<P> In the 17th century, the Jesuits tried to determine what year should be considered the epoch of the Han calendar . In his Sinicae historiae decas prima (first published in Munich in 1658), Martino Martini (1614--1661) dated the ascension of the Yellow Emperor to 2697 BC, but started the Chinese calendar with the reign of Fuxi, which he claimed started in 2952 BCE . Philippe Couplet's (1623--1693) Chronological table of Chinese monarchs (Tabula chronologica monarchiae sinicae; 1686) also gave the same date for the Yellow Emperor . The Jesuits' dates provoked great interest in Europe, where they were used for comparisons with Biblical chronology . </P> <P> Modern Chinese chronology has generally accepted Martini's dates, except that it usually places the reign of the Yellow Emperor in 2698 BC and omits the Yellow Emperor's predecessors Fuxi and Shennong, who are considered "too legendary to include". </P> <P> Starting in 1903, radical publications started using the projected date of birth of the Yellow Emperor as the first year of the Han calendar . Different newspapers and magazines proposed different dates . Jiangsu, for example, counted 1905 as year 4396 (use an epoch of 2491 BCE), whereas the newspaper Ming Pao (traditional Chinese: 明報; simplified Chinese: 明报) reckoned 1905 as 4603 (use an epoch of 2698 BCE). Liu Shipei (劉師培; 1884--1919) created the Yellow Emperor Calendar, now often used to calculate the date, to show the unbroken continuity of the Han race and Han culture from earliest times . Liu's calendar started with the birth of the Yellow Emperor, which he determined to be 2711 BC . There is no evidence that this calendar was used before the 20th century . Liu calculated that the 1900 international expedition sent by the Eight - Nation Alliance to suppress the Boxer Rebellion entered Beijing in the 4611th year of the Yellow Emperor . </P> <Dl> <Dt> Calendric epoch </Dt> </Dl>

What is the current year in the chinese calendar