Chapter 659: Disharmony of Yin and Yang

"The body of the moon has no light of its own; it awaits the sun's rays to shine and then produces light."

Huan Tan did not refute or argue as he usually did, but instead sank into deep thought.

From childhood he had the habit of gazing up at the sky — this was actually quite ordinary, for most people of this era, if they wanted to know the time, had to observe the height of the sun and moon; if they planned to travel at night, they had to understand the moon's phases even more; setting out during a new moon meant a high chance of tumbling into a ditch.

So Huan Tan had countless times witnessed the scene of sun and moon shining together: when the moon was in its last quarter, it would rise at midnight and still hang in the sky the following morning, clearly visible to the naked eye.

Recalling that scene, one could discover that, compared to the sun, the moon's light during the day was rather dim and murky, and most importantly: the bright side was always facing the sun!

According to the past view of the celestial sphere theory — that sun, moon, and stars all emit their own light — this phenomenon made no sense.

But if one regarded the sun as a sphere of light, and the moon as having no light…

"I take my leave." Huan Tan bowed to Diwu Lun. He had to hurry back to the Bureau of Astronomy to use this new idea for deductions and calculations. The more he understood astronomy, the more he grasped one principle: intuition cannot be trusted; everything must be backed by solid calculation!

But Huan Tan had only turned and walked a few steps before he jogged back and snatched the Zhoubi Suanjing from the hands of the stunned young Palace Gentleman.

"Lend me this book for now."

Diwu Lun smiled and said, "Didn't Junshan say this was a forged text, full of fallacies?"

Huan Tan could not be bothered with that now: "The canopy-heavens theory has already been proven erroneous, but within it, perhaps there is still a little true knowledge?"

Over the next several days, Huan Tan shut himself in his room. He modified the old "armillary sphere," replacing the imagined luminous disc with a small sphere, and painted the moon black… then he spent all day fiddling with this model, sometimes sighing, sometimes laughing. After repeated derivations and calculations, only if the moon emitted no light could the cycles of the moon's phases and lunar eclipses be perfectly flawless!

By the time he entered the palace again, he had already perfected an entire set of theories on the foundation of the Suanjing:

"The sun is like a fireball, emitting light; the moon is like a water sphere, emitting no light."

Listening to Huan Tan's words, Diwu Lun smiled and said nothing. The reason Huan Tan thought this way was because he had observed the moon through a telescope and discovered that its surface was not smooth as previously imagined, but full of bumps and hollows, with many shadows located in the depressions. Huan Tan took these for water and called them "lunar seas" — Diwu Lun did not correct him.

Huan Tan continued: "Fire shines outward, water holds reflections. Therefore moonlight is born from where the sun shines upon it, and the dark part is born from where the sun is blocked. Facing the sun, the light is full; turned away from the sun, the light is gone."

The moon's light was "the sun's reflection in water." Now everything seemed to be explained. Diwu Lun was fairly satisfied; to reach this point with the current level of astronomy was already considerable progress…

Unexpectedly, Huan Tan was not finished, and put forward an even bolder hypothesis: "Since moonlight is the sun's reflection, then the stars filling the sky perhaps do not all shine by their own light either. Could there also be stars that shine by reflecting the sun!"

This truly surprised Diwu Lun. He saw Huan Tan's eyes gleaming as he presented a list of stars he suspected "did not emit light."

"Taibai in the west."

"Suixing in the east."

"Chenxing in the north."

"Yinghuo in the south."

"Zhenxing in the center."

In later terms, these were Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, and Saturn. As early as the Shang, Zhou, and Spring and Autumn periods, the Chinese had already discovered that the movements of these five stars differed from other stars, and had singled them out to correspond with the five phases. And these five were exactly the five major planets, which indeed do not emit light — Huan Tan's conjecture was correct.

But a conjecture must be verified by calculation. Huan Tan said, "Your Majesty has already allocated gold to the Bureau of Astronomy, but next year's funds must still be increased. I hope to build better telescopes for observing the five planets."

