How do we record time, how do we record time in ancient China, and how do we record time in ancient and modern times?
Midnight, also known as midnight and midnight: the first hour of twelve o'clock. (23: 00 to 0 1 hour).
Ugly cock crow, also known as pheasant: the second hour of twelve o'clock. (0 1 to 03: 00).
Yin Shiping Dan, also known as Dawn, Dawn and Sundan, etc. Time is the alternation of day and night. (03 o'clock to 05 o'clock).
Sunrise in Shi Mao, also known as the beginning of the day, dawn and rising sun, refers to the time when the sun just appeared and Ran Ran first rose. (05: 00 to 07: 00)
When eating in the morning, it is also called breakfast. When the ancients ate in the morning, it was breakfast time (07:00 ~ 09:00).
Forty holes, also known as Yu Ri, etc. : near noon, call the corner. (09: 00 to 1 1: 00).
Noon noon, also known as the sun, noon, etc. : (1 1 to 13).
Not long ago, it was also called sunset, sun center and so on. : The sun sets in the west. (from 13 to 15).
When applying for regular feeding, it is also called late eating in a day shop. : (from 15 to 17).
As time goes by, it is also called sunset, sunset and evening: it means when the sun goes down. (from 17 to 19).
Dusk, also known as sunset, sunset glow, dusk, etc. At this time, the sun has set and the sky will be dark. The world is dark and everything is hazy, so it is called dusk. (from 19 to 2 1).
When the sea was dark, people had stopped their activities and had a rest. Calm means quiet. (2 1 to 23: 00).
2.24-hour system. After the Song Dynasty, every 20 hours were divided into two parts, namely, early childhood, early childhood, early ugliness, and early ugliness ..... In turn, it happened to be 24 hours, which is consistent with the current 24 hours a day.
3. Ten-hour system. Appeared in the pre-Qin period. Five minutes during the day and five minutes at night. According to Tian Wenzhi of Sui Shu, the days are morning, evening, noon and evening, and the nights are A, B, C, D and E (later represented by Wu Geng). In other words, it is more important-in ancient times, it was regarded as night watch, sea watch, childhood watch, childhood watch, ugly watch and Yin Shi watch. There are five classes at night, and drums are played according to the class, with five points for each class. One hour per shift is equivalent to two hours now, which is 120 minutes, so each point in each shift only takes 24 minutes. It can be seen that "cooking at four o'clock and sailing at five o'clock" is equivalent to "65438+ cooking at 0: 00 to 3: 00 in the middle of the night and sailing at 3: 00 to 5: 00". "5: 00 and 3: 00" are equivalent to 5: 00 and 72 minutes in the morning, namely 6: 00 and 12 minutes, and "3: 00 and 4: 00" are equivalent to 1 and 96 minutes at midnight, namely 2: 36 minutes.
4. Five-hour system. Its names are Chen Ming, Yong Ming, Dan Ming, flea (early) food, banquet (late) food, corner, center, less return, shop time, big return, high return, low return, county (hanging) east, dusk, and ding faint. See Huai Nan Zi. Astronomical training.
5, a hundred minutes. That is to say, day and night are divided into a balanced one hundred quarters. Its production is related to the use of missing prints. May have originated in Shang Dynasty. In the Han Dynasty, it was changed to 120, and in the Southern Dynasty, it was changed to 96, 108. After many twists and turns, it was not until the introduction of European astronomical knowledge in the late Ming Dynasty that the reform of 96 engraving books was put forward and made it a formal system in the early Qing Dynasty.
6. Ancient times did not necessarily have strict temporal significance, but there were quite a few common and commonly used names. Generally speaking, sunrise can be called Dan, Zao, Chao and Chen, and sunrise can be called evening, dusk and evening. When the sun is in the middle, it is called noon, noon and pavilion noon, when it is near noon, it is called angle, and when it is west, it is called day. After sunset, it is dusk. After dusk, it's up to people. After a person is appointed, it is midnight (or midnight). After midnight, the chicken crowed. After the cock crow, it is ignorant and dull-this is the time when it is already dawn. The ancients had two meals a day, and the last meal was before sunrise, which was called eating time or eating early; After sundial, before sunset, it is time to have dinner. This time is called "time".
China's Ancient Time Recording System
The origin of the modern concept of "quarter of an hour"
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A pack of cigarettes, a meal, an hour ... these words describe the length of time. So how did China record and calculate time in ancient times? What kind of time system exists in the development of China for thousands of years?
