On the word "month" in the oracle bone month
Relationship and function with the phases of the moon
There are two glyphs of the word "month" in the oracle bone inscription of Yinxu, one is ""the other is" ("because the oracle bone inscription is a hieroglyph, then") "what moon phase is like," (and what moon phase is it like?).
Say the text and interpret the word "cloud": "Moon, que, the essence of Taiyin." Pictographic. ”
Xu Hao's note said: "Ancient texts and Zhong Ding texts are like the shape of upper and lower strings. The sun is like a garden, so the moon is like a que. The small seal is inherited, and the glyph is Maomeier".
Chang Yuzhi said in "A Study of the Yin Shang Calendar" that "the word 'month' in the oracle bone inscription is in the shape of a half-moon, which is obviously derived from observing the changes of the moon."
The word 'moon' in the oracle bone inscription is half-moon-shaped, what kind of law does it have?Here, we collect lunar eclipse divination as a source source for research.
Oracle Collection (hereinafter referred to as "He") 11485:
Guihaibu, fighting for chastity: ten years of sorrow. January [( According to the oracle bone inscription, it is intended to illustrate the image of the word moon. The same applies hereinafter. )。Three.
Uncertainty, fighting for chastity: ten years of sorrow. February [(iii.
癸卯布, Zhengzhen: Ten years of sorrow. February [ ).
癸卯布, Zhengzhen: Ten years of sorrow. May [ ).
Uncertainty, fighting for chastity: ten years of sorrow. Three.
Uncertainty, fighting for chastity: ten years of sorrow. There is an eclipse of the moon on the third day. Sniff. August [ ) III.
This is a version of the tortoise's belly carapace assembled by Yan Yiping in 1951 from five fragments obtained from the third excavation of Yinxu, on which there are six Bin group divination speeches, including a record of a lunar eclipse on the second day of August. Lunar eclipses generally occur in synodic months.
Ten. 5. 16th. The above records can be arranged in the following table.
The calendar days related to the lunar eclipse are pushed to the table.
Zhang Peiyu believes that the lunar eclipse occurred in 1227 BC and in 1181 BC. We take the lunar eclipse in 1227 BC. From the actual calendar date of 1227 BC, it can be seen that the month of January is in the twentieth day, and the word "month" is in the shape of "(". February is not in the tenth day of the first month, and the word "month" is "(" shape. February 癸卯 in the thirtieth year, the word "month" is ")"shape. May 癸卯 is on the second day of the first month, and the word "month" is ")"shape. August 2 lunar eclipse, on the fifteenth, the word "month" is "") shape. The above table is not much different from the actual calendar day.
He" 40610 positive and negative, "British Tibet" 886 positive and negative classic bin class:
Front) 癸 [卯布], 贞: [揯] died [worried]. Two.
癸ugBu, Zhen: Ten years of worry. Two.
Guihaibu, Zhen: Ten years of sorrow. Two.
癸酉布, Zhen;Death worries. Two.
Uncertainty, fighting for chastity: ten years of sorrow. Wang Zhan said: "There is a request. "On the third day, the second day of the day was allowed to come into the teeth. Thirteen months [(ii.
Opposite) Wang Zhan [said]: There is a request.
On the seventh day, there was an eclipse in the month of Gengshen.
He" 40204 positive and negative, "British Tibet" 885 positive and negative classic guest class
Front) 癸海.
Deceased. Thirteen months [ ).
癸巳布, Zhen: Ten years of sorrow.
癸卯布, Zhen: Ten years of sorrow.
Negative) has not been eclipse.
