Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

The New Year's Day court meeting is purely ceremonial in nature, and no specific matters are discussed at such a meeting.

However, due to yesterday's discussion on the new calendar, many ministers had something to say.

After the emperor held a blessing ceremony in Jianji Hall, Liu Zongzhou took the opportunity to say:

"Your Majesty, I think the calendar is a matter of great importance, so it is best not to change it without permission."

"Even if I get an extra month's salary every few years, how can it compare to maintaining the legitimacy of the government?"

This is easy to say, but the officials from the Ministry of Revenue just curled their lips.

The same was true for the Ministry of Works, because according to the emperor's orders, they would have to pay the craftsmen in the future.

Not to mention the Ministry of War and the Privy Council, the soldiers' salaries had long been paid on a monthly basis. The drawbacks caused by leap months and large and small advances were too numerous to mention.

With monthly salaries increasingly replacing annual salaries, how can the finances afford to pay an extra month's salary every two or three years?

The emperor abolished the leap month and changed it to working overtime on leap day. The officials of these government offices all agreed with it.

However, the orthodoxy was a matter of great importance, and even the ministers who supported it did not dare to say much on the matter. Otherwise, if someone in the people rebelled and mentioned the change of the orthodoxy, they might be guilty.

This forced Zhu Youjian to personally step down and said to Liu Zongzhou in a friendly manner:
"What you said is absolutely right. The orthodox system should not be changed lightly."

"But the dates of the solar terms in the old calendar are not fixed. Sometimes they are at the beginning of the month, sometimes in the middle or at the end of the month. So how should we arrange the holidays?"

"One of the reasons I established the solar calendar is to set the solar terms around the fifth and twentieth day of the lunar month."

"This way, we can have consecutive holidays every five and ten days, so that officials and people in the city don't have to take a day off during holidays."

This was an arrangement he made based on the lessons of later generations.

After entering the industrial age, all traditional festivals and customs formed in the agricultural age will basically disappear as long as they are not holidays.

In later generations, only the four traditional festivals of the Spring Festival, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival had holidays. Gradually, few people remembered the customs of the four seasons and eight festivals such as the Winter Solstice.

Even the famous Double Ninth Festival is in danger of disappearing. Many people have no idea what to do on this festival.

On the contrary, the Chinese Valentine's Day has gradually become popular because of the love element. However, compared with Valentine's Day on February 2th of the Gregorian calendar, the popularity of the Chinese Valentine's Day is far less, and it is more due to consumption factors and hyped up by businesses.

The Chinese of later generations had to face the disappearance of traditional festivals on the one hand, and on the other hand, because of the adoption of the Western calendar, they had to face festivals introduced from the West.

This makes many people feel that there are so many festivals but they don’t know which one to celebrate.

Also, since there are no holidays for most festivals, spending time preparing for the festival will only result in fatigue without much joy.

So many festivals just pass by casually. There is not much sense of ceremony at all, and I don’t feel happy.

Zhu Youjian was very sad about this, so he resolutely refused to adopt the Western calendar and did not allow Western festivals to be introduced. In addition, when formulating the new calendar, he fixed the time of traditional festivals and included them in the holiday arrangements.

In this way, traditional festivals will not completely die out, and people will have more time to relax their bodies and minds during the festivals.

The solar calendar he asked the Imperial Astronomical Observatory to formulate was a calendar completely adapted to the industrial age, not just for the convenience of salary payment and easy conversion.

At the same time, because of the accuracy of the solar terms, the new calendar also takes agriculture into consideration.

And because the solar terms in the new calendar are mostly around the fifth and twentieth day of the month, farmers only need to remember these two dates to know when the solar terms are and what they should do each month.

They can estimate the time of the solar terms every month without buying the almanac, which is more convenient than the traditional calendar.

However, with so many advantages, the new solar calendar no longer takes into account the changes in the phases of the moon.

The word "月" simply represents the thirty days in a month and has nothing to do with the moon.

The new moon and full moon times determined by the geocentric longitude of the moon and the sun were also difficult to reflect in the calendar. The extremely important concept of the first day of the first lunar month became the biggest weakness of the new calendar.

Zhu Youjian was also a little troubled by this and tried to say to his ministers:

"We should take a holiday during the Chinese New Year. I don't want you to brave the cold wind to celebrate during the Chinese New Year reunion."

"How about taking the fourth day of the first lunar month, when Taizu ascended the throne and founded the country, as Ming's National Day and holding a ceremony to celebrate the occasion on that day?"

They wanted to use the fixed date of the fourth day of the first lunar month to replace the New Year's Day ceremony.

The court celebrations held on the first day of the first lunar month will also be replaced by the National Day celebrations.

This might work in the future, but people at that time did not think that the founding day of the country had any important significance.

They also don't think that National Day can replace the lunar calendar.

Liu Zongzhou said coldly:

"The official date is the official date. How can it be replaced by the date when Taizu ascended the throne?"

It is believed that this day, which has been passed down for thousands of years, is far incomparable to any other day.

Zhu Youjian felt even more troubled when he saw his attitude.

Although many officials wanted to take holidays according to the new calendar, many others believed that the solar calendar was more convenient.

But because of the concept of orthodoxy, they dare not speak carelessly.

Only Wen Tiren, the Grand Secretary in charge of ritual and music education, boldly proposed:
"I think we can mark the new moon and full moon in the new calendar."

"On the first day of the first lunar month, the Zhengshuo Festival is held."

This was actually still a change of dynasty. When the ministers heard this, no matter what they thought, they were all furious at him.

Some people even suggested killing Wen Tihen to prevent the spread of evil teachings.

This forced Wen Tiren to shrink his head and hang it down.

However, Zhu Youjian agreed with this statement very much. He had not planned to hold a court celebration on New Year's Day, so that the emperor and his ministers would not be able to have a good rest during the New Year period.

Although the first day of the first lunar month was sometimes during the Chinese New Year, it was more than half likely to be after the festival, which allowed the emperor and his officials to have a better rest.

However, the significance of changing the calendar was so great that no one among the ministers dared to agree with it.

This made Zhu Youjian look at Liu Zongzhou and propose another plan:
"How about holding the ceremony in the Mingtang on the first day of the first lunar month?"

"Officials and parliamentarians in Beijing will participate in the ceremony of congratulation together."

"Special ceremonies for all officials to greet the emperor would be enough, such as the Winter Solstice and the Longevity Festival."

"After the New Year's Day greeting ceremony is changed to the New Year's Day greeting ceremony, members of parliament can participate together."

This shock was even greater than the one proposed by Wen Tiren just now about the first day of the first lunar month.

Because this is not just a simple change of time, but a real change of calendar - a change of dynasty.

If it is true as the emperor said, the New Year's Day Court Celebration Ceremony should be changed to the New Year's Day Court Celebration Ceremony, held in the Mingtang, and members of parliament should be allowed to participate.

This almost indicates that there have been major changes in the foundation of the Ming Dynasty.

From receiving the mandate from heaven to receiving the mandate from the people. (End of this chapter)