fcharton, on Dec 15 2005, 05:00 PM, said:
This is tradition. I was wondering about actual instances of the Ganzhi in writings. The Ganzhi serves two different purposes, numbering of days in a year, and numbering of years. For what I know, Sima Qian does not seem to use it for the numbering of years, but he does use it for the days, same goes for the Zuozhuan (which probably dates the 4th century).
Are there Ganzhi day indications on Jiaguwen? or earlier texts (the older parts of the Shujing or Shijing)?
Francois
Fcharton,
As far as I read, Ganzhi were used predominantly to record days in ancient times (and not years) ever since Xia. The Xia dynasty actually only used the 10 'Tiangan 天干' (10 celestial stems) to record the days. The 10 Tiangan represents 10 days in one cycle. This is known as "天干记日法" (
Method of recording days using Tiangan).
By Shang dynasty, the chinese calendary system developed to have the Tiangan combined with the 12 "Dizhi 地支" (12 Terrestrial branches) to establish the more formal system of Ganzhi. Ganzhi day inscriptions can be found on Jiaguwen. In fact, during the Shang dynasty (the reign of Wuyi 武乙), on one oracle bone inscription, it was found to have the complete Ganzhi cycle chart, and during that time they recorded "2 months as 60 days". On another oracle inscription, it was recorded "2 months equal 59 days". This amounts to a combined 29 days and 30 days for 2 months. The Shang dynasty had already had a system of adjusting the length of month and day for their calendar, as well as the use of "additional month" (the "13th month")
Quote
As for year numbering, does anyone know when it is first attested?
I'm not too sure when exactly, but my guess is that Ganzhi year numbering was from more recent history such as during Qing dynasty. (can someone pls check up?)
From
http://zj.eduol.cn/zj_wz_s.asp?id=7940
干支纪年法。如《五人墓碑记》：“予犹记周公之被逮，在丁卯三月之望。”“丁卯”指公元1627年；《〈黄花冈七十二烈士事略〉序》：“死事之惨，以辛亥三月二十九日围攻两广督署之役为最。”“辛亥”指公元1911年；《与妻书》“辛未三月念六夜四鼓”，“辛未”应为辛亥。近世还常用干支纪年来表示重大历史事件，如“甲午战争”、“戊戌变法”、“庚子赔款”、“辛丑条约”、“辛亥革命”。
It was found in Qing dynasty literature such as 《五人墓碑记》, "丁卯" ("Ding Mao" year) refers to 1627. The Ganzhi year was also used for the name of historical incidence of late Qing dynasty such as the "Xinhai Revolution (1911)", "Jia-wu War" (more known in the west as "Sino-Japanese war" of 1894), "Wuzu Reform" (1898) etc.
Normally, for ancient chinese historical literature, the years recording would normally be based on "Ruler's reign year (王公即位年次纪年)". And from Han Wudi's period (han dynasty) onward, there appeared to have "nianhao 年号" (more appropriately translated as "name of year" or "era name")
Traditionally speaking, the ancient chinese calendar system was based on a combination of both the solar and lunar system. The solar system was used to record the year and days while the lunar system was used to record the month. This type of calendar system was known as the
Combined Calendar of Yin-Yang (阴阳合历), where the "Yin" refers to the lunar (moon), while "yang" refers to the solar (sun).
For those interested in reading the
Gangzhi chart, please refer to the chinese site at
http://www.wen8.net/tools/sxyugz/
There are some terms that you might come fresh:
12 Shichen 时辰 - Common chinese units of time recording (1 Shichen = 2 hours)
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