Although this lunar eclipse and the same version of the same version of the lunar eclipse have the "thirteen months", it is extremely puzzling what month the lunar eclipse is written. Dong Zuobin believes that the divination of the day of the Zodiac is carried out before the day of the Emperor, when it is in the twelfth month of the Yin calendar. The order of his interpretation is reflected in the first verse above. Chen Mengjia thought that the divination should be interpreted in the order of the third divination, and the first divination should be used to fill in the missing text of the third divination. Thus, the divination record of the lunar eclipse must be placed after the thirteenth month of the lunar calendar, and in the first month of the lunar calendar. In order to intuitively compare the advantages and disadvantages of the two people's opinions, the author has written on the facsimile of the two people's views that are not in the third article, Dong said that it is shown in Figure 1, and Chen said that it is shown in Figure 2. Comparing the two pictures, it can be seen that, as Yi Dong said, the front side of the divination will be written at the bottom, and the reverse side will be written at the top, which is obviously unsatisfactory. According to Chen, it is obviously more reasonable that both the positive and negative divinations will be written at the top. In other words, the divination of the Zodiac Day is a better choice after the thirteenth month.
So, does this mean that the lunar eclipse of Gengshen is in the first month of the Yin calendar?
Not really. Reading from top to bottom in the pros and cons of He40610, and comparing it with He40204, the divination order of the days can be arranged in the following table, with the stems and months in parentheses that are not present or missing from the original word, and which seem to be supplemented in order. It can be seen that there are still Guihai Day and Guiyou Day between the thirteenth month and the Gui Chou Day. There is a distance of 40 days from the thirteenth month to the day of the Lunar New Year, a distance of 10 days from the day of the Lunar New Year, a distance of 40 days from the day of the Lunar New Year to the day of the Emperor, and a distance of 6 days from the day of the Lunar New Year. This shows that there are 96 days from the thirteenth month to the day of Jiwei. The lunar eclipse of Gengshen occurs in the third month of the Yin calendar.
The relevant calendar days can be extrapolated into the following table.
It has not been set on the eve of the Gengshen lunar eclipse calendar day push the table.
It has not been set to eclipse the moon in March of the Yin calendar. If it occurred in 1189 BC, it is consistent with the first year of the lunar eclipse in 1227 BC. The calendar days of this year and the above table show that the thirteenth month of the thirteenth month in the "He" 40204 is not on the eighth day of the first month, and the word "month" is ")". "He" 40610 in the day of Bingxu on the eleventh, the word "month" is "(" shape.
Some people think that in "He" 40610, it is the eighth day of the thirteenth month of the first month of the synodic month, and the image of the word "month" is "(" This is incorrect. There is such a divination in "Embellished Collection" 21: "Gui Chou Bu, Bin Zhen: As for Ding Si today, he is chasing." January. On the fifth day, Ding Si chased, and allowed to arrive". The divination in "He" 40610 is like this: "Uncertainty is uncertain, fighting for chastity: ten years of death and sorrow." Wang Zhan said: "Please." 'On the third day, the second day of the second day of the dish, the dish of Bingxu allowed to enter the teeth. Thirteen months [ ).Comparing the two, it is easy to see that "January" is before "Five Days Dingsi", and when it refers to "ugly" before. And "thirteen months" should belong to the later "Bingxu" after "three days of Yiyouxi dish Bingxu".
Spelling 283 ("He" 7363 positive and negative + "He" 7364 + "He" 11482 positive and negative [Dianbin]).
Front): 1) Geng Yinbu, Yongzhen: Wang Hui is neutral, if. November [(.]
2) Wang Zhan said: Ji.
3) Xin Mao Bu, Yongzhen: Wang Hui is neutral, if.
4) 癸ug布, Yongzhen: Ten [Death Sorrow] Five days Ding Sizi 囗殟.
5) 癸囗 [貞]: Ten ......
6) Xin Mao. 7) Ugly Zhen: Ten years of sorrow. Two.
8) 癸海貞: Ten years of sorrow. Two (frontal) ten, Renshen, the sunset moon has an eclipse. (Reverse).
9) 癸酉貞: Ten years of sorrow. Two.
10) 癸卯貞: Ten years of sorrow. Two.
11) 癸巳貞: Ten years of sorrow. Two.
12) 癸未貞: Ten years of sorrow. Two.
