Re: hypothetical Yangshao calendar (early China)

From: Franz Gnaedinger (frgn_at_bluemail.ch)
Date: 03/03/05 

Date: 2 Mar 2005 23:31:10 -0800

My hypothetical Horus / Yangshao / Liangzhu calendar
is based on a month of 30 days, a year of 12 months
plus 5 and occasionally 6 days, and a cycle of 64
lunations that equal 63 continual months = 1890 days.
One lunation is obtained by multiplying a month of 30
days by the famous Egyptian series of the Horus Eye:

  1 lunation = 30 days x '2 '4 '8 '16 '32 '64

  = 29 '2 '32 days (mistake only 58 seconds)

The Chinese Bi, from around 3400 till 2000 BC, are flat
jade disks, diameters between 10 and 30 cm, with round
perforations of a largely variable size in the center.
The Bi is considered a symbol of the sky. I came across
five Bi, measured them, and found numbers that may refer
to crucial numbers of my calendar, especially 30 and 64.
So a Bi could actually be a symbol of the sun and moon,
the month of 30 days and the cycle of 64 lunations.

FIRST BI: radius perforation / radius disk = 1/15
ring perforation ring = 14 1+1 14 or 7 1 7
diameter disk = 30 or 15; small grid 7 1 7 by 7 1 7
rotating square 7 1 by 7 1 = 8 x 8 = 64

SECOND BI: radius hole / radius disk = 1/5 or 3/15
ring perforation ring = 4 1+1 4 or 12 3+3 12
diameter disk = 10 or 30; small grid 4 2 4 by 4 2 4
four corner squares of small grid = 4 x 4 x 4 = 64

THIRD BI: radius perforation / radius disk = 1/4
ring perforation ring = 3 1+1 3
diameter 8, square 8 x 8 = 64

FOURTH BI: radius perforation / radius hole = 1/3
ring hole ring = 2 1+1 2 or 4 2+2 4 or 10 5+5 10
diameter = 6 or 12 or 30; medium grid 4 4 4 by 4 4 4
four corner squares of medium grid = 4 x 4 x 4 = 64

FIFTH BI: radius perforation / radius hole = 7/8
ring perforation ring = 8 7+7 8 or 4 7 4
diameter disk 30 or 15; small grid 4 7 4 by 4 7 4
four corner squares of small grid = 4 x 4 x 4 = 64

The idea of a square grid going along with a BI
seems justified by the early Chinese sign of heaven:
a man with a square for a head.

