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The History and Development of Ganzhi Calendar

The year, month, day and time when the main branch appeared in China are different. In ancient times, when people used branches to mark days or months, they might only use branches or branches at the beginning. The main branches will be used together in the future.

The trunk calendar is the longest calendar in today's history. It has been established since Fu, and has been used since Xia Dynasty in ancient China. There are a large number of records of branches and branches used to record the day in Oracle bone inscriptions in Yin Ruins. However, due to the lack of materials, we can't completely relate the dates of the trunks and branches of the Shang Dynasty. Later, the trunk and branches of auspicious days of the ecliptic were based on the time of solar eclipse recorded in the ancient historical classic Spring and Autumn Annals, that is, from February 4th, the third year of Lu Yingong in Spring and Autumn Annals (720 BC) to the present.

Then in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, December of the lunar calendar was adopted. Later, in the Book of Rites, Historical Records, Huai Nan Zi Shi Zexun and other ancient books, it was recorded: "Chen is built in spring, noon in summer, autumn, and Haizi is ugly in winter."

However, the overtime system for the twelfth birthday was adopted in the Western Han Dynasty at the latest. From the end of the Western Han Dynasty to the present, we have been using dry branches to record the years. After the Tang Dynasty, the names of the calendars of the Five Dynasties (that is, the Yellow Calendar) began to be marked with branches, and in the Northern Song Dynasty, the ten branches and twelve mornings were combined to mark the time. At this point, all the calendars are marked with dry branches, and the dry branch calendars are more and more complete.

Take the Northern Song Dynasty unearthed in Dunhuang as an example. The starting point of each month is not the new moon on the calendar, but the solar terms of each month. So February is defined as the day before awakening (February Festival) to Tomb-Sweeping Day (March Festival), and so on. It is a custom at the beginning of each month that Dunhuang has solar terms, or it has a long history. Because of this, we can see from the existing calendar of Han bamboo slips that the new moon is not the starting point of each month.

The 29th chapter of Jin Ping Mei Hua Ci in the Wanli period of Ming Dynasty: The immortal said, "Please look at your nature first, then look at your face, and respect your face." Ximen Qing said in eight characters: "Tiger is twenty-nine years old and was born on July 28th." The immortal secretly pinched his finger to find the pattern, and said for a long time, "Your official name is Bing Yinnian, Xin Youyue, Noon Day, and Bing Zishi. July 23rd is the Millennium, which has been given to August for fortune-telling ..... and the palace has ordered a visit to Ma, but I will see you in July. " It can be seen that the dry calendar was used in folk and book writing at that time.

See also the ninety-fifth chapter of A Dream of Red Mansions written by Cao Xueqin during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty: "beginning of spring on December 18th of Jiayin year, and silver moon year on December 19th of Yuan Chunnian", which clearly points out the transition point of the calendar year.

Records of the Qing Dynasty is a compilation of chronological historical materials officially revised by the Qing Dynasty. All books adopt the calendar of official branches and branches, and the chronology of official branches and branches takes beginning of spring as the dividing point: Zhonghua Book Company photocopies Volume 17 of The Record of Qing Dynasty, Volume 9 of The Record of Gan Long, page 573, beginning of spring, 2007122 February (Geng Xu), and The Record is recorded as "Geng Xu. This is the beginning of last spring. " Volume 28 of Records of the Qing Dynasty, Volume 1 of Records of Emperor Renzongrui (Jiaqing), page 1044, beginning of spring, December 21, Jiaqing five years, recorded: "Keith. This is the beginning of a new spring. " Records of the Qing Dynasty (Volume 31) and Records of Emperor Renzongrui (Jiaqing) (Volume 4), page 408, in the spring, December 23rd of the 16th year of Jiaqing (Ding Mao), recorded as Ding Mao. This is the spring of Ren Shennian. Examples are numerous.

Unfortunately, in ancient times, the number of days in the calendar was mostly coordinated with the calendar time, and its role in the calendar has not been well understood. In fact, the chronological system of China calendar is a unique solar calendar system in China. Since 2000, the chronology of China's main branches and branches (such as the current lunar calendar) have cooperated with each other to form their own systems. It should be fully noted that there is no direct correspondence between the lunar calendar and the moon's profit and loss law. The dry calendar directly corresponds to the four seasons, which is no stranger to academic circles. Just because the lunar calendar was used from the Zhou Dynasty, there are few very clear discussions on the beginning and middle of each month in the December calendar in the twelfth century. Although scholars are quite clear about this, there have also been cases where the essential differences between the twelve calendars and the current lunar calendar have been ignored.

1989, the calendar comparison table of Gregorian calendar compiled by Beijing Observatory of Chinese Academy of Sciences (now the headquarters of National Astronomical Observatory of Chinese Academy of Sciences) came out, clearly showing three sets of calendars: solar calendar, lunar calendar and elephant calendar. It takes the Gregorian calendar as the main line, the dry calendar as the secondary focus, and the lunar calendar corresponds to it one by one. As can be seen from the comparison table, the official calendar is expressed as follows: (Take the 19th year of 1893/ Guangxu as an example) Jiayin in the first month, Mao Yi in February and Chen Bing in March ...! The "first month, February, March" here is by no means the month of the lunar calendar, but only as a number sequence. The months of the lunar calendar are also marked in this way. But the lunar calendar is characterized by leap months, while the trunk calendar is absolutely not available. So every year when we look through the whole book, the month of the calendar is expressed like that, only 12 months, and there is no repetition. The second feature of the comparison table is that the correspondence between the trunk calendar and the Gregorian calendar is relatively stable, because both belong to the Gregorian calendar. (But the definition of calendar in this book is not rigorous, which is easy to cause misunderstanding. )

In 2008, China Ancient Calendar, a national key book publishing planning project in the 11th Five-Year Plan, was published. In the preface, the book clearly states the definition and development history of the calendar, and expresses deep regret that China finally used the Gregorian calendar.

The National Time Service Center of Chinese Academy of Sciences is the time authority of China. Since the early 1970s, it has officially undertaken the broadcasting task of China's standard time and frequency, and provided reliable and high-precision time service for many industries and departments such as space technology, surveying and mapping, earthquake, transportation, communication, meteorology and geology. Risuo perpetual calendar is a perpetual calendar provided by the National Time Service Center for free use in the whole network. There is a calendar showing the elephant trunk calendar on the Risuo calendar, with beginning of spring as the dividing line of the year.

Nowadays, especially with the wide application of computer, Internet and cloud technology, the calculation and popularization of calendars is no longer a problem. Purple Mountain Observatory is not the only institution in China that can compile almanac. Some ethnic minorities can also compile their own unique almanac. Therefore, most online calendars provide complete and standard calendars. For example, Baidu can display PC platform software such as "perpetual calendar" and daily perpetual calendar, and choose mobile phone applications such as auspicious day and Yitong perpetual calendar (some can accurately display time). However, some perpetual calendars and yellow calendars are not strictly marked with official calendars. For example, the calendar year and month are only marked generally or wrongly (marked on the first day of the lunar month), which is extremely misleading. However, most lunar calendars simply mark the date and approximate date (on the cover or homepage), which is a very strict method of calendar discipline, and it is quite troublesome to find a way to infer the date and month. This has created obstacles to the healthy development of the calendar.

Since ancient times, the Ganzhi calendar has been widely recognized by the government and the people, and it has been used in astronomy, geomantic omen, numerology, choice, Chinese medicine and other aspects, and it has also been recorded in the official almanac of dynasties (that is, the Yellow Calendar). As an important part of China traditional culture, Ganzhili should be reasonably protected.