Negative): 1) Geng Yinbu, Yongzhen: Wang Hui is neutral, if.
He, 17078
Front) 1) ....Dead.
2) 癸子 (巳) Bu, fighting for chastity: ten years of sorrow. Jiawu has heard or Shi Chungfu, July [( Cai...
3) 癸卯布, fighting for chastity: ten years of sorrow.
4) Ugly Bu, Fight for Chastity): Ten Death Worries. On the fifth day, Ding Zi (巳) Zi was killed.
5) Death and sorrow.
Negative) 1)....Difficult, it has teeth.
2）…Renshen Xi Dish 癸酉....
He, 17075
Obverse) 1) Yi Mao Bu, fight for chastity: Today the king goes to Yu Dun. Two.
2) Yi Mao Bu, fight for chastity: the son is not killed. June [ ) II.
3) Zhen: Positive. 1. Don't hesitate.
1) Wang Zhan said: "No stay." ”
Spelling 283 and "He" 17078 can be read together, and "He" 17078 is -5 "癸 Hai" on the reverse side of "Renshen Xi Dish 癸酉" can make up for "lunar eclipse". "He" 17075 "Yi Mao Zi 囗不殟" and "Spelling" 283, "He" 17078 "Ding Si Zi 囗殟", whether the sun can be connected is not confirmed. In June, Yi Mao seems to be the words of a family member of the Master Network of Chinese Studies. According to the phases of the moon and the calendar day, the day of June and the day of July and the day of November should not be in the same year.
Some people think that November Gengyin can be ranked after the lunar eclipse of Renshen. Actually, it's not appropriate. From the point of view of divination, the 283 anti of "Spelling Collection", the 283 positive -1 of "Spelling Collection" and the 283 positive -3 of "Spelling Collection" are the same text divination. "Spelling" 283 anti and "Spelling" 283 positive -1 on the same day, "Spelling Collection" 283 anti and "Spelling Collection" 283 positive -3 days are connected, the same position and different faces, is the corresponding relationship. Therefore, the 283 anti of "Spelling Collection", the 283 positive -1 of "Spelling Collection" and the 283 positive -3 of "Spelling Collection" are inseparable. Spell 283-4 and Spell 283-3 are adjacent to each other, and are the same as Hop 17078-4. It can be seen that November Gengyin cannot be ranked after the lunar eclipse of Renshen.
The calendar days related to the lunar eclipse of Renshen are pushed out.
Note: TableBoldfaceThe calendar days for the comparison do not match the image of the inverted moon character.
The Renshen lunar eclipse had few problems in 1189. In the calendar day of that year, 17078-2 July Jia Wu on the fourth day of the first lunar month, the word "month" is "(" shape. Spelling 283-1 November Gengyin in the second year of the first month, the word "month" is "(" shape. The above table is one day behind, and the gap is not big.
The glyph of "month" in the aforementioned lunar eclipse divination can be counted as follows:
As can be seen from the table above, the two completely different images of the character "moon" are the imitation of the shape of the upper and lower quarters of the moon in the sky at that time. The word is like the first quarter moon, that is, in the middle of the synodic month.
The moon on the seventh and eighth days. (The word is like the last quarter moon, i.e., the twentieth month of the synodic month.)
2. The moon on the twenty-third day. Due to the sunrise (roughly 147), the new day (about the twentieth day of the month.
Nine, thirtieth and early days.
1. On the second day of the first lunar month), it cannot be represented by "(" or) alone, so "" (" is mixed. The mixing of the days of the full moon seems to have begun after the eighth day of the first month of the synodic month and ended before the second quarter of the month, i.e., the twenty-second day. The mixing of moonless (new) days begins after the twenty-third day of the synodic month and ends before the seventh day of the first quarter.
