Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

One of the reasons why the emperor established a new calendar was to eliminate the leap month and instead pay monthly salaries.

But now this is outdated, Xu Guangqi explained to Yuan Keli:

"It's not just monthly salary, there are also daily and hourly wages."

"The workshop in the inner court has now started to calculate the working hours and the processing time of various parts. As well as the overtime pay required for working beyond the stipulated hours."

"Your Majesty is eager to finalize the new calendar as soon as possible, and it is now being tested in the inner court workshop."

After hearing this, Yuan Keli understood why the emperor had given holidays in the previous two years but suddenly did not give holidays this year.

This was to force the ministers to accept the new calendar, and at the same time use the ministers' complaints to put pressure on Xu Guangqi to let the Calendar Bureau promulgate the new calendar as soon as possible.

Some officials who were leaving the court also gathered around after hearing the conversation between the two, asking what daily wages and hourly wages were, and what their relationship was to the new calendar.

Xu Guangqi also wanted to spread the word, and explained to them carefully:
"According to the new calendar, each month has 24 days, with rest days on the fifth and tenth days, so theoretically there are working days."

"The monthly salary divided by 24 is the so-called daily wage."

"If you work eight hours a day, your hourly wage is your daily wage divided by eight."

This standard was determined based on the daily wage and hourly wage conversion methods of later generations.

Because later generations adopted the Western calendar, there are 52 weeks in a year with a weekend off every week. 365 minus 104 divided by 12 is 21.75 days.

Zhu Youjian did not intend to adopt the Western calendar, and did not want the increase in the number of Christians because of the convenience of Sundays for worship, so he adopted the practice of resting on the fifth and tenth days of the lunar calendar. The standard working days per month are calculated as 24 days.

When the officials heard this, they exclaimed in surprise, because the officials of the Ming Dynasty were so miserable.

Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang was a workaholic and only gave five days off for New Year's Day and three days off for the Winter Solstice, for a total of eight days of vacation.

Fortunately, later emperors were more reasonable. During the reign of Emperor Chengzu, a ten-day holiday was added for the Lantern Festival, and during the reign of Emperor Xuande, a ten-day holiday was added. This allowed officials to gradually have more holidays.

But no matter how many times you have, it is not as good as this. The new calendar has a rest day every fifth or tenth day, which is the "five-day rest day" of the Han Dynasty. Compared with the ten-day rest day of the Tang Dynasty, the holiday is twice as much.

This made the officials admire the emperor from the bottom of their hearts:
"Your Majesty is truly a holy ruler!"

However, this is not all. Xu Guangqi continued:
"The 24 working days per month is just a calculation method. The actual holidays are much more than the six days on Fridays and Octobers."

"The four seasons and eight festivals, namely the Beginning of Spring, Spring Equinox, Beginning of Summer, Summer Solstice, Beginning of Autumn, Autumnal Equinox, Beginning of Winter, and Winter Solstice, also require holidays to celebrate the festivals."

"If it's close to the fifth or tenth day, we should have consecutive holidays to give people more time to rest."

"In addition, there are five or six leap days and the New Year's Day holiday at the end of the year, as well as the Spring Ploughing Festival, Shangsi Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Qixi Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Qianqiu Festival, Wanshou Festival and other holidays."

"The total vacation time is 115 days a year, and 116 days in a leap year."

“The working hours per year shall not exceed 250 days.”

This number is basically the same as the 104 weekends and 11 statutory holidays in later generations.

The working hours are 250 days, divided by 12, which is 20.83 working days per month, which is used for medical leave and sick leave calculations.

This is Zhu Youjian's compensation for the five-day-off-per-day policy, ensuring that there is at least a short holiday of two or three days every month so that people who are busy with work can take a break.

Therefore, he designated the Spring Ploughing Festival on February 2, the Shangsi Festival on March 3, the Dragon Boat Festival on May 5, the Qixi Festival on July 7, the Double Ninth Festival on September 9 as legal holidays, and they must be combined with the adjacent fifth and tenth days for holidays.

He even designated March 18th, the birthday of Nuwa and Hou Tu, as Mother's Day, and the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, as Father's Day to honor ancestors, and gave consecutive holidays to the following two days.

This finally added up to 115 days of holiday, the same total number of holidays in later generations. There was even one more day every four years because of the holiday on leap year.

When the officials heard this number of days, they were extremely satisfied. Although it was still not as good as the 120 days of vacation per year in the Song Dynasty, they were already satisfied.

But this is not the end, Xu Guangqi continued:

"There is also paid annual leave, which is 5 to 15 days a year, depending on the accumulated working hours."

“累计工作已满1年不满10年的，年休假5天；已满10年不满20年的，年休假10天；已满20年的，年休假15天。”

"The total vacation time per person per year should be more than 120 days."

