Chapter 181 The Monk and His Group

Su Yue looked at the increasingly agitated comment section and said, "Okay! Let's take a look at the next great inventor!"

Yi Xing (683 AD to 727 AD), the name of Buddhism.

A famous astronomer and heraldist in the Tang Dynasty of China, his real name was Zhang Sui, a native of Changle, Weizhou (now Nanle County, HEN Province).

Zhang Sui's great-grandfather was Zhang Gongjin, a hero of Tang Taizong Li Shimin, governor of Xiangzhou, and Duke of Tan.

His father Zhang Shan was the magistrate of Wugong County.

The Zhang family had declined during the Wu Zetian era.

Zhang Sui lived in Guanzhong since he was a child, studying Li Xiang and the study of Yin and Yang and the Five Elements.

In his youth, he was famous in Chang'an for his profound knowledge.

In order to avoid the entanglement of Wu Zetian's nephew, he was ordained as a monk and named Yixing.

He studied Buddhist classics, astronomy and mathematics in Songshan Mountain, Tiantai Mountain and Dangyang Mountain.

He translated many Indian Buddhist scriptures and later became the leader of Tantric Buddhism, a sect of Buddhism.

In the ninth year of Kaiyuan of the Tang Dynasty (AD 721), because Li Chunfeng's "Linder Calendar" predicted several solar eclipses incorrectly, Xuanzong ordered his party to preside over the revision of the new calendar.

The most important achievement in Yi Xing's life was the compilation of the Dayan Calendar. He made great contributions in manufacturing astronomical instruments, observing astronomical phenomena, and presiding over astronomical geodetic surveys.

I send my longing to the bright moon: Ahhhh, I almost thought it was to avoid Wu Zetian’s entanglement
My charming and short-lived ancestor: wasn’t it? I go! I got it wrong too
Who in the clouds sent a brocade book: Ah, is it our eyesight that is bad or is there something wrong with Yue Yue’s typesetting?
Wan Ning can’t sleep at night (Guan): Her problem! This sentence really almost scared me!
Wuduyi: Indeed! But if it were Wu Zetian, then this matter would be interesting.
No one is allowed to grow old in the world: How old was Wu Zetian at that time? Isn't it?
Fuling (Guan): Who knows? But that’s okay. After all, Yi Xing is really awesome!

I send my love and the bright moon: indeed

Su Yue looked at the comment section, her head buzzing.

What the hell?
Wu Zetian and the monks?
Li Zhi will come find you in the middle of the night!

She silently clicked on the next page, ignoring these stupid humans.

Making a Zodiac Orb

Yixing advocated compiling the calendar on the basis of actual measurements.

To do this, you first need an instrument to measure the position of celestial bodies.

In the ninth year of Kaiyuan (AD 721), he led his troops Cao Shenjun Liang Lingzhan to design the ecliptic traveling ritual and made it into a wooden model.

Yi Xing decided to cast it with copper and iron and completed it in the eleventh year of Kaiyuan (AD 723).

The ecliptic of this instrument is not fixed and can be shifted on the equator to conform to the phenomenon of precession (it was thought at the time that precession was the ecliptic retreating westward along the equator, but in fact it was the opposite).

Making a Waterborne Armillary Sphere
Later, Yi Xing, Liang Lingzhan and others designed and created water transport chaos.

This muddy image, which is driven by water power, is equipped with a time-telling device that can automatically tell the time. It is called "Water Transport Huntian" or "Aerial view of Kaiyuan Water Transport Huntian".

The water-borne armillary sphere is an instrument that relies on water power to move it, can imitate the movement of celestial bodies, and can measure time.

This armillary sphere improved the design of the Han Dynasty scientist Zhang Heng. It injected water to stimulate the wheel, causing it to rotate around the clock. In addition to showing the movement of the stars, it could also show the rising and setting of the sun and the moon. It was certainly more sophisticated and complex than Zhang Heng's water-borne armillary sphere.

