How did the ancients calculate time?

What was used to calculate time in ancient times?

An ancient tool for calculating time;

1. The "table" in the standard table is a pole or stone pillar standing vertically on the ground; "Gui" is a slate extending horizontally from the heel of the watch to the north. Whenever the sun turns due south, the shadow falls on the water of Guiyu. By measuring the length of the shadow, we can calculate the time of each solar term, such as winter solstice and summer solstice. When the shadow is the longest, the solstice of winter comes; In the shortest time, the summer solstice came. It is the oldest and most common astronomical instrument in China.

Step 2: Gap leakage

Also known as clepsydra and clepsydra. There are two main types of clepsydra: drainage type and water receiving type. Most of the early water leaks were drainage type. The bottom side of the leaky kettle leaks water, and the grid fork and the closing tongue rise again, so that the leaking arrow floating on the surface of the leaky kettle drops with the water surface, and the scale on the leaking arrow indicates the time. Later, the water-receiving type was created. Water is injected from the leaky kettle into the receiving kettle at a constant flow rate, and the leaking arrow floating on the water surface of the receiving kettle indicates the time with the rise of the water surface, thus improving the timing accuracy. In order to obtain a constant flow, the water level of the clepsydra must be kept constant at first. Secondly, the cross-sectional area of the water pipe of the irrigation pot must be fixed, and the water pipe adopts the principle of "thirst for black" (siphon) to facilitate adjustment and maintenance. There are two ways to keep the water level unchanged or close to it, both of which can be found in "The Wind Map of Hu's Qi State" made by Yang Jia in Song Dynasty (published by 1 153). In the picture, there are several compensation pots carved above the leaky pot of Lv Caiding made in Tang Dynasty (about 600 ~ 650 AD), and Su Yanding made in modern times (1030) is carved by overflow method, which is four inches deep. Excess water flows from the flat kettle (lower cavity) into the water reducer through the bamboo injection tube. The leaky pot created by Yan Su is called Lotus Leak, which was popular all over the country in the Northern Song Dynasty.

hourglass

According to historical records, the hourglass is driven by quicksand, because it leaks in winter and is easy to freeze. Tian Wenzhi of Shi Ming records that Zhan Xiyuan created the "five-wheel hourglass" in the early days. Later, in order to prevent congestion, Zhou Shuxue enlarged the quicksand cave and replaced it with six wheels. Song Lian (1310 ~1381) wrote "songji", which recorded the hourglass structure, with the size of parts and the number of teeth of each wheel of the reduction gear, and said that the shaft tip of the fifth wheel had no teeth, but it was equipped with a landscape disk indicating time.

4. armillary sphere

In the ancient documents of the armillary sphere, it is said that when the cymbals were lost by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (140 ~ 87 BC), it was original to make the armillary sphere by others, but its structure was not mentioned. Jin Zhi records that Zhang Heng (AD 78 ~ 139) made the armillary sphere, saying that it was driven by water leakage in the secret room, and the time of the stars indicated by the instrument was consistent with the astronomical observation results. The Book of the New Tang Dynasty, Tian Wen Zhi, records in detail the armillary sphere designed by the monks and their party by Liang Lingzan in the 13th year of Tang Kaiyuan (725). The instrument is equipped with two wheels, namely the sun and the moon, and the waterwheel drives the elephant. The elephant turns once a day and the sun turns 1/365 times. The instrument is also equipped with two puppets, which drum and carve respectively. This is a wooden building with a narrow bottom and a large width.

