Chapter 33 The origin of the first section

When did stems and branches originate?It is still difficult to give a definite answer.However, the oracle bone inscriptions unearthed in the past hundred years contain a large number of records of stems and branches used to record the date.It shows that as early as the Yin and Shang Dynasties, the use of Ganzhi to record the date has been widely used, so the generation of Ganzhi should be earlier than the Yin and Shang Dynasties.Nowadays, everyone believes that the Jiri Ganzhi in the Spring and Autumn Period is in the same line as the current Jiri Ganzhi, which can be confirmed from the records of 37 solar eclipses in the "Spring and Autumn".In recent years, some people have deduced that from the beginning of the Yin Dynasty to the present, the dates of the stems and branches have been continuous based on the records of the lunar eclipse in the inscriptions of the Yin Ruins.However, there are still some uncertainties in this conclusion.

Some people think that people invented stems and branches to record dates.After searching all the ancient documents, there is no such statement, so we do not agree with this opinion.According to "Historical Records Lvshu" and "Shuowen Jiezi" and other books, according to the meaning of the words, it can be interpreted as: A: when the plant breaks the armor; B: when the plant buckles and grows; C: when the weather is bright; D: Ding The time of strength; E: the time of abundance; Ji: the time of knowledge; Geng: the time of maturity; Xin: the time of renewal;This clearly shows that Tiangan is the phenology of 10 seasons in a year.According to "Shiming", "Historical Records Lvshu" and "Shuowen Jiezi", the meanings of the twelve names are: son: when everything breeds; ugly: when twisting and sprouting; Yin: when sprouting and growing; : the time when the seedlings break through the ground; chen: the time of stretching and growing; The time of aging and yellow; Hai: the time of collection.Therefore, the twelve earthly branches also clearly indicate the 12 seasons of plant growth in a year.

The heavenly stems and earthly branches are two different methods of dividing the seasons, and they are two different calendar systems.The heavenly stem belongs to the solar calendar, and the earthly branches belong to the lunar calendar. Therefore, Yu Xi, an astronomer in the Jin Dynasty, called the heavenly stem the sun male and the earthly branch the lunar female. "Erya Shitian" refers to the heavenly stem as the moon yang, and the earthly branch as the name of the moon.Tiangan is the year is divided into 10 months, each month is 36 days of the solar calendar month name; Earthly Branches is the lunar calendar month name.Combining the heavenly stems and the earthly branches to form a cycle of 60 numbers is used to record the day, and later to record the year and the month. This may be the creation of Yin merchants.