Li Chun 2026: The Chinese Astrological New Year Explained

Li Chun (立春, "Start of Spring") is the first of the 24 Solar Terms and marks the beginning of the Chinese astrological year in Bazi. It falls around February 4th each year, and in 2026 it lands on February 4th. This, not Chinese New Year, is the moment the year pillar turns over, because Bazi uses the solar calendar rather than the lunar date of the Spring Festival. Ask a general audience when the Chinese New Year starts and most will name the Lunar New Year, the date that varies each year between late January and late February. That date governs the traditional lunar calendar used for festivals and some folk observances.

But Bazi Four Pillars uses a different calendar entirely: the Chinese solar calendar. In this system, the astrological year begins at Li Chun (立春, "Start of Spring"), which typically falls on February 4th or 5th, depending on the year. This single difference can change a person's Year Pillar entirely.

Two Different Calendar Systems

Traditional Chinese civilisation developed multiple overlapping calendar systems for different purposes. The lunar calendar tracks the moon's cycles and governs the timing of festivals, including Chinese New Year (Spring Festival). It is a lunisolar calendar that adds intercalary months to stay roughly aligned with the solar year.

The solar calendar, called the xia li (夏曆) or nong li solar branch, is based entirely on the sun's position in the ecliptic. It divides the year into 24 Solar Terms (節氣, jieqi), starting with Li Chun when the sun reaches 315 degrees of ecliptic longitude. This is the calendar that governs Bazi, feng shui, and the Chinese almanac. The twenty four solar terms are recognized by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage.

Zi Ping Bazi, the mainstream classical school codified from the Song dynasty onward, uses solar terms to define both year and month boundaries. The year boundary is Li Chun. Each month boundary is a "Jie" (節) solar term, not a new moon. The lunar calendar is simply not used for chart construction.

What Is Li Chun?

Li Chun is the first of the 24 Solar Terms. It marks the astronomical beginning of spring in East Asian cosmology and the point at which the yearly Yang cycle begins to strengthen. This cosmology connects to the Five Elements framework surveyed by the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. In the traditional calendar, the new astrological year begins the moment the sun crosses 315 degrees ecliptic longitude, which the Chinese solar calendar identifies as the instant Li Chun begins.

The date and precise time of Li Chun shifts slightly each year due to leap years and other astronomical factors. It almost always falls on February 3rd, 4th, or 5th. In 2024, Li Chun was on February 4th at approximately 16:27 UTC. In 2025, it falls on February 3rd. The exact time matters: someone born at 8am on February 4th of a given year needs to check whether Li Chun had already occurred that day in their local timezone before their birth hour.

Who Does This Affect?

Anyone born between January 1st and approximately February 5th may have a different Year Pillar depending on which year boundary is used. The group most affected is people born in late January or the first four days of February, since this window falls before Li Chun in most years but after the Lunar New Year in some years.

The discrepancy can run in either direction. Consider someone born on January 28th, 1990. The Lunar New Year in 1990 was January 27th, so by lunar reckoning they would be in the year of the Horse (1990). But Li Chun in 1990 was February 4th, so by the solar Zi Ping convention they were still in the year of the Snake (1989). Their Year Pillar stem and branch would be entirely different under the two conventions.

Why Does the Discrepancy Persist?

Many popular Bazi apps and some less rigorous practitioners use Chinese New Year as the year boundary because it is more widely known, more intuitive, and easier to look up. The Chinese zodiac used in popular culture is also keyed to the Lunar New Year, which reinforces the association.

But the classical Zi Ping texts are clear: Bazi uses the solar calendar. The original manuals from the Song and Ming dynasties define the year start at Li Chun and month starts at the Jie solar terms. Using the Lunar New Year boundary is a simplification that departs from the documented classical method.

There is also a minority tradition that places the year boundary at the Winter Solstice, used in some fortune-telling schools. This differs from both the Lunar New Year and Li Chun positions. BeyondBazi uses Li Chun, which is the mainstream Zi Ping convention.

Month Boundaries Follow the Same Logic

The Li Chun discussion also applies to month pillars. Each of the twelve Chinese solar months begins at a Jie solar term, not at a new moon. The month of Yin (Tiger) begins at Li Chun itself. The month of Mao (Rabbit) begins at Jing Zhe (Awakening of Insects), roughly March 6th. Each month has a fixed stem derived from the year stem using the Five Tigers rule (五虎遁).

Someone born in early March might assume they are in the month of Mao because the calendar month is March. But if their birthday falls before Jing Zhe, they are still in the month of Yin for Bazi purposes. Getting both year and month boundaries correct requires checking actual solar term dates, not relying on the Gregorian calendar alone.

How BeyondBazi Handles This

The BeyondBazi calculator determines Li Chun from a precise lookup table of solar term dates for 1920 to 2030, cross-referenced against astronomical data. Year and month transitions happen at the documented solar term moments, not at midnight, not at Lunar New Year.

The tool also accounts for timezone: a birth at 11pm on February 3rd in Singapore (UTC+8) is February 3rd local time, but the Li Chun calculation checks the solar term moment in UTC and converts correctly. If you enter a birth time in the calculator, the tool applies the timezone adjustment before making any calendar decisions.

Once your year pillar is settled, it can be worth seeing how that year's theme is expected to unfold: the Year of the Goat forecast looks at what the coming year carries, offered for reflection rather than a fixed outcome.

If you are drawn to birth-based systems of self-discovery, you may also enjoy exploring your numbers with the free numerology calculator at Birth Chart Numbers.

BeyondBazi is for cultural interest and self-reflection only. Nothing here constitutes fate, medical, financial, or professional advice.