Throughout the ancient calendar of China, it contains a lot of contents, including the calculation of new moons, the placement of leap months, solar eclipses and the calculation of planetary positions. Of course, these contents are gradually enriched into the calendar with the development of astronomy, and it has gone through a long historical stage. If this "quite long historical period" is subdivided, it can be roughly divided into four periods, namely, the ancient calendar period: the calendar adopted before the first year of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty; Sino-French period: from the first year of Han Dynasty to the beginning of Qing Dynasty. During this period, more than 70 people made calendars, all of which were written into the twenty-four histories or laws and regulations. Although many calendars have been reformed, their principles have not changed much; Chinese and Western legal periods: from Tang Ruowang, a Soviet missionary in the Qing Dynasty to the Revolution of 1911: Gregorian calendar period: After the Revolution of 1911, Dr. Sun Yat-sen announced the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 19 12, that is, entered the Gregorian calendar period. After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), the people of China adopted the Gregorian calendar, and considering the actual needs of people's production and life, they also awarded China the traditional lunar calendar.
ancient times
In our country, it is said that 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. For example, the book records:
In the first month, I saw the bow and fainted at the beginning, and bucket handle hung in the air.
In March, ginseng will fall.
See you in April and faint at the south gate at the beginning.
May, I'll see you when the fire is on.
In June, the handle of the first faint barrel was opened.
In July, the first faint weaver girl in the Han family was from Dongxiang, and bucket handle hung next.
In August, Chen is healthy and Shen is Dan.
In September, there was an internal fire, and Chen was on that day.
See you at the south gate at the beginning of October, and the weaver girl will go north.
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 records the ancient method of forecasting the seasons by using the 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, moon and 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, Zhou Zheng) There is also a Xia Zhengxiao in 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. It is recorded in the book "Xiaoya at the Turn of October": "At the turn of October, there will be food in the new moon, and if it is eclipsed every other month, it will be 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. This calendar is 29 days long, so it is called eighty-one calendar, 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 eclipse is 346.66 days, which is only 0.04 days different from the current measured value.
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 the value of the intersection of the ecliptic and the ecliptic about six degrees, and infers that an eclipse can only occur when the moon is within fifteen degrees from the intersection of the ecliptic and the ecliptic, which actually puts forward the concept of "food limit".
Correspondence between Chinese Qi and December
January, January, February, March, April, May and June.
The neutral rain in Grain Rain at the vernal equinox is full of summer solstice heat.
The longitude of the yellow meridian is 330 0 30 60 90 120.
Month July August September October November December
Summer, autumnal equinox, early frost with light snow, winter solstice, cold.
Meridian150180210240270300.
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.
the Tang Dynasty
The calendars worth introducing in Tang Dynasty are Dayan calendar and Xuan Ming calendar.
The first draft of Great Yan Li was written in the 15th year of Kaiyuan (AD 727) on the basis of large-scale astrometry in the Tang Dynasty. After the death of this thread, it was edited into a book by Chen.
"Dayan Calendar" compiled the solar motion table with constant air, and completed this calculation with one action, and invented the unequal interval quadratic difference interpolation method. Dayanli also uses the table of sine function properties and the approximate interpolation method of cubic difference to deal with the uneven motion of planets. Dayan calendar is known as the "crown of the Tang Dynasty" because of its innovation, and it has become a model of later calendars because of its clear organization.
Xu Ang's Xuan Ming Calendar was published in the second year of Changqing (AD 822), which is another excellent calendar after Dayan Calendar in the Tang Dynasty. It gives the number of days in the perigee month and the intersection month as 27.55455 days (the measured value today is 27.5545503 days) and 27.2 122 days (the measured value today is 27.27 days) respectively. In particular, it is famous for putting forward three differences of solar eclipse, namely instantaneous difference, gas difference and engraving difference, which improves the accuracy of calculating solar eclipse.
Song dynasty
In the Song Dynasty, 18 kinds of calendars were published in more than 300 years, among which the Unified Calendar formulated by Yang Zhongfu in the Southern Song Dynasty was the best. The regression age of Tongtianli was 365.2425 days, which was the most accurate value in the world at that time. The well-known Gregorian calendar in Europe, the Gregorian calendar prevailing in the world today, also took the return age of 365.2425 days (issued in 1582), but it was 383 years later than the ordinary calendar. The calendar also points out that the length of the tropic year is gradually changing, and its value was large in ancient times, but it is small today.
