Oracle's Haze Record
This article is written by Ni Fangliu
Shortly after the beginning of winter, the smog, which has become one of the biggest health killers of modern people, once again hit many parts of the country. In the past, there was a lot of smog in the north, and now the south is also serious. The weather in Nanjing these two days was very bad, the smog was everywhere, and at night the moon looked not golden through the turbid, dirty atmosphere, but old dry yellow.
(2018.11.26.Evening Nanjing Street)
To check the Internet, most areas in Jiangsu have fog, and the visibility of local areas in Nanjing, Changzhou, Wuxi, Huai'an, Fengxian and other places is less than 50 meters. Affected by heavy fog, six cross-river bridges in Jiangsu have been closed; Nanjing Lukou International Airport has delayed 77 flights and cancelled 16 flights. Other surrounding provinces and cities have also experienced serious smog, and the situation is also not optimistic.
The fog is heavy and the climate is bad.
Some netizens may think that smog is the product of modern industrialization, but in fact, it is not, there was also smog weather in ancient times.
The term "smog" appeared in Chinese history books around the 5th century AD at the latest. The Northern Wei Dynasty scholar Cui Hong wrote the "Spring and Autumn of the Sixteen Kingdoms" (which has been mostly stacked), and the "Former Liang Record" in the book records that at that time, there was an incest incident with a woman as a wife in this place in present-day Wuwei, Gansu. The month in which the incest is executed, "it is the moon that is dark and gloomy, and the smog is everywhere." ”
(Ancient Family Life)
(Life of the Ancients)
The meaning of "smog" here is different from the modern meaning, the ancients regarded smog as "demon", and the appearance of haze is an ominous omen. It can be seen that the ancients knew that smog was not a good thing.
The term "smog" is not too late, but it is really familiar to modern people, that is, in recent years. Even in the "Chinese Meteorological Disaster Dictionary" (which records ancient and modern Chinese meteorological disasters before 2000 AD), which was completed and published 10 years ago, there is no special word for the "smog" section.
(Foggy Moon View)
In fact, although the meteorological conditions of "fog" and "haze" are similar, the nature is completely different: fog is harmless and haze is harmful. Modern meteorology has a relatively mature division of smog: 90% of the water content is called "fog", less than 80% is called "haze"; in between, it is "haze".
Ancient Chinese had its own set of methods for dividing "haze". Those with less moisture are called "dry haze" or "dry haze" and "wind haze"; those with more water are called "wet haze" or "rain haze".
(Guo Moruo's "Bu Ci Tong Tong Examination Interpretation")
The word "haze" is quite ancient, and the word "haze" has been found in the oldest mature chinese script, the oracle bone bu ci that is 3000 to 4000 years old. The famous archaeologist and historian Guo Moruo was one of the first experts to interpret this word.
The word "haze" was found in the 13467 edition of the first issue of the Collected Works and the 7113 edition of the first issue of the First Issue of Yin Ruins unearthed in Anyang, Henan.
(Oracle "Haze")
Guo Moruo believes in the "Bu Ci Tong Tong Kao Shi" that there is a beast shaped like a cat under the head of this glyph rain, and there is no doubt that it is the word "haze". Guo Moruo's views were recognized by the ancient character circle, and the famous paleographer Xu Zhongshu said that "Guo said that it can be followed".
But the lower part of the oracle bone "haze" is more like a man-eating monster than a docile cat.
In the excavated oracle bones, it is said that there are more than a dozen "haze" words, which shows that the weather phenomenon of haze has appeared in ancient times and is not uncommon.
(Autumn water echo, heavy fog)
Oracle bones are mostly used to divinate auspicious phenomena, and there are more haze days at one time——
Collection 13465 Edition: "Self-Unitary Bu, Battle for Chastity: Wind Falcon Haze?"
The Collected Works, 13466 edition: "Decameron... Wang Zhanyue: Its... haze? Kotatsu..."
Collection 13467 edition: "Zhen: Zi Yu Yu Haze? Zhen: Rain or haze? If there is rain, why should there be haze? ”
Collection, 13468 ("Zhen: Yi Ding Jiao, Ding Haze?")
Collection 13469 edition: "... Haze, what is the curse?""
Tonglu 419 edition: "Jia Shen Bu, Fight for Chastity: Haze and Its Disaster? Zhen: Haze Doom?"
(The Oracle Bone Collection, 13466 edition of the Oracle Bone Dictionary, with the word "haze" appearing on it)
The "Zhen" in the Bu Ci is the person responsible for divination in the Shang Dynasty, similar to today's meteorological forecast engineers. The Zhenren reported the auspicious information they had obtained to the Shang King as the basis for the Shang King's decision-making and execution. If there is a haze day, it is often used as a kind of disaster to break the analysis. It can be seen that the haze day is "bad weather" in the eyes of the ancients.
For example, "Zhen: Zi Rain Haze; Zhen: Zi Rain Does Not Haze." If there is rain, why should there be haze? This sentence can be understood in this way, and the virgin in charge of divination asked, will there be smog on this rainy day? Won't there be smog on this rainy day? Since it said it rained the next day, how could there be haze?
(The Oracle Collection, 13469 edition of the Oracle Bone Dictionary, with the word "haze" appearing on it)
Judging from the discovery of the word "haze" in the bu ci and the record of "haze days", China is the first country in the world to pay attention to and cave smog days.
Of course, the haze of ancient times is completely different from the haze of modern times in terms of content and degree of danger, and modern haze is terrible, more like monsters that can eat people.