Qinghai-Tibet Culture, Science and Technology World and Astronomical Calendar

Qinghai-Tibet Culture, Science and Technology World and Astronomical Calendar

Tibetan astronomy has a long history, rich literature and long-term practical experience. Today, Tibetans living in Tibet, Qinghai, Ganzi, Sichuan, Diqing, Yunnan, Gannan, Gansu, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim and other places still use Tibetan calendars, especially farmers, herdsmen and Tibetan doctors, which are closely related to Tibetan calendars. They plow the fields, graze and collect medicines in spring according to the Tibetan calendar, which is closely related to their daily life. Tibetan astronomical calendars have obvious national characteristics and plateau characteristics, and are at a higher level in the astronomical calendars of ethnic minorities in China.

The formation and development of the 6th century BC, the Xiangxiong dynasty on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau began to use the chronological method of combining the twelve earthly branches with the five elements, and the calendar was compiled under the auspices of Gaxin Zi Magazine. This calendar is a combination of twelve earthly branches (that is, rats, cows, tigers, rabbits, dragons, snakes, horses, sheep, monkeys, chickens, dogs and pigs) and five elements of yin and yang (wood, fire, earth, gold and water), which is the same as the "sixty years old" in Han Dynasty. For example, this year is the Year of the Rat in Muyang, and next year is the Year of the Ox in Yin Mu, with a cycle of one week and sixty years. This feature has been preserved to this day and has become a major feature of the Tibetan calendar.

After the disintegration of the Xiangxiong Dynasty, many small countries appeared on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, but they all followed the original calendar. By the 2nd century BC, in the era of Bude Gong Jie, the Tibetan king in the upper part of Tibet, a year was divided into four seasons, the upper and lower chords of January and its surroundings. In the 3rd century AD, a calendar calculation method was introduced from India and applied in some areas. In the period of Narysongzan, that is, in the 5th century, Tubo tended to be unified, its military strength became stronger, and its contacts with neighboring countries increased. During this period, the cultures of Central Plains, India and Dashi were gradually introduced. Songzan Gambu (6 17-650) unified the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau with strong military strength, established the Tubo Dynasty, and built a bridge of friendship with neighboring countries such as Tang and Nepal. Since then, Central Plains culture has been widely introduced into Tubo. Among them, astronomical calendar is related to geomantic omen, divination and calendar calculation methods. Since the Songtsan Gampo era, Buddhist culture has flooded into Tibet, and the calculation methods of different calendar schools have also been introduced into Tibet, such as the Sakyamuni era and the Sharjah era. Because the Tubo dynasty did not formulate and promulgate a unified calendar, and the disputes between Buddhism and the division of the dynasty, several chronicles coexisted for a long time, causing great confusion. Buddhists use the teaching calendar, which is divided into two factions. Believers in this religion and farmers and herdsmen have always continued the traditional chronology of cadres and branches. With the increasing influence of Buddhism, Indian time circle calendar has been accepted by more and more scholars. Around A.D. 1025, Indian scholar Dawa Kampot went to Tibet and cooperated with Tibetan translators to translate the Sanskrit classic Wheel of Time. More than ten Tibetan versions of Time Wheel Classic have been published, but they are still not popular in Tibet. In the13rd century, karma scholar Jean Jiongduoji (1284- 1339) and master Bouton (1290- 1364) wrote their own time-wheel calendars according to the time-wheel warp knitting, and got the master Zong Kaba. Therefore, the translation year of the classic time wheel is 1027 as the first year, because 1027 coincides with the year of the fire rabbit in the Tibetan calendar, and the decorative word of the year of the fire rabbit is called "life" in Tibetan, so the era is called "life time". Since then, Tibetan scholars have supplemented and revised it and become the main astronomical calendar on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. There are two kinds of calendar calculations on this day, one is the calendar for calculation, and the other is the Tibetan-Chinese-Indian mixed calendar. The contents include astronomy, calendar calculation, five elements accounting, rhythm accounting and chronology.

Principle (1) celestial bodies. The time-wheel calendar holds that the universe consists of five elements: earth, water, fire, wind and air, in which the wind wheel is in space, among which there are steam wheels, among which there are water wheels, among which there are earth wheels, and the center of which is the Supreme Sumi Mountain. There are two kinds of vast celestial bodies, one is the palace, that is, the zodiac and the twenty-eight nights. The zodiac is the twelve regions of celestial bodies, located at the top of Mount Sumi, which looks like a big umbrella unfolding on the top of the mountain. Aries Palace, Taurus Palace, Twin Uterus, Cancer Palace, Lion Palace, Virgo Palace, Libra Palace, Scorpio Palace, Sagittarius Palace, Capricorn Palace, Aquarius Palace and Pisces Palace are distributed on it. Do a day and night movement clockwise to the right, and its relative position remains unchanged. There are 28 nights on the zodiac, namely: Kui, Lou, Stomach, Zan, Bi, Dog, Spirit, Essence, Ghost, Willow, Xing, Zhang, Wing, Qi, Horn, Strength, Earth, Fang, Xin, Wei, Self, Dou, Dou. The other celestial body is Obsidian, namely Sun Obsidian, Moon Obsidian, Fire Obsidian, Water Obsidian, Mu Obsidian, Jin Yao Obsidian and Earth Obsidian. Sun Yao is the beginning of a week, which is Sunday. Seven obsidians Gallo? The robbery turned into nine obsidians, which were called ten obsidians together with the long-tailed comet. Obsidian and others in Japan run in the zodiac and 28 nights, except Luo? All the other obsidians run counterclockwise to the left. Due to the different orientations of stars in celestial bodies, the year, month, day, hour, four seasons and twenty-four solar terms are formed.

