A Brief History of New Year’s Day： Since ancient times, ＂New Year’s Day＂ has five different days.
Hello, 2022!
On the first day of the Gregorian calendar every year,
All mark the arrival of the new year,
People used to call this day "New Year’s Day".
Also known as "solar year".
So, with the first ray of sunshine in the morning,
People bless each other:
"Happy New Year’s Day!"
Qi Baishi’s "Reporting Peace"
This habit was formed when the western calendar was implemented in China. The initiator was Sun Yat-sen, who took office as interim president on January 1, 1912. In his oath of office, he ended with "New Year’s Day of the first year".
On September 27, 1949, China began to use the method of AD chronology, and officially designated January 1 as "New Year’s Day" and included it as a legal holiday.
This is New Year’s Day in modern times.
New Year’s Day in ancient times is another matter.
Yuan, the beginning of the number; Dan, the day comes out.
New Year’s Day usually refers to the first day of the first month in the calendar.
If you ask a question:
When is New Year’s Day in ancient China?
How to answer?
Some people say, isn’t this very simple? New Year’s Day in ancient times was the first day of the first month, which is now the Spring Festival.
Such an answer can only be scored 50 points. Although the ancient New Year’s Day is the first day of the first month of the year, it does not necessarily refer to the Spring Festival now.
Now the Spring Festival is the first day of the first month of the summer calendar, which takes January of the lunar calendar as the first month, so January 1st is New Year’s Day. However, many calendars were used in ancient China, and the first month of different periods and dynasties was different, so the day of the first day of the first month was also different.
The exact answer is:At that time, the calendar stipulated when it was January, and New Year’s Day was on the first day of that month.
That is to say,New Year’s Day is different with different calendars.
Song Zhao Chang’s "The Picture of the Year"
Making a calendar has always been a national event. As "Historical Records and Almanac" said: "When the king changes his surname, he must be cautious at the beginning, correct the new moon, be easy to take the color, push the Tianyuan, and follow the will."
The so-called "correcting the new moon" means modifying the calendar. "Push this Tianyuan, inherit the meaning", that is, calculate the starting point of the calendar to adapt to the weather.
How many kinds of calendars were there in ancient China? For thousands of years, our ancestors have created a variety of calendars since the Yellow Emperor’s "determination of ephemeris". According to three books, A Summary of Ancient Masters, Calendar General Records and the Evolution History of China Calendar System,There are 115 kinds of ancient calendars in China with names to test.
Among them, Huangdi calendar, Zhuan Xu calendar, Xia calendar, Yin calendar, Zhou calendar, Lu calendar, taichu calendar calendar, Santong calendar, Quarter calendar, Jingchu calendar, Daming calendar and Dayan calendar are all famous calendars in history.
But no matter how many calendars there were in ancient China,
The month of "Jianzheng" is basically fixed in the four months of the lunar calendar.
Corresponding to this, New Year’s Day also has four days.
1. November of the lunar calendar, that is, the month of midwinter, the month of the founding of the son. Legend has it that the Yellow Emperor calendar takes Jiazi month as January, and Jiazi month as January day. The second month is the November of the lunar calendar, so the New Year’s Day of the Yellow Emperor calendar is the first day of November.
Zhou replaces the weekly calendar, which also takes November as the first month, so the New Year’s Day of the Zhou Dynasty is also the first day of November.
2. January of the lunar calendar, that is, the month of Meng Chun and the month of Jian Yin. "Historical Records and Almanac" said: "The past was from ancient times, and the calendar was built in Meng Chun." Sima Qian’s era of "the past lived in ancient times" may refer to the era of Zhuan Xu, one of the "Five Emperors".
"Records of the Laws of Jin Dynasty" says: "Wei Wendi Huang junior high school, Taishi made Gao Tanglong discuss the calendar in detail, and made more reforms. ….. Dong Ba suggested:’ Zhuan Xu took the first month of Meng Chun as the yuan, and the first month was the first month of New Moon in beginning of spring. That is to say, Zhuan Xu takes Meng Chun as the first month and January 1st of the lunar calendar as New Year’s Day.
"Historical Records and Almanac" said: "Summer is in the first month." Dong Ba also said, "Summer is the day to inherit Yao and Shun, so we should go from Zhuan Xu. The Book of Rites was built in Meng Chun, and it is also called. "
It means that the Xia Dynasty inherited the calendar of Zhuan Xu and took Meng Chun as the first month, so the New Year’s Day of the Xia Dynasty is the first day of the lunar calendar.
The lunar calendar we are talking about now is actually the summer calendar, which shows that the summer calendar has the greatest influence on later calendars.
In 104 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty launched taichu calendar, and officially decided to take the first month of the summer calendar as the beginning of the year and the first day of the first month of the summer calendar as New Year’s Day. Since then, although the calendar of our country has been revised many times, the beginning time of this year has not changed.
3. December of the lunar calendar, that is, the month of winter and the month of ugliness. "Historical Records and Almanac" said: "Yin is in December." The Shang Dynasty used the Yin calendar, which took the ugly month of December as the first month, so the New Year’s Day of the Shang Dynasty was the first day of the twelfth lunar month.
4. October of the lunar calendar is the month of Meng Dong and the month of Jian Hai. According to Historical Records, after Qin Shihuang unified China, he thought he was "rewarded with water virtue" and "in October".
During the Warring States Period, Zou Yan, a Yin-Yang scholar, put forward the theory of "Five Virtues Cycle", and explained the change of dynasties with "Five Elements Winning". At that time, people thought that the Zhou Dynasty was a "fire virtue", and Qin Shihuang thought that the dynasty he established was a "water virtue" because water overcame fire. Because the season corresponding to water is winter, and October is Meng Dong at the beginning of winter, Qin Shihuang took October of the lunar calendar as the first month and the first day of October as New Year’s Day.
Ren Bonian’s "Qing Dynasty Confessions"
After the establishment of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Gaozu said that "Northern China began to wait for me", that "Northern Hei Di" helped him to seize the world, and that he also thought that he was "rewarded by water virtue", so he still inherited the calendar of the Qin Dynasty. Later, Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing of Han Dynasty also used the calendar of Qin Dynasty, taking the first day of October as New Year’s Day, and it was not until Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty that it was changed to Xia Zheng.
It can be seen that New Year’s Day in ancient China,
There are the first day of October and the first day of November.
On the first day of December and the first day of January,
Plus the current Gregorian calendar on January 1,
There have been five different days on New Year’s Day since ancient times.
Wang Xuetao’s "Year of the DPRK"
On New Year’s Day in ancient times,
Also known as Yuan Day, Shang Day, Duan Day, Sui Dynasty, Lu Duan, etc.
It is the most important festival of the year.
Now, January 1st of the Gregorian calendar is designated as New Year’s Day.
And renamed the ancient New Year’s Day Spring Festival,
This is probably the biggest difference between ancient and modern New Year’s Day.
Wang Xuetao’s "Year of the DPRK"
Text: Guangzhou Daily Xinhua City reporter Zhong Kui
Photo: Guangzhou Daily Xinhua City reporter Zhong Kui (remake)
Dai Yujing, Editor of Guangzhou Daily Xinhua City
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