Leopard room.

The children were playing, the imperial concubine made tea herself, and Wang Yuan and Zhu Houzhao sat opposite each other.

"This is the new calendar? It's no different from the old calendar. Zhu Houzhao flipped through the almanac he had just sent and said.

Wang Yuan explained: "The error is about one day. ”

Zhu Houzhao said with a smile: "It's just a day's error, why bother to change the calendar?" ”

"In addition to the initial this, there are some small corrections," Wang Yuan said, "although it is only a one-day error, it is also very important." Don't you think, Your Majesty, that there have been a lot of disasters over the years? Why not take advantage of this to change the calendar and map a new calendar. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty created a new situation, and also had the merit of changing the calendar at the beginning, and many of his new laws were implemented according to the new calendar. ”

To Zhu Houzhao's taste, he nodded and said, "It's okay to have a new atmosphere." ”

Wang Yuan also said: "This calendar takes the winter solstice of the eighteenth year of Zhengde as the calendar, which can be called the 'Guiwei New Calendar', or the 'Zhengde New Calendar', or the old name 'Datong New Calendar'. ”

Zhu Houzhao likes the "Zhengde New Calendar" very much, but in order to take care of the minister, he still said: "Let's call it the Datong New Calendar." ”

The calendar of the Ming Dynasty was the Great Unified Calendar, and the algorithm followed the chronological calendar and referred to the Hijri calendar in the West.

Guo Shoujing's chronological calendar is the pinnacle of the ancient Chinese calendar, which not only draws on the essence of the past dynasties, but also relies on measured data. Unlike the primordial calendar, the number of yellow bells is pretended; It's not like the Great Calendar of the Great Calendar, which is far-fetched and easy to see—these are all related to politics, and the Yuan Dynasty formulated the calendar rules without politics.

The Qing Dynasty calendar was not edited by the Chinese, and the main compiler was John Tang. Moreover, when Qianlong repaired the calendar, Newton's actual data was used, which is no longer a pure Chinese calendar - the lunar calendar of the Republic of China and New China is still using this calendar, and the precession is likely to be more than one day in the 21st century.

Well, the lunar calendar we usually use is edited by the missionary John Tong.

If the opposition of the courtiers was not considered, Wang Yuan even wanted to adopt the "Twelve Qi Calendar". That is, the moon is determined by the twelve solar terms, which belongs to the 100% solar calendar, and has nothing to do with the waxing or waning of the moon and the seasons.

This kind of calendar is similar to the Gregorian calendar of later generations, and it is better coordinated with the actual celestial phenomena, which is more convenient for agricultural production.

After Shen Kuo proposed the Twelve Qi Calendar, it was collectively opposed by the courtiers of the Northern Song Dynasty. Because this pure solar calendar negates the traditional Chinese lunar calendar (lunisolar calendar). Although Shen Kuo was devastated, he still firmly believed that his calendar would definitely be adopted one day in the future.

It's a pity that Shen Kuo's day has to wait until after the Xinhai Revolution.

Ancient Chinese astronomy, judging from the data alone, can be called very awesome.

According to the Book of Shang, during the Yaoshun period, a year was measured to be 366 days. It is impossible to verify when Yao Shun was, but judging from the astrological signs recorded in the "Book of Shang", it should have been more than 2,000 years BC.

By the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the Taichu calendar was more precise, with a year of 365.2502 days (365.24219 in modern data...... days).

As for the lunar calendar used for too long, there will be precession, which was discovered in the Eastern Han Dynasty. In addition, Jia Kui and Li Fan found that the precession was related to the change of the moon's travel speed, and also calculated the law of the change of the moon's moving speed. In scientific language, it is the precession of the perigee of the moon's orbit - but they don't know that the earth is affected by the gravitational pull of the sun and the moon, and the precession phenomenon will also occur, which will also cause the lunar precession.

Because of the opposition of the courtiers, Wang Yuan did not dare to switch to the solar calendar, but he could add things to the lunar calendar.

For example, the Qing Dynasty calendar edited by John Tang threw Western scientific data into it.

The Chinese lunar calendar is a lunisolar calendar, a combination of the lunar calendar and the solar calendar, and it is too convenient to throw things away. In all dynasties, when revising the calendar, they were all doing it, throwing all kinds of new discoveries into it, so that there was a collection of time calendars.

Wang Yuan also said: "While implementing the new calendar, please Your Majesty implement the time system and the division system. In the future, the government and military camps, and even the imperial examinations in various places, will be calculated according to a certain time and a certain minute. ”

Zhu Houzhao was puzzled: "Why is it so troublesome? ”

Wang Yuan said with a smile: "Your Majesty can open a watch factory, make clocks and sell them to local governments and people, and the profits will go to the inner treasury." ”

Zhu Houzhao immediately clapped his hands: "This method is good!" ”

Wang Yuan reminded: "Don't sell too expensive. ”

The Ministry of Works' improved clocks, which are more advanced than those in Europe, already have minute hands, and are figuring out how to add a second hand. In addition, clocks and watches have been promoted to the prefectural level, and time is managed by the yin and yang techniques of each prefecture.

