Chapter 1788 Practice, Expansion, Enrichment
As for the distinction between seasons, judging from the oracle bone inscriptions, there were only spring and autumn in the Shang Dynasty. There are many words "this spring" and "this autumn" in the oracles, which means this year. This is closely related to agricultural production, that is, planting in spring and harvesting in autumn.
The Spring and Autumn Period was used to express a year. This method was still used by the vassal states after the Western Zhou Dynasty. The title of the famous chronicle "Spring and Autumn" comes from this.
But in spring and autumn here, the same events may be recorded differently in different history books.
The Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties all had their own official calendars, which can be referred to as the "Three Righteous Calendars". The main difference between these three is that the year is different.
By the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, it became fashionable for each vassal state to use its own calendar.
So Rong Geng once gave an example in the "Shang and Zhou Yi Qi Tong Kao": The dates of the Western Zhou Dynasty are all unified by the king, so it is said that the king only has a certain year and a certain month. Since the Spring and Autumn Period, there are people from various countries who have used it to record the year. For example, "E Gong Gui" says, "Only the first month of the second lunar month is auspicious and ugly." "Deng Gonggui" says that "only Deng's ninth month is auspicious".
As for the issue of the year of the king, "only the year of the king" must be describing the year of the king of the Western Zhou Dynasty.
Otherwise, the following situation may occur:
"Spring and Autumn Period·Yin Gong Sixth Year" records: "In winter, the Song Dynasty people took Changge." However, in "Zuo Zhuan" The record that appears is: "In autumn, people in the Song Dynasty took Changge."
For another example, "Spring and Autumn Period: The Fifth Year of Duke Xi" says that "in spring, the Marquis of Jin killed the crown prince Shensheng", but the same event appears in "Zuo Zhuan" but becomes "December".
The reason is that the State of Lu used the weekly calendar, so the Spring and Autumn Annals also used the weekly calendar to record the years. Of course, it cannot be said that the chronological method used in "Zuo Zhuan" is wrong, it is just that it uses the lunar calendar.
This is the phenomenon that in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, various countries used different "three positive calendars" and independent calendars.
These are not important to the chronological system of oracle bones and Zhenci developed by Zhou Zhi and An Chunjia, but they are very important for the post-Shang bronzes and the project that Director Song wants to pursue. .
Let’s go back to the oracle bone system. The year of the Shang Dynasty is called sacrifice in the oracle bone inscriptions. The Shang kings had to hold various sacrifices according to different times. After the sacrifice ceremony is completed, a year has passed, so sacrifice is used to represent the year.
Therefore, it is said in historical classics that "Xia means Sui, Shang means Si, Zhou means Nian, Tang Yu says Zai", which has also been verified in oracle bone inscriptions. In late inscriptions, the expressions "Only the two sacrifices to the king" and "Only the eight sacrifices to the king" are often used. , as long as there is a "sacrifice", it must be the oracle bones of the Yin Dynasty.
This also became the beginning of the usage of "era title" in later generations, which is equivalent to "the second year of a certain king" and "the eighth year of a certain king". It is of great significance in guiding the history compilation of later generations.
Although there are no obvious divisions into four seasons, the Yin people's definition of the year starts from the winter solstice. Therefore, judging from their careful observation of celestial phenomena and calendars, they should know the solstice, otherwise the months Unable to arrange.
Therefore, this system is still very complicated. It is not just a matter of just setting the stems and branches and adding them to a few years AD. It involves various deviations and corrections in the history of nearly a thousand years.
The system developed by Zhou Zhi and An Chunjia is based on oracle bone inscriptions. If they want to achieve Director Song's goal, the Xia Dynasty will not talk about it for the time being, but the bronze inscriptions from the Zhou Dynasty must also be included. Come within this system.
As mentioned before, Yi is the general name for bronze ritual vessels, so the inscriptions on bronze vessels are also called "Yi inscriptions".
Judging from the Yi inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty, the calendar of the Yin and Shang Dynasties used a method that combined the stems and branches, the months, and the year of the king's sacrifice. It is still difficult to judge which calendar method this dating method belongs to among the Huangdi calendar, Zhuanxu calendar and Yin calendar. Based on the general pattern of consistent calendar and dynasty, we classify it as the Yin calendar. The Yi inscription of the Jishi period that appears in the famous "Shu Si Zi Ding": "Jiazi... was only ten and two months ago...only the twenty sacrifices of the king." The "only twenty sacrifices of the king" here refers to the sacrifices of a certain Shang king after he came to the throne. The year of the twentieth great sacrifice to ancestors.
Look again at the Yi inscription from the Ji Shi period that appears in "The Second Sacrifice of Qiyou": "Bingchen...is the first month...only the second sacrifice to the king." Here the "only the second sacrifice to the king" " refers to the second great ancestor worship year after a certain Shang king ascended the throne.
The importance of these two inscriptions lies in their order. It can be seen that, under normal circumstances, the method of recording dates in the Shang Dynasty was the first day, the next month, and the next year.
For this reason, Guo Moruo's book "Yin Qicui Bian" specifically mentioned a piece of divination: Guichou divination. Zhen: This year is the year of the year *Hongji. It's only August, and only Wang Basi is here.
The words "Sui", "Nian" and "Si" typically appear at the same time here. But obviously, only "sacrifice" here means the meaning of historical chronology.
Therefore, generally speaking, as long as there is a record of "Wei Wang Mousi" in Yi inscriptions, it can most certainly come from the Shang Dynasty.
In the Western Zhou Dynasty, this method of chronology gradually evolved into the Zhou Dynasty method of chronology that only included certain years, months, moon phases, and stems and branches.
Of course, sometimes the order of month and year is occasionally reversed, and in some cases, year and month are even omitted.
Also, although the Yin people worship ghosts and gods, large-scale ancestor worship activities are carried out on an annual basis. Generally, the temple number meeting is combined with the death anniversary.
For example, the Jiazi day in December in a certain Yi inscription is used to worship ancestor Jia. This situation is not accidental.
Sacrifice to ancestor Jia on Jiazi day, the name of ancestor "Jia" is obviously directly related to the sacrificial activities on "Jia" day.
Therefore, the chronology in the oracle bone inscriptions can be compared with the activity chronology of the Shang king lineage. This undoubtedly provides a very favorable side evidence for the Zhendivination chronology.
Generally speaking, the Yi inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty are relatively easy to understand. The day stem, month and year of the king are very clear. At least the complicated moon phase issue in the Yi inscriptions of the Western Zhou Dynasty. In the Yin and Shang era, it was not mainstream and core.
Therefore, the chronological system developed by Zhou Zhi and An Chunjia still lacks the moon phase diagram. In order for the system to meet the requirements of Director Song's project, it is necessary to continue to expand the types of labels.
But the big methodology has been established and effectively practiced. What is left is only expansion and enrichment. The most difficult stage has actually been overcome.
In particular, the oracle bone divination and the bronze Yi inscriptions both belong to the large seal script system. This is why Director Song was so happy and exclaimed, "The monk can touch it, so can I."
That night, An Chunjia came to the Science and Technology Committee and plunged into the computer room.
It should be said that the Science and Technology Commission is still very strong. It only took half a day for Zhou Zhi to build a basic server cluster here, install the basic software, and wait for An Chunjia to come over and take a closer look. Become.
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