As the Duke of Huai's office held the grand ceremony of the scholars, scholars from all schools were delighted. Many people traveled thousands of miles to Huaiguo Academy with their letters.
Anyone with some discernment knows that as long as he is selected into the Hundred Schools of Scholars and his books are included in it, he will be famous throughout the ages. How could he miss such an opportunity?
At the same time, the states of Bangzhou also received the news that Huai State was going to compile the classics of various schools of thought. As kings, they quickly thought of the benefits of this matter. This matter could greatly improve the status of Huai State and help Huai State. The country gained orthodox status.
They were extremely unwilling, but the Huai State was so powerful that other countries did not dare to oppose it. What surprised them even more was that the original scholars in the country rushed to Huai State one after another.
Among the Xia, there are many scholars, but not many are famous in the world. Besides, except for those who have achieved great achievements in officialdom, others only have some records of fables and allusions, and very few are recorded in official history.
Now Huai State has come forward to record hundreds of schools of thought. This will naturally not be missed by those of the Xia kingdoms who want to leave their names in history and make their own teachings popular in the world.
There are many schools of thought, including everything. The Huai State came forward to compile them, giving these people the opportunity to write books and biographies.
Huai State mobilized a large amount of manpower and material resources to begin compiling the theories of various schools of thought.
At the same time, after developing in the Huai Kingdom for a period of time, the Mohists began to study astronomy. Huai State has a vast territory, thousands of miles from north to south, and the climate varies greatly from place to place. Growing various food crops also varies greatly, and even the time of year they are farmed varies.
For an agricultural country, food is vital, so when to plant and what crops to plant must be careful.
At first, the Huai Kingdom only had an area along the Huai River Basin, and there was little difference in the food grown here. However, after the land of Wu Yue and Jing Chu was captured, the climate and environment changed drastically.
Therefore, more accurate farming times and food growing techniques are needed. At this time, the Huai State called in scholars from the Mohist family and peasant families to prepare a calendar.
How important is the calendar? It is closely related to agriculture, represents the foundation of the country, and affects the entire course of history.
From ancient times to the present, human beings like to look up at the stars. The sun and the moon are the two closest to humans and have the greatest influence.
And since ancient times, humans have worshiped the sun and the moon. Deify the sun and moon. and given a special meaning.
The emergence of the calendar was first summarized based on the changes in the position and shape of the sun and moon.
Ancient ancestors discovered that the position of the sun has a huge impact on temperature changes. The appearance of the four seasons throughout the year is closely related to the position of the sun.
So people recorded the changes in the alternation of day and night throughout the year.
The seasons change throughout the year. The sun is farther away, the shadows of stone pillars on the ground are longer, and winter is coming. The sun is closer and the shadows of stone pillars on the ground are shorter. It’s summer. After winter, everything flourishes and is full of vitality. This is spring. The vegetation is bleak, the fruits are ripe, and the crops are harvested. This is autumn.
The four seasons of the year come again and again, and the sages recorded the time of the four seasons of the sun. Each time the four seasons of the sun complete a cycle, it is called a year.
So humans have the concept of year.
The changes of the moon are more obvious, with the moon waxing and waning. The moon grows from a crescent moon at the beginning, then grows up little by little, becomes a crescent moon, a half moon, and finally a full moon, and this pattern repeats itself over and over again. Ancient ancestors recorded this law and called it 'moon'.
So the earliest calendars 'solar calendar' and 'lunar calendar' appeared.
But with the new calendar, people didn't know what it meant.
When humans entered the agricultural era, the role of the calendar emerged. Farming and food cultivation require accurate time. Once the time is inaccurate, whether it is a few days early or a few days late, it will affect the harvest of food.
So the rulers began to calibrate the calendar for the first time to find the most accurate day for farming.
Later, in order to confirm their orthodoxy, rulers began to emphasize the 'first month'.
Starting from the Xia Dynasty, the Xia Dynasty revised its own calendar and confirmed its own first month. After the Yin and Shang Dynasties defeated and established the Xia Dynasty, they also established their own calendar to confirm their own first month.
However, due to the limited knowledge at the time, these calendars were inaccurate and contained many errors and omissions. More importantly, after hundreds of years, the errors in the calendars have reached an unbearable level.
After King Wu defeated Shang, Bang Zhou also established his own calendar, but this calendar also faced inaccuracies. The Huai Kingdom originally used Bang Zhou's calendar, but as the Huai Kingdom continued to grow, the errors and omissions in Bang Zhou's calendar also became larger and larger.
Therefore, the calendar had been recalibrated as early as Huaiwen Xianggong, but this calendar was only a correction based on the Zhou Dynasty calendar. Now that Huai State has occupied Chu State, which is two thousand miles away, Wang Pu is ready to revise his calendar.
Like the revision of the canon of various schools of thought, the revision of the calendar was also intended to confirm the orthodoxy of the Huai Kingdom.
The lunar calendar and the solar calendar are closely related, but there is a gap of several days between them, which will cause the seasons to change in the first month.
The beginning of the year must be in spring, and the harvest must be in autumn.
Errors in the solar calendar will lead to errors in farming. In a farming society, nothing is more important than important land.
The Huai Kingdom originally had a star observatory. Wang Pu ordered the public servants of the Huai Kingdom to study the celestial phenomena together with Mohist disciples and peasant disciples, and then determine the farming season based on the changes in time, farming time, and harvest time over the years.
Calculate an accurate calendar based on the positions of the sun, moon, and stars. This project requires a lot of time. Fortunately, the Mohists and farmers also conducted detailed research on time, climate, and astronomy. This is good news for the Huai Kingdom.
Based on everyone's suggestions, Wang Pu began to build star observatories in various places in Huai State, allowing people from various places to study celestial phenomena and then conduct summary calculations.
It takes a lot of time to study astronomical phenomena and compile calendars. At the same time, Huai State discovered that the climate change times and farming times were different in different places, so he observed and recorded the positions of the sun and stars in different places at the same time.
After a large amount of data is summarized, sorted and calculated, the entire process becomes extremely complex. Even while studying these astronomical objects, the best astronomers and mathematicians of Huai State discovered a surprising problem. They found that the height of Northern Star changes with north and south.
The farther south, the lower the Northern Star, and the further north, the higher the Northern Star, which led them to conclude that the earth is round.
——
In the splendid history of scientific development in ancient times, the development of astronomy is equally amazing. The accuracy of the calendar in ancient China was astonishing. Among them, the achievements of the ancient Huai Kingdom attracted the attention of the world.
The birth of the Huaiwang Calendar was epoch-making. It was the first calendar in the world that combined the Gregorian calendar and the lunar calendar. However, the second calendar in the world that combined the Gregorian calendar and the lunar calendar did not appear until more than 1,500 years later.
Moreover, the error of this calendar is surprisingly small. Thanks to Wang's adjustments to this calendar, we still use this calendar from more than 2,000 years ago in society today.
What’s even more incredible is that more than two thousand years ago, ancient China discovered that the earth is round. All this is simply unbelievable, but when you think about the country where he was born, and the family full of legends and even myths, it all seems very reasonable. ——"History of the Development of Ancient Astronomy"
(End of chapter)