5. Waterway instrument camera

Written by Su Song and Han Gonglian in the third year of Yuan You in the Northern Song Dynasty (1088). In the early years of Shao Sheng's life (1094 ~ 1097), they wrote "An Outline of New Devices", which contained several general plans and component drawings. This watercraft is more than three feet high and two feet wide. This is a narrow and wide wooden building. There is a water lifting device on the lower floor of the platform, and the upper wheel and the lower wheel (pipe truck) are driven by manpower to lift the water to Tianhe (receiving pool) and inject it into Tianchi (reservoir). The water level of the flat kettle in the platform is kept constant, and a constant flow of water is discharged to the kettle on the pivot wheel (waterwheel) through a water pipe with a certain section to push the pivot wheel. The pivot wheel drives the day and night wheel, the elephant and the armillary sphere through the transmission gear. The image platform of aquatic instruments has a complex gear transmission system. There is a "balance" device-escapement above and around the pivot wheel, which is an important creation in the history of timing machinery, and it changes the continuous rotating motion of the pivot wheel into intermittent rotating motion. Above and around the pivot wheel are

How long is a long time? How did the ancients calculate time?

Noon: At or around noon [midnight; Noon].

Half ring: half a day; Half a day: before ~ ∣ after ~ ∣ He thought about it before he remembered ~ ∣ before ~ I was at school, after ~ I was at home.

Correlation time division

[Half noon] Dialect. About nine or ten o'clock in the morning.

[Long ago, long ago, long ago] [Fang] Before noon; In the morning; Half a day.

Afternoon, after a long time, after a long time. Afternoon; The second half day.

For a long time, it was called noon.

Now the daily day and night is 24 hours, while in ancient times it was 12 hours. When western mechanical clocks and watches were introduced into China, people called the time points of China and the West "Da Shi" and "Shi Shi" respectively. With the popularity of clocks and watches, people forget "Da Shi", and "Shi" is still in use today.

In ancient times, time (big time) was not counted by 1234, but marked by ugly children and animals such as rats, cows, tigers and rabbits, which was easy to remember. The specific division is as follows: from eleven o'clock to one o'clock, twelve o'clock is the punctuality; Ugly (cattle) from one to three, with two points as the punctuality; Yin (tiger) is from three o'clock to five o'clock, with four o'clock as the punctuality; Mao (rabbit) is from five to seven, with six o'clock as the punctuality; Chen (Dragon) is from 7: 00 to 9: 00, with 8: 00 as the punctuality; It's 9 o'clock to 1 1, and 10 is the punctuality; At noon (horse), it is eleven o'clock to one o'clock, with twelve o'clock as the punctuality; When you are not (sheep), it is 1 until 3 o'clock, with 2 o'clock as the punctuality; When applying for (monkey), it is from three o'clock to five o'clock, with four o'clock as the punctuality; You (chicken) are from five to seven, with six o'clock as the punctuality; From 7: 00 to 9: 00, 8: 00 is the punctuality; Shanghai is now 9: 00 to 1 1 point (pig), and 10 is the punctuality.

The ancients said that time is different between day and night. The day is called "bell" and the night is called "more" or "drum". There is also the saying "the morning bell and the evening drum". In ancient times, there were many bell and drum towers in towns. Ring the bell in the morning (7 o'clock today), so say "what time" during the day; At dusk (today 19), drums are ringing, so the night is also called a few drum days. It is more useful to say time at night, because the night watchman beats the banger while patrolling and tells the time by counting. The whole night is divided into five classes, and the third class is midnight, so it is also called "midnight".

The unit of measurement below hours is "hours". One hour is divided into eight hours, and each hour is equal to fifteen minutes now. There is a saying in the old novel called "chop at noon three times", that is, chop at noon three times (fifteen minutes away from noon), when the yang is flourishing and the yin disappears instantly. This heinous crime should be "not even allowed to do ghosts" to show severe punishment.

The word "Zi" is engraved below. As for Zi, it is still used in Cantonese in Guangdong and Guangxi, such as "3: 10 pm", which means "15: 50". According to the analysis of linguists, there are a lot of "ancient Chinese" in Cantonese. The reason is that Gain lived in Lingnan for a long time, and his language was not synchronized with those who stayed in the Central Plains. The division under the word "zi" is unknown. According to Sui Shu's law, second is the ancient unit of time, and below second is "sudden"; How to convert, the book did not make it clear, only said: "'two' is as thin as a mountain; "Suddenly" is like the best spider silk. "

Timing:

At midnight, the rooster crows, the sun rises, the meal is eaten, and the noon dusk is decided.

