Is the Zodiac beginning of spring or Grade One?

China's calendar is a very complicated issue, which many scholars have failed to explain clearly. But a few things are clear: before the Revolution of 1911, the first day of the Lunar New Year was called "New Year's Day" and beginning of spring was called "Spring Festival"; After the Revolution of 1911, the government of the Republic of China announced the abolition of the lunar calendar and replaced it with a new calendar (Gregorian calendar). Starting from 19 12, the Gregorian calendar 1 is called "New Year's Day", thus depriving the lunar New Year's Day of its name. In order to take care of people's holiday needs, in June 19 14 1, the government of the Republic of China issued a decree to rename the first day of the Lunar New Year as "Spring Festival", and beginning of spring was deprived of its name again.

Many changes have taken place in history since the first day of the year (the beginning of the year). If the current lunar calendar prevails, then the beginning of the Xia Dynasty is the first day of the first month; The beginning of the Shang Dynasty was the first day of December. The beginning of the Zhou Dynasty is the first day of November; The Qin dynasty advanced to the first day of October and lasted until the Western Han Dynasty. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the taichu calendar Law was promulgated, and the first day of the first month was the first year of Xia Dynasty. This year-end system has not changed from generation to generation, but this year-end system is only the end of daily life, not the end of a year. Almost all ancient civilizations were originally marked by the lunar calendar. The rise and fall cycle of the moon is very intuitive and obvious, so people will naturally set the time for the moon to go around the earth for one week (29 days and a half) as a time period, which is the "one month" in the China lunar calendar.

The 12 period (i.e. 12 months) of the moon's orbit around the earth is only 354 days, which is not consistent with the 365 days of the earth's orbit around the sun (i.e., a "solar year"). In other words, 12 months is less than "one year" 1 1 day. The lunar calendar is very inaccurate, and sometimes it takes a month to keep up with the cycle of the solar year.

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The 24 solar terms we are talking about today are actually a combination of 12 odd-numbered "solar terms" and 12 even-numbered "neutral gas" (if we start from beginning of spring, each odd-numbered term is a solar term, such as beginning of spring and Jing Zhe). And every even number is neutral, such as rain and vernal equinox. ), it divides a solar year into 24 equal parts, so it is pure.

The greatest contribution of taichu calendar, the Emperor of the Han Dynasty, is that the first month is the beginning of a year, and the month of disloyalty is a leap month. These two points were adopted by various calendar systems in later generations. In order to avoid two first months, if there is a leap in the first month, it will be changed to February, which is also the reason why there are the most leap in February. Therefore, no matter which dynasty's calendar, it is inseparable from the adjustment of the 24 solar terms.

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Dislocation between "Imperial Calendar" and "Lunar Calendar"

In people's life in rural society, the date is not important. Folklore field survey proves that most elderly people in remote areas can't accurately explain their specific age, but this doesn't hinder their daily life. However, for a country's time system, the year is a big problem.

Before the Han Dynasty, the emperor's name and ruling year were often used as dates, and sometimes the traditional date was also used. It was not until the end of the Western Han Dynasty that the official date was adopted. The so-called chronology of trunk branches means that heavenly stems and earthly branches cooperates with each other, with ten heavenly stems going through six cycles and twelve earthly branches going through five cycles.