Historical issues

By the Shang Dynasty, the astronomical calendar in ancient China was gradually perfected.

China is one of the countries with the earliest development of astronomy in the world. Due to the needs of production and life, people have been observing astronomical phenomena since ancient times. Through continuous efforts from generation to generation, they have accumulated more and more astronomical knowledge and gradually formed an astronomical system with rich content and unique style. China ancient astronomy has been in the leading position in the world for a long time in many fields, and has written a brilliant chapter in the history of world astronomy and China culture.

The most important part of ancient astronomy in China is the calendar. In other words, the calendar is the core of ancient astronomy in China. The ancient calendar in China is not only about the arrangement of the calendar system, but also includes the operation and position calculation of the sun, the moon and the five planets of earth, wood, fire, gold and water. Calculation of star position; Calculate the length of shadow and the length of day and night in the afternoon; A wide range of topics such as solar eclipse forecast. In a sense, the compilation of ancient calendars in China is equivalent to the compilation of modern astronomical calendars. Therefore, ancient astronomers in China carried out a series of observation and research activities, such as the selection of epoch, the elaboration of astronomical concepts, the calculation of astronomical constants, the compilation of astronomical tables, the selection and improvement of specific calculation methods, astrometry methods and mathematical methods. These constitute the basic framework and main contents of the ancient calendar in China.

Of course, China's ancient astronomy also includes a wider range of contents, such as the design and manufacture of precise astronomical instruments unique to ancient China, the discussion of the theory of the universe, and the long-term systematic observation and recording of a series of astronomical phenomena, especially strange astronomical phenomena. Together with the calendar, they constitute a very colorful system of ancient astronomy in China.

The ancient astronomical system in China experienced a long evolution process of occurrence, development, perfection and decline, and finally merged into modern astronomy. Let's briefly introduce it in six stages (namely, the following six plates).

Astronomical knowledge before the Western Zhou Dynasty

This is a long historical period in which astronomical knowledge began to sprout and accumulate initially. Due to the needs of production and life, from observing the appearance of stars and the movement of the sun and the moon, people gradually formed the concept of time length closely related to these needs, and then produced the original calendar system. Due to the need of divination, people pay great attention to the changes of astronomical phenomena, especially the appearance of abnormal astronomical phenomena, which also stimulates people's attention to astronomical observation, thus gradually forming the tradition of astronomical records. All these have had a far-reaching impact on the development of later generations.

First, observe the time and opportunity of the image.

Our ancestors lived in the vast land of China. In their own production and life practice, people gradually found that the rise and fall of the sun, moon and stars, the cold weather in nature, the existence of prey, the prosperity and decline of plants and other natural phenomena are closely related to human survival. Therefore, consciously observing and understanding these natural phenomena in order to conform to nature and seek their own development has become one of the issues of interest to our ancestors, from which the seeds of astronomical knowledge have gradually sprouted.

The sun is undoubtedly vital to people. The ancients worked at sunrise and rested at sunset, which is the objective basis of the schedule of work and rest. The alternation of light and shade caused by the sun's entry and exit must have given our ancestors a deep feeling, so the "day" with the sun's entry and exit as the cycle should be the earliest time unit they realized.

Naturally, the change of the moon's profit and loss is another obvious and important astronomical phenomenon. It is of great significance, because bright moonlight is a key factor in arranging people's activities at night. After long-term observation and counting, people gradually found that the moon's cycle is about 30 days, which led to the emergence of a longer time unit "month".

It is much more difficult to understand the longer time unit "year" than "day" and "month", but it is a cycle of greater significance to people's production and life, because cold and summer, rain and drought, fishing and hunting, gathering and even agricultural production activities are related to it. To this end, people have made unremitting exploration for a long time. From the observation of phenology-vegetation withering, animal migration, access and so on. This is about the earliest way to explore the length of a year, followed by the observation of some stars. The latter result is more accurate than the former.

According to legend, in the era of Emperor Zhuan Xu, the "Huozheng" (1) was set up to observe the great Mars (Antares, the alpha star of Scorpio). When the great Mars just rose from the eastern horizon at dusk, it was the beginning of the year, that is, the coming of this spring. It is not difficult to deduce the length of a year. This is an early form of observing images and timing in ancient China. According to research, this is about 2400 BC.

According to "Yao Dian of Shangshu", in the legendary Yao Di, "those who are ordered to respect the sky like the sun, the moon and the stars to teach others are what xi is". The specific observation methods and results are as follows: "The stars in the sun are in Yin Zhongchun", "The sun is always sparking in midsummer", "The stars at night are empty, in Yin Zhongqiu" and "The stars in the sun are short, in midsummer", that is, observing the four stars of birds, fire, emptiness and dragons in the south at dusk. According to calculations, this is the actual astronomical phenomenon in about 2000 BC.

