Hello 2022!
On the first day of the Gregorian calendar every year,
are all signs of the arrival of a new year,
People are used to calling this day "New Year's Day",
Also known as the "solar calendar year".
So, with the first rays of sunlight of the morning,
People bless each other:
"Happy New Year!"
Qi Baishi "Reporting Peace"
This habit was formed when China was implementing the Western calendar. The initiator was Sun Yat-sen, who was inaugurated as interim president on January 1, 1912, and his oath of office ended with "New Year's Day".
On September 27, 1949, China began to use the Common Era Chronology Law, which officially designated January 1 AD as "New Year's Day" and included it as a statutory holiday.
This is new year's day since modern times.
New Year's Day in ancient times was a different story.
The Meta, the beginning of the number; the Dan, the sunrise.
New Year's Day usually refers to the first day of the first month in the calendar.
Let's ask a question:
What is the new year's day in ancient China?
How do I answer that?
Some people say, isn't it simple? The ancient New Year's Day was the first day of the first lunar month, which is now the Spring Festival.
Such an answer can only score 50 points. Although the ancient New Year's Day was the first day of the first lunar month every year, it did not necessarily refer to the current Spring Festival.
The current Spring Festival is the first day of the first lunar month of the summer calendar, and the summer calendar takes the first month of the lunar calendar as the first month, so the first day of january is the New Year's Day. However, in ancient China, a variety of calendars were used, and the first month of different periods and dynasties was not the same, so the day of the first day of the first lunar month was also different.
The accurate answer is that the calendar at that time stipulated when it was the first month (that is, the first month), and New Year's Day was on the first day of that month.
That is to say, the calendar is different, and New Year's Day is different.
Song Zhao Chang's "Year Dynasty Map"
The formulation of the calendar has always been a major affair of the country. As the "Chronicle of History" says: "The king who is easy to be surnamed and is ordained, must be cautious in the beginning, correct Shuo, easy to obey, push the original Tianyuan, and follow the will." ”
The so-called "correction of Shuo" is the revision of the calendar. "Pushing the original Heavenly Yuan, following the intention" is the starting point of the calculation calendar to conform to the heavenly time.
How many ancient Chinese calendars are there? Since the Yellow Emperor "examined the ephemeris, the leap calendar", for thousands of years, China's ancestors have created a variety of calendars. According to the three books of the "Compilation of The Long Techniques of the Dynasties", "General History of the Calendar", and "History of the Evolution of the Chinese Calendar System", there are 115 kinds of ancient Chinese calendars with names to consider.
Among them, the Yellow Emperor Calendar, the Ming Calendar, the Xia Calendar, the Yin Calendar, the Zhou Calendar, the Lu Calendar, the Taichu Calendar, the Three Unification Calendars, the Quarter Calendar, the Jingchu Calendar, the Daming Calendar, and the Great Yan Calendar are all very famous calendars in history.
But no matter how many calendars there were in ancient China,
The month of "Jianzheng" is basically fixed in the four months of the lunar calendar.
Correspondingly, New Year's Day also has four days.
1. November of the lunar calendar, that is, the month of mid-winter and the month of Jianzi. Legend has it that the Yellow Emperor calendar uses the month of Jiazi in the year of Jiazi as the first month and the month of Jiazi as the first month. The sub-month is the november of the lunar calendar, so the New Year's Day of the Yellow Emperor calendar is the first day of November.
The Zhou Dynasty used the Weekly Calendar, and the Zhou Calendar also used November as the first month, so the New Year's Day of the Zhou Dynasty was also the first day of November.
2. The first month of the lunar calendar, that is, the month of Mengchun and the month of Jianyin. The "Chronicle of History" says: "In the past, li jianzheng was written in Mengchun. The era that Sima Qian refers to as "the ancient times of the past" may refer to the era of the Five Emperors.
The Book of Jin and the Chronicle of the Laws says: "Emperor Wen of Wei Huang Junior High School, Taishi Ling Gao Tanglong reviewed the calendar in detail, and there were more reforms. ...... Dong Ba said: "The first month of Meng Chun is the yuan, and the first month of the new month is the first month of the New Year. That is to say, Meng Chun is the first month of the lunar calendar, and the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar is the New Year's Day.
The Chronicle of History says, "The summer is in the first month." Dong Ba also said: "Xia is to gain heaven, to inherit Yao Shun, from the jaws to the old." The Book of Rites is built in MengChun, which is also said to be the calendar of Yu Xia. ”
It means that the Xia Dynasty inherited the calendar of the Xia Dynasty, with Meng Chun as the first month, so the New Year's Day of the Xia Dynasty is the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar.
What we now call the lunar calendar is actually the summer calendar, indicating that the summer calendar has the greatest influence on the calendar of later generations.
In 104 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty launched the Taichu Calendar, officially determining that the first month of the summer calendar should be the first month of the year, and the first day of the first month of the summer calendar should be the New Year's Day. Since then, although China's calendar has been revised many times, the time of the beginning of this year has not changed.
3. The december of the lunar calendar, that is, the month of winter and the month of ugly construction. The Chronicle of History says, "Yin is in December. "The Shang Dynasty used the Yin calendar, and the Yin calendar used the month of Jianugou, that is, December, as the first month, so the New Year's Day of the Shang Dynasty was the first day of the first month of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar.
4. The tenth month of the lunar calendar, that is, the month of Mengdong and the month of Jianhai. The Chronicle of History says that after Qin Shi Huang unified China, he thought he had "gained the wisdom of water virtue" and "it was October".
During the Warring States period, the Yin and Yang scholar Zou Yan put forward the theory of the "Five Virtues Cycle" and used the "five elements to win" to explain the change of dynasties. At that time, people thought that the Zhou Dynasty was "fire virtue", and because of the water and fire, Qin Shi Huang thought that the dynasty he established was "water virtue". And because the season corresponding to the water is winter, and October is the beginning of winter, So Qin Shi Huang took the first month of October as the first month of the lunar calendar and the first day of October as the New Year's Day.
Ren Bonian 'Confession of the Dynasty'
After the establishment of the Han Dynasty, Han Gaozu said that "the Northern Emperor waited for me to rise", believing that the "Northern Black Emperor" helped him seize the world, and also thought that he was "the rui of water virtue", so he still inherited the calendar of the Qin Dynasty. Later, Emperor Wen of Han and Emperor Jing of Han also used the calendar of the Qin Dynasty, with the first day of October as new year's day, until Emperor Wu of Han changed to Xia Zheng.
It can be seen that the New Year's Day of ancient China,
There are the first day of October, the first day of November,
The first day of December, the first day of January,
Plus the current Gregorian calendar January 1,
New Year's Day from ancient times to the present has five different days.
Wang Xuetao's "Year Of Dynastic Chart"
Ancient New Year's Day,
Also known as yuan day, upper day, end day, year dynasty, foot end, etc.,
It is the most important festival of the year.
Now set January 1 of the Gregorian calendar as New Year's Day,
And the ancient New Year's Day was renamed the Spring Festival,
This is probably the biggest difference between ancient and modern New Year's Day.
Text: Guangzhou Daily Xinhuacheng reporter Zhong Kui
Photo: Guangzhou Daily Xinhuacheng reporter Zhong Kui (remake)
Guangzhou Daily Xinhuacheng editor Dai Yujing