Li Chun and the BaZi Year: Why January Births Get Last Year's Pillar

If you were born in January or early February, there is a good chance your BaZi year pillar is not the one you expected. The reason is simple: in BaZi the year begins at 立春 (Lì Chūn, "Start of Spring"), the moment the sun reaches 315° of ecliptic longitude — around 4 February — not on 1 January and not at Chinese New Year.

Three different "new years"

People born around the turn of the year meet three different boundaries:

• 1 January — the Gregorian new year. It plays no role in BaZi.
• Chinese New Year (春节) — the first day of the first lunar month, between 21 January and 20 February. It is the popular boundary for year labels.
• 立春 — a solar term, between 3 and 5 February. It is the boundary for the BaZi year pillar and for the first BaZi month, 寅.

Because 立春 follows the sun and Chinese New Year follows the moon, their order changes from year to year. In some years Chinese New Year comes first; in others 立春 does. Births in the window between them get a different year pillar from the popular year label.

Why the solar boundary?

BaZi is a solar-term system. The twelve BaZi months begin at the twelve jie terms, and the 寅 month — the first month of spring — begins at 立春. The year must begin with its first month, so the year begins at 立春 too. Using the lunar New Year would mean the first month of the year sometimes began weeks before or after the year itself.

The exact instant matters

立春 is not a day but an instant. In 2026 it falls at 04:02 on 4 February, Beijing time; in other years it may be in the evening of 3 February or on 5 February. Someone born on the day of 立春 needs the exact birth time to know which year pillar applies.

Here are the year pillars and 立春 instants for a range of recent and coming years:

Times are in Beijing time. For a birth elsewhere, the instant is the same moment converted to the local time zone — the calculator handles this automatically.

What changes with the year pillar

The year pillar changes three things in a chart:

1. The year pillar itself — its stem and branch, read as background and early years.
2. The month stem — the month stem is derived from the year stem by the "five tigers" rule, so the month pillar's stem also depends on the correct year.
3. The luck direction — luck pillars run forward or backward depending on the year stem's polarity, so a wrong year can reverse every luck pillar.

The Day Master does not change, because the day pillar is independent of the year boundary.

An example

Common questions

My parents say I was born in the year of X but the calculator disagrees. Check whether your birthday falls between Chinese New Year and 立春. If so, both are "right" — they use different boundaries. BaZi uses 立春.

Does the Chinese almanac use 立春 too? The almanac's stem-branch year pillar changes at 立春; its lunar date changes at the lunar New Year. See the Chinese almanac.

Does Zi Wei Dou Shu use 立春? No. Zi Wei follows the lunar year. See Zi Wei basics.

How Li Chun is determined

Li Chun is the moment the sun reaches ecliptic longitude 315°. It is an astronomical event, so it has a precise instant in Universal Time, and its local date and time depend on the time zone. In China Standard Time it falls on 3, 4 or 5 February. For example, 2026 Li Chun was 4 February at 04:02, 2025 was 3 February at 22:10, and 2024 was 4 February at 16:27 (Beijing time). The Chinese calendar converter and annual pillar calculator show the instant for any year.

Because the instant is the same worldwide, a birth in New York shortly after Li Chun by Beijing time may still be before Li Chun on the local calendar date — what matters is the instant, not the date. The calculator converts your birth to Universal Time before comparing.

Births in January and early February

Anyone born between 1 January and Li Chun belongs to the previous BaZi year. This affects:

• The year pillar — both stem and branch.
• The month pillar — January births before 小寒 (around 5–6 January) are still in the 子 month; from 小寒 to Li Chun they are in the 丑 month of the previous year's cycle.
• Luck pillar direction — because direction depends on the polarity of the year stem, a change of year can reverse it.

The third point is often missed. A birth just before Li Chun 2026 has a 乙 (yin) year stem; just after, a 丙 (yang) stem. Under the traditional rule this flips the luck-pillar direction, and the starting age is computed to a different solar term.

Li Chun versus the lunar new year in practice

In 2026 the lunar new year fell on 17 February, almost two weeks after Li Chun, so births from 4 to 16 February have different lunar and BaZi years. In years when the lunar new year comes before Li Chun, the gap runs the other way.

Why some sources disagree

Older popular books sometimes used the lunar new year for the year pillar, and some calendar apps follow that convention. Professional BaZi practice uses Li Chun almost universally, as does this site. If you compare charts across tools, check this setting first, together with true solar time and the Zi hour convention.

Li Chun in the calendar year

Li Chun also starts the 寅 month, the first month of the BaZi year, and opens the cycle of twenty-four solar terms used for months. The solar terms guide explains the month boundaries that follow.

A checklist for births near Li Chun

1. Find the exact Li Chun instant for the birth year in the Chinese calendar converter.
2. Convert the birth time to the same time zone — the calculator does this from the birth city.
3. If the birth is within a few hours of the instant, confirm the recorded time and whether daylight saving applied (rare in February, but it happens in the southern hemisphere).
4. Note both the year pillar and the luck-pillar direction, since both can change.
5. If the record is uncertain by more than the gap to Li Chun, generate both charts in the BaZi calculator and treat year-dependent conclusions as open.

Li Chun and the year's character

Practitioners often describe each year by its pillar — 2026 丙午 as a year of strong fire, 2027 丁未 as fire over earth. For a birth chart, the year pillar contributes to the overall element balance like any other pillar, but it is not the most important one; the day stem and the month branch carry more weight. This is another reason the popular focus on birth-year symbols gives an incomplete picture.

Key points

• The BaZi year changes at the Li Chun instant, when the sun reaches ecliptic longitude 315°, around 4 February.
• Births from 1 January to Li Chun belong to the previous BaZi year, including its year stem and branch.
• The lunar new year can come before or after Li Chun, so lunar and BaZi years differ for some births.
• A change of year can reverse the luck-pillar direction.
• What matters is the exact instant, converted to the birth place's time zone.
• Births within a few hours of Li Chun need a careful check of the recorded time.
• The year pillar is part of the chart's balance, but the day stem and month branch carry more weight.

Key terms in this article

Start of Spring (Li Chun) · 立春

立春, when the sun reaches 315° ecliptic longitude around 4 February, begins the BaZi year and the 寅 month. Someone born on 1 February belongs to the previous BaZi year even if Chinese New Year has passed — or not passed.

Chinese New Year vs Li Chun · 春节与立春

Chinese New Year follows the lunar calendar and falls between 21 January and 20 February; 立春 follows the sun. BaZi and most almanac year pillars use 立春, while popular year labels use the lunar New Year — the source of many mismatched charts.

Year Pillar · 年柱

The year pillar is the stem-branch pair of the solar year of birth. In BaZi the year changes at the exact moment of 立春 (Start of Spring, around 4 February), not at Chinese New Year or on 1 January. It is traditionally read as ancestry, family background and early childhood.

Solar Terms · 二十四节气

The twenty-four solar terms divide the sun's path into 15° steps. The twelve 节 (jie) terms such as 立春 and 惊蛰 begin BaZi months; the twelve 中气 terms such as 雨水 mark mid-months. Each term has a precise astronomical moment, not just a date.

Next: solar terms and BaZi months.