From the above records, we can also infer that the original standard table appeared at that time, otherwise people would not be able to determine the south transit of a star. At this time, the standard table is only used to determine the orientation, but not to determine the length of the sun shadow. Observing the southern transit of the star to determine the season can reduce the influence of refraction and light seepage on the horizon, and its accuracy is naturally higher than that of observing the appearance of the star. In addition, from the expressions of "at noon", "in the middle of the night", "in an eternal day" and "in a short day" (respectively referring to the longest and shortest day), we can know that some kind of instrument for measuring time has been used at that time (this can also be proved from the relevant records in Xia Zheng Xiao below). All these indicate that we have entered a quite developed era of observing images and timing. Its sign is that the number of observed stars has increased from one to many, and the number of observed stars has changed from Dongsheng to south Zhongtian, and some instruments have been used.

More notably, Yao Dian also described that people adopted the initial calendar of "there are six days in 360 years, and leap months set the age at four o'clock". Here, a year is 366 days, which is the result of people calculating the annual movement cycle of stars. Because there is no integer multiple relationship between the length of a year and the length of a month, the original calendar has been adjusted by placing leap months, which is obviously a Yin-Yang calendar and the earliest record of the Yin-Yang calendar used for a long time in ancient China.

In the book Xia Zhengxiao, it contains the phenology, astronomical phenomena, meteorology, farming and other contents of each month of the year. It integrates phenological calendar, observation time and initial calendar. It is said to be the calendar used in summer. As far as the timing method is concerned, it is based on the time of observing several stars (bow, ginseng, dragon, south gate, fire, weaver girl, galaxy, etc.). ) When meeting, falling or transiting in the south at dusk, the bucket handle direction of Beidou is taken as the starting standard for a month of the year. Some people think that "summer" is an initial calendar, with one year 10 month, 36th day of each month, and 5th to 6th day of the lunar new year. (2) According to the records in the summer, the first month was "the first suspension in bucket handle" and June was "the first suspension in bucket handle", and the middle five months were half a year; May "has a day to raise" and October "has a night to raise", which is also half a year and five months. Some people think that summer is still a solar calendar with twelve months in a year. From this point of view, Xia Zhengxiao is a pure solar calendar without considering the changes of the moon phases, which is credible.

The records of Shangshu Yaodian and Xia Zhengxiao both reflect the important achievements of observing images and timing methods, and also reflect the embryonic forms of two different calendars (yin and yang calendars and solar calendars) that appeared in Xia Dynasty. They are two different forms of transition from observation time to an initial calendar with certain norms, which is of great significance.

Second, the Shang and Zhou calendars.

As can be seen from the Oracle Bone Inscriptions, the calendar used in Shang Dynasty is the Yin and Yang calendar.

First of all, there are two kinds of years: normal year1February, leap year1March, and leap month is placed at the end of the year, which is called March. At this time, the beginning of the year has been basically determined, and the relationship between the season and the name of the month has also been basically determined. However, there are occasional records of April or even May in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, which shows that people can't grasp the relationship between years and months at this time, and the number of leap months has no certain law, which is mostly determined by regular observation. When it is found that the name of the season is opposite to that of the month, it is quite arbitrary to add leap month to adjust it. This situation continued until the Western Zhou Dynasty.

There are records of "Solstice", "Southern Japan" or "Southern Japan" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, all of which refer to the winter solstice (people also call it "Southern Japan to Japan" in the Spring and Autumn Period). One of the oracles said, "In the afternoon, help, hit the mound, the sun is south, is it raining?" At noon, Zhen people helped divination and held a memorial ceremony to welcome the sun to the south. Will it rain? ) In Zhou Li Chun Guan da Le Si, it is recorded that "the solstice in winter is played on the dome on the ground" to welcome the gods. They are talking about the same sacrificial activity, which proves that "Sunny South" is "Winter Solstice". This shows that the change of the length of the sun shadow was observed through the standard table in the Yin and Shang Dynasties, and the winter solstice was determined from this. If we know the length of winter solstice and tropical year, it is not difficult to calculate their length.

Secondly, the calendar of Yin and Shang dynasties began with a new moon, which includes a big moon and a small moon, of which the 30th is a big moon and the 29th is a small moon. At first, only the big and small moons were arranged alternately, indicating that people thought that the length of a new moon was equal to 29.5 days. Later, there was even a big moon, that is, two consecutive big moons were arranged after several big and small moons, which proved that people already knew that the length of a new moon should be slightly longer than 29.5 days, which was a great progress in calculating the length of the new moon, although there were no certain rules for the placement of the new moon at this time.

Thirdly, the method of observing the sun by branches was clearly used in the Yin and Shang Dynasties, and a series of uninterrupted date records were established, which provided an important basis for accurately exploring longer time units such as months and years, and also provided an important basis for historical dating. The calendar of sequential circulation of trunks and branches has been used continuously to this day, almost without interruption, becoming the longest calendar in the world.