The time system in ancient China was related to the process of recognizing time and the use of timers. The units of time in ancient China were year, month, day, hour and hour. Hours and hours are the basic units of a day, hours refer to hours, and hours are the scales on the leaky kettle arrow scale. In early ancient China, the division of a day was not uniform. Even after the Western Han Dynasty, there are still three time systems in parallel, namely, ten o'clock, twelve o'clock and engraving system, and the time division of different dynasties is also different. Among them, the overtime system is only used to record the time at night. The following is the exploration and textual research on the twelve-hour system, the missing engraving system and their changes.
Before the Tang Dynasty, the smallest unit of the twelve o'clock system was accurate to 10 points today.
Twelve o'clock system (the time system in the Tang Dynasty has been subdivided into today's 10 minute)
The ancients discovered a long time ago that the movements of the sun, moon, stars and other celestial phenomena are related to time. By mastering the laws of astronomical phenomena, observing the position of the sun and the moon and understanding the arrangement of the stars, we can ask the time from the sky. The twelve o'clock system originated from the ancient people who determined the time by observing the position of the sun.
The so-called "azimuth" refers to the fact that in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, for the need of research, the astronomical almanac scholars expressed the twelve azimuth points divided by the extreme north center of the sky as twelve days respectively, and thought that the sun revolved around the North Pole every day and night and passed through the twelve azimuth points in the sky in turn, so these twelve days became a unit for dividing a day, and the time was measured by the azimuth of the sky through which the sun passed.
These twelve days are also equivalent to the twelve equal celestial regions divided by later celestial theorists along the equator of the celestial sphere, called twelve-star time. The timing method is to add a certain position from the original day or time (for example, the day adds a cardinal number or the time adds a cardinal number), and finally it is simply called a certain time (Shi Mao). This timing method first appeared in the documents of the Western Han Dynasty. For example, The Book of Weekly Parallel Calculations says that a unitary hour is added to the day and a cardinal number is added to the day. "Han Feng Yichuan" said that it was added to Japan and added to the time; "Wu Yue Chun Qiu" also has the saying that "today's Jia Zi, when added to Si", Nanqi Shu Tian Wenzhi has twelve o'clock, such as Zi Shi, Chou Shi and Shi Hai.
In order to improve the accuracy of measurement, a more elaborate 24-azimuth system was also used to indicate time, especially in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. For example, in the Book of Jin, "On July 15, 2002, Guiwei was absent, and Ren and Yue ate C" described that the eclipse time was around 23: 00, and the positions of the sun and the moon were relative. Another example is the Book of Rites of Sui Dynasty, which records that Wu Ping, the ruler of the Northern Qi Dynasty, "In June, the sun went down ... until the solar eclipse, it was between the Mao family." That means the eclipse will be between five and six.
Twelve hours or twelve directions used before the Tang Dynasty were divided into finer units for more detailed and accurate records. Hours were divided into four parts, which were represented by the names of Chu, Shao, Semi and Tai respectively. Later, every 1/4 was divided into three equal parts in the name of strength, so an hour can be subdivided into 12 subunits, and each subunit is equal to today's 10 minute. The division method of its timing is recorded in detail in Jin Shu Jing Shou Li.
For example, it is recorded in the Book of Sui Dynasty that "See the boxer on September 16th, the fourth month is ugly in the belly, and when the month is not half strong, three tenths of the food will be due east", and it is predicted that the eclipse will occur when it is ugly, and when the month is not half strong, it will be from 2: 00 to 20: 00 in the morning (02: 65438) but "12 July/2.
instant
"Sui Shu Tian Wenzhi": "In the past, the Yellow Emperor watched the water leak, and the utensils were divided into day and night. Later, due to the official appointment, Zhou also fulfilled the duties of the Hu family. Its method is always 100 minutes, divided into day and night. " This passage describes the ancient time delay system in China. The leaky carving is a kind of water clock in ancient China, which is timed by the change of water quantity. Since the Zhou Dynasty, there has been a full-time organization responsible for management and development, and folk applications are also quite popular. It is the most important and universal timer in ancient China.
The time unit of missing engraving is engraving, which is divided into 100 intervals within a length corresponding to day and night fluctuation on the bamboo or wooden arrow ruler indicating the water depth, and each interval is 1 engraving. The lower end of the arrow ruler is fixed on the column and rises and falls with the water surface. The time is measured by observing the scale displayed by the arrow scale on the arrow pot by using the constant change of the water level of the arrow pot. From the shape, there are mainly downward leakage (drainage type), floating leakage (receiving type) and weighing leakage (called heavy type). The main development sequence is single tank drainage type floating arrow leakage, single-stage receiving type floating arrow leakage, second-stage compensation type floating arrow leakage, third-stage compensation type floating arrow leakage, scale leakage, fourth-stage compensation type floating arrow leakage and overflow type floating arrow leakage.