In view of this situation, in order to be able to use the different images of the word "month" in the divination of the month to find clues about the calendar months of the Shang Dynasty. We have made the following designs:
1.When remembering the word "month" in the divination of the month, as ")", the time period is from the day without the month, through the first quarter day, to the day of the full moon, that is, from the twenty-seventh day of the small month to the nineteenth day of the big month;When making "(", the period of time begins on the day of the full moon, passes through the last quarter day, and ends on the day without a moon, that is, from the twelfth day of the first month to the fourth day of the first month. And there is a two-day error before and after.
2.With the help of the concept of the new day and the looking day in the synodic month, they are expanded to include the day without the moon and the day of the full moon, that is, the period of the day without the moon is: the twentieth day of the small month.
Seven, twenty. VIII. XX.
IX.III. 10. Beginning.
First, the beginning. Second, the beginning.
3. The fourth day of the Lunar New Year;The time period of the full moon is: small moon.
Ten. II.X.
III.X. Four, ten. Five, ten.
Six, ten. Seven, ten.
8. The 19th of the Great Month. And add two days before and after as an error. The word "month" in the divination of the moon can be used as either " ) or "(" on the day of the moonless day and the day of the full moon
So, is the above definition useful for the Yin calendar notation?Our answer is yes, it works.
Some people may ask: the entire synodic moon can only determine the first half of the month 3 days, the second half of the month 3 days, is it a little less.
We believe that compared with the Shang Dynasty moon head that has not been determined so far, it is not too small to be able to determine the first half of the month for 3 days and the second half of the month for 3 days.
Let's first use He11485 to make a preliminary verification of the above definition.
Suppose we don't know that there has been a solar eclipse on the day of the second unitary, how should we arrange such a divination?
According to our definition of the word "month":
1.The word "month" is written as "(" cannot be less than the twelfth day of the small month.
2.The word "month" is "not greater than the 19th day of the great month."
By 1The first column of the calendar day in the above table can be pushed out, according to 2The third column of the calendar date in the above table can be deduced, and the second column can be taken at the end. From this result, it can be seen that the difference between the calendar and the actual calendar day is three days. Because the Shang Dynasty was still in the early days of the calendar, this result was acceptable.
Below, we will use the image of the word "month" in the calendar day in the full version of the oracle bone record to continue to verify and make a preliminary exploration of the calendar months of the Shang Dynasty.
Hebu 4956 is a version of the ox blade in the oracle bone inscription of the Bin group, which is composed of five broken bones. There are fifteen divination words on the name of the month on the cow blade. It is recorded in the divination that in March there is 癸未 and 癸巳, in April there is 癸卯, in May there is 癸未 and 癸巳, in June there is 癸巳, 癸卯, 癸卯, 癸ughou, in September, in September, there is 癸巳, 癸卯, 癸卯, in November there is 癸酉. The divination of the month is as follows:
The unengraved stem branch and month name are completed (the stem branch and month name in parentheses in the table below are intended to be supplemented), and together with the stem branch and month name recorded therein, the calendar date can be deduced according to the image of the word "month" recorded in the month as follows:
Note (the same below): 1tableBoldfaceThe calendar days for the comparison do not match the image of the inverted moon character.
2.The allowable error is indicated in bold in the table.
There is a difference of exactly two months, i.e., 59 days, from the fifth day of the fifth month to the seventh day of the seventh month. Obviously, the May day is the last day of the month, and the August day is the first day of the month. The table shows the 28th of May and the 29th of August. It can be seen from this that the first month of the Shang Dynasty calendar month in this year was on the 29th, that is, before the new day.
