← Back to 明史

卷三十四 志第十 曆四

Volume 34 Treatises 10: Calendar 4

Chapter 34 of 明史 · History of Ming
← Previous Chapter
Chapter 34
Next Chapter →
1
Treatise Ten: Calendrics, Part Four.
2
▲ Grand Concordance Calendar Method, Part Two: Ready Reckoners.
3
便
Ready reckoners tabulate the expansion–contraction and slow–rapid values of the sun, moon, and five planets in advance, arranged for ready retrieval in stepwise computation. In the Yuan History and the Calendar Classic, the procedures for the seven regulators' expansion–contraction and slow–rapid motion each take two forms. One establishes the calculation through the three differences—this is the arrayed ready-reckoner method. The other reads: multiply the underlying expansion–contraction increment by the degrees entered into the limit, scale by ten thousand, and add it to the underlying expansion–contraction accumulation—this is the ready-reckoner method. Yet the transmitted ready reckoners were never recorded, leaving no basis for the calculation. They are reproduced here in full from the Comprehensive Track of the Grand Concordance Calendar. There are four sections: solar expansion–contraction, morning and evening divisions, lunar slow–rapid motion, and planetary expansion–contraction. Further particulars appear in Origins of the Method and in the Stepwise Computation fascicle. Note: According to the Yuan History, the Season Granting Calendar was completed in the seventeenth year of Zhizheng. Wang Xun died in the nineteenth year. The calendar had been promulgated, but the ready-reckoner constants still existed only as settled drafts. Guo Shoujing drew analogies among the drafts, harmonized the minutes and seconds, and reduced the work to two fascicles. The Imperial Astronomical Bureau edition now in use, however, credits Raised-Proposal Grandee and Grand Astrologer Wang Xun as having composed it by imperial commission. Perhaps Wang prepared the drafts and Guo brought them to completion?
4
Ready reckoners for the solar expansion-initial and contraction-final interval: the two quadrants before and after the winter solstice share the same table.
5
[Table omitted.]
6
Add 250 parts to the morning division to obtain the sunrise division. From the solar circuit of 10,000 parts, subtract the morning division to obtain the evening division. Subtract 250 parts from the evening division for sunset, and a further 5,000 parts for half-daylight. The ready reckoners therefore list only the morning and evening divisions; sunrise, sunset, and half-daylight follow from them without need for separate columns.
7
[Tables below omitted.]
← Previous Chapter
Back to Chapters
Next Chapter →