Happy birthday
In China, when it comes to a person's age, there are often two different numbers, one is one year old and the other is imaginary age. The difference between the two ages stems from their different calculations.
The age of one year is calculated according to the international common age calculation method, which calculates the length of time that has been spent after birth (at birth is zero years old, and the tail number can be calculated, such as three years and two months, seven and a half years old, etc.).
For example, the same year is born after the Spring Festival in 1998 (January 28, 1998 Spring Festival), one birthday is on February 16, and one birthday is on December 16, so that on February 17, 2021, one is the first 33 years old, and one is the first 32 years old.
Imaginary age is a traditional Chinese method of age counting, which is also popular in other countries in eastern Asia, and is used to calculate the order of the years that a person is experiencing after birth. According to this method, it is one year old when first born, and then one year old is added every Spring Festival.
For example, if the same birth was born after the Spring Festival in 1998, one birthday was on February 16 and one birthday was on December 16, so that by February 17, 2021 (February 12, 2021), both were 34 years old.
To put it simply, the difference between the two calculation methods is that the calculation method of the first year of age is 0 years old at birth, and then "one year older and one year older", while the calculation method of imaginary age is 1 year old at birth, and then "one year, one year older". Therefore, the numbers calculated by these two methods are less than one year, and the difference between the two methods is more than two years.
The difference between the method of calculating the age of one and the imaginary age is, in the final analysis, two different understandings of the new life. The first year is to take the child out of the mother's womb as the starting point of a new life, while the false age is to take the mother's pregnancy as the starting point of a new life.
According to the traditional Chinese concept, after pregnancy, it is regarded as a new life has begun, and the age at the time of childbirth is counted as one year old, so it can be considered that the imaginary age is calculated from the beginning of pregnancy (do not calculate the precise time of pregnancy, all are born as one year old), remembering the hardships of ancient human reproduction, remembering the mother's pregnancy in October, and also embodying Chinese the traditional virtues of respecting the old and loving the young.
The difference between imaginary age and one year old
For example, a "second queen" born on February 11, 2021 (Chinese New Year's Eve) will not be considered to have just turned one year old until February 11, 2022. If calculated according to the imaginary age, the child is 1 year old on February 11, 2021, and by the next day, February 12 (Spring Festival), his imaginary age will be counted as 2 years old, although according to the age of one year, his age is only 2 days. After the Spring Festival next year (February 1, 2022), the child's age is less than 1 year old, but its imaginary age should already be considered 3 years old.
In mainland legal practice, the first year of age is taken into account, which is to reduce the occurrence of disputes due to the issue of age; for juveniles who commit crimes, the relevant laws also postpone the weekly age by one day, such as Article 2 of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Specific Application of Law in the Trial of Juvenile Criminal Cases, which clearly stipulates that "one year older" is calculated according to the year, month, and day of the Gregorian calendar, and is calculated from the second day of the first birthday.
The evolution of the Chinese character "year"