The ugly branch of the earth did not apply for the sea at noon.

Modern 23- 1 point 1-3 point 3-5 point 5-7 point 7-9 point 9- 1 1 point13 point 15.

Modern time is five tables, five drums and five nights.

At dusk, it is 19-2 1 point.

They set up two more drums at 2 1-23 o'clock for two nights.

Three drums and three nights at midnight 23- 1 point.

Cock crow, four more and four drums, 1-3 o'clock.

Pingwu Dangengwu Guye Dance 3-5 points

If that's not what you mean, then as far as I know,

There are the following time measurement methods:

The vertical pole method is instant, with a dial around it, and the time is measured by the sun shadow and offset;

More leakage: some use water, some use sand. ...

How did the ancients calculate the date?

In the ancient calendar of China, A, B, C, D, E, Ji, G, Xin, Ren and Gui were called "ten heavenly stems", while Zi, Ugly, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu and Hai were called "twelve earthly branches". The ancients used heavenly stems and earthly branches to represent years, months, days and hours. The year, the month and the day are like four pillars supporting the building of "time", so they are called four pillars. When the ancients formulated heavenly stems and earthly branches's theory, they should have the basis of observation and practice, not the concept made behind closed doors. For example, acupuncture in traditional Chinese medicine pays attention to the circulation of meridians, and the selection of points is regular at different days and hours, which conforms to heavenly stems and earthly branches's law. As for future generations who use heavenly stems and earthly branches to tell fortune and predict a person's fate, let's judge its authenticity by ourselves. Sixty jiazi

Ten-day dry and twelve-branch cyclic combinations: Jiazi, Emei, Bingyin ... until returning to the sea, there are 60 combinations, called Sixty Jiazi, and so on. Year, month and day are all 60 cycles. 60 is a wonderful number in the field of time. Not only did the ancients in China take 60 as the cycle, but now in the western timing method, one minute is 60 seconds and one hour is 60 minutes. Is it just a coincidence? Similarly, the current 24-hour day corresponds to the traditional 65,438+02 hours in China (one hour is a big hour and two hours is a big hour). China takes a five-day one-hour cycle, the so-called "five-day waiting", which lasts for 60 hours. The following are sixty kinds of stem and branch combinations (called sixties):

Jia Zi, Yi Ugly, Bing Yin, Ding Mao, Chen Wu, Keith, Geng Wu, Xin Wei, Ren Shen, Gui You,

JOE, Yihai, Bingzi, Ding Chou, Wuyin, Jimao, Chen Geng, Xinsi, Renwu, Guiwei,

Shen Jia, Yiyou, Xu Bing, Dinghai, Wuzi, Ugly, Gengyin, Xinmao, Renchen, Guisi,

Wu Jia, Yiwei, Shen Bing, Ding You, Wuxu, Jihai, Gengzi, Xin Chou, Ren Yin, Gui Mao,

Chen Jia, Yi Si, Wu Bing, Ding Wei, Wu Shen, You You, Geng Xu, Xinhai, Ren Zi, Ghost Chip,

The calendar years of Jiayin, Mao Yi, Chen Bing, Dingsi, Wuwu, Kyubi no Youko, Gengshen, Xinyou, Ren Xu and Guihai are divided by solar terms: calendar years.

The chronology takes sixty years as a cycle in turn. For example, 19 1 1 was the year of Xinhai, and the Revolution of 1911 broke out. After the handover in spring, the new year begins. For example, in beginning of spring in 2006, it was at 7: 27 am on February 4th, so 7: 26 was still the year of B-You and 7: 27 was the year of C-Xu. Yue Ji

Similarly, record the moon in turn with sixty jiazi. A new month begins with a solar term. For example, on March 6, 2006, 0 1: 29 was a shock, so before that, it was Geng, and then it was Xin Maoyue. Gregorian calendar year and Gregorian calendar month are divided according to solar terms. However, the intersection time of solar terms can only be determined after precise observation of astronomical phenomena, which reflects the running position of the solar system and the earth in the universe. Days start from a start date and take 60 days as a cycle: date.

