4.7: Dates
- Page ID
- 89624
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\(\newcommand{\avec}{\mathbf a}\) \(\newcommand{\bvec}{\mathbf b}\) \(\newcommand{\cvec}{\mathbf c}\) \(\newcommand{\dvec}{\mathbf d}\) \(\newcommand{\dtil}{\widetilde{\mathbf d}}\) \(\newcommand{\evec}{\mathbf e}\) \(\newcommand{\fvec}{\mathbf f}\) \(\newcommand{\nvec}{\mathbf n}\) \(\newcommand{\pvec}{\mathbf p}\) \(\newcommand{\qvec}{\mathbf q}\) \(\newcommand{\svec}{\mathbf s}\) \(\newcommand{\tvec}{\mathbf t}\) \(\newcommand{\uvec}{\mathbf u}\) \(\newcommand{\vvec}{\mathbf v}\) \(\newcommand{\wvec}{\mathbf w}\) \(\newcommand{\xvec}{\mathbf x}\) \(\newcommand{\yvec}{\mathbf y}\) \(\newcommand{\zvec}{\mathbf z}\) \(\newcommand{\rvec}{\mathbf r}\) \(\newcommand{\mvec}{\mathbf m}\) \(\newcommand{\zerovec}{\mathbf 0}\) \(\newcommand{\onevec}{\mathbf 1}\) \(\newcommand{\real}{\mathbb R}\) \(\newcommand{\twovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\ctwovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\threevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cthreevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\mattwo}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{rr}#1 \amp #2 \\ #3 \amp #4 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\laspan}[1]{\text{Span}\{#1\}}\) \(\newcommand{\bcal}{\cal B}\) \(\newcommand{\ccal}{\cal C}\) \(\newcommand{\scal}{\cal S}\) \(\newcommand{\wcal}{\cal W}\) \(\newcommand{\ecal}{\cal E}\) \(\newcommand{\coords}[2]{\left\{#1\right\}_{#2}}\) \(\newcommand{\gray}[1]{\color{gray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\lgray}[1]{\color{lightgray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\rank}{\operatorname{rank}}\) \(\newcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\col}{\text{Col}}\) \(\renewcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\nul}{\text{Nul}}\) \(\newcommand{\var}{\text{Var}}\) \(\newcommand{\corr}{\text{corr}}\) \(\newcommand{\len}[1]{\left|#1\right|}\) \(\newcommand{\bbar}{\overline{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bhat}{\widehat{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bperp}{\bvec^\perp}\) \(\newcommand{\xhat}{\widehat{\xvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\vhat}{\widehat{\vvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\uhat}{\widehat{\uvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\what}{\widehat{\wvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\Sighat}{\widehat{\Sigma}}\) \(\newcommand{\lt}{<}\) \(\newcommand{\gt}{>}\) \(\newcommand{\amp}{&}\) \(\definecolor{fillinmathshade}{gray}{0.9}\)In unit 1, you learned the components of dates: nián ‘year’, yuè ‘month’ and hào ‘day’. It was also noted that dates, though spoken with hào, are usually written with rì ‘sun; day’.
Notes
The characters used for yuè and rì are representational, being squared off versions of what were originally drawings of the moon and sun. Nián, on the other hand, is not obviously representational, so you might need to construct a nonsense etymology, such as: ‘A year contains four seasons; the first stroke (piě) stands for the winter, the three horizontal strokes (héng) are the growing and harvesting seasons (spring, summer and autumn); the short fourth stroke (nà) marks the harvest, and the vertical (shù) representing the continuity of the year – beginning with spring.’ However, note that the short nà stroke on the 3rd horizontal is drawn before the lowest horizontal, presumably following the stroke order principle of closing stroke last.
Dates are frequently written using Arabic numerals, as in these examples, which could be taken from the banners of Mainland newspapers:
| 1999 年 7 月 26 日 |
| 2002 年 2 月 11 日 |
| 1998 年 5 月 7 日 |
Interestingly, it is often the traditional, ‘lunar calendar’ dates that are written out in full, with the numbers also represented in Chinese characters. The Chinese lunar calendar consists of 12 months of 29 to 30 days, plus intercalary months inserted every few years to make up the difference. The lunar new year begins some weeks after the solar one. Lunar years are counted in cycles of 60, which exhausts all combinations of a set of 10 ‘stems’ and 12 ‘branches’ (ie 1-1, 1-2 … 1-11, 1-12, 2-1 … 10-12, for a total of 60). Though the first lunar month has a special name, the rest are all written with yuè; rì is usually left out of lunar dates. The correspondence is as follows:
| International dating: | 1999 年 7 月 26 日 |
| Traditional Chinese: |
己卯 年七月 二十六 jǐ-mǎo |
Most newspaper banners give dates in both forms. But even in traditional dates, zero líng is usually written as O rather than with its complicated character, 零.
Exercise 2.
a) The following are all significant dates in Chinese history. Practice reading them aloud, and see if you can find out (or recall) the event that took place on each date.
| 一九四九年 十月 一日 | 一九二一年 七月 一日 |
| 一九一九年 五月 四日 | 一九八九年 六月 四日 |
| 一九四五年 八月 十五日 | 一九一一年 十月 十日 |
b) Now, write the following dates in Chinese:
| November 23, 1949 |
| April 18, 2003 |
| February 15, 1994 |
|
October 19, 2001 |