He" 11546 is one of the four editions of the large tortoise belly shell unearthed from the famous "Dalian Pit". There are thirteen words for the name of the month on the belly. They are recorded in October, November, December, December, December, December, October, February, April, May. The divination of the month is as follows:
The unengraved stem branch and month name are completed (the stem branch and month name in parentheses in the table below are intended to be supplemented), and together with the stem branch and month name recorded therein, the calendar date can be deduced according to the image of the word "month" recorded in the month as follows:
Since the shape of the month of October 癸酉 is "from the definition, it can be seen that the shape of the month ")" can start on the twenty-seventh day of the small month and end on the nineteenth day of the big month. In other words, the twenty-seventh day of the big month and the nineteenth day of the small month are already exceeded, but they are still within the allowable margin of error. In the three columns of the table above, the middle column is the best result for only one calendar day that exceeds but is still within the allowable error range. Since there are 59 days between the 5th day of the 12th month and the 7th day of the second month, there are exactly two synodic months. December is supposed to be the last day of the month, and February is undoubtedly the first day of the month. Judging from the table, the day of December is the 28th, and the day of February is the 29th, so the first month of the calendar month of this year should be on the 29th, that is, before the new day.
From the above two examples, it can be seen that the first month of the Shang Dynasty calendar month can be before the new day, that is, the obscure day.
The collection of "16689" has six divination words on the name of the month. It is recorded in the divination: in June, there are 癸未, 癸巳, and 癸卯, in July there is 癸ug, and in August there are 癸巳 and 癸卯. The following table is used to record the month and the month
The unengraved stem branch and month name are completed (the stem branch and month name in parentheses in the table below are intended to be supplemented), and together with the stem branch and month name recorded therein, the calendar date can be deduced according to the image of the word "month" recorded in the month as follows:
According to our definition of the word "month", the form of the word "月" begins as early as the twelfth day of the minor month of the synodic month and ends on the fourth day of the first month of the month at the latest. In other words, the twelfth day of the major month of the synodic month and the fourth day of the minor month have already been exceeded. In the above table, the middle column does not match the shape of the moon, and the result is the best. Article 3 The day of the sixth month of the Similar notations can also be seen in He" 16751 and "Hebu" 4924.
The collection of 16710 is a version of the three types of bone editions of the Bu Xun Ci, and there are three names of the month. It is recorded in the divination: there are Guihai and Guiwei in July, and there are Guisi in August. The divination of the month is as follows:
The unengraved stem branch and month name are completed (the stem branch and month name in parentheses in the table below are intended to be supplemented), and together with the stem branch and month name recorded therein, the calendar date can be deduced according to the image of the word "month" recorded in the month as follows:
From the calendar day notation in the three columns of the above table, it can be seen that the middle column of the notation does not match the shape of the moon, and the result is the best. This is because the day of the seventh month of the second month and the day of the eighth month of the third month of the third month are from the third day to the thirteenth day of the synodic month. From this, it can be seen that the first month of the year falls between the 4th and 13th days of the synodic month, that is, before the full moon. The similar arrangement also exists in "He" 16732 and "He" 4931.
Based on the above two types of notation, it can be determined that the beginning of the month in the Shang Dynasty was around the day of the full moon.
In other words, the first lunar month of the Shang Dynasty was not one, but two. Since there are two moonheads, there will inevitably be a problem of switching between the two months.
The 74th of Zhang Juntao's "New Decoration of Oracle Bones in Yinxu" (4843 + Beizhen 1020 + 16662 + 16749) is a version of the back armor inscription of the bin group composed of fragments. There are seven words on it to record the month and the month. It is recorded in the divination: October 癸海, December 癸卯, thirteen months 癸海, 癸酉, 癸巳, January 癸海, April 癸未. The divination of the month is as follows:
The sum of the names of the stems and months recorded in them, together with the names of the stems and months that have not been engraved, are restored to the following table (the names of the stems and months in parentheses are to be added). The calendar dates are as follows:
As can be seen from the score, the 17th day of the 10th month is the 17th day of the synodic month, and the 13th day of the 13th month is the 18th, which indicates that the first day of the month before the 13th month is on the 18th. Because the thirteenth month is unlikely to be the synodic month of the two, it is likely that the first month after the thirteenth month will be on a moonless day. If this is the case, then the month of March is the month of the first month of the month, which converts the first month from the day of the full moon of the previous year to the day of the moonless day of the next year. The month of July in the aforementioned "Collection" 16689 may also be the month of the first transformation of the month.