Huan Tan was quite excited: "I long ago discovered that above Zhenxing (Saturn) there seems faintly to be a ring, like clouds and mist. The Erudites of the Imperial Academy say that because it is the star of the center, it is as if draped in ceremonial robes, symbolizing the imperial throne. I disagree. Not only must we see clearly what this star-ring is, we must also calculate the laws governing the five planets' movements…"

He had just proven: lunar eclipses follow constant laws, and are not governed by politics!

And Huan Tan believed even more firmly in Xunzi's words: Heaven's course has its constancy; it does not exist for Yao, nor does it perish for Jie! Though the nine heavens are high, though the sun and moon are distant, though the stars are many, though the cosmos is vast, he would, bit by bit, discern its laws. Let one irrefutable piece of hard evidence after another replace the prognostications and superstitions that filled the former dynasty's Book of Heavenly Offices.

The affairs of Wang Mang and Liu Xin had fully proven that relying on the intimidation of disasters and the nonsense of auspicious omens could not save the times. Only by clarifying the rules of nature could Diwu Lun respond to them with good governance!

Diwu Lun looked at this old friend whose hair had turned gray from toil in just a few short years, his heart filled with both sympathy and admiration.

Whether Huan Tan realized it or not, without knowing it, he too, like Wang Mang, Liu Xin, and Yang Xiong of the same era, had set out on that path of vainly seeking to "become a sage."

But unlike the other three, the path Huan Tan had been guided onto by Diwu Lun was called "exploration and discovery."

"If Junshan continues his quest, it's quite possible he could truly become a grand master of a school of thought through this."

Yet Diwu Lun still stopped his incessant chatter and said with a smile, "Junshan, hold on. The gold will be given, and new telescopes will be built, but do not forget the reason I summoned you here today."

Diwu Lun patted the stack of reports on the table and said:

"Set aside the matters of heaven for now. Let us first discuss the earth — a far more urgent matter!"

…

Reminded by Diwu Lun, Huan Tan only then recalled that entering the palace today, he did indeed have "official business" to attend to.

The reports on the table were actually the proper work Diwu Lun had assigned to the astronomers: comparing the calendars of past dynasties.

Huan Tan had initially thought that Diwu Lun wanted them to compile a new calendar for the Wei dynasty, for every change of dynasty was usually accompanied by a change of calendar: during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, calendars were chaotic; the Qin dynasty discarded the Xia Minor Calendar and created the Zhuanxu Calendar; by the time of Emperor Wu of Han, as the court shifted fully toward the "kingly way," the Zhuanxu Calendar, a remnant of the brutal Qin, seemed outdated, so the realm's talents were summoned to compile the Taichu Calendar.

As for Wang Mang, the Xin Dynasty also had a new calendar — the Santong Calendar devised by Liu Xin.

If Diwu Lun were to compile yet another calendar, what should it be called? The Five Virtues Calendar?

But in recent years, Huan Tan had come to realize that Diwu Lun seemed in no hurry to compile a calendar. What concerned him more was a certain "natural law" hidden behind these calendar changes.

"The Book of Documents says: Emperor Yao commanded Xi and He, in reverent accordance with the vast heavens, to calculate and delineate the sun, moon, and stars, and respectfully bestow the seasons upon the people."

Diwu Lun recited this passage. The so-called "respectfully bestow the seasons upon the people" meant the sovereign issued the calendar to the myriad people to clarify the orderly succession of the four seasons. Since ancient times, Huaxia had founded its state upon agriculture; the ancient sage-kings "personally tilled the fields and thereby held all under heaven." Thus the calendar held both a physical and a metaphysical significance for the sovereign and the people.

In the physical sense, the "calendar" promulgated by the sovereign was the "law of farming," intended to guide the myriad people in agricultural production.

In the metaphysical sense, the "calendar" promulgated by the sovereign concerned the "law of political legitimacy." Since he styled himself "Son of Heaven," shepherding the people on Heaven's behalf, if he could not even grasp the seasonal order of Heaven's course, how could he demonstrate to all within the seas that he had "received the mandate from Heaven"?

But facts had proven that Heaven's course and the seasonal order truly were not things man could grasp or control. That times shift and eras change was by no means an empty phrase.

