Grassland culture, the sky is like a dome, the four fields cover, astronomical calendar

Grassland culture, the sky is like a dome, the four fields cover, astronomical calendar

Grassland people who take animal husbandry as their profession have been exploring the great influence of a series of changes such as the appearance of natural stars, the alternation of day and night, and the coming of cold to summer on people's production and life for a long time. Ancient Mongolians calculated their age by vegetation. In Song Dynasty, Meng Gong's "Becoming a Monk" said: "Every grass is one year old. If someone asks how old it is and how much grass it has. " The withering and death of pasture directly affects the production of animal husbandry, which is related to the food, clothing, housing and transportation of Mongolian people. The withering and death of pasture marks a cycle of animal husbandry production. Therefore, "grass" has. Just as ancient Egypt regarded the flood cycle of the Nile as a year, according to Hong Jun's Translation and Supplement to the History of Yuan Dynasty, "Mongols" don't know how old they are, but only know less grass ". This is the result of people's exploration and understanding of nature.

In the process of long-term exploration and understanding of nature, Mongolians have also produced the concept of seasons. According to the experience of animal husbandry, the ancient Mongols divided a year into two seasons. In spring, Mongolians call it "He", and in autumn, Mongolians call it "namur". Forage growth in spring is the starting point of animal husbandry production, and autumn is the fattening season for cattle and sheep. In the Secret History of Mongolia, section 19 says, "One day in spring …" section 27 says, "In spring, wild ducks come …" section 197 says, "Autumn in the Year of the Rat …" section 26 says; Eight sections of Chaer have no food, "so raise an oriole for a winter." The Mongolian concept of seasons is divided according to the rhythm of production and life of animal husbandry. The enduring proverbs handed down by Mongols fully show this feature. Its proverb says: "There is no grass in autumn, and there is no lamb in spring." "Summer, don't forget winter; When you are happy, don't forget the pain. " "Although wealthy families like autumn, they have to spend their days as hard as spring." "It's useless to be old, and it doesn't gain weight in autumn." "Shame on others, spring outing; People who want to eat delicious food come in autumn. " The passage of phenology affects the pace of production and life of shepherds. Mongolians attach great importance to beginning of spring and beginning of winter, because grassland is divided into summer field and winter field, and beginning of spring and beginning of winter directly affect the migration of grassland. Mongolians also attach great importance to beginning of autumn, because autumn is the season of transition from spring to winter, and it is also the season of rich aquatic plants and fat cattle and sheep. In ancient times, Mongolians held autumn festivals on August 28th every year to pray for disaster relief and safety in the coming year. August 28th is the end of the Mongolian year. With the in-depth observation of nature, they joined the summer. In winter, the Mongolian language is "not diligent", and in summer, it is "spring, winter, spring, autumn and summer". Later, with the frequent exchange of Mongolian and Chinese culture, it was changed to spring, summer, autumn and winter.

On this basis, the form of "seasonal month" came into being. According to the translation of Hakan Chu Lun's "An Examination of the Wisdom Gate", "Mongolian Gu Yue is the first month of sharing, the month of aquatic plants is February, the month of cattle is March, the month of blue is April, the month of hunting is May, the month of sunshine is June, the month of red is July, the month of perfection is August, the month of killing sheep is September, and the month of eating is November. The division of ancient Mongolian months is related to animal husbandry and hunting, as well as the favorite colors of Mongolian people and ancient religious beliefs. There is no exact number of days in this season and month to be divided by phenological changes and the rhythm of life production, and it is often judged by astronomical phenomena. The Guide to Mongolian Customs says: "Mongolians attach great importance to the first day, fifteenth day and thirtieth day of each month ... In ancient times, Mongolians attached great importance to the first day of the first month of each season ..." They also calculated the leap month. "The Year of the Monkey and the Horse Month says: Mongolians" only know that there is a leap month in a year, and slowly see the grass. "If there is a leap month in March in spring, it is called Shuangchun, and some places are called Changchun.

