When did the calendar in China begin?

China is one of the earliest countries that invented the calendar in the world, and the appearance of the calendar has certain influence on the economic and cultural development of China. Lunar calendar, one of the traditional calendars in China, is also called lunar calendar, lunar calendar, ancient calendar, yellow calendar, summer calendar and old calendar. Lunar calendar is a combination of lunar calendar and lunar calendar. On the one hand, the moon moves around the earth as a "moon", and the average length of the moon is equal to "the first moon", which is the same as the lunar calendar, so it is also called "lunar calendar"; On the other hand, the "leap month" is set to make the average length of each year as close as possible to the tropic year, and the 24 solar terms are set to reflect the characteristics of seasonal changes. Therefore, the lunar calendar combines the characteristics of the lunar calendar, which is also called the "lunar calendar". Today, almost all Chinese in the world, as well as countries such as the Korean Peninsula and Vietnam, still use the lunar calendar to calculate traditional festivals such as Spring Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and Dragon Boat Festival.

The clever people of China invented the calendar and solar terms through years of hard work. According to legend, a long time ago, there was a young man named Wannian. One day, he went up the mountain to cut wood, because the sun was too hot, so he sat in the shade and rested. Suddenly, the movement of the shadow on the ground inspired him. After returning home, he spent several days and nights designing sundials. But in cloudy, rainy and foggy days, because there is no sun, the measurement will be affected. Later, the dripping spring on the cliff aroused his interest, and he began to make a five-story clepsydra. As time went on, he found that the length of the weather would repeat every 360 days.

At that time, the monarch was called Zu Ti, and the unexpected weather made him very upset. After hearing about it for ten thousand years, I couldn't help but take a sundial and a clepsydra to see the monarch and tell Zu Ti the truth about the movement of the sun and the moon. Zu Ti was very happy after hearing this, and felt very reasonable. So I left for ten thousand years and built the Sun and Moon Pavilion in front of the Temple of Heaven, as well as the sundial platform and the Leaky Pot Pavilion. Zu Ti said to Wannian, "I hope you can accurately calculate the laws of the sun and the moon, calculate the exact time in the morning and evening, and create a calendar to benefit people all over the world. 」

Winter goes and spring comes, year after year. Later, after long-term observation and careful calculation, it took 10 thousand years to calculate the accurate solar calendar. When he showed his successor the solar calendar, he was covered with silver whiskers. The monarch was deeply moved. In order to commemorate the achievements of 10 thousand years, he named the solar calendar "perpetual calendar" and named it the birthday star of the sun, moon and moon.

According to the cycle of the sun, the moon and the earth, human beings have formulated the laws of year, month, day, spring, summer, autumn and winter that conform to nature and the four seasons, thus forming a calendar. There were three calendars in ancient China: solar calendar, lunar calendar and combined calendar of yin and yang. The solar calendar is also called the solar calendar; The lunar calendar is also called lunar calendar and monthly calendar; Lunar calendar, also known as lunar calendar. Among them, the combination of yin and yang has been used to this day. Why can the lunar calendar be used today?

Today, the calendar at that time was the result of China's long-term observation of astronomical operation in order to master agricultural affairs in ancient times. The lunar calendar in China is called the lunar calendar, because it has not only the elements of the solar calendar, but also the elements of the lunar calendar. It combines the running laws of the sun and the moon and ends their influence on agriculture. Therefore, the lunar calendar in China is more practical and convenient than the pure lunar calendar or solar calendar widely used in the west. Lunar calendar is one of the representatives of China traditional culture, and its accuracy and originality are often regarded as pride by China people.

introduce

The lunar calendar used in Han areas, also known as the summer calendar, is a combination of yin and yang, with the moon as the phase and the sun as the annual cycle. The new moon, the sun and the moon rise at the same time, so the moon can't be seen on the earth, which is the beginning of every month. Depending on the phase of the moon, the length of each month may be 30th or 29th, and 12 months is a year. The solar year is divided into 24 solar terms, with odd numbers such as 1, 3, ... 23 as "knots" and odd numbers such as 2, 4, ... 24 as "qi" or "neutral qi". Because the solar annual cycle is not consistent with 12 months with the moon phase as the cycle, one month is added every four years, which is added after the month without gas. For example, in February 2004, there was only one "fright" festival, and there was no breath, so leap month would be added to February as leap February. The position of leap month is inconsistent every year.

Generally speaking, the lunar year is 12 months, and the number of days in a month depends on the orbit of the moon around the earth, which is 29 or 30 days, and the leap year is 13 months. In China, the average lunar year is 353 or 354 days, and the leap year is 384 or 385 days, with an average of about 365.2422 days per year (that is, the time for the sun to orbit the earth once).