The most innovative calendar in Song Dynasty is the twelve-qi calendar proposed by Shen Kuo in Northern Song Dynasty. In the calendar promulgated by China in the past dynasties, twelve months are distributed in spring, summer, autumn and winter, with three months in each season. If it is a leap month, the season of leap month is four months. Astronomy regards beginning of spring, Changxia, beginning of autumn and beginning of winter as the beginning of spring, summer, autumn and winter. Therefore, it is difficult to unify the contradictions between the two on the calendar. In view of this shortcoming, Shen Kuo proposed a calendar with "Twelve Qi" as the year, which was later called "Twelve Qi Calendar". Shen Kuo wrote in his masterpiece "Talk about Meng Xi": "The day of beginning of spring is the day of Meng Chun, and the day of fright is the day of mid-spring, ranging from 3 1 day to 30 days; Every year is over, and there will never be a leap month. Twelve qi is often a big one and a small one, even if there are two small phases, but once a year. " The twelve-year calendar is a kind of solar calendar, which not only conforms to the actual horoscope and season, but also serves the production activities more conveniently. Unfortunately, traditional habits are too powerful to be promulgated and implemented.
the Yuan Dynasty
In the Yuan Dynasty, the chronicles compiled by Guo Shoujing and Xun Wang reached its peak. Guo Shoujing, Wang Xun and others not only summarized and used for reference the previous experience, but also developed a large number of sky-watching instruments in the process of making chronograph calendars. On this basis, Guo Shoujing presided over and participated in nationwide astronomical observation. He has set up 27 observation points all over the country, and their distribution range is unprecedented, from north latitude 15 in the south to north latitude 65 in the north. East longitude 138, west longitude 102. The observation results of these stations laid a foundation for making an excellent time service calendar. The Timing Calendar absorbs the strengths of many scholars, such as the new moon, the recent month, the crossing of the moon and so on, and adopts the data of Zhao Zhiwei's Rebuilding Daming Calendar in the Jin Dynasty. If you go back to the old times, you will take the value of "unified calendar". There are many innovations in Shoushi Calendar, such as abandoning the long-used Chronology of Shang Yuan; The old method of expressing the mantissa of astronomical data by fraction is cancelled; The apparent velocity of the sun on the ecliptic and the daily velocity of the moon around the earth are obtained by cubic difference interpolation. By using the sagittal cyclotomic method similar to a spherical triangle, the right and left latitudes of the sun can be obtained from the longitude of the yellow meridian, and the intersection angle of the right and left latitudes can be calculated.
The Chronological Calendar was made in the seventeenth year of Zhiyuan (A.D. 1280), and was officially promulgated and implemented in the following year. It lasted until 363 years in the Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1644), showing the precision of the calendar.
the Ming Dynasty
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, a group of Jesuit missionaries who knew astronomy came to China to preach, and China scholars learned from them the calculation methods of European astronomy. In the thirty-eighth year of Wanli (A.D. 16 10) and the solar eclipse in Chongzhen in May (A.D. 1629, 2 1 June), Qin's prediction was wrong, but Xu Guangqi's prediction according to western methods came true. Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen accepted the suggestion of does, and authorized Xu Guangqi to organize the calendar bureau and revise the calendar. Xu Guangqi not only chose the China calendar, but also hired Jesuits Deng, giacomo Rowe and others to work in the Origin Bureau. After five years' efforts, 46 kinds of 137 volumes of Chongzhen almanac were compiled, and European astronomical knowledge, calculation methods and measurement units, such as Tycho's cosmic system and geometric calculation system, were introduced. This paper introduces the clear concepts of circular earth, geographical longitude and geographical latitude. The exact formulas of spherical triangle and plane triangle are introduced. It adopts the European common unit of measurement, with a circumference of 360, 96 minutes a day, 24 hours, decimal and hours below 60 degrees, etc. Xu Guangqi's calendar compilation is not only a major reform of China's ancient calendar compilation, but also lays a certain theoretical and ideological foundation for the development of China astronomy from ancient times to modern times.
Ching Dynasty
After the book "Calendar of Chongzhen" was written, the Ming Dynasty was almost extinct and could not be used to compile calendars. At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Tang Ruowang revised the almanac of Chongzhen into volume 103, and presented it to the Qing government together with his new almanac, which was promulgated and implemented. This new calendar is named History. The revised "Chongzhen Almanac" was renamed as "Western New Law Almanac".