How did the ancients calculate time?

Stand the watch and keep the time! Or an hourglass timer!

The hourglass sun is the reflection of the pole.

Midnight, also known as sub-bai night, midnight: the first hour of the twelve. Chicken crowing, also known as wild chicken:

The second hour of the twelve. Pingdan, also known as dawn, morning, day, etc.: time is the time when night and day alternate.

Sunrise, also known as the beginning of the sun, the dawn, the rising sun, etc.: refers to the time when the sun has just appeared and is rising.

The ancients recorded time in the form of incense, sundials, and omissions. Burning incense originated from the ancient times when monks meditated, and the time for a stick of incense was about an hour. A sundial is a timekeeping instrument that uses shadows to measure time, while omissions measure time by dripping water.

Leakage is also known as leaky pot, which is measured by dripping water. Early leaks usually let water flow out of the holes in the pot, and in the pot there were floating arrows that descended with the surface of the water, and the current time could be seen by the scale indicated by the floating arrows.

In ancient times, people calculated time according to the degree of incense burned, as well as the position of the sun, and at night according to the position of the moon.

The ancients kept track of time by sundials, and at night they kept track of time by watching.

The times of antiquity are as follows:

Midnight:

Also known as midnight and midnight: the first hour of the twelve hours (23 o'clock to 01 o'clock Beijing time).

Ugly time] rooster crow:

Also known as the wild chicken: the second hour of the twelve hours (01:00 to 03:00 Beijing time).

寅時】Pingdan:

Also known as dawn, morning and sun, etc.: the time is the time when night and day alternate (03:00 to 05:00 Beijing time).

Sunrise:

Also known as the beginning of the day, the dawn, the rising sun, etc.: refers to the time when the sun has just appeared and is rising (from 05:00 to 07:00 Beijing time).

Chenshi] Eating time:

Also known as morning food, etc.: the time when the ancients "pilgrimage" was the time to eat breakfast (from 07:00 to 09:00 Beijing time).

巳時】隅中:

Also known as Riyu and so on: close to noon, it is called Yuzhong (09:00 to 11:00 Beijing time).

Noon] Midday:

Also known as day, noon, etc.: (11 a.m. to 13 p.m. Beijing time).

Not time] Riyu:

Also known as the sun falls, the sun falls, etc.: the sun is west for the sun to fall. (1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Beijing time).

Shen Shi] Feeding time:

Also known as the day rough shop, evening eclipse, etc.: (15 to 17 o'clock Beijing time).

Unitary time] daily income:

Also known as sunset, sunset, evening: It means when the sun sets. (From 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Beijing time).

Dusk:

Also known as sunset, sunrock, morning and evening, etc.: at this time, the sun has set, and the sky will be dark. The sky and the earth are dim, and everything is hazy, so it is called dusk. (7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Beijing time).

Hai Shi] people are determined:

Also known as fixed dusk, etc.: At this time, the night is dark, and people have stopped their activities and are resting and sleeping. People are quiet, that is, people are quiet. (9 p.m. to 11 p.m. Beijing time).

Ancient more (ancient is even more by time):

7 p.m. and 9 p.m. for a watch.

9 p.m. and 11 p.m. for the second watch.

From 11 p.m. to 1 a.m., there are three watches.

From 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., there is a fourth watch.

3 p.m. and 5 p.m. for the fifth watch.

In ancient times, people counted the cycle of rising and setting the sun as a day, and then divided the day into twelve hours - Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu, and Hai. The hours are called "great hours", and each hour is equivalent to two hours. Originally, people relied mainly on the change in the orientation of the sun to determine the time.

Later, through long-term practice and observation, people discovered the change law of the shadow of objects under the sun: in the day, the shadow is the longest in the morning and evening, and the shadow is the shortest at noon, and the direction of the shadow will change with the movement of the sun. According to this law of change, people invented and made "sundials" to calculate the time of day.

However, this method of timekeeping will not work if it is cloudy and rainy, such as when there is no sun, so there are many instruments and methods used for timekeeping in ancient times. For example, the timing of leaky pots, which has appeared in the Zhou Dynasty, is to use water to slowly drip from the small holes of the copper kettle, so that the vertical rod marked with the scale in the pot gradually shows the scale, and you can understand the time.

In addition, there is also a method used to calculate short-term time, incense burning time, which is also a commonly used timekeeping method. However, not only were these methods cumbersome to use, but the instruments used for these timekeeping were cumbersome, so it was not until the invention of clocks that people could easily keep time. The leaky pot, invented during the Zhou Dynasty, has become a commonly used timekeeping instrument in the Spring and Autumn Period.

However, with the change of dynasties and the development of history, the production method of the leaky pot and the accuracy of the timing are gradually improving. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang Heng made a two-stage leaky pot, which made the timing of the leaky pot more accurate, and also improved the stability of using the leaky pot timing. Although the structure of the sundial is simple, it can calculate the time of the day based on the change of the sun's shadow, making it easier to keep time.

Later, it was discovered that the length of the shadow of the sun also changed regularly during the year, and according to this law, the "Gui Watch" was invented and made to record the time of the year. At the same time, people set the day with the longest shadow at noon as the "winter solstice", the day with the shortest shadow as the "summer solstice", and the two days in the middle of the sun shadow are the "spring equinox" and "autumn equinox".In the ranks of traditional timekeeping instruments in our country, there is an ancient timekeeping instrument that has long been lost - the stele leak.

This timekeeping instrument was used in the Tang, Song, Jin, and Yuan periods, and was later lost. Now, in the Drum Tower in Beijing, there is an imitation of the ancient timekeeping instrument "Tablet Leak", which can help us understand the timing method of this instrument from one side. There are 12 copper pipes arranged in a zigzag pattern inside the stele, and the copper balls thrown from the top fall down along the pipes and hit the copper cymbals on the base to make a sound, which is considered to be the time signal.

