Chapter 1522: Calendar (Part 2)

Every dynasty has made improvements and additions; there are discrepancies and differences between History Books and mythology (the author is not a professional and has been unable to verify these; those interested may verify them for themselves).

But generally, in ancient times, natural phenomena were used to determine the timing of Heaven; when the grain was ripe, that was one year, so the tenth month of the Agricultural Calendar was the beginning of the year, and the "New Year" was originally in the tenth month.

In the calendar and the arts of calculation, the tenth month is "Jia"; the character Jia in ancient script is written as "ten" or "field"—though not exactly the same—but it represents the meaning of a Wax Seed breaking its shell and all things sprouting; the meaning of armor was actually derived later.

In the method of calculating years, "Jia" is used as the beginning; the Qi of Heaven begins at Jia, the Earth Qi begins at Zi, and human Qi begins at Yin, so the first year of the creation of Heaven and Earth is the Jia-Zi year.

Counting months from the year, the month begins at Zi, but Zi is the eleventh month, and Yin is the first month (related to the stars); also, because Yin is Wood, representing the growth and development of all things, it also represents the beginning of the year, so the method of calculating years uses the "Five Tiger Escape."

To calculate days from the month, one uses the "Five Rat Escape," because Zi is the beginning of a day, and the rat is the first animal to come out and move when chaos first opens; when the night is deep and quiet, the rat comes out; also, because the rat's front claws are odd and its back claws are even, it conforms to the characteristics of the Yin-Yang Differentiation of the Zi hour, so this creature, which cannot be brought onto the table, is the head of the zodiac.

The other zodiac signs are the same; one looks at the number of their claws to judge Yin-Yang, which secretly matches the changes of a day; the Wu hour is the Horse, which is exactly when the Yang Qi of the day is heaviest, and the Horse's every aspect also appears to have the heaviest Yang Qi; the snake has no claws and is also Yin; this is the relationship between the zodiac and the twelve double-hours of a day.

Zi and Wu are opposites, but the Zi hour has the additional characteristic of being the beginning of a day, so a creature like the rat was chosen.

And a more special point is humans; the so-called human Qi beginning at Yin is because at the Yin hour, blood and Qi flow from the lungs to the whole body—the lungs, large intestine, stomach, spleen, heart, small intestine, bladder, kidneys, pericardium, triple burner, gallbladder, and liver; this process, because it is the viscera corresponding to the meridians, is why there are twelve here instead of the five viscera and six bowels; there is one extra organ, the pericardium.

These are all things related to Traditional Chinese Medicine and the calendar; without the calendar, there would be no Traditional Chinese Medicine, and it also embodies the Traditional Chinese Medicine rule of the unity of Heaven and man, conforming to Nature.

As for why twelve years is one Jia-Zi cycle, it is related to Jupiter, which is the "Year Star"; the sidereal period of Jupiter is twelve years, and Jupiter also represents the "Tai Sui"; the Tai Sui god is "Yinjiao," who is much maligned because of movies, but in reality, Yinjiao is not only the greatest Tai Sui, but also the prototype for the image of Nezha; Yinjiao's great name is "Jin Nezha," and later, Nezha's birth and upbringing were basically adapted from the story of Yinjiao.

There is no need to investigate where Nezha is from, because he is a foreigner; his earliest record is in the "Pishamen Tianwang Ritual," as the son of the Heavenly King, which is why he is called Crown Prince; the image of Pishamen Tianwang later merged with the God of War Li Jing, and only then did he become the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King.

During the Xuanyuan period, the calendar had a prototype; under Zhuanxu, there was the Zhuanxu Calendar; later, during the time of Yao, Emperor Yao ordered Xi Zhong, Xi Shu, He Zhong, and He Shu to be responsible for observing the timing of Heaven and perfecting the Zhuanxu Calendar; from then on, the calendar was basically formed, which is the Agricultural Calendar, that is, a lunisolar calendar, created by observing the trajectories of the sun, moon, and Jupiter; later generations continued to refine the time, using the Leap Month to offset the numerical deviation of the combined calendar.

The current solar calendar is not accurate, and the fifteenth of the month is not necessarily a full moon, and after a thirty-day cycle, it is not necessarily a new moon.

Xihe, during the Xuanyuan period, may not have been a person; it was a mythological figure created later after the two clans of Xi and He were collectively referred to; which one it specifically is, is unknown; one should see how professionals view it, but there were no History Books in ancient times, so how could one know?

Anyway, the ones currently in front of Baifeng are the two female officials, Xihe and Changxi.

The people sent by Huaxia to observe the moon were actually less capable than the people of the Xuanyuan Tribe; this is because a long time ago, the Xuanyuan Tribe, the Shennong Clan, and other older tribes were already observing the starry sky and had a certain level of cognition; the original Huaxia was just a small tribe, without the time or ability to stare at the sky.

Baifeng asked them about their progress in observing the moon. Xihe then summarized: "By observing the waxing and waning of the moon, we discovered that the moon changes once every thirty days; in the words of Huaxia, it is a cycle; we call the first day the moon begins to grow 'Shuo,' and the day the moon is roundest, which is the fifteenth day, we call 'Wang'; after Wang, the moon begins to shrink again."

"The other terms are all your Huaxia words, such as the first quarter moon, the last quarter moon..."

Xuanyuan was surprised: "Then haven't you already observed the results? Why didn't you say so, and what are you still observing now?"

Xihe replied to Xuanyuan: "Tribal Chief, because we discovered that there are a few stars that have some changes every day when the sun sets and rises, and on specific days, they are fixed in the same position."

"But we cannot determine which day it is, and we also discovered that the direction in which the sun and moon rise and set every day is different; it is always changing, and we have not yet found this pattern."

Xuanyuan looked at Baifeng, wanting to know the reason for this; Baifeng also scratched his head, because he really didn't know this; he only knew one thing, that the brightest star in the sky before the sun rises is called Venus, which is the Morning Star; other than that, he really didn't understand the stars.

However, he was clear about the reasons for the sun rising in the east and setting in the west, but the slightly disastrous part was that the people responsible for observing the moon here did not know about the so-called Tropics, because lines of latitude and longitude had not yet appeared, so Baifeng was afraid they wouldn't understand and didn't explain it; he only said that the sun would reach the boundary at two specific times and then return, so the length of the sun's shadow would change.

"Look, this is the trouble of you not communicating with each other; if you communicated more with the group observing the sun, wouldn't this problem be solved?"

The person responsible for observing the sun was also confused; how would they know what was going on?

Baifeng merged the information for both sides: "The reason you see the direction of the sun and moon rising in the east and setting in the west is not fixed is because the ground under our feet is moving, the sun is moving, and the moon is also moving; if you only look at your own, you certainly wouldn't know why."

"On the days of the Spring Equinox and Autumn Equinox, the sun rises exactly in the east, which is the middle day of spring and autumn; after the Autumn Equinox, the sun begins to rise in the southeast, and after the Spring Equinox, the sun rises toward the northeast; it just turns back and forth like this."

"In a year, there are only two days when the sun rises exactly in the east and sets exactly in the west."

"What?? You didn't understand? Forget it, bring paper! Bring a brush! I'll draw it for you!"