Calendar production, calendar printing, calendar design

China began to have a calendar system approximately over four thousand years ago. According to a page of oracle bone calendar found in oracle bone inscriptions, it proves that the calendar system of the Yin Dynasty had already reached a considerable level. This page of oracle bone calendar is the oldest physical calendar in all mankind, and this page of oracle bone calendar is also called a daily calendar.

Tang poetry: “In the mountains, there is no calendar, and the passing of winter goes unnoticed.” “Liri” (calendar day) might be the earliest desk calendar. During the Tang Dynasty, historians cut paper daily, bound it into volumes, one for each month. Each page had the month and date written on it, with blank space left for the eunuchs attending the emperor to record his words and deeds. This was the “Liri”. At the end of the month, the “Liri” was first submitted to the emperor for review, then archived by the historians for compiling the “National History”. Because it had the function of recording time and events, civil and military officials vied to imitate it.

Early Development

According to historical records, approximately 1100 years ago, in the first year of Yongzhen of Emperor Shunzong of Tang, calendars were already in use in the imperial palace. The calendar at that time was also called the imperial calendar, and it not only recorded dates but also served as important material for compiling national history. The calendars then were somewhat similar to current ones, dividing a year into 12 volumes, with the number of pages in each volume determined by the number of days in the month. The month and date were written on each page, and then temporarily entrusted to the eunuchs serving the emperor. After the eunuchs recorded the emperor's words and deeds on the blank pages daily and submitted them to the emperor for review and approval at the end of each month, they were sent to the historians for archiving. The historians would then combine the calendar's content with major events of the court and various domestic regions, and after refining and polishing, record them, thus becoming the national history.

Later, as calendars brought much convenience to daily life, they gradually entered the homes of many high-ranking officials in the court. After some modifications, they were compiled into family calendars. Furthermore, with the popularization and domestic development of calendars, people began to print the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, lunar phases, solar terms, and auspicious dates from almanacs onto calendars, leaving large blank spaces for notes.

As for the development of monthly calendars into various forms such as wall calendars and desk calendars, this has only been a matter of the last century. Desk calendar styles have evolved from their initial simple forms to many variations. In recent years, the market economy and the popularization and development of the internet have driven exchanges between different cultures, and desk calendars are certainly part of this, with the most common trend being that desk calendars are becoming smaller and more exquisite.