初一 日腊月初一
There is still a month to go until the Spring Festival of the Year of the Dragon
The countdown has begun!
In the era when there were no clocks
How did the ancients determine time?
Three highlights Take you to know the bronze leaky pot
"Sinking Arrows"
This is the ancient method of timekeeping
The leaky pot is also called dripping and carving
It is an extremely important timekeeping instrument in ancient times
This bronze slotter has a cylindrical shape
There are 3 hoof-shaped feet under the tube
△ Schematic diagram.
Between the feet near the bottom of the barrel
There is a water outlet pipe
The cylinder has a double handle
In the middle of the lid and the double handle
There are 3 rectangular holes symmetrical up and down
Floating arrows can be planted and straightened
△ Schematic diagram. The floating arrows in the pot are marked with scales, and the ancients judged the time according to the scales on the arrows.
The ancients relied on the descent of floating arrows in the pot
Read the scale on the arrow
You can know the time at that time
The inner bottom of the bronze slotted pot
Cast with the word "Thousand Chapters".
(Some experts believe that it is a "dry chapter")
△ The inscription on the left is "one thousand chapters of copper leakage, weighing three catties and two catties, made in April of the second year of Heping", and the inscription on the right is "Zhongyang copper leakage".
on the second layer of beams
It is engraved with the words "Zhongyang copper leak".
Hence the speculation of experts
This bronze leaky pot was originally returned to Zhongyang after a thousand chapters
In the Western Han Dynasty, they were both counties under the jurisdiction of Xihe County
(The area where the northwest of Shanxi Province meets the border with Inner Mongolia)
This bronze slotter
It is the most well-preserved found on the continent to date
And it has a clear manufacturing date of the water sinking arrow type copper kettle
The standard time is not standard
There are also small bugs in "black technology".
Timing in the way of "draining water and sinking arrows".
It can be called the "black technology" of the ancients
But there are also small bugs in the "black technology".
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△ Video source: Hebei Museum
When the pot is filled with water
The high pressure causes the water droplets to drip quickly
The amount of water decreases after the water pressure is reduced
The speed of dripping slows down again
Such an uncontrollable dripping rate
will make the "standard time" non-standard
△ Xingping leaky pot
To solve this problem
In the Han Dynasty, the outlet of the water pipe was controlled
On the inner wall of the bronze leaky pot unearthed in Xingping, Shaanxi
There are irregular round mica sheets about 4 cm in diameter
As speculated by experts
This mica sheet may be used to regulate the flow of water
Even with these "little cleverness"
Make the water pressure and water level in the leaky pot relatively constant
It was still an unsolvable problem at the time
Iterative upgrades!
The multi-stage leaky pot is gorgeous
The single-stage drip is small and easy to carry
On the march to fight
It has played a role that cannot be ignored
It is a sharp weapon for the commander to the table
But because it's always "right in time"
So it's not a perfect timer
Later, multi-stage leaky pots appeared
The National Museum of China has a copper kettle from the Yuan Dynasty
Overall height 264.4 cm
Consists of four copper kettles
They are the Sun Pot, the Moon Pot, the Star Pot, and the Water Receiving Pot
(There is also a saying that the day kettle, the night kettle, the flat kettle, and the water kettle)
The inner walls of the four pots are cast separately
Circular sun chart, moon chart, Big Dipper star chart, Bagua map
There is a copper ruler in the center of the lid of the kettle
There is a time scale on the top
This piece of copper kettle drip from the date it was made
It was used until the end of the Qing Dynasty
It took almost 700 years
It is the most complete grouped drip in mainland China
Continental multi-stage coutters over a period of centuries
They are the most accurate timekeeping tools in the world
Later generations restored and conducted restoration experiments based on historical records
It was found that the multi-stage leaky pot was in an ideal state
A 24-hour error of one day and a night
No more than 40 seconds
Every minute, every second, every moment
Time passes in the tick
It also passed down the wisdom of the ancients to this day
Producer丨Tang Yi
Producer丨Wu Huifeng
Copywriting丨Rong Mengyan
Vision丨Zhu Lingmeng
Technology丨Zhang Yuheng
Reviewer丨Zhu Dongmei, Chen Yu, Wang Hui
Co-ordinator丨Liu Ying, Shuai Zhongqin, Duan Xu
Special thanks to the National Museum of China, Beijing Station, China Cultural Relics News
Editor in charge: Jia Hongwei