Calendars of China neighbors

The 60-year old account system, although with some changes, spread from China to neighboring countries - Mongolia, Vietnam, Korea, Japan. In particular, the Mongols used the colors instead of the five elements: blue, red, yellow, white and black, and for even years in the form of "bluish", "reddish", etc. At the heart of the 60-year Mongolian cycle,year cycle. However, another, shorter way of counting the years was adopted: 12-year cycles, in which each year bore the name of a particular animal, as can be seen from Table.

Table. Names years 12-year Mongolian calendar animal cycle

serial number year	Mongolian name	Russian names	Modulo 12
1	hulgana lived	year mouse	4
2	Uher lived	year cow	5
3	leopard lived	year of the tiger	6
4	tuulay lived	year hare	7
5	luu lived	year of the dragon	8
6	lived	lived	9
7	morin lived	year of the horse	10
8	honin lived	year of the sheep	11
9	the sword lived	year of the monkey	0
10	year of the monkey	0
10	year of the chicken	1
11	nKhoi lived	year dog	2
12	Hacha lived	year of the pig	3

chronology of such a calendar is conducted in Mongolia since 1027 BC.e. The months of this calendar have no names. When dating is indicated the number, the serial number of the month and the year number with the addition of its name in the 12-year cycle. We find this last by dividing the year by the Gregorian calendar by 12;the remainder of the division, in accordance with Table.16, and gives the name of the year: "10th of the 5th moon( ie month) 953 years of the tiger".

In Vietnam, the beginning of the 60-year cycles coincide with the Chinese( 1924, 1984, etc.).The ten names of the "celestial cycle" are here: Zap, At, Bien, Din, May, Ki, Kan, Tang, Nyam, Kui, "Earth cycle" - Ty( mouse), Shiu( buffalo), Zan( tiger), Mao(cat), Tyn( dragon), You( snake), Ngo( horse), Mui( goat), Tan( monkey), Zau( chicken), Tuat( dog) and Khoy( pig).And here 1981 is the year of "metal and chicken".Nowadays, however, the official calendar in Vietnam is the Gregorian calendar.

The population of modern India speaks more than two hundred languages. It is clear that in the past each tribe developed its own calendar. Therefore, until recently, about 35 different calendars, mostly lunisolar ones, were used to determine the dates of holidays in this country.

One of the most original calendars used in individual regions of India for more than 1500 years, worth mentioning especially. It was based on the duration of the stellar year, that is, the time interval after which the Sun, moving along the ecliptic, returns to the same star. But the star year at 0.01416 days = 20.4 minutes longer than the tropical year. This means that during the time 1: 0.01416 = 60.3 years in this calendar, the beginning of the true, tropical year was shifted one day ago. Conversely, the calendar year, which began 1500 years ago on the day of the vernal equinox( March 21), now comes 22-23 days later( around April 12-13).This year was divided into six seasons, each season for two months, with the duration of two summer months reaching 32 days, whereas two winter months - for 29-30 days. Thus, the unevenness of the Sun's movement along the ecliptic, which had long been noticed by Indian astronomers, was displayed.

In 1957, in India, for the civil and public purposes, the United National Calendar( Table) was adopted, in which the length of the year is assumed to be equal to the length of the tropical year.

Number of the month	Number of the month	Date of the month	Number of days in the month	The number of days in the month	The beginning of the month according to the Gregorian calendar
1	The kaitra
6	Bhadra	31	August 23
7	Azvina	30	September 23
8	Kartika	30	October 23
9	Agrahayana	30	November 22
10	Pause	30	December 22
11	Magha	30	January 21
12	Phalguna	30	February 20

The calendar year is divided into 12 months for 30 and 31 days and consists of 365 days. In a leap year, 366 days and the month of Chaitra in it has 31 days. New Year( 1 Chaitra) begins from the day following the spring equinox. In a simple year it coincides with March 22, in a leap year - from March 21.The account of the years in this calendar was started from 78 AD.e.(the so-called Saka era).To determine the leap year to the year of the Saka era, the number 78 is added, and if the sum obtained is divisible without a remainder by 4, then the year is a leap year. If, after adding the number 78 to the year of the Saka era, the sum turns out to be a multiple of 100, the year will be a leap year only if this sum is divided without a remainder by 400. In other words, the alternation of simple and leap years in this calendar completely coincides with their alternation in the Gregorian.