With the observation of celestial bodies and natural changes, Mongolians began to use 60-day trunk and 12-day trunk to mark the chronology. Ninety-nine volumes of History of the Yuan Dynasty said that Yuan Taizu listed Boroqul, Borqiu, Muqali and Chilaowen as four major mysteries. "Those who are afraid of learning, also said to be overnight. Fan Suwei works every three days. " Shen, You, who suddenly succeeded in defending Tianbo, was the first to be afraid of Xue, that is, afraid of Xue. ..... Haizi, ugly day, led by the blind man, is the second fear of learning. Yin, Mao, Chen and Muqali lead the way, which is the third fear of learning. In the afternoon, at the end of the day, ChiLaoWen led a bunch of people, which was Xue's fourth fear. "This is a lunar calendar with 12 Chinese zodiac signs." Monkey Year, Horse Month records: "Last spring, whenever Xun saw it, he still called it the Year of the Rabbit and the Year of the Loong, and it was not until last year that it was changed to Year. The Secret History of Mongolia also records the Year of the Rabbit, the Year of the Rat and the Year of the Pig. Its zodiac signs are rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, chicken, dog and pig. In the Mongolian concept, Year A and Year B are prosperity. The year of Wuji is the year of decline, the year of Geng Xin is the year of beginning, and the year of no return is the year of harvest. In addition to the chronology of trunks and branches, there are five colors: red, yellow, blue, white and black, which are divided into ten numbers and matched with the names of twelve animals, so that the cycle is changed from twelve years to sixty years.

The appearance of the zodiac and the chronology of heavenly stems and earthly branches is the result of long-term observation and understanding of nature by all ethnic groups. Although the story of Black Tatar was taught by Han Chinese, Khitan and Jurchen, in fact, the chronology of "Twelve Statues in the Morning" and "Six-Jia Rotation" can be traced back to the Huns who stood in the desert in the third century BC. The Book of the Later Han Dynasty, Volume 89, Biography of the Southern Xiongnu, records: "The Xiongnu custom has Sanlong Temple, which is often used to worship the gods in the first month, the fifth day of May and the fifth day of September." It can be seen that the Huns at that time already had the concept of "Year", and regarded "Hundred Days" as an auspicious day, and "Hundred Days" as "Day", which had been used in the years of heaven and earth. The chronologies of Pijia Khan Monument, Kuitekot Monument and Gelehan Monument in Uighur are all named after animals.

Some parts of Mongolia have also absorbed Tibetan calendars. The Tibetan calendar determines that a year is 12 months, the big month is 30 days and the small month is 29 days. Every 100 month or so, there is a leap month, and * * * associates the five elements of fire, water and soil in Jin Mu with the names of twelve animals. 12 is a small period, and 6000 is a large period.

Grassland people have accumulated rich experience in astronomical calendar calculation in production practice, and are constantly discussing the structure of celestial bodies. The well-known nomadic people's "Song of Chile" wrote: "The Chilean River, under the shady mountain, has a sky like a dome, covering four fields, and the sky is gray and wild, and the wind blows grass to see cattle and sheep." The emotional strength of this folk song lies not only in depicting the charming scenery of the grassland, but also in depicting the celestial bodies in the universe, imagining the boundless sky as a big yurt, which means a round sky. In Yinshan rock paintings, sky maps often appear. In a place called Wusu, A Mu, in the northwest of Tuolingou, the star map is composed of triple circles, double circles and circles arranged in the shape of finished products. In the same place, there is also a sky map composed of circles and dots. This shows that ancient Mongolian ancestors explored celestial bodies. Section 254 of the Secret History of Mongolia says: "All countries fight against the stars." This is a record of the unity of heaven and man.

On the back wall of King Kong Pagoda of Wuta Temple in the old city of Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, there is an astronomical map of Mongolian stone carvings, which was made in the third year of Yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty. This astronomical icon shows the Arctic Circle, Antarctic Circle, Summer Solstice Circle, Winter Solstice Circle and Equator, and indicates 24 solar terms, with winter Solstice at the top, summer Solstice at the bottom, vernal equinox on the left and autumn equinox on the right. There are 270 galaxies and stars. There are four layers of inscribed circles around the celestial sphere, and the outermost layer is evenly divided into 12 segments, engraved with Mongolian names of 12 palace and 12 zodiac. This astronomical map is the only one of the four existing astronomical maps of stone carvings in China with minority characters, and it is the crystallization of the wisdom of Mongolian and Chinese people.

