zi Ping Shu". This is because Xu Ziping made a comprehensive summary of the previous fortune-telling and wrote the first monograph of eight characters-Yuan Hai Zi Ping (a collection of Yuan Hai and Yuan Yuan), which made the eight characters develop rapidly, so later generations also called the eight-character fortune-telling as Zi Ping Shu.
Rhizoma Dioscoreae Septemlobae: A (ji ǐ), B (yǐ), C (bǐng), D (d Ρ ng), E (w ǐ), J (jǐ), G (gēng), Xin (x Ρ n), Ren.
Twelve earthly branches: Zi (zǐ), Chou (chǒu), Yin (yín), Mao (m ǐ o), Chen (chén), Si (s), Wu (wǔ), Wei (w ǔ i) and shēn (sh ?