BAZI KNOWLEDGE BASE
Born minutes from a solar term: how to check year and month boundaries
A solar term (one of 24 seasonal markers defined by the Sun’s position along its yearly path) begins at a particular instant, not at midnight starting its printed calendar date. Within a few minutes of a boundary, the Year or Month Pillar (the two-symbol column for the birth month) may differ. Compare the dated birth record and term reference on the same time scale, then examine how precise each actually is.
Li Chun 2026: 04:02 is Hong Kong time
The Hong Kong Observatory lists Li Chun (the Start of Spring calendar marker used as the year boundary in many BaZi methods) on 4 February 2026 at 04:02 Hong Kong time, UTC+8: 20:02 UTC on 3 February. A Hong Kong reading of 03:50 is before it and 04:10 after it. Comparing an unconverted clock elsewhere directly with 04:02 would mix zones.
Under a Li Chun year boundary, the earlier side is Yi Si year and Ji Chou month; the later side is Bing Wu year and Geng Yin month. These example minutes are deliberately separated. A table displaying only minutes cannot assign every second within its displayed 04:02 minute.
Fifteen degrees does not mean exactly fifteen days
Solar longitude locates the Sun along the ecliptic relative to the spring equinox; it is not the geographic longitude of a birthplace. Terms are fifteen degrees apart, but apparent solar motion is not perfectly uniform, so they are not exactly fifteen whole days apart. Use the relevant year’s crossings rather than copying last year’s clock times.
Every Jie changes the month; not every solar term does
Among the twenty-four terms, the twelve Jie, including Li Chun, Jing Zhe and Qing Ming, start BaZi months. Zhongqi such as Rain Water and the March equinox do not add another month change. Li Chun also concerns the year boundary. The month stem (the upper symbol in the birth-month column) must be derived with the new branch and applicable year stem (the upper symbol in the birth-year column), not left over from the previous month.
More decimal places do not establish greater accuracy
Birth-record uncertainty and term-calculation error are different. “Around four” does not become exact because software displays seconds. Conversely, a minute-recorded birth can still be affected by an approximate solar-position formula.
A local check found Clarify’s current formula placing Li Chun 2026 at about 03:58 Hong Kong time, roughly four minutes earlier than the Observatory’s displayed minute. This single comparison is not a four-minute error bound for every year. The current tool should not be treated as a second-level arbiter near a term.
An interval crossing the term creates conditional results
A supported interval of 03:50–04:10 straddles this boundary; replacing it with a four-o’clock midpoint does not resolve the uncertainty. Identify the alternative years and months. Read shared information first and keep seasonal or Year-Stem judgments conditional. Clarify currently has no interface enumerating all interval candidates.
When references disagree, check their year, zone, precision and astronomical source. Do not convert only the term to solar time while leaving the birth in civil time; both sides of a comparison must use the same basis.