Recreating the prosperous Tang begins with summoning players

Chapter 515 The Importance of the Almanac

King Yue?

Wasn't the gift from King Yue burned?
Even the astrologer who escorted the almanac into Chang'an is dead, what gift can King Yue give?
Gift giving is also very important.

Expensive gifts are often given at the end. Now that the emperor has just received the red coral tree and the "elixir", even if you, King Yue, present an expensive gift, it is not as good as the first two.

The emperor's psychological threshold has been raised, and it is better not to give gifts now.

All the ministers thought so, and even the emperor on the throne was frowning, as if he was dissatisfied with Shangbo's abrupt military governor.

I only heard Shang Bo say: "Your Majesty ordered that the new almanac edited by the King of Yue has been compiled, please allow the emissary to present the almanac!"

Now everyone was surprised.

In fact, the king of Yue wanted to compile an almanac, and the ministers basically listened to it as a joke.

During the emperor's time, a group of monks compiled the Dayan calendar, and many people in the court have heard of it more or less.

A team measured the latitude of various places, from the south to Jiaozhou and the north to Tiele, and set up nine sundials to determine the eclipse scores of various places, and retested to see the movement of stars. It has been completed for 15 years.

One can imagine the hard work involved, but the Dayan calendar compiled with such painstaking efforts gradually became inaccurate within ten years of Tianbao.

This is also impossible. Restricted by ancient astronomical observation technology, lack of understanding of planetary orbits, and lack of mathematical tools, the Da Yan Calendar can accurately predict ten-year solar terms and solar eclipses. It's amazing.

The Dayan Calendar cost a lot of money and took a lot of effort, so after the Dayan Calendar was inaccurate, the emperor had no interest in compiling a new calendar.

The significance of the calendar to the ancient feudal dynasties is far beyond what people can understand today.

The calendar has guiding significance for agricultural production, allowing farmers to produce according to the season, which is naturally very important.

However, apart from guiding agricultural production, there is another reason why the prosperous kings are keen to revise the calendar, and that is that the calendar allows the dynasty to have the right to interpret abnormal celestial phenomena.

Since Dong Zhongshu in the Western Han Dynasty respected Confucianism exclusively and put forward a theory of the interaction between heaven and man, the Wenchen Group had a means of restricting imperial power-the theory of prophecy.

Using the anomalies of heaven and earth, Confucian scholars can use the theory of interaction between heaven and man to explain these anomalies in celestial phenomena, so as to accuse the emperor of negligence, write letters to persuade the emperor, and even force the emperor to give up his original policy by issuing an imperial edict.

It can be said that the foundation of Wang Mang's usurping the Han Dynasty is the theory of prophecy of Confucian scholars.

Although the emperors of later generations made patches and gradually abolished the Confucian theory of the induction between heaven and man, this theory still has a broad foundation among the people, and the emperor himself would doubt whether it is true when encountering abnormal celestial phenomena. God sent a disaster.

At this time, the right to interpret astronomy and astrology becomes very important.

This is also why the private study of astronomy is not allowed in the past dynasties, and this is also to prevent people from using astronomical phenomena to make troubles.

The royal revision of the calendar can predict the timing of abnormal celestial phenomena, so the royal family has the right to interpret celestial phenomena such as solar eclipses and lunar eclipses, thereby preventing ministers and rebels from using the celestial phenomena to make a fuss.

This is also the reason that until the Tang and Song Dynasties, the emperors in the history books still often issued imperial edicts because of abnormal celestial phenomena, but after Guo Shoujing in the Yuan Dynasty wrote a more accurate calendar of time, the reason why the emperors of the Ming and Qing seldom did so.

A calendar book that can accurately and abnormally astrology can allow the royal family to take the initiative in explaining the astrology, which is why the emperor of the prosperous age needs to revise the calendar.

No one believed that the King of Yue could revise a useful calendar in a short period of time. Most civil officials believed that the calendar book of the King of Yue was at most one or two years old, predicting the solar terms and astrology in the next one or two years.

It was originally just to make the emperor happy and get a good start, but it was robbed when it was sent to Chang'an.

Although the last time he reported victory to Fengxiang Mansion, King Yue's popularity in the court has greatly increased.

But no one was optimistic about the King of Yue, and now everyone feels that the King of Yue is hopeless.

After all, a remote border area like Longyou is too far away from the center of the Tang Dynasty.

Li Heng still nodded and said: "This is also my son's wish, please send it."

Shang Bo stood up, and then Li Fuguo shouted: "The king of Yue presents a gift!"

He saw Wei Yuan in civilian clothes coming in from the door, holding a stack of books in his hand.

Now the court ministers are even more contemptuous.

Prime Minister Pei Mian also frowned, did the King of Yue want to give such a gift?
Prime Minister Zhang Shuo presided over the revision of the Dayan Calendar back then. Pei Mian was the editor of the Chongwen Museum at that time, and also participated in the revision of the Dayan Calendar.

The monk's and his party's Dayan calendar has sixteen volumes, and when it was compiled and presented to the emperor, it covered the entire Hanyuan hall.

The almanac you sent by King Yue was too perfunctory?Just holding it in by one person?
Is this a bit of a fool?

Cui Guangyuan, who was close to the imperial steps, even cursed in his heart, "Is your Yuewang boat going to work?"
Risking the consequences of offending the crown prince, I got on the pirate ship of the king of Yue. Do you have any hope of seizing the heir?

