Snakes in Chinese mythology of the Han dynasty, which claimed to rule with the protection of water and the north. Although the Black Warrior (Xuan Wu) is generally depicted as a snake entwining around a turtle, sometimes they are viewed as two separable generals. In Chinese culture mythologized snakes and snakelike beings have various roles, including the calendar system, poetry, and literature. In Chinese culture, years of the Snake are sixth in the cycle, following the Dragon Years, and recur every twelfth year. The Chinese New Year does not fall on a specific date, so it is essential to check the calendar to find
Chinese calendar 4609 Huángdì year, assuming a year 0 of 2698 BC. The change was adopted by many overseas Chinese communities, such as San Francisco's Chinatown. During the 17th century, the Jesuits tried to determine the epochal year of the Han calendar. In his "Sinicae historiae decas prima" (published in Munich in 1658), Martino Martini (1614–1661) dated the ascension of the Yellow Emperor to 2697 BC and began the Chinese calendar with the reign of Fuxi (which, according to Martini, began in 2952 BC. Philippe Couplet's 1686 "Chronological table of Chinese monarchs" ("Tabula chronologica monarchiae sinicae") gave the same date for the