The origin of Confucius' birthday

The earliest records of Confucius' birthday that we can see today are nothing more than Biography of the Spring and Autumn Ram, Biography of the Spring and Autumn Valley Liang and Historical Records.

Biography of the Spring and Autumn Ram and Biography of the Spring and Autumn Beam are both interpretations of Confucian classics, and they are the first chronological history book of Spring and Autumn in China. According to legend, The Spring and Autumn Annals was compiled by Confucius according to the History of Lu State compiled by Lu historians. It is said that Confucius personally processed this classic, at least in the record of Confucius' birthday, there should be no mistakes. But I don't know why, after the explanations of Mr. Gong Yanggao and Mr. Gu Liangchi, contradictions occurred, leaving a mystery for future generations. A "mystery" is more than 2,000 years.

"Biography of the Spring and Autumn Ram" said: "(Duke Xiang of Lu) One of the twenty years ... the first day of September, there was food every day. In October, Geng Chenshuo ... In October, Geng Zisheng and Confucius were born. " .

"Spring and Autumn Story of Gu Liang" says: "(Duke Xiang of Lu) One year in twenty years, ... on the first day of September, there was food every day. In October, Geng Chenshuo ... Gengzi, Confucius was born. "

Although the two records have the same year, they are both in the twenty-first year of Duke Xiang of Lu (552 BC). But there is a month difference between before and after. The former is 1 1 month, and the latter is1month, both of which are Boxer Day. However, did Duke Xiang of Lu have the Boxer Day in November of the 21st year?

Mr. Jiang said: "In ancient China, we used branches and branches to record the day from a very early age, that is, ten-day branches and twelve-day branches were combined, with sixty days as a cycle and Jiazi as the first of the sixty-day cycle. Historians usually agree with the assumption that China's official support date has never been interrupted or disordered for thousands of years, and so far there is really no evidence to endanger this assumption. From the simple calculation of the day of support, we can know that September is a new moon, then 10 is a new moon, and the next 20 days are the Boxer Rebellion, which can only appear in 10, and10 is impossible. The records in the biography of the Spring and Autumn Ram are obviously wrong. " I don't know why Mr Ram Gao Made made such a joke.

Even for Sima Qian, a great historian with the most positive spirit, such contradictory records are helpless. Historical Records Confucius Family said: "In the 22nd year of Duke Xiang of Lu (55 1 BC), Confucius was born". Confucius was seventy-three, and Lu Aigong died in April of the sixteenth year. In the 16th year of Lu Aigong, in 479 BC, 55 1-479 = 72 years old. Birth and death years don't match, suddenly 73 years old, suddenly 72 years old, which is the basis?

What is especially unforgivable is that some people have adopted a freewheeling method, that is, determining the year according to historical books and the year, month and day according to the biography of Spring and Autumn Valley Liang. This practice of arbitrarily hybridizing two contradictory views regardless of logic is not serious.

Others stubbornly insist on the viewpoint of "born in 55 BC1year", whose theoretical basis is actually the idea of "how can there be an eclipse in the year when saints are born", and its absurdity has reached the realm of witchcraft. Writing here, we have a heartfelt respect for an ancestor, who is Sima Zhen of the Tang Dynasty. This scholar, after a comprehensive and systematic textual research on Historical Records, wrote a valuable Historical Records. Faced with the ambiguity of Confucius' family background in Historical Records, he honestly lamented: "The years of birth and death of classics and biographies are uncertain, which makes Confucius' life span unknown."

Mr. Jiang is neither like Sima Qian, nor like Sima Zhen, nor like some people. He devoted himself to the interpretation of The Story of the Spring and Autumn Period and Guliang. He said, "(Duke Xiang of Lu) has been living for twenty years ... in September, he had food every day. October, Chen Geng New Moon ... boxer, Confucius was born "as the starting point. The first question he encountered was: "October Gengzi is the date of the Gregorian calendar"? This is not an easy problem to solve. Not only is it inconclusive that the first month in the spring and autumn calendar is equivalent to the month in the current summer calendar, but the Gregorian calendar came into effect after the promulgation of Pope Gregory in AD 1582. Many wrong conclusions in the past were due to ignoring this inconsistency of the calendar. For example, someone introduced Confucius' birthday incorrectly because they mixed the two calendars. Specifically, they pushed forward with the Gregorian calendar promulgated by Gregory, but the Gregorian calendar was not born in 1582. Before that, the julian calendar promulgated by Caesar, the king of ancient Rome, was popular internationally, and there was a ten-day jump between the two calendars.

