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thousand or more years ago even if it had taken place either comparatively recently or a millennium ago. Again, various broad-brush replies to such questions might be 'during the Ming, Song or Tang' meaning simply a long, long time ago and again usually without any factual basis for such an assertion.
This highlights one of the problems which beset Chinese who tried to count the years between two events spaced many decades apart was that they did not have a continuous calendar as we do in the West. This created the problem of calculating intervals between two dated events when each of those dates involved a specific year in the reign of an emperor's reign. To do this one had to know in correct sequence not only each dynasty but also each emperor within each dynasty, and for how long the reigns lasted. Thus it was that the man-in-the-street might perhaps know which dynasty succeeded which but to expect them to know the length of each and to calculate the elapsed time, was more than one could possibly expect. Therefore to them events were regarded as 'a long time ago,' 'before the Ming,' or 'over a thousand years ago' when in practice the elapsed time might be no more than two to three hundred years.
Before the 1911 and the overthrow of the last imperial dynasty, the four annual markers considered most important were the spring and autumn equinoxes and the summer and winter solstices. The twelve months of the year were divided into twenty-four solar periods, each of which corresponded to the day on which the sun enters the first and fifteenth degree of the zodiacal sign. The 24 fifteen-day solar periods [known as jie - 'joints'] are referred to by meteorological terms, such as the Great Rain, Slight Snow, Great Heat and Lesser Heat, and the Excited Insects, the latter being the day best known by foreigners for its fanciful name. This last solar period is from March 5th to March 20th and, so children are told, if on the 5th of March you put your ear to the ground you can hear the insects stirring, even ‘marching,' after their winter hibernation. A number of the tall temple entrance doors in Taiwan bear paintings of the deities ruling each of the 24 solar periods, with each portrayed standing on clouds and with commonly accepted characteristics. These include, for example, the Dragon King for the Great Rain and the Tall White Demon for Qing Ming. These periods were the 24 seasonal energies providing a meteorological cycle of great value for the regulation of certain chronological dates, or periods in
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thousand or more years ago even if it had taken place either comparatively recently or a millennium ago. Again, various broad-brush replies to such questions might be 'during the Ming, Song or Tang' meaning simply a long, long time ago and again usually without any factual basis for such an assertion.
This highlights one of the problems which beset Chinese who tried to count the years between two events spaced many decades apart was that they did not have a continuous calendar as we do in the West. This created the problem of calculating intervals between two dated events when each of those dates involved a specific year in the reign of an emperor's reign. To do this one had to know in correct sequence not only each dynasty but also each emperor within each dynasty, and for how long the reigns lasted. Thus it was that the man-in-the-street might perhaps know which dynasty succeeded which but to expect them to know the length of each and to calculate the elapsed time, was more than one could possibly expect. Therefore to them events were regarded as 'a long time ago, 'before the Ming,' or 'over a thousand years ago' when in practice the elapsed time might be no more than two to three hundred years.
Before the 1911 and the overthrow of the last imperial dynasty, the four annual markers considered most important were the spring and autumn equinoxes and the summer and winter solstices. The twelve months of the year were divided into twenty-four solar periods, each of which corresponded to the day on which the sun enters the first and fifteenth degree of the zodiacal sign. The 24 fifteen-day solar periods [known as jie - 'joints'] are referred to by meteorological terms, such as the Great Rain, Slight Snow, Great Heat and Lesser Heat, and the Excited Insects, the latter being the day best known by foreigners for its fanciful name. This last solar period is from March 5th to March 20th and, so children are told, if on the 5th of March you put your ear to the ground you can hear the insects stirring, even ‘marching,' after their winter hibernation. A number of the tall temple entrance doors in Taiwan bear paintings of the deities ruling each of the 24 solar periods, with each portrayed standing on clouds and with commonly accepted characteristics. These include, for example, the Dragon King for the Great Rain and the Tall White Demon for Qing Ming. These periods were the 24 seasonal energies providing a meteorological cycle of great value for the regulation of certain chronological dates, or periods in
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