How are the hours divided in the traditional Chinese calendar?

Nowadays, each day and night has 24 hours, while in ancient times, it had 12 hours. When western mechanical clocks and watches were introduced to China, people referred to the Chinese and western time points as "big time" and "hour" respectively. With the popularization of clocks and watches, people will "big time" forgotten, and "hours" used today.

Ancient time (big time) not to one, two, three, four to count, but with the son ugly c and d as a standard, and respectively, with the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit and other animals as a generation, thought easy to remember. Specifically divided as follows: Zi (rat) time is eleven to one point, to twelve as the positive point; ugly (cow) time is one to three, to two as the positive point; Yin (tiger) time is three to five, to four as the positive point; D (rabbit) time is five to seven, to six as the positive point; Chen (dragon) time is seven to nine, to eight as the positive point; Si (snake) time is nine to eleven, to ten as the positive point; Wu (horse) time is eleven to one o'clock, with twelve o'clock as the positive point; Wei (sheep) time is one o'clock to three o'clock, with two o'clock as the positive point; Shen (monkey) time is three o'clock to five o'clock, with four o'clock as the positive point; You (chicken) time is five o'clock to seven o'clock, with six o'clock as the positive point; Xuxu (dog) time is seven o'clock to nine o'clock, with eight o'clock as the positive point; and Hai (pig) time is nine o'clock to eleven o'clock, with ten o'clock as the positive point.

The ancients said that time, day and night are different, daytime said "bell", night said "more" or "drum". There are also "morning bells and drums", said the ancient towns and cities are set up more bells and drums, morning (eons, today's seven o'clock) bells chime, so during the day said "what time"; twilight (You time, today's nineteen o'clock) drums chime, so the night is said to be a few drums day. Night time is useful to say time and "more", this is due to the night patrols, the side patrols while striking the clapper, to points to report the time. The whole night is divided into five more, the third is the son of time, so there is also "three night" said.

The unit of measurement below the hour is the "quarter", and an hour is divided into eight quarters, each of which is equal to fifteen minutes of the current time. Old novels have "three quarters of noon to open beheading" said, that is, three quarters of an hour at noon (difference of 15 minutes to noon) when the knife beheading, this time the most prevalent yang, yin instantly dissipate, the crime of the worst offenders, it should be "even ghosts are not allowed to do", to show that the punishment is severe. The yin and yang family said that the most abundant yang qi, and modern astronomy is different, is not the most abundant at noon, but in the afternoon three moments. Ancient beheading is divided into hours of beheading, that is, beheading has a light and heavy. General beheading is at noon to open the knife, so that they have ghosts to do; serious or unforgivable criminals, must be selected at three o'clock in the afternoon to open the knife, do not let them do ghosts. Imperial city of the noon gate of Yang Qi is also the most abundant, regardless of time, so the emperor ordered the launch of the noon gate beheading, also no ghosts do.

Carve the following for the "word", about the "word", Guangdong, Guangxi, Cantonese areas and Fujian, Guangdong, southern Fujian areas are still used, such as "three o'clock in the afternoon ten words", which means "fifteen words", "ten words", "ten words", "ten words", "ten words", "ten words" and "ten words", "ten words". which means "15:50". According to linguists' analysis, Cantonese has preserved a particularly large number of "ancient Chinese", which is due to the fact that the ancient Han Chinese in the Central Plains were exiled to the south of the mountains and were separated from the Central Plains for a long period of time, and their language did not "keep up with the times" with those who stayed in the Central Plains. "Word" is not known, according to the "Sui book

LiLiZhi", seconds for the ancient unit of time, seconds for the following "hu"; how to convert, the book does not say clearly, only said: "" seconds" as in "seconds", "seconds" as in "seconds", "seconds" as in "seconds", "seconds" as in "seconds", "seconds" as in "seconds", "seconds" as in "seconds". 'Seconds' is as fine as the mango; 'hu' is as fine as the thinnest spider's silk".