1. Twelve-hour system.

It has been used since the Western Zhou Dynasty. In the Han Dynasty, it was named in the middle of the night, the rooster crowed, the pingdan, the sunrise, the eclipse time, the middle of the day, the middle of the day, the day of the day, the time of the sun, the sunset, the dusk, and the people. It is also expressed by the twelve earthly branches, taking 23 o'clock to 1 o'clock in the middle of the night as the sub-time, 1 to 3 o'clock as the ugly time, and 3 to 5 o'clock as the yin time, and then pushing it in turn.

2. Twenty-four hour system.

After the Song Dynasty, each hour in the twenty hours was divided into two parts: the beginning and the positive, so that the sub-beginning, the sub-positive, the ugly beginning, and the ugly positive. In turn, it is exactly twenty-four hours, which is the same as the twenty-four hours of the present day.

3. Ten hour system.

Appears in the pre-Qin period. Five minutes each day and night. According to the Book of Sui. Astronomical Chronicles", the day is Chao, Yu, Zhong, Sun, and Xi, and the night is A, B, C, D, and E (later represented by five watches).

4. Five-hour system.

Its name is Chenming, Fuming, Danming, Flea (Morning) Food, Banquet (Evening) Food, Yuzhong, Zhongzhong, Shaohui, Pushi, Da Hui, Gao Chung, Xia Chung, County (Hanging) East, Dusk, and Dusk. See Huainanzi. Astronomical Training.

5. 100 carvings.

That is, to divide day and night into a balanced 100 quarters. Its generation is related to the use of omissions. Probably originated in the Shang Dynasty.

In the Han Dynasty, it was transformed into one hundred and twenty carvings, and the Liang of the Southern Dynasty was changed to ninety-six and one hundred and eight carvings, and after several iterations, it was not until the end of the Ming Dynasty that the introduction of European astronomical knowledge proposed the reform of the ninety-six carving system, and the early Qing Dynasty was set as a formal system.

6. Ancient times did not necessarily have a strict temporal significance, and there were many commonly used related names.

Generally speaking, sunrise can be called dan, morning, morning, morning, and sunset, and sunset, twilight, and evening when sunrise. When the sun is in the middle of the day, it is called the middle of the day, noon, and the noon, and when the sun is in the middle of the day, it is called the middle of the day, and when it is in the west, it is called the middle of the day, and the middle of the day is called the middle of the day, the middle of the day, and the middle of the day. After the sunset is dusk, after dusk is the people, after the people are set is the middle of the night (or called the night equinox), after the middle of the night is the rooster crow, after the rooster crow is the dawn, the day is bright.

The ancients had two meals a day, and the meal was served in the corner after sunrise and before mid-day, and this time was called food time or morning food; Dinner is after sunset and before sunset, and this time is called the dawn hour.

The ancients divided the day and night into twelve hours, which were represented by the name of the twelve earthly branches with the word "time". That is, the time of the child, the time of the ugly, the time of the yin, the time of the hour, the time of the hour, the time of the hour, the time of the noon, the time of the future, the time of the Shen, the time of the unitary, the time of the Xu, the time of the sea.

Each moment is equivalent to two hours today. The relationship between these twelve hours and the modern timekeeping system is: sub-time - 23 o'clock to 1 o'clock, ugly hour - 1 o'clock to 3 o'clock, mid-hour - 3 o'clock to 5 o'clock, and so on, the morning hour is 21 o'clock to 23 o'clock in reality.

Outwitting the Birth Gang" said: "Yang Zhi wants the Chen card to get up, and Shen Shi will rest" in the "Chen card" is "Chen time", and the ancient times always used "cards", so they often used "cards" to replace the time. The hour is from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.; The application time is from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. (3 p.m. to 5 p.m.).

1. Midnight (23 o'clock to 01 o'clock), also known as midnight and midnight: the first hour of the twelve.

2. Ugly time (01 o'clock to 03 o'clock) rooster crow, also known as wild chicken: the second hour of the twelve hours.

3. Yin Shi (03 o'clock to 05 o'clock) Pingdan, also known as dawn, morning, day, etc.: Shi is the time when night and day alternate.

4. Sunrise (05 o'clock to 07 o'clock), also known as the beginning of the sun, dawn, rising sun, etc.: refers to the time when the sun has just appeared and is rising.

5. Chenshi (07 o'clock to 09 o'clock) food time, also known as morning food, etc.: the time when the ancient Chinese people "eat in the morning" is also the time to eat breakfast.

6. When it is (09 o'clock to 11 o'clock), it is also known as Riyu, etc.: it is called Yuzhong when it is close to noon.

7. Noon (11 o'clock to 13 o'clock) in the middle of the day, also known as the day at noon, noon, etc.

8. Before the time (13 o'clock to 15 o'clock) sunset, also known as the sun falls, the sun is sunset, etc.: the sun is westward for the sunset.

9. Shen Shi (15 o'clock to 17 o'clock) feeding time, also known as day shop, evening food, etc.

10. Unitary time (17 o'clock to 19 o'clock) sunset, also known as sunset, sunset, evening: it means when the sun sets.

11. Dusk (19 o'clock to 21 o'clock), also known as sunset, sunset, evening and so on: at this time, the sun has set, and the sky will be dark. The sky and the earth are dim, and everything is hazy, so it is called dusk.

12. At the time of Hai (21 o'clock to 23 o'clock), people are fixed, also known as fixed dusk, also known as fixed dusk, etc.: At this time, the night is dark, and people have stopped their activities and rested and slept. People are quiet, that is, people are quiet.