Checking calendar inputs: dates, time zones and solar time

The Gregorian calendar organizes civil dates. The Chinese calendar is lunisolar: new moons define months, while solar terms and leap months keep them aligned with seasons. Stem-branch cycles can label years, months, days and hours; a chart using them still needs explicit month and year boundaries. One instant may therefore have three date labels. Retain the source calendar, leap-month flag and full year; “first day of the eighth month” is insufficient.

Double-hours name time intervals; a time zone defines civil clock time; apparent solar time follows the local Sun. Local mean solar time applies longitude adjustment, while apparent solar time also involves the equation of time. A fixed offset alone is insufficient. Check daylight-saving history and record longitude, time zone and the sign convention used for the equation of time. Which clock a tradition adopts is a methodological choice, not a reason to adjust inputs until a preferred result appears.

Compare inputs first, rules second and interpretation last. Check calendar, leap month, place, time zone, original time and solar adjustment, then year/month/day boundaries and cycle-start rules. Locate the first differing field and change one setting at a time. Matching year pillars but differing month pillars suggests checking lunar versus solar-term months; differences near midnight suggest a day boundary. Save software versions and settings to distinguish input, tradition and implementation differences.