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顓頊曆考

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Text ID
KR3fb001
Date
1840–1853
Dynasty
清

Zhuānxū lì kǎo 顓頊曆考

Investigation of the Zhuānxū Calendar by 鄒漢勛 (撰)

About the work

The Zhuānxū lì kǎo 顓頊曆考 is a Qīng-period reconstructive study, in two juàn, of the Zhuānxū lì 顓頊曆 — the calendar in use under the Qín and the early Western Hàn (from c. 246 BCE down to the Tàichū reform of 104 BCE). Although the Hàn shū Yìwén zhì 漢書藝文志 listed a Zhuānxū lì in 21 juàn, the technical chapters of that work were not preserved in the Shǐjì “Lìshū” 厤書 or the Hàn shū “Lǜlì zhì” 律厤志, leaving later scholars no direct procedural specification of the system. Zōu Hànxūn 鄒漢勛 (zì Shūjì 叔績) of Xīnhuà set out to recover the procedure by working backwards from the dated solstices, new-moon graphs and intercalations recorded in the histories themselves, computing each against modern precise methods (mìshù 密術) and tabulating the discrepancies. The work is consciously modelled on the Chūnqiū chánglì 春秋長厤 chronological project of Dù Yù 杜預 and is intended as the first instalment of a planned continuation tabulating each calendrical system from the Tàichū to the Míng Dàtǒng “in aid of the Standard Histories” (以輔正史).

Abstract

The author’s own preface, signed “Xīnhuà Zōu Hànxūn Shūjì”, explains the genesis of the work: as a youth he was vexed by the disorderly day-graphs (rìzǐ chóuzhuó 日子稠濁) in the Shǐjì and the Hàn shū, and could find no way to set them right; later, having studied calendrical method, he attempted to recover their conjunctions and intercalations by modern computation, and found persistent disagreement. Eventually he realised that the discrepancy reflected the use of different running calendars in successive periods. From the twenty-seventh year of the First Emperor (220 BCE) down to the Hàn Tàichū (104 BCE), for 117 years the Zhuānxū lì was in operation; the Shǐjì and Hàn shū nowhere preserve its procedure, and “later students had no means to check the matter” (自來學者無從考校). His response was to comb the histories’ calendrical discussions and the dated entries of the Shǐjì and Hàn shū, compiling them into a unified table.

The work as transmitted opens by quoting the relevant loci classici: the Shǐjì “Lìshū” account of Qín’s adoption of Water Virtue and the zhèngshuò of the tenth month; the Hàn shū “Lǜlì zhì” account of the early-Hàn retention of the Qín calendar on the recommendation of Zhāng Cāng 張蒼; the Hàn shū “Yìwén zhì” entry “Zhuānxū lì 21 juàn”; and the Hòu Hàn shū “Lǜlì zhì” passage in which Cài Yōng 蔡邕 reports the Zhuānxū epoch as a yǐmǎo 乙卯 base. Zōu’s own tabular reconstruction follows. The catalog meta places him in the Qīng without specific dates; CBDB confirms 1805–1853 (id 65425), placing the work most plausibly in the 1840s, in the same period as his collaborative gazetteer work and his other historical-calendrical treatises (Yīn lì kǎo 殷曆考, Sìfēn shù 四分述). Since the planned continuation does not appear to have been completed before his death on the Tàipíng front in 1853, the notAfter is fixed at his death year; notBefore is set conservatively at 1840.

Translations and research

  • Sivin, Nathan. 2009. Granting the Seasons: The Chinese Astronomical Reform of 1280, with a Study of Its Many Dimensions and a Translation of Its Records. New York: Springer. — The standard Western treatment of late-imperial Chinese mathematical astronomy; provides the methodological context for Zōu’s enterprise.
  • Cullen, Christopher. 2017. The Foundations of Celestial Reckoning: Three Ancient Chinese Astronomical Systems. London: Routledge. — Includes the Tàichū, Sāntǒng and Hòu-Hàn Sì-fēn systems against which Zōu’s Zhuānxū reconstruction was implicitly measured.
  • Chén Měidōng 陳美東. 2003. Zhōngguó kēxué jìshù shǐ: Tiānwénxué juǎn 中國科學技術史·天文學卷. Beijing: Kēxué chū-bǎn-shè. — Standard Chinese-language survey; treats the Zhuānxū reconstruction project from Liú Xīn through Qīng kǎozhèng.
  • Zhāng Péi-yú 張培瑜 et al. 2008. Zhōngguó gǔdài lìfǎ 中國古代曆法. Beijing: Zhōngguó kēxué jìshù chū-bǎn-shè. — Comprehensive modern reference for ancient-calendar reconstructions; supersedes Zōu’s tables for practical use but acknowledges his pioneering.

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