Cui Guangyuan began to think about how to jump out of the wrecked ship of the King of Yue, but found in despair that he seemed to have no way to get off the ship halfway.

If you don't know how to give gifts, you don't have to!
Cui Guangyuan only felt that they were all pig teammates.

The crown prince and King Qi also showed smiles on their faces. It seemed that King Yue was unwilling to give up and tried to find a way to get the almanac again. What kind of serious almanac could these thin books be? This flattery is too perfunctory.

Even the emperor showed displeasure. The calendar is a major national event. If you are so perfunctory, King Yue, it will be very difficult for you to step down as a father.

Only the commoner behind Shang Bo stepped forward and said: "Wei Yuan Wei Yuan, Si Shilang under the command of the Longyou Governor's Mansion, presents to His Majesty a volume of the calendar edited by the King of Yue."

one roll?
What can I write in just one volume?
Now even the emperor is a little angry. Could it be that King Yue regards the emperor as a fool?
Yushi Zhongcheng Cui Qi jumped out and said: "Your Majesty, the calendar is a major national event, and the king of Yue acted so frivolously that he could not bear the responsibility! I impeach the king of Yue for presenting a false calendar, which will bring chaos to the court!"

Shang Bo lowered his head and looked at Cui Qi out of the corner of his eye. He didn't expect this guy to stand on the opposite side of King Yue so quickly.

Cui Qi was born in the Cui family of Boling. He was a clean official, but he was a cruel official.

Cui Qi became an official with Ming Jing Ke, and since then he has kept a low profile and hardly interacted with his colleagues.

He first served as Wannian Wei, that is, the county captain of Wannian County in Chang'an, which is already a pretty good starting point in Mingjing.

Being able to get such a good position when he first entered the official position is also related to his background in the Boling Cui family.

Although he is a descendant of a family, he has been in strict politics for a long time and has a bad reputation in the officialdom.

Moreover, Cui Qi must retaliate against others. When he was a county lieutenant in Wannian County, he was reprimanded by Jingzhao Yin Da Xixun at that time because he was too strict in politics and often severely punished the people for small mistakes.

After Cui Qi served as Yushi Zhongcheng, when the Three Jurisdictions jointly tried Da Xixun's crime of surrendering to the puppet Yan, Cui Qi insisted that all Da Xixun's family be included in the list of criminal officials, and even Da Xixun's youngest son who did not enter the official rank was also listed as criminal officials. , and finally died with a stick at the gate of Jingzhao Mansion.

It's just that Shang Bo didn't expect that he would be the first to jump out, and he didn't know whether Cui Qi took refuge in King Qi or the prince.

But for a cruel official like Cui Qi, only climbing up is the most important thing.

Cui Qi was disliked by most courtiers because he insisted on executing the guilty officials who surrendered to the puppet Yan.

And because he didn't handle Zhang Shuo's son well, Cui Qi was also rejected by the emperor.

So it is not unusual for Cui Qi to find the king of Qi or the prince as a backer.

Although it was the first time for Wei Yuan to stand on such an occasion, as an outstanding mathematician, he had participated in this kind of conference many times.

Regarding Cui Qi's impeachment, Wei Yuan didn't respond at all, but held up the new almanac and said:
"As entrusted by His Majesty, the King of Yue personally supervised it. The foreign ministers took the astrology data of ten cities including Beiting, Jincheng, and Wuyan, and counted two hundred articles in the new calendar. I hereby present them to Your Majesty at the Zhengdan Grand Court Meeting."

what?
All the ministers were stunned.

Two hundred articles in the new calendar?
One year is one article, what is the concept of two hundred articles in the new calendar?That is to say, the new calendar presented by the King of Yue has counted for 200 years!
The Dayan calendar only counts two Dayan days, that is, 49+49 for a total of 98 years.

And after less than ten years, the calculated astronomical phenomena are already inaccurate.

This Wei Yuan actually uttered wild words, and calculated the changes of the four seasons in the next 200 years, and the laws of the sky!
This is too bragging!

The monk and his party used how much money the court spent, measured and calculated it for ten years, and then it became the Dayan calendar.

How long have you been writing this calendar, and it claims to be 200 years? !
Cui Qi still wanted to continue to impeach King Yue, so he saw Wei Yuan unfolding the book.

It turned out that what he was holding was not a stack of books, but a huge white brocade, on which dense numbers and marks were written.

The new almanac compiled by Wei Yuan adopts the modern perpetual calendar method, and puts the solar terms and abnormal astronomical phenomena on the calendar according to the year, month and day. This perpetual calendar uses small script to write the calendar for the next 200 years.

If it weren't for time constraints, Wei Yuan's algorithm could continue to be written for thousands of years.

Even so, the 200-year calendar is enough to make people feel shocked.

Li Heng stepped down from the throne, only to see that this new calendar started with today's Zhengdan Grand Court Meeting, and each year was an article, and a full 200-year calendar was written.

The year is divided into December, with a seven-day cycle every month, and the solar terms and special astrological events are marked on special dates.

Such an almanac is easier to understand than a simple text almanac, and even rural farmers can understand the changes in the four seasons in the almanac.

But how to verify the accuracy of the almanac?

The emperor said to Li Fuguo: "Go to the Chongwen Museum and get the history of Dayan!"

(End of this chapter)