A day and night is a day. Mark the days with sixty jiazi in turn. For example, today is Jiazi Day, and tomorrow is night feud, with a cycle of 60 days. A new day begins at midnight. Gich

Every day is divided into 12 equal parts, that is, 12 hours. There are 60 hours in 5 days, represented by 60 jiazi. For example, the present hour is Bing Yin, and the next hour is Ding Mao. The establishment of time needs to be calculated by looking at the solar time. During the solar calendar and solar calendar, the movement and rotation of the earth around the sun were recorded. traditional Chinese stringed and woodwind instrument

Heavenly stems and earthly branches values of year, month, day and hour are called annual column, moon column, solar column and time column respectively. Eight characters

We often say that a person's horoscope is a four-column record of the time when he was born. It records some information about the relative positions of the earth, the sun and the universe when a person is born. Therefore, in the sense of the eight characters themselves, it is a time record. As for how to interpret the eight characters, that is, different people have different opinions. If you rely too much, it is superstition. Because it only records a small part of a person's information, the universe is so vast and life is so complicated, and a person's life mainly depends on his own efforts and struggles.

How did the ancients calculate time?

An ancient tool for calculating time;

1. The "table" in the standard table is a pole or stone pillar standing vertically on the ground; "Gui" is a slate extending horizontally from the heel of the watch to the north. Whenever the sun turns due south, the shadow falls on the water of Guiyu. By measuring the length of the shadow, we can calculate the time of each solar term, such as winter solstice and summer solstice. When the shadow is the longest, the solstice of winter comes; In the shortest time, the summer solstice came. It is the oldest and most common astronomical instrument in China.

Step 2: Gap leakage

Also known as clepsydra and clepsydra. There are two main types of clepsydra: drainage type and water receiving type. Most of the early water leaks were drainage type. The bottom side of the leaky kettle leaks water, and the grid fork and the closing tongue rise again, so that the leaking arrow floating on the surface of the leaky kettle drops with the water surface, and the scale on the leaking arrow indicates the time. Later, the water-receiving type was created. Water is injected from the leaky kettle into the receiving kettle at a constant flow rate, and the leaking arrow floating on the water surface of the receiving kettle indicates the time with the rise of the water surface, thus improving the timing accuracy. In order to obtain a constant flow, the water level of the clepsydra must be kept constant at first. Secondly, the cross-sectional area of the water pipe of the irrigation pot must be fixed, and the water pipe adopts the principle of "thirst for black" (siphon) to facilitate adjustment and maintenance. There are two ways to keep the water level unchanged or close to it, both of which can be found in "The Wind Map of Hu's Qi State" made by Yang Jia in Song Dynasty (published by 1 153). In the picture, there are several compensation pots carved above the leaky pot of Lv Caiding made in Tang Dynasty (about 600 ~ 650 AD), and Su Yanding made in modern times (1030) is carved by overflow method, which is four inches deep. Excess water flows from the flat kettle (lower cavity) into the water reduction angle through the bamboo injection tube. The leaky pot created by Yan Su is called Lotus Leak, which was popular all over the country in the Northern Song Dynasty.

hourglass

According to historical records, the hourglass is driven by quicksand, because it leaks in winter and is easy to freeze. Tian Wenzhi of Shi Ming records that Zhan Xiyuan created the "five-wheel hourglass" in the early days. Later, in order to prevent congestion, Zhou Shuxue enlarged the quicksand cave and replaced it with six wheels. Song Lian (1310 ~1381) wrote "songji", which recorded the hourglass structure, with the size of parts and the number of teeth of each wheel of the reduction gear, and said that the shaft tip of the fifth wheel had no teeth, but it was equipped with a landscape disk indicating time.