The Gregorian calendar has been used in India since 1757. Currently, almost all books published in India, newspapers and magazines date back to the Gregorian calendar. Double dating is also used: according to the Gregorian calendar and local, civil. In Japan, the Gregorian calendar was introduced in 1973.

Fig. Armillary sphere of the ancient Beijing observatory

A catalog of stars was compiled, the duration of the solar year was established at 365.25 days. In the middle of the Chunqiu era( 722-481 BC), a calendar reform was carried out, legalizing the insertion of seven months into 19 years. Thus, the "meton cycle" was discovered by Chinese astronomers much earlier. In 366 BC.e.from the new moon, coinciding with the first day of "Jia-chi" on the cyclic tables, a calendar was introduced "Zhu-an-sui li", in which the year began with the winter solstice, the month-from the new moon, day - from the morning dawn. Since the middle of the III century. BC.e.the insertion of the 13th month was carried out not after the 12th, but after the 6th month of the year. Around this time, the famous Chinese philosopher Mencius( 372-289 BC) said: "... although the sky is high and the stars are far away, but by examining their manifestations, we can, while sitting at home, determine, on what day a thousand years ago there was a solstice. "

The time count on seasons has been continuously improved. During the Qin Dynasty( 246-201 BC), the solar year was divided into 24 seasons, depending on the position of the Sun on the ecliptic. This calendar determined the timing of sowing and harvesting, conducting other agricultural works.

In order not to be late with the spring field work, residents of Chinese villages came up with various ways to determine the beginning of spring. For example, starting from the winter solstice, nine hieroglyphs with nine dashes in each( these hieroglyphs could mean such a phrase, "before a window the tree waits for a spring wind") and conducted one stick per day. When all the hieroglyphs were painted, it meant that spring came. ..

In 104 BC.e.in China, was adopted a new calendar system, "Taichu Li," known as the "santung".In it, the duration of the synodic month was taken equal to 29 days, the number of days in the 19-year cycle, amounting to 1 "tsan" - 6939,753.Hence the duration of the year was 365,2502 days. The years with the insertion months were 3rd, 6th, 9th, 11th, 14th, 17th, 19th. The time for the insertion of the 13th month was determined on the basis of astronomical observations, since the following conditions had to be met: the winter solstice should always be on the 11th moon, the summer solstice on the 5th, the autumnal equinox, on the 9th and the spring solstice on theThe 2 nd. Months of the 11th, 12th and 1st did not double.

Of course, and this calendar was far from perfect. But, according to PA Startsev, every new imperial dynasty in China, and sometimes even individual princes, considered it their duty to propose a new calendar system or to make some or other changes to existing ones for the purpose of perpetuating one's name( the calendar bore the name of the emperor who proposed it).And this often led not to improvement, but to the deterioration of the calendar. So, in the year 9 n.e.one of the princes "in order to accelerate the movement of time" ordered not to introduce an additional month this year, although the rules in force such an insert was provided. In 84 AD.e. Emperor Zhengdi, in order to obtain favorable astrological predictions, ordered the introduction of an "amendment" in. .. the motion of the planets. In general, only for a millennium before 1100 AD.e.calendar reforms in China were conducted 70 times, 13 times the system of chronology was changed.

In the XI century.n.e.astronomer Shen Ko( 1031-1095) made an attempt to introduce a purely solar calendar, in which the duration of the months was determined solely by the movement of the Sun along the ecliptic. This proposal, however, caused fierce attacks on the astronomer, and the calendar itself was rejected. In 1281, the famous Chinese astronomer Go Shoujing( 1231-1316) compiled the Shoushi Li calendar, in which the duration of the tropical year was assumed equal to 365.2425 days, that is, only 26 seconds greater than its true value. The accuracy of this calendar was the same as the Gregorian, introduced in Europe three centuries later.

In 1670, China introduced the division of the day for 24 hours, every hour - for 60 "Fen"( minutes), every minute - 60 "Miao"( seconds).The Gregorian calendar began to be applied in China on January 1, 1912;since 1949, after the formation of the People's Republic of China, this calendar began to be used in the country as official, although now many newspapers and magazines are published with a double date - according to the Gregorian calendar and the 60-year calendar cycle.