Because the system of engraving leakage has long been combined with the night shift system, the ancients divided engraving leakage into two types: day leakage and night leakage. Because the length of day and night varies in different seasons, that is, between winter and summer, and the leakage time of day and night increases and decreases with the change of solar terms, it is not possible to measure time only with a single arrow ruler all year round. Since ancient times, 465, 438+0 arrows or 48 arrows have been generally used, and the number of arrows used and the accuracy of carving itself are related to their latitude. Therefore, the time leakage system is mainly to solve the problem of distribution of day leakage and night leakage scales and replacement of arrow ruler.
In fact, the dividing point between day and night in different seasons is determined by measuring sunrise and sunset. The ancients decided that "2: 30 before sunrise (Dan) is bright, and 2: 30 after sunrise is faint", and fainting is night, and Dan is the beginning of the day. Therefore, the number of engravings from blur to denier is the number of missing engravings at night, and the number of missing engravings at night is the number of missing engravings during the day. Generally, noon is the time of leakage. For example, in the area of 36.5 degrees north latitude, if 48 arrows are used in 1 year, the daytime leakage during the winter solstice will be 40 minutes. From winter to the future, the days become longer, and the time of day and night leakage increases with the change of solar terms. Every half solar term (about 7.7 days), the arrow ruler should be changed until the summer solstice, when the time of day leakage is 60 minutes. From summer to the future, the days are getting shorter and shorter, and the leakage of day and night increases, with the change of solar terms, until the winter solstice.
The cooperation between the twelve o'clock system and the hundred engraving system (according to the records of the Sui Dynasty, the hundred engraving system has been subdivided very accurately, equivalent to today's 14 seconds or more)
Leaky engraving was also an important astronomical timekeeping instrument in ancient China, so the combination of 12 dot system and leaky engraving system is inevitable. However, the relationship between 12 and the percentage of an hour is not an integer multiple, so it is difficult to match the two. Since the Eastern Han Dynasty, all previous dynasties have put forward opinions on reforming the system of missing engravings, changing the hundred engravings into multiples of twelve, such as 96, 108, 120, etc. For those who practice it, for example, from the first year of the founding of the People's Republic of China to the fourth year of the Emperor (9 ~23 years), the system of 120 years 15 years was implemented; Liang Wudi Tian Jian was imprisoned for six years, and in Datong for ten years (507-543), the "96 system" has been implemented for thirty-six years. From Liang Wudi Datong 10 to Chen Wendi Tianjia (544-560), 108 was implemented for 20 years, but the time was not long.
Practice has proved that the road to hundred-engraving system reform is not easy, and we can only seek cooperation from the coordination of twelve-hour system and hundred-engraving system. In fact, the leaky engraving system also subdivides each moment into smaller scales. From the Han Dynasty to the Southern and Northern Dynasties, every moment was divided into ten points, so it was impossible to provide conditions for the cooperation between the twelve-hour system and the hundred-hour system.
Since the calendar of the Sui Dynasty (597 ~6 18), it has become increasingly obvious that 12 points system and 100 points system are used together. The number of subdivisions per moment must be a multiple of 12, 24 points or 60 points per moment, and most of them are 60 points per moment. In addition, due to the adoption of multi-level compensation for the missing carving of floating arrows in the development of Sui and Tang Dynasties, the accuracy is further improved, providing an objective condition of 60 minutes at a time.
The way to coordinate the two is: "There are hundreds of hours day and night, six hours per hour and ten minutes per hour, so there are six thousand minutes day and night and sixty minutes per hour. On the twelfth day, every day is eight big and two small, and * * * gets 500 points. This is an ancient law. " Usage is like the Sui Daye calendar, which records the sunrise and sunset of 24 solar terms, of which 8:19,50 is the morning.
The origin of the modern word "quarter of an hour"
By the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, an hour had been roughly divided into two periods: the beginning and the timing, and each hour was divided into four quarters and a small quarter, that is, the history of the Song Dynasty: "The timing is from the first quarter to the sixth quarter, and the second quarter is the last quarter." When the constitutional calendar (1645 ~1911) came into effect, it was changed to 96 minutes, and every hour must be eight minutes (the first hour, the first moment, the second moment, the third day, the first moment, the second moment and the right moment).