Wang Yuan wants to completely promote the "minute" to the whole country by promulgating the new calendar - there is a 24-hour concept in the early Ming Dynasty, and Wang Yuan does not need to promote it.

This kind of promotion, which seems to be useless, is actually as important as the promotion of crops.

Early humans knew time in days. Gradually, there were months, years, hours, and hours. Every time a new concept of time is born, it is thought that the birth of "minutes" will make human activities more refined.

……

Morning meeting.

Mao Cheng, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, took the lead in objecting: "The Great Unification Calendar was created by Chengyi Bo (Liu Bowen) and was appointed by Emperor Taizu, how can it be changed rashly?" ”

Wang Yuan held the wat board in his hand and said unhurriedly: "The Great Unification Calendar continues to use the time calendar, and there is not much change, and the precession has been one day so far. Mr. Mao, as the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, shoulders the responsibility of sacrifice, and the time of your sacrifice is one day off, aren't you afraid that the sages of the temple and the gods of the mountains and rivers will blame you? ”

Mao Cheng was stunned for a moment, he shouldn't oppose this matter, he should support it with all his might.

Cabinet minister Mao Ji said: "The promulgation of the new calendar will cost the people and money, please be cautious about it." ”

The promulgation of the new calendar is not the end of the story. Just like the change of city and county names in later generations, all official letters, official seals, and related companies and institutions must be changed along with them. The same is true for the new calendar, the relevant activities and documents across the country must be changed, and the folk calendars must be changed.

In addition, the speed of information transmission in ancient times is slow, and it is possible that the new calendar will be issued for a year or two, and many remote mountain villages do not know about it. What if there is a talent in the village, go to the township test according to the old calendar, lie down in the inn to review slowly, and make a mistake all day?

Wang Yuan sneered: "Elder Mao Ge knew that the calendar was wrong, but he obstructed the promulgation of the new calendar, and allowed the ritual department to make mistakes. What is the intention? ”

Mao Ji asked rhetorically: "How can Wang Shilang be sure that there must be a mistake in the Great Unification Calendar?" ”

Wang Yuan said with a smile: "It seems that Mao Ge doesn't understand astronomy. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, astronomical officials had already discovered that every 300 years or so of the calendar would have an error of one day. The unification calendar continues to use the chronological calendar, and it has been almost 300 years since the promulgation of the chronological calendar. ”

"Is the ancients' statement necessarily accurate?" Mao Ji is still stubborn, mainly because this thing is very troublesome to implement, and Mao Shangshu doesn't want to waste money and alarm the people.

The traditional bureaucracy is like this, everything needs to be stable, it is better to be a pool of stagnant water, and the whole society remains the same.

Wang Yuan said: "The ancients were not necessarily accurate, but Qin Tianjian's observations for many years were definitely accurate. Moreover, this new calendar was compiled by Zheng Shanfu in the Ministry of Rites, together with the officials of the Qin Tianjian and the Yin and Yang officials from all over the north and south, which took six years to compile together. Is Mao Shangshu's astronomical knowledge more brilliant than that of so many yin and yang officials? ”

Mao Ji was silent and difficult to refute.

Wang Yuan said: "And I remember that when Mao Ge was the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, he was impeached by the Emperor because of Qin Tianjian's error in calculating the solar eclipse, resulting in Qin Tianjian being fined for three months. Qin Tianjian made an error in calculating the solar eclipse, which was caused by the precession of the calendar. Isn't it a bit difficult for you to not allow others to change the calendar, and ask others to accurately calculate the eclipse? ”

Mao Ji didn't say a word and went back to his shift directly, but because of an error in the calculation of the solar eclipse, he fined Qin Tianjian for impeachment for three months.

No way, every solar eclipse, you have to prepare in advance, which is related to etiquette.

And it is clearly recorded that the solar eclipse should be dealt with in this way: "The Son of Heaven saves the sun, puts five soldiers, five drums; The princes placed three soldiers, three soldiers, and three drums. The doctor struck. Where there is a voice, it is all yang, and it is disgusted with yin. ”

This thing has to be done by the military, and it is arranged by the Ministry of Rites. Once the eclipse is wrongly calculated, everyone from the emperor to the minister to the small soldiers will have to work in vain. Mao Ji was the secretary of the Ministry of Rites at that time, how could he not impeach Qin Tianjian for this?

Wang Yuan looked around the hall and asked loudly: "Who thinks that it is okay to sacrifice the mountains and rivers even if it is wrong for a day, then stand up and reason with me." ”

With this big hat buttoned down, who else would dare to object?

If you oppose it now, and there will be natural disasters in the future, it is not the responsibility of the emperor, but the responsibility of those who oppose it.

The Zhengde New Calendar has been successfully passed.

The concept of "minutes" has also been implemented nationwide with the new calendar. Gradually, even the important ministers of the court did not ask what time it was, but asked what time it was.