ancient Chinese astronomical systems and it will be used here.</p><br><subsect id="superiorEpoch">Superior Epoch</subsect><p>In modern astronomy, an epoch is just an arbitrary time origin with no astronomical significance. However, this was not the case in ancient Chinese almanacs before 1281. The assumption was that celestial motions were cyclic, and an epoch was chosen to be the beginning of a grand cycle. Epochs in early astronomical systems were chosen to be an instant at which the lunar conjunction and