When the officials heard this, they praised it in unison.

At least 120 days of vacation, which is more than that of the Song Dynasty.

The current emperor is truly a wise ruler and is extremely compassionate towards them.

However, thinking about the fact that they still need to work on New Year's Eve this year, they all asked dissatisfiedly:

“Why isn’t this kind of vacation implemented?”

“I still have to work.”

Xu Guangqi could only smile bitterly:

"Of course the new calendar has not been established yet and is still being tested."

"Your Majesty does not want these few days off to become a routine, so it has been cancelled this year."

"Otherwise, if it is combined with the future leap day holiday and New Year's Day holiday, the vacation time will be too long."

"When we adopt the new calendar, we will naturally have holidays around New Year's Day."

This calmed down some officials' discontent, and they felt that everything would be fine once the new calendar was implemented.

But there were also some people who were unwilling to wait even a moment and asked Xu Guangqi:

"What's so difficult about the new calendar?"

“It’s been more than two years since we decided!”

More than two years have passed since the emperor began to prepare a new calendar.

Even if we count from the time Xu Guangqi opened the Calendar Bureau, it has been more than a year now.

Many officials were dissatisfied because a new calendar had not been decided for such a long time.

Han Yu then asked:

"In the previous Yuan Dynasty, it took only four years to formulate the "Shushi Calendar" after four tests throughout the country."

"How come your new calendar hasn't been finalized for more than two years?"

Xu Guangqi hurriedly explained:
"This calendar change is much greater than the one in the Shoushi Calendar."

"Especially the return year time proposed by Your Majesty, which needs to be carefully calculated."

"We also need to use the hourly system of hours, minutes and seconds to replace the traditional hundred-ke calculation."

Explain to these officials the value of the tropical year that the emperor had told them, and how the calendar was formulated based on this time.

Not many of the ministers were proficient in the calendar, and most of them did not understand.

But they also heard that the current emperor proposed a new time and asked them to set the calendar according to this time.

Some people disagreed with this and thought that the emperor was acting recklessly. But others thought that since the emperor had decided, the time should be calculated according to this.

Is it possible to change the time proposed by the emperor after the calendar bureau’s calculations?

How can they ensure that their calculations are correct?
Wen Tiren said from the side:
"Master Xu is wrong!" "Your Majesty, the Second Ancestor came to you in a dream, so the time he proposed must be correct."

"Even if you calculate again, can you be more accurate than the time seen by gods like Taizu and Chengzu?"

"If you ask me, what you should do now is not to calculate whether this time is correct, but to use this time to formulate a new calendar."

"As long as there are no mistakes in the new calendar, then promulgate it and implement it."

This was supported by many officials, who all wanted to implement the new calendar as soon as possible and have more than 120 days of vacation time.

Xu Guangqi also felt the pressure and wondered if he had really done something wrong. He should have just used the time proposed by the emperor.

However, the time given by the emperor was only a numerical value, without a specific calculation method. They used their own method to calculate solar and lunar eclipses and other celestial phenomena. What if they made a mistake?
This made him say to Han Yu, Wen Tiren and others:
"The new calendar is not perfect yet. What should we do if the calculations of solar and lunar eclipses and other astronomical phenomena are wrong?"

Han Yu did not answer, but Wen Tiren said disapprovingly:
"It's not like I haven't made mistakes before, what else can I do?"

"Besides, His Majesty said that the four seasons are in disarray and the gods have not returned to their positions. Even if something went wrong, it is understandable."

Tell Xu Guangqi not to worry about the issues of solar and lunar eclipses and wait until later to improve them.

Some of the ministers thought that this point should not be taken so lightly and that the interaction between heaven and man must be taken seriously.

However, more people agreed with what Wen Tiren said, because it was not the first or second time that the Ming Dynasty had miscalculated astronomical events over the years, and it had always been like this.

After the emperor re-established rites and music and established the National Assembly, there was no longer much need to use celestial phenomena to restrict imperial power, and there was no need to publicize this point anymore.

After listening to these people's opinions, Han Yu also nodded and said:
"The new calendar needs time to be perfected. A temporary omission is not a big deal. As long as it is perfected in the future, it will be fine."

"The most important thing is to guide the farming season. Is there anything wrong with the solar terms?"

Xu Guangqi was extremely impressed by this. He said to everyone:
"The new calendar based on the tropical year proposed by Your Majesty is extremely accurate in terms of the timing of the solar terms."

"After about 60 years, the deviation will exceed one day, and it will be necessary to add a leap year to fix the winter solstice time."

He explained in detail to his ministers the differences between the solar terms in the calendar and the actual measurements. He believed that the solar term intervals calculated according to the tropical year proposed by the emperor were very accurate.