In ancient times, there are two kinds of timekeeping tools, one is the "sundial", the second is the "leak". Sundial is the sun's shadow movement, corresponding to the scale on the sundial to time. Sundial needless to say, we should have seen in the Forbidden City and Observatory in Beijing. The funnel pot commonly used in poetry, i.e., the moment leakage system of timekeeping, first appeared in the Western Han Dynasty, the day and night is divided into one hundred equal minutes, also known as the hundred moments of timekeeping system. The ratio of day and night is 40:60, with the opposite in winter and summer. Leakage is timed by dripping water, a combination of four copper pots holding water placed on top of each other from top to bottom. The upper three have small holes in the bottom, and the bottom one puts an arrow-shaped buoy, which raises the surface of the water as it drips, and there is a scale on the body of the pots to keep time. The original day and night divided into 100 moments, because it can not be divided with twelve hours, and has been changed to 96, 108, 120 moments, to the Qing Dynasty was formally set at 96 moments; in this way, an hour is equal to eight moments. A moment and divided into three, a day and night **** there are twenty-four, and twenty-four relative to the festival. Note that this minute is not the current minutes, but the "word", between the two moments, with two strange symbols to carve, so called "word". Below the word is a line as thin as a wheat awn, called a "second"; the word "second" is a combination of the words "禾" and "少", with "禾" referring to wheat grain and "少" referring to a small awn. The word "second" is a combination of "禾" and "少", with 禾 referring to wheat grain and 少 referring to small awns. The word "second" cannot be divided into two parts, and it can only be described as "忽"; for example, the word "忽然", "忽" refers to a very short period of time, and "然" refers to a change. The word "ku" means a very short period of time, and the word "ran" means "change".

"More" is the name given to the time that was chimed in the evening by striking a point. From 5:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. today), the night watchman would strike the clapper or drum in his hand, which was called "playing the night watch". Seven o'clock to nine o'clock a hit, for a shift; nine o'clock to eleven o'clock two hits, for the second shift; eleven o'clock to one o'clock in the morning three hits, for the third shift; one o'clock to three o'clock four hits, for the fourth shift; three o'clock to five o'clock five hits, for the fifth shift; at this time of the day, and no longer playing the night watch. Half the night or half the night is generally referred to in general terms, such as "half the night singing", did not actually refer to a certain point when singing, but a period of time to sing. If you want to refer to the real, you have to add the word before and after midnight, then there is a real reference, such as the middle of the night, the real refers to the third night. Another example is the middle of the night, the actual reference to "over", then there is a statement; half of the night at what point, at three o'clock, i.e., at four o'clock, and now zero o'clock. In addition, in the ancient army camp there are also playing the night watchman, but the hit, not wooden clappers, but gold, called "Watchman".

Annexed to the time-keeping system of the past dynasties:

Yin Wuding had a 12-segment time-keeping system: during the daytime: early morning, daytime, Ming (Dacai), Cham, eclipse (Dacai), the middle of the day, Jackson, eclipse, Dacai (the first half of the day);

at night: Dacai (the second half of the day), Hui, (Mu+Fan), and Xiu.

Yin endowed with 16 segments of timekeeping from Xin to Wending: during the day: early morning, Dan, Chao (Da Cai), Eclipse (Da Eclipse), mid-sun, Jackson, Guo Ruoxi (Guo), Xiao Eclipse, Mo Xiao Cai, Mo

Night: Huai, Hui, Faint, (Mu+Fan), Xiu, Yu, and Wake.

Qin 16 segments of time: Pingdan, sunrise, eclipse, Mo eclipse, Dongzhong, Sunzhong, Xizhong, the declining sun in the west, feeding time, the next market, dusk, the people set, the middle of the night, the rooster's crowing

Qin 12 segments of time: that is, twelve Earthly Branches: yin, dao, eon, fsi, nu, wu, shen, you, huxu, hoh, hai, zi, chou