The lunar calendar can be inferred as follows: the day when the moon moves to the earth and the sun in a straight line is the beginning of each month, which is called the first day. The longest day in a year between China and Japan is the summer solstice, and the shortest is the winter solstice. According to these two points, the year is divided into 24 equal parts, and 24 solar terms are obtained. Usually, the month of the latest lunar new year (Spring Festival) is the first month. The Spring Festival is in Gregorian calendar 65438+1from October 20th to February 20th.

Since ancient times, every dynasty has set up a "moon". In the Xia Dynasty, the winter month was the first month, and the first month was the "sub" month, according to the method of recording the year by the main branch. The Shang Dynasty revised the new moon in January, and the Zhou Dynasty revised the new moon in January. Taichu calendar Law was established in the Han Dynasty. Although a new moon is still set up in each dynasty, the people do not change, and the first month is always regarded as the New Year, but the "sub" month remains at 1 1.

Every emperor has to change his title when he ascended the throne, and sometimes he wants to change it. However, from the Ming Dynasty, the title of the year was not changed when the emperor was in office, but it was changed when the new emperor ascended the throne. The defect of this chronology is that the last year of the last emperor coincides with the first year of the next emperor. For example, "Tongzhi 14" is the first year of Guangxu, because this year is the anniversary of the last emperor's death. But the chronology of the main branches has been maintained. Except Kangxi, no emperor in the Qing Dynasty was in power for more than 60 years. Therefore, as long as an emperor's year number and dry branch are mentioned, the age is quite clear. For example, "Guangxu yihai" means Tongzhi 14 or Guangxu first year or 1875, and there was no yihai year in Tongzhi years.

Other ethnic groups in China also have their own festivals, such as April 8th of Miao nationality, March 3rd of Zhuang nationality and March Street of Bai nationality, which are all based on the China lunar calendar. Traditional festivals of the Han nationality, such as New Year (Spring Festival), Lantern Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, bonito Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival, are all based on the lunar calendar.

Early calendar

China's calendar and calendar years adopt the three-in-one calendar of Yin and Yang; In ancient times, according to the needs of different agricultural and animal husbandry production, the solar calendar and the lunar calendar were produced respectively. As a traditional calendar in China, the lunar calendar has its earliest origin, and there are many records in ancient books, as well as in Oracle Bone Inscriptions and China. At present, it is generally believed that the calendar rule of the integration of yin and yang originated in the Yin and Shang Dynasties. There were 102 calendars in the history of China from the Huangdi calendar to the opening of the solar calendar in the late Qing Dynasty. Some of these calendars have had a great influence on China's culture and civilization, such as Xia calendar, Shang calendar, Zhou calendar, taichu calendar in the Western Han Dynasty, Dayan calendar in Sui and Tang Dynasties and Emperor calendar. Although some calendars are not officially used, they are of great significance to health, medicine, ideology and astronomy. The ancient calendar of China before the Han Dynasty took 366 days as a year, and the "leap month" was used to determine the four seasons and the end of the year. There are already time units of day, month, ten-day and hour, and the technology of yin-yang calendar is available; The motion laws of the five planets and the sun and the moon were observed, and the time difference was adjusted by "leap moon" and "subtraction". The implementation of the calendar has become a major event, and one of the main contents is to "set the leap month as the age of four o'clock" and "positive leap surplus", that is, to determine the position of the leap month and how to subtract the extra days (without missing days), so as to determine the end and start of the age. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, due to the decline of the royal family in the Zhou Dynasty, the governors went their own way, so a multi-track calendar appeared, that is, the governors and local tribes also had their own local calendars; The Qin Dynasty is the last calendar in the history of China, which takes the four seasons of leap month as the calendar year.

At the beginning of Han Dynasty, there was a major turning point in China calendar, and the national unified calendar became a relatively independent science and technology. Emperor Wu instructed Sima Qian and others to write taichu calendar, and then Liu Xin wrote three calendars. The important feature of these two calendars is the integration of calendar and year. The whole number of days in a year is 365 days instead of 366 days in the previous calendar. Using "addition" instead of "subtraction" to adjust the time difference, the beginning of the age cycle is quite fixed, and leap months can be determined by mathematical calculation, so there is no need to "check the calendar and establish five elements". At this point, Yin-Yang and Five Elements basically withdrew from the calendar. Since then, the calendars promulgated by China in past dynasties have been similar to the taichu calendar law. After the founding of the Republic of China, the Gregorian calendar or the calendar year of the Republic of China was adopted.