(2) Year, month and day. ① There are three kinds of days: solar day, lunar day and public day. A day counts as a solar day, that is, one day and one night, starting from the day when you see the palm print at dawn on the first day and ending on the day when you see the palm print at dawn on the second day. One day and night equals 2 1600 interest, and every minute 15 interest. Breathing, defined as the time required for a mature man to inhale and exhale, is the same as the data measured by modern medicine from 14 to 18 breaths per minute. The unit of measurement above the interest rate adopts the drip system, that is, 60 streams a day and night, and one stream is 62 water, that is, 60 minutes, which is the same as the current 24 hours a day. A day and night is divided into twelve hours: dawn, sunrise, sunny angle, noon, solar eclipse, solar eclipse, sunset, dusk, eight hours, midnight and dawn. Due to the mutual cooperation between the solar day and lunar day in the solar sequence, there are missing days and heavy days. If the number of days is insufficient, the heavy days will accumulate, forming a big month and a small month. The day of heavy shortage is calculated according to the principle of "those who are heavy are short of big, and those who are short of big are heavy". The so-called severe drought day means that one day is short and the other day lasts for two days. For example, in four days, one day, three days, three days, four days, two days missing, three days more than two days. People will interpret the lack of daytime as a fierce day and avoid it; Every auspicious day is an extra day. This is another feature of Tibetan calendar. (2) Month, including sun month, lunar month and palace month. Generally speaking, it refers to the lunar month. The profit and loss of each month is fifteen days, which adds up to one month. It is called Shuowangyue, the first day of the lunar month, the fifteenth day of the lunar month, and the thirty days of the dark day. Twelve months a year, 30 major projects, 29 Xiao Jian. January is divided into the first quarter moon, the second quarter moon or the first, middle and third ten days. There are 24 leap months every 65 years, with an average of 32.5 months. ③ There are solar year, lunar year and palace year. Generally speaking, it refers to the palace year, that is, the time required for the sun to complete a four-season cycle after twelve months, also known as the sidereal year. A palace year is equal to twelve months, and twelve months is equal to 360 palace days. The definition of the year of the palace is: the time for the sun to run in the twelfth house of the sky for one week, and it is also the time for the four seasons on the ground to cycle for one week. The first half of the definition refers to the sidereal year and the second half refers to the tropic year. The systematic school in the time wheel calendar calculates the solar day as 365.445 a year, and the practical school calculates it as 365.36.

(3) The main contents of the almanac. Almanac is divided into two categories, one is precise almanac, which is used for calculation; One is the civil calendar, similar to the yellow calendar. ① The precise almanac used for calculation is a calendar system based on time, and its contents mainly include calendars and monthly calendars. Calendar: What day is the solar day? The end of the lunar calendar day; The true longitude of the sun; The true longitude of the moon. The first two items are the basic data for calculating the date of heavy vacancy and arranging the size of the month, while the last two items are the basic data for determining the new moon and solar eclipse. In addition, there are "eleven functions" and "twenty-seven kinds of meeting with the zodiac" used in astrology. Calendar: the contents include the time and solar terms of the sun entering the palace every month, the length of day and night of neutral days, leap months, days with serious shortage, and festivals such as moonlight, free life, potions and poisonous water used for astrology. (2) Folk calendar, the basic content is divided into three parts: annual summary, monthly summary and calendar-by-calendar annotation. The specific content can be divided into: first, the calendar content, there are five aspects: leap month, heavy lack of days; Time of entering the palace; Moon phase, planetary orientation and solar eclipse related to astronomical phenomena; Obsidian era; According to the weather forecast of Jiuyao. Secondly, the specific content of the Gregorian calendar system is divided into five parts: spring cattle, awn seeds, ninety-nine and so on; Waiting for the moon; Phenology; 24 solar terms; Future weather forecast. Third, about the season and weather forecast. The calculation method is as follows: 24 days after beginning of winter, 40 days after beginning of winter, bird day, wall day 12 days, white crow day in the second half of the month, red-billed crow day in the last nine days and harrier day in the last seven days. Twenty-one days from summer to the next is the rain return period, the next fifteen days are the half moon of raccoons, with an interval of three days, the next fifteen days are the fox day, the next twenty-one days are the central day, and the next fifteen days are the days when owls walk. There are several days, such as bird days, including six days of pregnancy, six days of wing edge, three days of shoulder, three days of neck fossa, three days of mouth and face, five days of wing tip and ten days of adult, which is forty days. These sayings all come from Tibetan folk proverbs, that is, traditional calendars.