Secondly, in Shang Dynasty, a day was divided into several different time periods. The proper names of time periods in Oracle Bone Inscriptions are: Ming (Dan), Dacai, Dashi, Sino-Japanese, Snack, Cai Xiao, Hun (Twilight) and so on. This is a way to divide a day into six time periods on average. Some people think that the system of dividing a day into hundreds of hours began at that time. (4)

The above is the general arrangement of year, month, day and time in the calendar of Shang Dynasty, and the calendar of Western Zhou Dynasty is similar to it. In the bronze inscriptions, there are also many records of March, and the beginning of January is a "new moon", which is proof. However, there is a record in the poem "Xiaoya at the Turn of October": "At the turn of October, the new moon shines high, and there will be food every day". According to textual research, this should refer to a partial solar eclipse that occurred in 735 BC165438+1October 30th. (5) This is the earliest account of a new day in China's ancient books. From this point of view, there was an attempt to take the new moon as the first month rather than the new moon in the late Western Zhou Dynasty. Because there is no specific astronomical phenomenon corresponding to the new moon, the exact length of the new moon must be measured and calculated, so the establishment and application of the concept of the new moon is a great progress in the calendar history.

In addition, there are often four names in bronze inscriptions: Chu Ji, Life Overlord, Hope Overlord and Death Overlord. There are different opinions in ancient and modern times One is the fixed-point moon phase theory, which holds that it represents a specific day or two or three days of each month. People have said it many times in the past two thousand years. One is the four-string moon phase theory, which holds that in the Western Zhou Dynasty, a month was divided into four parts, each of which was about seven days, and Chu Ji and others were the proper names of each part in turn. This was first mentioned by Wang Guowei in modern times and was widely accepted by historians. After the forties and fifties, new theories came up again. Now there is a more reasonable explanation: the first auspicious day refers to the first auspicious day, that is, the auspicious day in the first half of each month; Existing tyrants and dead tyrants refer to the first half and the second half of each month respectively; Hope refers to the full moon or a day or two after it. (6) Whether these explanations are right or wrong needs further argumentation.

Three. Observation and recording of astronomical phenomena

Since ancient times, people have attached importance to the observation of astronomical phenomena, especially the strange astronomical phenomena. In Oracle Bone Inscriptions during the Yin and Shang Dynasties, we saw the true records of the ancient people about astronomical phenomena, which were often related to divination activities such as predicting people's bad luck, and they involved abnormal astronomical phenomena such as solar eclipse, prominence and nova.

"Really, there is food every day"; "Gui You zhen eat it again every day, just if. Gui Youzhen eats again every day, and bandits are like "bandits". This is the record of the eclipse. " On the 6 th, at noon, there is food in the month "; Geng Shen, there is food on the moon, such as "the long days are long, and there is food on the moon". This is the record of the solar eclipse. They are all descriptions of copulation before BC13rd century.

"Mao Yi promises to be bright, and ■, three spoonfuls of food are big stars", which means that during the total solar eclipse, people not only saw bright stars, but also saw three flames rising at the edge of the dark sun, which is the record of prominence.

"Xin has no new star"; "Seven days have passed ■, and there are new big stars on fire." This is the record of Nova.

In addition, some people think that there are sunspots and comets in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, which need further research and verification.

In a word, there are abundant astronomical records in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, which shows that the tradition of attaching importance to astronomical observation and recording in ancient China was formed at the latest in the Yin and Shang Dynasties, which had a great influence on the development of later generations.

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The Establishment of Astronomical Calendar System in Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period

The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period are the times of great social change in China's ancient transition from slavery to feudalism. At this time, the productive forces have been greatly developed, which has promoted the great progress of ancient culture including science and technology. As far as the astronomical calendar is concerned, the pace of progress is also clearly visible, which is mainly manifested in the change of observation and description of astronomical phenomena from qualitative to quantitative, the stereotype of the lunar calendar and the emergence of theories about the universe, all of which laid the foundation for the unique astronomical calendar system in ancient China. With the decline and the rise of princes, the situation that a few astronomers monopolized the astronomical calendar of Zhou Dynasty was broken. Due to the development of agricultural production and political needs, various vassal States attached great importance to the study of astronomical calendars, which provided a good opportunity for diaspora children to display their talents. During this period, a number of famous astronomers appeared, "Lu Youzi Shen (active around 550 BC), Jin Youbu Yan (active around 650 BC), Zheng Youbi Jujube (active around 500 BC), Song Youzi Wei (active around 480 BC), Qi Yougan De, Chu Youtang Mei, Zhao Gao, Wei Youshi Shen Fu (active around 480 BC). (7) They either stand side by side one after another or at the same time, forming a dominant position and a hundred schools of thought contend in the field of astronomical calendar, further promoting the development of astronomical calendar.