There is also a village with a bright future: there is a record of "solar eclipse" in ancient books

Mr. Jiang once said at the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dating Engineering Conference: "The ancients in China thought that astronomical phenomena were closely related to events on the ground, so astronomical records were often left when major events occurred. With the help of rich astronomical records in historical documents, especially astronomical phenomena such as solar eclipse, lunar eclipse and planets, the exact age of historical time can be calculated, which is impossible for archaeological and historical research institutes. " Although Liu Xin in the Han Dynasty once had this idea, without the help of advanced computers and astronomical software, he could only hope for future generations. Mr. Jiang is certainly much luckier than Liu Xin. He not only has wonderful ideas, but also has successful practices.

Although the Spring and Autumn Biography of the Ram and the Spring and Autumn Biography of the Guliang are quite different in terms of monthly events, they both wrote the same sentence, that is, "there is food every day." This is the most difficult hardware for Mr. Jiang to study. Solar eclipse is a very rare phenomenon, and there are usually mistakes and omissions. What is particularly exciting is that the solar eclipse is an accurate astronomical phenomenon, which can be used as a scientific coordinate to solve Confucius' birthday problem. In the 242 years of Chunqiu, 37 eclipses were recorded, which were verified by modern celestial mechanics methods, and most of them were true and accurate. Mr. Jiang and his assistant repeatedly checked the twenty-first year of Duke Xiang of Lu, that is, 552 BC, and the results were the same. That year, in Qufu, you can see a partial solar eclipse of 0.77. Moreover, on the day of this eclipse, the main branch of auspicious day happens to be Geng Xu, which is the same as "September Geng Xu, New Moon" in Biography of the Spring and Autumn Ram and Biography of Spring and Autumn Guliang. The check results also prove that there was no solar eclipse in the twenty-two years (55 BC1year) of Duke Xiang of Lu as stated in Biography of Confucius in Historical Records.

In order to determine the Gregorian calendar date of the solar eclipse, Mr. Jiang adopted the timing coordinates without considering the month, that is, the "Julian Day" commonly used in astronomy. This is a one-way cumulative timing system with "day" as the unit. From 4765438 BC+65438 BC+65438 BC+0 BC, it went down day by day, without falling a day. In fact, this method has the same effect as the system of connecting departments in ancient China. On the day of the solar eclipse in 552 BC, the corresponding Julian day was 1520037. The corresponding relationship between Julian day and Gregorian calendar has been clearly solved, and the following results can not help but make people shine. Julian day 1520037 corresponds to the original Gregorian calendar day of August 20th, 552 BC. The tried and tested biography of the Spring and Autumn Period and Liang said: "One year in the twenty years (Duke Xiang of Lu) ... in September, there was a solar eclipse and Confucius was born." According to this, Mr. Wang calculated that he pushed back the order of the main branches. It happens to be 50 days from September of the 21st year of Duke Xiang of Lu to October this year, and 50 days after August 20th, which is 65438+ October 9th this year. Julian day 1520037 plus 50 days is 1520087, and the corresponding Gregorian calendar of this day is 10.9 BC.

The most advanced astronomical "nuclear weapon" accurately verified the mystery: Confucius was born in 65438+552 BC10.9 BC.

Mr. Jiang and his research team have the most advanced "nuclear weapons" in international astronomy, one of which is the "long-term planetary calendar DE404". Its time span is 3000 BC-3000 AD. It not only absorbs the latest observation data obtained by radar, radio, VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry), spacecraft, laser lunar survey and other high technologies, but also ensures the accuracy of the initial integral value and the advancement of the theory in the mechanical model, with an error of one hundredth of an angular second of the planet per century. When calculating Confucius' birthday, there is absolutely no need to consider such an error; In addition, they also have the most advanced sky demonstration software, which can immediately demonstrate the actual starry sky here and now, including the precise position of almost all celestial bodies such as stars, sun, moon, planets, comets and even nebulae, after giving the observation time and latitude and longitude of the observation place.

Mr. Jiang entered the calculation results of Confucius' birthday into these two computer softwares for verification, and the results were surprisingly consistent: Confucius was born in 65438+1October 9,552 BC and died on March 9, 479 BC at the age of 73. This year, 65438+2005 1 0.9 is its 2556th birthday (2005+(552- 1) = 2556, so1was reduced, which immediately aroused strong reactions at home and abroad. At present, the Confucius Institute in Hong Kong has officially sent an invitation to Mr. Jiang, hoping that he can be invited to attend the celebration of the 2550th anniversary of Confucius' birth and the international academic seminar held this year 10, and report his research results to people from all walks of life in Hong Kong.

On the computer, Mr. Jiang adjusted a demonstration picture of the solar eclipse that Qufu could see on August 20, 552 BC: in the vast sky, the sun was covered by the moon, and all the noise seemed to be silent, leaving only solemnity and mystery, as if expecting something.

Another 50 days later, the baby's crying came from the home of Hercules Liang Shu Ge in the south of Yi Deng. Who in Qufu at that time would have thought that this was the cry of a saint?

Yes, a saint was born in 552 BC 10 10.