Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1784 No Need to Read the Eight Characters

"Celestial phenomena?" Researcher Wu didn't quite understand for a moment.

"Yes, celestial phenomena, such as solar eclipses, lunar eclipses, and the positions of the five planets in the sky." Zhou Zhi pointed to the words "Sui Ding" written on the paper sign: "We are currently collecting statistics on solar and lunar eclipses in oracle bone inscriptions to correct the actual time of occurrence of major historical events."

"So do you have any relevant results?"

"If we only look at the records of oracle bones," Zhou Zhi said, "we have deduced some of the content through the inscriptions on a piece of bone in the Tianjin Museum."

"Through the analysis of the existing text, it was discovered that this oracle bone has divinations on both sides. A total of six divinations were conducted on the front side, recording the divinations at six different time points. The content is 'Zhen Xun Wu', which means whether there will be any abnormalities in the ten days, and the result is that there will be no abnormalities."

"But on the back of the bone fragment, there is another record with six characters, 'Lunar eclipse on the evening of the ten-day Renshen', which means 'There will be a lunar eclipse on the evening of the ten-day Renshen'. This is the earliest record of a lunar eclipse that we have found in the world, and it records a lunar eclipse that occurred on the evening of the Renshen day."

"Combined with the previous six Xunzhen times, we can determine the approximate Ganzhi period, and then use this time to correspond to the Ganzhi astronomical legislation of the lunar eclipses recorded in modern astronomical calculations. Finally, we got the exact time of the lunar eclipse recorded on the bone fragment in the Tianjin Museum - October 1189, 10 BC."

"So it is not only the earliest record of a lunar eclipse, but also a very complete historical record. It is the most reliable material that can be implemented in the astronomical year and can be used as an important specimen of the standard of historical time points. We are currently using it as a benchmark to begin exploring and formulating the Oracle Bone Inscription Chronology."

"If the 'Sui Ding' on the Li Gui means 'Suixing is directly above the army' or 'Suixing is in front of us', then can we also calculate the exact time of the Battle of Muye in the same way as we use solar and lunar eclipses to determine the time of historical specimens?"

"Wait for me!" Researcher Wu was so excited that he was shaking a little: "I need to report to my superiors!"

After saying that, regardless of the fact that such an important national treasure as the Li Gui was still in the room, he rushed to the door and shouted, "Xiao Wang, Xiao Wang, come here and keep an eye on it. I have something urgent to call!"

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An hour later, Zhou Zhi and his companions had arrived at another place, in front of a well-mannered department leader.

"Xiao Zhou, right?" The man said in a very friendly manner: "Where did you hear about the Xia, Shang and Zhou Chronology Project?"

"Uh... Director Song, I haven't heard of this." Zhou Zhi rubbed his hands. "But when we were working on the oracle bones, we came up with a guess through studying the records of solar and lunar eclipses. We wondered if we could combine historical data with scientific calculations and make extensive use of information technology to conduct targeted research on many astronomical records in history and eliminate the false and retain the true."

This department is now called the "State Science and Technology Commission", which later became the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the person in front of you is Song Jian, who was the director of the State Science and Technology Commission at the time.

"Hahahahaha... Good! Very good!" Director Song was very happy: "I heard that you have calculated the exact time recorded on the Tianjin lunar eclipse divination bones?" "Director Song, can I access the Internet here?" Zhou Zhi asked.

"Sure." Director Song said, "If the National Science and Technology Commission cannot access the Internet, what kind of National Science and Technology Commission is it?"

So Zhou Zhi took out his laptop, connected to the Shudu campus network through the Science and Technology Commission's network, then logged into the Clover intranet server and retrieved a piece of information.

He turned the computer screen to face Director Song: "Director Song, this is the paper on the time inference of the 'Lunar Eclipse Divination Bone'."

"You are the first author, and the second one is An Chunjia?" Director Song looked at the author of the paper first, and then asked, "Is this the literature and history expert of your school?"

"No, he is from the computer department." Zhou Zhi smiled and said, "There are several astronomical calendars in China. One is the most common Ganzhi calendar, which belongs to the calendar of the Shang Dynasty. Another one is commonly used in history books, which is the Xia calendar."

"The Xia calendar, together with the Huangdi calendar, Zhuanxu calendar, Yin calendar, Zhou calendar, and Lu calendar, is collectively known as the Six Ancient Calendars. Legend has it that it was created during the Xia Dynasty. The original calendar rules have been lost, and we now only know some of its contents from some ancient books."

"The Xia calendar takes one month as the time it takes for the moon to orbit the earth, that is, the synodic month is used as the basis for determining the calendar month. A month is called a 'synodic month'. The first day of each month is the new moon, and the fifteenth day is the full moon. The 'synodic month' is the average cycle of the moon's waxing and waning phases. In addition to reflecting the waxing and waning of the moon, the Xia calendar also reflects tidal phenomena."

"There is another calendar, which is to use the Jupiter to count the years in ancient times. The celestial sphere is divided into twelve parts, namely Xingji, Xuanxiao, Zhuzi, Jianglou, Daliang, Shishen, Queshou, Quehuo, Quewei, Shouxing, Dahuo, and Ximu, which are called 12 times. This calendar is called the Jupiter calendar."

"Er Ya Shi Tian has a very detailed explanation of the calendar: Tai Sui in Jia is called Yan Feng, in Yi is called Zhan Meng, in Bing is called Rou Zhao, in Ding is called Qiang Yu, in Wu is called Zhu Yong, in Ji is called Tu Wei, in Geng is called Shang Zhang, in Xin is called Chong Guang, in Ren is called Xuan Xuan, in Gui is called Zhao Yang. In Yin is called She Ti Ge, in Mao is called Shan Yan, in Chen is called Zhi Xu, in Si is called Da Huang Luo, in Wu is called Dun Zhang, in Wei is called Xie Qia, in Shen is called Qing Tan, in You is called Zuo E, in Xu is called Yan Mao, in Hai is called Da Yuan Xian, in Zi is called Kun Dun. In Chou is called Chi Fen Ruo."

"This is also a common way of dating in Chinese historical books, such as the Records of the Grand Historian, the Book of Han, and the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government, all of which use the Jupiter calendar for the start and end of important dates."

"For example, there is a line in Li Sao: Sheti means that Tai Sui is in Yin, which is the Ximu celestial region in Tianxiang, and this refers to the year of Yin. Zhen means right. Meng means beginning. Zou means the first month. The first month is the Yin month. Geng Yin refers to the day of Geng Yin. In ancient times, days were recorded by matching the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches."

"So this sentence means that Qu Yuan is very proud of his birthday. Combined with the next sentence, it can be seen that it is just a coincidence - the year, month and day of the tiger. In the folk customs of the Zhou Dynasty, whether a boy is born in the year, month or day of the tiger, it is auspicious, that is, born at an auspicious time. This is also related to Qu Yuan's name 'Zhengze' and his courtesy name 'Lingjun'."

"If we use the Yin calendar and the Xia calendar to calculate this date, it should be the 343st day of the first lunar month in the th year of King Zhou Xian. If we use the Zhou calendar, it should be the nd day of the first lunar month in the th year of King Zhou Xian. After An Chunjia used the program to correct it, the rigorous calculation result should be the nd day of the first lunar month in the th year of King Zhou Xian, that is, BC. The year, month and day are Wuyin, Jiayin and Gengyin respectively. The zodiac sign is Tiger. The eight characters are strong in wood, which means that the person is talented, romantic and stubborn, emotional and abstract, and is a leader-type talent..."

"We don't need to talk about fortune telling here." Director Song waved his hand and said, "Let's get back to the topic."