4. armillary sphere

In the ancient documents of the armillary sphere, it is said that when the cymbals were lost by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (140 ~ 87 BC), it was original to make the armillary sphere by others, but its structure was not mentioned. Jin Zhi records that Zhang Heng (AD 78 ~ 139) made the armillary sphere, saying that it was driven by water leakage in the secret room, and the time of the stars indicated by the instrument was consistent with the astronomical observation results. The Book of the New Tang Dynasty, Tian Wen Zhi, records in detail the armillary sphere designed by the monks and their party by Liang Lingzan in the 13th year of Tang Kaiyuan (725). The instrument is equipped with two wheels, namely the sun and the moon, and the waterwheel drives the elephant. The elephant turns once a day and the sun turns 1/365 times. The instrument is also equipped with two puppets, which drum and carve respectively. This is a wooden building with a narrow bottom and a large width.

5. Waterway instrument camera

Written by Su Song and Han Gonglian in the third year of Yuan You in the Northern Song Dynasty (1088). In the early years of Shao Sheng's life (1094 ~ 1097), they wrote "An Outline of New Devices", which contained several general plans and component drawings. This watercraft is more than three feet high and two feet wide. This is a narrow and wide wooden building. There is a water lifting device on the lower floor of the platform, and the upper wheel and the lower wheel (pipe truck) are driven by manpower to lift the water to Tianhe (receiving pool) and inject it into Tianchi (reservoir). The water level of the flat kettle in the platform is kept constant, and a constant flow of water is discharged to the kettle on the pivot wheel (waterwheel) through a water pipe with a certain section to push the pivot wheel. The pivot wheel drives the day and night wheel, the elephant and the armillary sphere through the transmission gear. The image platform of aquatic instruments has a complex gear transmission system. There is a "balance" device-escapement above and around the pivot wheel, which is an important creation in the history of timing machinery, and it changes the continuous rotating motion of the pivot wheel into intermittent rotating motion. Above and around the pivot wheel are

How did the ancients count the days?

Jiazi is one of the main branches, and the order is 1. The former is guihai, and the latter is ugly. On the theory of yin and yang and five elements, the heavenly stem is the first tree of yang, and the son of the earthly branch is the water of yang, which is aquatic wood.

The circulation of trunk and branches (60 Jia Zi)

Jia Qiubingyin Ding Mao Wu Jiahai

Bing Zi Ding Chou Mao Xin Si Ren Wu Gui has no Yi You Ding Hai.

The ugly thing is that Geng's is Mao, Gui's is righteousness, Shen Ding's is yes, it's the sea.

Geng Chouren Yin Guimao Yi Si Ding Wei You Xinhai

Ren Zigui's Enemy Yi Yin Mao Bingchen Ding Wusi Wu Wu has not been Geng Shenxin's heart is Ren Xu Guihai.

This cycle is called "A Jiazi", which is 60 years.

How do ancient people view time?

In ancient times, in order to meet the needs of life and production, various timing methods were gradually formed according to the alternation of day and night.

Ancient Timekeeping System The timekeeping system in China was unequal: in ancient times, people "worked at sunrise and rested at sunset" and abided by the laws of nature together. Taking sunrise and sunset as the standard time for work and rest is equivalent to dividing a day into two parts, which is a natural unequal time method. It can be seen from the Oracle Bone Inscriptions unearthed in Yin Ruins that different times of the day have special names, such as Dan, Da Cai, Da Eclipse, Sino-Japanese, Shao,, Mo (dusk),. Later, at five o'clock at night, at five o'clock at night and at five o'clock every night, I got into the habit of knocking on time. Isochronous method: In the Western Zhou Dynasty, in order to measure time, according to the Sunday apparent movement of the sun, a day was divided into twelve equal-length periods, which were represented by twelve branches: Zi, Ugly, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu and Hai respectively. Another isochronous system is to divide a day into 100 equal parts, that is, the centennial system. This is a unique timing method in ancient China, and its age has not yet been determined. However, the information about the century-old chronograph is not only recorded in writing, but also proved by unearthed cultural relics. Xu Shen in the Eastern Han Dynasty pointed out in Shuo Wen Jie Zi that "there are thousands of nights carved on the day", and Ma Rong in the Eastern Han Dynasty commented on Yao Dian: "In ancient times, there was a lack of neon at night? Thailand's R day is 40 minutes shorter and the night is 60 minutes longer. Fifty minutes during the day and fifty minutes at night. " The ancient system mentioned here refers to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period or earlier. After the Han Dynasty, Twelve Chen and Hundred Carvings were used together. However, one hundred and twenty cannot be agreed, so the cooperation schemes of different dynasties often change.