The ministers felt a headache again after listening to the large number of astronomical terms coming out of his mouth.

But they are sure of one thing: the new calendar is very accurate in calculating the solar terms. Even the Datong calendar promulgated in the past two years uses it to calculate the solar terms.

This made Han Yu and others feel relieved and said:

"In that case, we should adopt the new calendar."

"Use this more accurate calendar to guide farmers in their farming."

Most of the ministers agreed and believed that the new calendar should be adopted.

It was only at this point that Xu Guangqi expressed his last difficulty:
"The new calendar is based entirely on the movement of the sun and does not take into account the phases of the moon."

"And because we have to insert a leap day into the Chinese zodiac, how do we calculate the fortune of the birth date?"

"If this kind of calendar is implemented, the new moon, full moon, auspicious times, etc. will all have to be recalculated."

This shocked everyone who heard it, and they realized where the difficulty of formulating a new calendar lay.

What Xu Guangqi was talking about was not the phase of the moon, but the regular calendar.

If the time of the first day of the first lunar month is changed and no longer corresponds to the first day of the first lunar month, it will be an earthquake for the whole world:
"Change the calendar and the color of clothing."

"This is a change of dynasty!"

After this idea came to mind, the ministers no longer wanted to discuss the new calendar and even wanted to escape immediately.

If this matter is not handled properly, the world will be in chaos.

Those officials who advocate the use of the new calendar will be held accountable in the future.

The chief minister of the cabinet, Han Yu, was speechless at this time.

Wen Tiren, who had just supported the new calendar, laughed under the gaze of the ministers and said:

"The birth date and auspicious time require the Taoist gods to come up with a solution."

"Lord Xu should communicate with them more, and not stop associating with them just because they believe in Nestorianism."

Then he left in a hurry, and the ministers also dispersed.

The discussion about the calendar ended without any result.

Most of the ministers who knew the inside story kept silent about it.

However, after the new calendar was implemented, the holiday period increased to 120 days, which was still spread by some people.

This made many people interested in the new calendar when they saw it marked next to the old calendar on the almanac.

However, the issue of legitimacy still cannot be avoided. The ministers who knew the seriousness of the matter did not dare to say anything.

Some people even planned to persuade the emperor not to use heresy that would bring disaster to the country and the people, and to use the traditional lunar calendar instead of the so-called solar calendar.

Zhu Youjian had anticipated this, and he even deliberately let Xu Guangqi leak the news.

Otherwise, he would not have not given a holiday this year, causing resentment among his ministers.

He believed that as long as he persisted long enough, these ministers would eventually surrender, come up with a proper solution, and fully adopt the solar calendar.

As for now, let them celebrate on New Year's Day according to the old calendar. Anyway, I am in the palace, very close to the Huangji Palace.

On the first day of the first lunar month in the third year of Chongzhen, Zhu Youjian went to the Huangji Hall to hold a New Year's Day ceremony.

After this ceremony, Zhu Youjian also imitated the folk custom of opening the pen on New Year's Day and held a ceremony in Jianji Hall. He wrote five characters of blessing by hand and gave them to the ministers who had performed well last year:

"As the saying goes, 'five blessings come to the door', so I wrote five characters of 'Fu' and gave them to the five ministers who worked hard and made great contributions last year."

"Han Shoufu, Yuan Shumi, Xu Xueshi, Bi Shangshu, and Mr. Liu, each of you take one and bring the blessing back home."

Let Han Yu, Yuan Keli, Xu Guangqi, Bi Ziyan and Liu Zongzhou come forward and take a character for "Fu" each.

This made the ministers look at them with their eyes almost popping out of their heads:
The emperor bestows New Year’s blessings. What a blessing!

Those ministers who might have had opportunities regretted not performing well last year.

Especially Wen Tiren, who was a grand secretary, felt that if he had insisted on supporting the emperor in adopting the new calendar yesterday, he might be the one who would be blessed today.

This made him feel upset and regretful, and he began to think about how to separate the first day of the lunar calendar and the new moon day, and no longer care about the first day of the lunar calendar.

The ministers who received the word "Fu" were extremely happy. They went back home and hung up the word "Fu" written by the emperor, or even made it into a plaque.

From then on, they would take it out every year so that the whole family could share in the blessings under this word "Fu".

The word "Fu" written by an emperor who was rumored to be a living true god had an even greater appeal to the people.

Many people even came to copy and write the same word "Fu" and hang it in their homes.

The character "Fu" in the standardized character table also changed from the original handwriting of Dong Qichang to the writing of the emperor.

It gradually became a custom to start writing and bless the New Year. (End of this chapter)