What calendar was founded in Shang Dynasty?

According to legend, there was a calendar in the era of the Yellow Emperor, but it was not enough. There is a legend of a rough calendar in the era of Emperor Yao, which may be slightly based. According to the ancient book Shang Shu Yao Dian in the Spring and Autumn Period, Emperor Yao organized a group of astronomical officials to observe the stars in the east, south, west and north for compiling calendars and forecasting seasons, but so far no information about calendars has been found. Xia Zhengxiao, written no later than the Spring and Autumn Period (8th century BC to 5th century BC), recorded the activities of astrology, meteorology, phenology, agriculture and so on in the order of 12 months. It can be inferred from the records in Xia Zhengxiao that the basic outline of the calendar in Xia Dynasty is that a year is divided into twelve months. Except February, November and December, every month is represented by some remarkable astrological phenomena, such as dark light, mid-day and morning and evening. Although this is not a scientific calendar, it is still possible to call it a combination of phenological calendar and astronomical calendar, or more accurately, observation. Yao Dian in Shangshu also recorded the ancient method of forecasting seasons by using prominent stars to appear in the southern sky at dusk, which is the famous "four stars". The book says: "The star bird in the sun is Yin Zhongchun; The sun is always shining for midsummer; Stars in the night, and yin; The day is short and the stars are in the middle of winter. " It can be inferred that the "four stars" are the actual astronomical phenomena in the late Shang Dynasty and the early Zhou Dynasty at the latest. It can be seen that at the latest in the late Shang Dynasty and the early Zhou Dynasty, people have used astrology to predict seasons with considerable certainty. The Xia Dynasty already had the method of observing the sun with heavenly stems, that is, A, B, C, D, E, Ji, G, Xin, Ren and Gui repeatedly recorded the sun for ten days, which was proved by the names of Yin Jia and Gui of the last emperors of the Xia Dynasty. On the basis of the heavenly stems calendar in Xia Dynasty, Shang Dynasty developed into heavenly stems and earthly branches calendar, that is, ten heavenly stems of A, B, C and D and twelve earthly branches of Zi, Ugly, Yin and Mao were paired in turn, forming sixty earthly branches of Jia, Ugly, Bingyin and Ding Mao, which circulated for 60 days. A cow shoulder bone unearthed from Wuyi in Shang Dynasty is engraved with integrity. It is also found that there is a group of Oracle bone inscriptions written for two months * * * 59 days, which proves that the Shang Dynasty has been divided into big and small months, that is, the big month is 30 and the small month is 29. In addition, there are many records in Oracle Bone Inscriptions that a year is 13 months, which proves that the Shang Dynasty used leap months to adjust the relationship between solar terms and calendars. From the analysis of a large number of materials in the calendar of the Shang Dynasty, scholars have a relatively consistent view: in the Shang Dynasty, the years were recorded by branches and numbers, and the days and months were recorded by numbers; There are big and small, big month 30, small month 29; There are leap months and even big months; The leap month is placed at the end of the year and is called March; There is a fixed relationship between seasons and months. "The occurrence of Chinese calendar is said to have started from Yao, which is based on the language of" calendar is like the sun, the moon and the stars "in the Book of Songs Yao Dian. In the same book "Shi Gan", it said: "Threaten the five elements and ignore the three rectifications." (namely, Xia Zheng, Andrew and Zhou Zheng) There is also a Xia Zhengxiao in Da Dai Li Ji. Confucius often called it "going to Xia Zhishi". Accordingly, some commentators say that the calendar began in summer. In fact, the emergence of the calendar should have a major premise, that is, it must be after the universal prosperity of world agriculture. This proves the history of ancient countries in the world, such as Egypt and Barenby. Xia people generally live a life of fishing, hunting and animal husbandry. How can there be a calendar? Classic books, Yu Shu and Xia Shu are all forgeries of later generations (Note 2 1), and the calendars mentioned are not credible ... Confucius reformed the ancient system and said that it must be called three generations, so he traveled, took advantage of Yin and served Zhou Zhimian side by side, but he didn't know that although Yin and Zhou had crowns, there was no' Xia'. The theory of "three meanings" may have originated from people's propaganda of calendar reform during the Warring States Period ... Therefore, the calendar did not begin in the summer of the animal husbandry era, but began with the prosperity of agriculture. (Excerpted from Huang Xianfan's Social History of Yin Dynasty in China, April 1950, and Huang Xianfan's A Preliminary Study on the Interpretation of Ancient Books-Selected Academic Papers of Huang Xianfan, which records the article "Social Examination of Yin Zhou" on pages 286-359, Guangxi Normal University Press, July 2004).

