Chapter 1842 Ten Month Calendar
In addition to ten days and months, seasons also exist, but the ten months of the Yi calendar are divided into five seasons. Each season is based on the Yi people’s own five elements of earth, copper, water, wood, and fire. The names are combined with male and female to distinguish each month, that is, Earth Gong in January, Earth Mother in February, Bronze Gong in March, Bronze Mother in April... and so on.
In addition to representing the five elements, the five seasons also represent the five directions of the sun's movement: east, south, west, north, and middle. This is somewhat similar to the Han people's concept of "five directions".
As with all calendars, the most important thing is to determine the first day in order to accurately grasp the laws of seasonal changes.
The Yi people’s October calendar is determined by choosing the winter evening and standing on the “Xiangtian Tomb” to observe the position of the “Sha Nie” star.
Xiangtian Tomb is a small pyramid-like earth bag built by the Yi people in their settlements for easy observation. Shanie is the Big Dipper.
When Shanie's tail points downward, it means severe cold in winter, and when Shanie's tail points upward, it means severe heat in summer.
Taking Great Cold and Great Heat as the first day, these two festivals correspond to the two very important festivals of the Yi Nationality Year and the Torch Festival respectively.
The Year of the Yi people is called "Ku Shi" in Yi language, and Ku means turning, returning, and circulating.
In the Yi people's concept of time and space, the northernmost endpoint is generally regarded as the starting point. After the sun sets in winter, it moves southward to the southernmost point, and then stops moving southward. It stays here for a few days and then moves northward. This endpoint is called "Bugu", which means "the sun's turning point".
Then in summer, the sun's setting point moves to the northernmost endpoint, no longer moving north but returning to the south. This endpoint is called "Bujiu", which means "solar return point". Since then, it has gradually moved southward, reaching the southernmost end.
A round trip from the northernmost endpoint to the southernmost endpoint is one year.
In fact, these two days are the winter solstice and the summer solstice.
Winter solstice-summer solstice-winter solstice is one year. The Yi people usually celebrate the New Year at the time of the winter solstice "Bujiu".
The reason Zhou Zhi wanted to publish this paper was because when he was doing the Yin Calendar of the Shang Dynasty, that is, "Shang Zheng", he looked up the calendar and found that the calendar already existed in the Xia Dynasty. This calendar It's called "Xia Xiaozheng".
After the Xia Dynasty was destroyed by the Shang Dynasty, "Xia Xiaozheng" was also lost. In the Spring and Autumn Period, Confucius went to the hometown of the Xia Dynasty to record his travels. He found that "Xia Xiaozheng" was circulated among the people, so he collected it and compiled it so that it could be passed down to future generations.
"Xia Xiaozheng" consists of two parts: "Jing" and "Biography", with a total of more than 400 words. Its content is based on the twelve months of the year, recording monthly phenology, weather, astrology and related major political affairs, especially major production events.
The contents of the book reflecting the agricultural production at that time include the cultivation of grains, fiber plants, dyes, horticultural crops, sericulture, animal husbandry and collection, fishing and hunting; sericulture and horse breeding were taken seriously; horse castration, dye production The cultivation of indigo and horticultural crops such as rue, peach, apricot, etc. was recorded for the first time.
The sentences in "Xia Xiaozheng" are as simple and concise as Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Most of them are two, three or four characters that form a complete sentence. The time signs are mainly changes in animals and plants. The standard stars used to indicate time are bright stars that are easier to see, such as Chenshen and Weaver Girl.
What is strange is that "Xia Xiaozheng" lacks astrological records for November, December and February. The concepts of four seasons and solar terms also appeared.
In the past, historians of all dynasties believed that "Xia Xiaozheng" was a lunar calendar. However, due to its long history, the content was partially incomplete and confusing, so these records were missing.
However, when Zhou Zhi learned the Yi calendar from Lao Chiri, he suddenly discovered that the Yi calendar in October was very consistent with the calendar of "Xia Xiaozheng"!
"Xia Xiaozheng" is not missing November and December in the process of spreading, but it is not there in the first place! The current version of "Xia Xiaozheng" divides the year into twelve months, which must have been added by future generations!
With this idea, Zhou Zhi began to conduct serious research on Xia Xiaozheng. Then a lot of evidence was discovered.
According to the records about the Shen star in "Xia Xiaozheng", from the "Shen Zhong" day in the first month of the first month, to the "Shen Ze Fu" day in the stomach in March, to the "Shen Ze Jian" day in the well in May, every day The moon and day are both thirty-five degrees.
From the day of "Shen Ze Jian" in May to the day of "Chen Ze Jian" in the first month of the next year, there is a gap of more than 210 degrees.
If we count ten months in a year, with an interval of six months, the daily movement of each month is more than 35 degrees, and 360 degrees in a year, which is exactly the same as the sun's movement on the ecliptic once a year. The three hundred and sixty degrees of meridians coincide.
If we use twelve months in a year, it is reasonable to have a daily movement of 26 degrees every month for eight months. Thirty-five degrees is obviously excessive.
Secondly, "Xia Xiaozheng" records that in the first month "the county is down" and in June "it is up"; this record is completely consistent with the Yi people's tenth month.
Since the Dou Jianchen shifts evenly throughout the year, five months should be spent moving from the bottom to the top of the Dou handle, and five months from the top to the bottom. This also shows that "Xia Xiaozheng" should also be a ten-month calendar.
There are also records of phenology in "Xia Xiaozheng". The phenology in May is consistent with the phenology in June of the lunar calendar. Later, a gap gradually appeared. In mid-July, phenology that only existed in the eighth and September of the lunar calendar appeared, such as "Xiu" "Weiwei", "cicada chirping"; "Wang Shiqiu" in September is equivalent to the end of October and the beginning of November in the lunar calendar, so October has entered the coldest season of the year.
In addition, "Xia Xiaozheng" records that in May, "there is a rising day", that is, the longest day, which is the summer solstice, and in October, "there is a rising night", that is, the longest night, which is the winter solstice;
This record is also completely consistent with the ten-month calendar of the Yi people, and there are only five months from the summer solstice to the winter solstice. Therefore, there should also be five months from the winter solstice to the summer solstice. Combined, the two make a year exactly ten months!
So much evidence can prove that "Xia Xiaozheng" and the Yi ten-month calendar are both an "October solar calendar".
Immediately afterwards, Zhou Zhi was suddenly startled by another idea of his own - since the Yi October calendar and "Xia Xiaozheng" have so many highly overlaps, is it possible that the two calendars were originally one? !
The ten-month calendar of the Yi people is itself "Xia Xiaozheng"? !
The formulation of the calendar is an important symbol in the history of human civilization.
Egypt is ranked first among the four ancient civilizations because it had a solar calendar in more than 4,200 BC.
The calendars of India and Babylon were both established in the third millennium BC.
The Chinese civilization, based on oracle bone inscriptions, only lasts for more than 3,000 years.
So now when it comes to the world's four major ancient civilizations, China is ranked at the bottom, namely Egypt, India, Babylon, and China.
But if the Erlitou site is used as the capital of the Xia Dynasty, then "Xia Xiaozheng" should have appeared in 3800 BC; if it is calculated from the Jiahu talisman, which is closely related to the Yi writing, it will be even more recent. Thousands of years ago.
In this way, the history of Chinese civilization has to be advanced from five thousand to nearly ten thousand years ago, far exceeding Egypt, the first of the four ancient civilizations currently defined.
This proves that Chinese civilization deserves its status as the "originator" in the history of world civilization!
Chinese civilization is the first of the four major civilizations!
When the paper is written here, its significance is no small matter.