"The reason past dynasties changed their calendars, apart from the above reasons, was also due to one thing."

Diwu Lun raised his index finger: "The old calendar no longer worked well."

Past calendars, after long use, would inevitably develop errors. A certain solar term was supposed to bring cooling, and preparations should be made accordingly, but unexpectedly a great cold wave arrived several days early, freezing countless crops.

This was not only because the ancients' astronomical knowledge had flaws — for instance, the relatively advanced Taichu Calendar drifted by one day every 125 years of use.

It was also because climate, that wretched thing, was constantly changing!

Huan Tan, having compared them under orders, found this to be true: "Examining Wang Mang's Santong Calendar against Emperor Wu's Taichu Calendar, many solar terms have shifted."

"Further examining the hundred years from the late Western Han to Wang Mang, the dates of snowfall, freezing, and thawing in the northern provinces and commanderies have indeed slightly advanced."

As Diwu Lun consolidated his rule over the north, the data available to the astronomers became more comprehensive. In recent years, cold waves had struck frequently in the Liaodong region of You Province and the Bing Province area.

"The coastal area of Liaoxi Commandery, after entering the end of the twelfth month, froze over again, allowing carts, horses, and people to travel back and forth between the mainland and the islands. This has now happened three years in a row. The freezing of the sea is something unheard of since the Han."

"Bing Province is also faring badly. Heavy rain and snow have fallen; the muddy roads are entirely frozen. The border people suffer from cold and hunger, and the dead are many."

If that were merely extreme weather in a few isolated regions, then some phenomena Diwu Lun had personally observed made him even more unable to sit still.

Diwu Lun looked out the window, where clumps of bamboo had been planted: he did not know which Han dynasty emperor had put them there, but according to the oldest palace maids, they had still been quite lush and green in the time of Emperor Cheng of Han, yet by Wang Mang's reign they had withered yellow in great swaths, and under Diwu Lun's rule they had died off completely.

Had Liu Xiu and the alchemists under him heard of this, they would certainly have been overjoyed, but Diwu Lun had no intention of studying the prophetic apocrypha in it; what concerned him was this: bamboo that had grown perfectly well in the Guanzhong region during the Han dynasty could no longer survive!

"When I read the Grand Historian's 'The Biographies of Merchants,' it speaks of a thousand acres of bamboo along the Wei River, but I have never seen such a thing since childhood. Rather, it is the fine bamboo of Qi Garden in Hebei, growing since the Spring and Autumn period, that has increasingly withered in recent years."

It did not stop there. When Emperor Wu of Han conquered Nanyue, he had many southern plants transplanted to Guanzhong — things like sweet flag, wild ginger, plantains, osmanthus, and honey incense, even longan and lychee — and so named the place "Fuli Palace."

But now, artificially cultivating lychee in Guanzhong? It was a complete joke. Even those orange trees that had spread beyond the palace either withered and died, or the few that lingered on could only produce shriveled, bitter, astringent trifoliate oranges.

Bamboo may be fine material, but people would not perish without it; exotic flowers and fruits may be fragrant, but they have little to do with the common folk.

What was most deadly, however, was that recently the Regional Inspectors and commandery governors of You Province and Bing Province had all come complaining, saying the climate was as dry and cold as in Wang Mang's time, or even worse, that grain was harder and harder to grow, and some border people had been forced to switch to herding sheep instead... And the herders of the grasslands were faring no better. Not only the Xiongnu, but the Wuhuan people were also raiding the frontier with increasing frequency, and to their north, a new tribe was slowly migrating southward and entering the Wei dynasty's field of vision: the Xianbei.

With all this laid out before him, the answer was about to leap forth. Diwu Lun asked Huan Tan with great seriousness: "What do you think this signifies?"

Although he knew the answer, even a scholar as learned as Huan Tan could not immediately articulate the mystery behind it, and could only reply with a statement that could not be wrong:

"Heaven and earth, yin and yang, are out of harmony, so that disasters arrive together, and the common people suffer the blame."

Diwu Lun nodded: "To put it simply — the climate is turning cold!"