The timing systems in ancient Egypt and Babylon were unequal: as early as 3000 BC, the ancient Egyptians divided day and night into 12 hours respectively. They start the day with sunrise and take noon as 6 o'clock. The day doesn't start at night, and midnight is 6 pm. Because the length of day and night varies throughout the year, the actual length of each hour in different seasons is also unequal. This timing method spread to Europe and was used until14th century (see astronomy in ancient Egypt). Isochronous method: In the eighth century BC, in order to meet the needs of astronomy, the ancient Babylonians formulated the isochronous method. They divide the day into 24 equal-length periods, that is, the 24-hour system. The isochronous system was later inherited by hipparchus and Ptolemy, stipulating that noon was the beginning of the day. This timing method is often used in astronomy, also known as "astronomical time". Because it is not convenient for daily life, starting from 1925, midnight is changed as the beginning of the day.

The development of ancient punctuality tools has roughly gone through three stages:

The oldest punctuality tool of flowmeter is undoubtedly the leaky kettle. Later, there was an hourglass with sand instead of water, a lamp clock timed by oil lamp fuel consumption, and a seal clock (incense placed in a metal box along the seal groove) and so on. The oldest existing clepsydra in China is from the Western Han Dynasty. The oldest existing dripping water in the world is the Egyptian water clock in the 4th century BC/KLOC-0.

The mechanical clock made by Zhang Heng, an astronomer in the Han Dynasty in China, shows the appearance of stars, transits and other astronomical phenomena, which are completely consistent with the outdoor astronomical phenomena. This is the earliest mechanical clock driven by water in the world. The water elephant made by Liang Lingzan, a manufacturer of astronomical instruments in the Tang Dynasty, not only conforms to the astronomical phenomena, but also has two wooden figures, which automatically beat drums every moment and ring bells every morning. This is an improved mechanical clock of Zhang Heng's water elephant. During the Song Dynasty, Su Song and Han Gonglian jointly founded the water transport instrument platform. The Daming Hall built in Guo Shoujing in the Yuan Dynasty has light leakage. Zhan Xiyuan made five hourglasses in the Ming Dynasty. These mechanical clocks have complete gear trains, cams and escapements. Mechanical clocks in Europe began in14th century and have been popular for about 400 years.

Pendulum clock 1582, Galileo discovered the isochronism of pendulum. From 1656 to 1657, Huygens introduced the pendulum into the mechanical clock, thus creating the pendulum clock. 1673, huygens made a portable clock by using the balance-oil line system. 1735, Harrison of Britain made the navigation clock for the first time, which solved the navigation positioning problem that was urgently needed to be solved in the development of capitalism at that time. 1896, Guillaume, France, developed alloy steel with low expansion coefficient and made it into a high-precision astronomical pendulum clock. If the clock is stored in a vacuum in the basement and kept at a constant temperature, it is an astronomical pendulum clock, with an error of no more than a few thousandths of a second per day (see astronomical timepiece).

The ancients knew a long time ago that the shadow length of a column changed with the position of the sun in the sky. It is more convenient to see the polar shadow than to observe the sun directly, but the time measurement results are not equal. There is a record of the Spring and Autumn Period in Historical Records Biography of Sima Rang. ......