Boxi Learn › History › Stage 2 · Models and Patterns
Whose year is it?
People everywhere always counted years the same way we do, and there was a year 0 between 1 BCE and 1 CE.
A year number is only a count from a chosen starting point: BCE/CE counts from one fixed year with no year 0, the 干支 cycle repeats every 60 years, and regnal years restart with each ruler — to convert you need an anchor that links them.
Someone says, “In ancient China they wrote 629 on things too.” Explain what they would really have written, and how a historian turns it into 629.
Ask three family members the year they were born and work out its 干支 (stem = (Y − 4) mod 10, branch = (Y − 4) mod 12). Who shares a branch, and how many years apart are they? Then make a 10-ring and a 12-ring from paper and turn them together.