Therefore, when the water-borne armillary sphere was completed and placed in front of the Wucheng Palace, all the civil and military officials looked at it and were amazed by its exquisiteness, accuracy in measuring the synodic phases and reporting the time, and praised it for its wonderfulness. Especially on the water-borne armillary sphere, there are two wooden figures (the relevant Shangzhou bronze Buddhist niche cultural relics still exist), driven by gears, one wooden figure automatically beats the drum every quarter (in ancient times, day and night were divided into one hundred quarters), A wooden man automatically rings the clock every chen (two hours now). These two wooden figures are ancient robots made using mechanical principles.

This is a very ingenious timing machine. It is the earliest mechanical clock device in the world and the ancestor of modern mechanical clocks. It is six centuries earlier than the Wicker clock that only appeared in the West in 1370 AD. This fully demonstrates the labor of ancient China. The ingenuity of the people and the scientists.

Although this water-borne armillary sphere was used for a period of time, the copper and iron gradually became astringent and could not rotate, so it entered the museum.

However, Yi Xing and Liang Lingzhan obtained the right to invent the astronomical clock and will forever be remembered in history.

astronomical measurements
After being ordered to change the calendar, a group of people organized and launched a large-scale astronomical and geodetic survey.

This measurement used actual measurement data to completely negate the historical erroneous theory that "the shadow of the sun is an inch, and the earth is thousands of miles away", and provided a fairly accurate one-degree arc length of the earth's meridian.

The group initiated this large-scale astronomical survey for two main purposes.

First, there is a traditional theory in ancient China: "The shadow of the sun is an inch, and the shadow of the earth is thousands of miles away."

He Chengtian, an astronomer during the Liu Song Dynasty, began to raise suspicions based on the measurement data in Jiaozhou (today's Hanoi, Vietnam), but it was not confirmed for a long time.

Liu Zhuo, an accountant from the Sui Dynasty, put forward a specific plan to use actual measurement results to refute this erroneous statement. He said: "In the state of love, there is no shadow in the north, and there is no plan for thousands of miles. To the south, it is only a thousand miles, not even an inch." Actually bad.”

He suggested: "Invite a water engineer and a mathematician to take the flat land north and south of the river, which can be measured for hundreds of miles, and align the north and south.

When judging, use the leakage, use the rope on the flat ground, follow the Qi to the point, and use the same sun to measure the shadow.

To get the difference rate, you can know it.

Then the heaven and earth cannot hide their form, and the celestial images cannot escape their numbers. They show their holiness in advance, and their effects eliminate doubts. "

But this suggestion was not adopted in the Sui Dynasty.

One line of measurements made this plan possible.

Secondly, it was discovered at that time that depending on the observation location, the time of the solar eclipse and the eclipse phenomena seen were different, and the length of the sun's shadow and the time of day and night in each solar term were also different.

This phenomenon was not considered in past calendars. This requires field measurements in various places.

Thich Nhat Hanh Zen

During this measurement process, the eunuch Nangong said that the eunuch and the prime minister Yuantai and others went to various places to "measure the shadow of the sun and report back to the sun." And Yi Xing "compared the shadows of the north and south sun and calculated them using the Pythagorean method." It can be seen that the group was not only responsible for organizing and leading the measurement work, but also personally undertook the analysis and calculation of the measurement data.

The scope of the survey at that time was very wide, ranging from the Tiele Uihe tribe at about 51 degrees north latitude (southwest of present-day Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia) to the south to Linyi (today's central part of Vietnam) at about 18 degrees north latitude, exceeding places. The land boundaries between north and south China. This scale is unprecedented in the history of world science.

Formulating the "Dayan Calendar"

From the thirteenth year of Kaiyuan (725 AD), Yixing began to compile the calendar. After two years, a draft was compiled with reference to the "Jiu Zhi Calendar" and named "Dayan Calendar".

"Dayan Calendar" was later compiled into a book by Zhang Shuo, Li Guan Chen Xuanjing and others.

Starting from the 17th year of Kaiyuan, the annual almanac compiled based on the Dayan Calendar has been issued nationwide.

After testing, the "Dayan Calendar" is more precise than other calendars that existed in the Tang Dynasty.

Neon was introduced in the 733st year of Kaiyuan ( AD) and has been in use for nearly a hundred years.


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