In the Yuan Dynasty, Mongolians made great progress in the study of astronomy. 127 1 year, Mongols set up the first observatory on the north wall of the Forbidden City in Shangdu (located in Zhenglan Banner of Xilin Gol League). Volume 90 of History of the Yuan Dynasty says, "The Tiantai was not set up until the eighth year of the Yuan Dynasty." The History of Yuan Dynasty (Volume 48) says: "In the fourth year of Yuan Dynasty (1267), Jamalidin made a portrait of the Western Regions." It uses Arabic musical instruments, including Huntianyi, Huntianyu, Chunqiu Fenjiu Cinema and Winter Summer Solstice Cinema described in Primitive Man. In the 1970s, the Inner Mongolia Cultural Relics Team visited here many times. According to the characteristics of que architecture, the observatory is divided into three parts: east, middle and west, with two sides protruding and the middle sunken. Its structure is rigorous and scientific, and it is called "Purple Pole III" because of the composition of three groups of countertops. In addition, there is the Metropolitan Observatory, which was built at 1279 and located outside Jianguomen, Beijing. The whole observatory is large in scale, fully equipped and staffed, and the calculation is very accurate. Drip is an instrument used to measure the time of day and night in ancient times. The drip of copper pots in Yuan Dynasty reached a high level.

Inner Mongolia Library has several astronomical works in Mongolian. One astronomy contains a map of the whole sky, with the ecliptic as the boundary, one in the northern hemisphere and the other in the southern hemisphere. It is particularly noteworthy that there are red poles in every map, which is rare in Chinese history. 17 12 the book astronomical principles was published in Mongolian. This book is an accurate grasp of the calendar, and Emperor Kangxi suggested that Mongolian and Tibetan scholars co-write it. Therefore, this book is also called the Complete Mongolian Translation Imperial Calendar or the Complete Kangxi Imperial Calendar. The book * * * 38 volumes. According to experts' research, most of the contents of this book are equivalent to the almanac published in the second year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty, but the exact blueprint on which it is based has not been found in fifteen volumes, such as Astronomical Songs, Bullying Crime, Images, Seven Strategies and Food Exchange. These may be the astronomical principles developed by Mongolian scholars (see A Brief History of Mongolian Science and Technology in China, edited by Li Wenzhong).

When it comes to Mongolian astronomical calendar, we have to talk about Mongolian astronomer Minggatu. Minggatu, Jing 'an, Zhengbai Banner, Mongolia. Born in the 31st year of Kangxi in Qing Dynasty (1692), he translated the book Constitution of Qing Dynasty into Mongolian and distributed it to Mongolia. Later, he participated in the compilation of the 100-volume masterpiece "The Origin of Fa Li" organized by Emperor Kangxi. In the first year of Yongzheng (1723), Mingjiatu held the post of "the official of the constitutional department" in Qin, where he worked as a general manager office, calculating the five-star operation of the sun and the moon, and editing the almanac for more than 30 years. In the process of compiling The Origin of Fahua Calendar, Mingjiatu inherited the excellent cultural heritage of the motherland and widely adopted the traditional astronomical observation methods of China, but on the other hand, he did not stick to the rules and absorbed the more advanced observation methods of the West. Later, in order to accurately observe the movement of the sun and the moon, two tables, Japanese Articles and Li Yue, were published. This is an astronomical table about the movement of the sun and the moon. He is the main member of the compilation of "The Theory of Different Figures". He also participated in the compilation of Postscript of the Calendar Examination from the second year of Qianlong to the seventh year of Qianlong. Minggatu, a Mongolian astronomer, has made outstanding contributions to the astronomical cause of the motherland.