Zhou dynasty

On the basis of inheriting and developing the achievements of the Shang Dynasty in observing images and timing, the Zhou Dynasty promoted the production of calendars. In the Zhou Dynasty (in the middle of Dayun Spring and Autumn Period, that is, around 600 BC), Tugui invented a method to determine the important solar terms such as winter solstice (the longest day with a shadow at noon in a year) and summer solstice (the shortest day with a shadow at noon in a year), so that the length of the tropic year can be set more accurately. Astronomers in the Zhou Dynasty have mastered the method of calculating the full moon of the sun, the moon and the moon, and can determine the new moon, which can be confirmed in the Book of Songs, reflecting the data of the Zhou Dynasty and even before it. The book "Xiaoya at the Turn of October" records: "At the turn of October, the new moon will have an eclipse, and if it is eclipsed every other month, it is normal. Why not eat this day? " This is the first time that the word "Shuoyue" appeared in China's ancient books, and it is also the first time that China clearly recorded the date (in the sixth year of Zhou Youwang, that is, 776 BC). The third progress of Zhou Li is that from the end of the Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period, the return period has been set at 365 days, and the method of setting the seven leap months of 19 has been discovered. On the basis of these achievements, a scientific calendar with historical significance-seasonal calendar was born. In Europe, the Romans also used the data of 365 days in julian calendar adopted in 43 BC, but it was about 500 years later than our country. The 7-leap method of 19 was discovered by the ancient Greek meton in 432 BC, which was about 100 years later than our country. The appearance of the calendar indicates that the calendar in China has entered a quite mature period. At that time, Huangdi calendar, Zhuan Xu calendar, Xia calendar, Yin calendar, Zhou calendar and Lu calendar, collectively known as the ancient six calendars, were actually seasonal calendars. After the advent of the calendar, with the development of science and technology, the chroniclers of past dynasties reformed many times, constantly improving the ancient calendar of our country and enriching its content.

Han Dynasty

The first time to reform the calendar was the 8 1 minute calendar proposed by Luo et al. during the period of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty. As Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ordered the creation of a new calendar in the seventh year of Yuanfeng (BC 104), the seventh year of Yuanfeng was changed to the first year of Taichu, and the end of December was defined as the end of Taichu Yuan, that is, from the first month of Meng Chun to the end of December. This kind of calendar is called the original calendar. The length of this calendar is 29 43/8 1 day, so it is called eighty-one, or eighty-one calendar. Taichu calendar is the first complete ancient calendar handed down from ancient times in China. Compared with the seasonal calendar, it has three improvements: taking the first month as the beginning of a year, distributing the 24 solar terms created by China in twelve months, and taking the month without neutral atmosphere as a leap month, which makes the months and seasons more reasonable; The measurement of the rendezvous period of planets is relatively accurate. For example, Mercury is 1 15.87 days, which is only 0.0 1 day less than the current measured value 1 15.88 days; The mating cycle of 135 months is adopted, that is, the annual feeding period is 346.66 days, which is only 0.04 days longer than the measured value today. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Hong (A.D. 158- 167) made a dry calendar, which reduced the mantissa of the tropical year to below 1/4 for the first time, to 365.2462 days. For the first time, he introduced the change of the speed of the moon movement into the calendar, becoming the first calendar with the algorithm of determining the new moon. This calendar also gives a value of about six degrees at the intersection of the ecliptic and the ecliptic, from which it is inferred that only when the moon is within fifteen degrees at the intersection of the ecliptic and the ecliptic can an eclipse occur, which actually puts forward the concept of "food limit". The corresponding relationship between qi and December is January, February, March, April, May and June. The spring equinox is full of gas and rain in Grain Rain from summer to July, August, September, October and December, the autumn equinox is in the first frost, and the light snow is in the winter to day150/kloc-0.

Jin southern and northern dynasties

In the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Zu Chongzhi first introduced the precession discovered in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (AD 28 1-356) into his Da Li Ming, and determined the annual difference of 45 years 1 1 month. Although this number is large, it is a great pioneering achievement. The monthly length of the intersection measured in Zu Chongzhi is 27.2 1223 days, which is only one thousandth of the current measured value. In calculating Huang Shi, the Sui Dynasty (544-6 10) adopted a more accurate age difference, that is, 75 years old. The emperor's calendar compiled by Liu Zhuo also took into account the unevenness of the sun and the moon. In order to get the exact time of the new moon, he created a quadratic difference interpolation formula with equal spacing. This creation is of great significance not only in the history of China system, but also in the history of Chinese mathematics.

Sui dynasty

The unification of the Sui Dynasty is conducive to the continued development of astronomy in China. Talents and materials are concentrated in the imperial court, and the country has strong financial resources. Astronomers can make use of the new astronomical discoveries of the Three Kingdoms, the Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties to promote the progress of the calendar. They also systematically compiled ancient astronomical data sets and wrote many new astronomical works by using a large amount of information they had. On the other hand, the progress of handicraft technology helps astronomers to develop new large-scale astronomical instruments with unprecedented perfect functions on the basis of summarizing the previous experience, which promotes the development of astronomical observation. Inherited and developed China and ancient naive materialism's view of the universe and nature. The development of astronomy in Sui Dynasty further strengthened the system of oriental astronomy and showed the maturity of ancient astronomy in China. Before the Jin Dynasty, astronomers in China did not know the existence of precession. After Jin proclaimed himself emperor, it was first proposed to move the 50-year winter time westward. In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Zu Chongzhi first considered the precession in the calendar, but he thought that the precession of 45 years 1 1 month was 1 degree. In the Sui Dynasty, the age difference used by Liu Zhuo was 75 years different in history. This is very close to the exact precession value. At that time, the value of 100 was still used in the west, which shows that Liu Zhuo's "imperial calendar" was the most advanced at that time.