Next time: answering Paul's question
-
Regards Franz Gnaedinger www.seshat.ch

> My thesis: 5,000 years ago the same lunisolar calendar
> was known in Egypt, Sumer, Persia, India, and China.
> A short week lasted 5 days, a long week 10 days. 3
> long weeks = 30 days were a month. 12 months plus 5
> and sometimes 6 days yielded a solar year of 365 and
> occasionally 366 days, while 64 lunations equaled 63
> months or 1890 days. The latter relation was known
> as 'Horus cycle' in Egypt, since one lunation equals
> 30 days multiplied by the series of the Horus Eye:
>
> 1 lunation = 30 days x '2 '4 '8 '16 '32 '64
>
> = 29 '2 '32 days (mistake only 58 seconds)
>
> The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities at Stockholm in
> Sweden keeps an anthorpomorphic lid from Banshan in the
> province of Gansu, central northern China, from around
> 2500 BC. It shows a round head on a cylindrical neck
> that goes over into a wide collar framed by a zig-zag
> line. As far as I can tell from a large reproduction in
> a book of mine there are 48 angles: 24 (filled) angles
> pointing outward, and 24 (empty) angles pointing inward.
> If these numbers are correct, the almost spherical head
> might symbolize the early Chinese moon god, while the
> zig-zag line of the collar may symbolize the cycle of
> 64 lunations modulo 48:
>
> Begin with the central (empty) angle a-1 where the ends
> of the painted collar meet. Count 64 angles in clockwise
> direction, perform a full circle of 48 angles and then
> advance by 16 further positions: thus you will end on
> angle a-16. Begin another cycle from that position and
> you will end on angle a-32. Begin a third cycle from
> that angle and you will end on angle a-48 = a-1.
>
> You can go on as long as you wish, the cycles will
> always end on the same angles a-16 a-32 a-1 that form
> an equilateral triangle. Remarkably, also the eyes and
> mouth - holes in the round face - form an equilateral
> triangle, and so do three protuberances on top of
> the round head.
>
> Marie E.P. Koenig understood the Neolithic number 3 as
> lunar symbol representing the phases waxing moon, full
> moon, waning moon. In the case of the Banshan moon god
> these phases might be representd by the left eye, the
> slightly bigger mouth, and the right eye respectively.
>
> A protuberance on top of the head of the Banshan moon
> god might represent a long week of ten days, all three
> protuberances a month of 3 x 10 = 30 days.
>
> Is there a round hill or mountain at Banshan that might
> have served as Moon Hill or Moon Mountain?
>
>
> Next time: Chinese Bi, symbol of sky, sun, moon, month
> of 30 days and cycle of 64 lunations (five Bi measured
> and their numbers interpreted in terms of 'my' calendar)
> -
> Regards Franz Gnaedinger www.seshat.ch
> -
> PS. I apologize for a typo in my previous message.
> The chinese forerunner of the Meton cycle was the Chang
> cycle (Chang, not Chong).
>
>
> > The Yangshao culture in China flourished roughly from
> > 5000 to 2000 BC and excelled in marvellous pottery.
> > Some of these vessels are so beautifully painted that
> > I dare assume a cosmological and hence calendarical
> > meaning. I frequently encountered the number 12, or
> > multiples of 12, and the number 16, given as 4 x 4
> > dots in a cross-like arrangement within a circle or a
> > spiral, and the same pattern repeated in four circles
> > on the quasi-sphere of the urn (if my memory serves me),
> > so that we have 4 x 4 x 4 = 64 dots (which might well
> > anticipate the 64 hexagrams of the much later I-king).
> >
> > >From these patterns I infer that a hypothetical Yangshao
> > calendar from the 3rd millennium BC would have divided
> > the zodiac into 12 equal angles representing 30 days
> > each. A month would have counted 30 days; a solar year
> > 12 months or 360 days, plus 5 and occasionally 6 days,
> > yielding 365 and sometimes 366 days.
> >
> > This annual calendar of 12 x 30 days plus 5 or 6 days
> > would have been combined with a continual calendar of
> > 30-day periods. The Yangshao astronomers might have
> > observed that 64 lunations (e.g. from one to the next
> > full moon) correspond to 63 periods of 30 days. The
> > mistake is very small: less than one minute; or about
> > one hour in over five years. (A lunation or synodic
> > month lasts 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes 2.9 seconds;
> > modern value from 1988 AD).
> >
> > Duodenary patterns (12 or multiples of 12) would refer
> > to the solar calendar, while patterns of 4 x 4 x 4 =
> > 64 dots would refer to 64 lunations that fit into the
> > continual pattern of 30-day periods. A major insight
> > of early astronomy, I dare say, also occurring in
> > ancient Egypt, where it was linked, I believe, to the
> > famous series of the Horus Eye:
> >
> > 1 lunation = 30 days times '2 '4 '8 '16 '32 '64
> >
> > = 29 '2 '32 days (mistake 58 seconds)
> >
> > On another urn I counted 17 dots in a circle or spiral.
> > Also that number may refer to observations of the moon.
> > Add the following numbers of days and you obtain very
> > good conversions of lunations into days:
> >
> > 30 29 30 29 30 29 30 29 30 29 30 29 30 29 30 29 30
> >
> > The best conversion is obtained with 17 lunation that
> > correspond fairly well to the sum of 502 days. Also
> > such an observation was in principle accessible to
> > the early Chinese astronomers.
> >
> > Now we have two fine definitions of a lunation:
> > 30 day x 63/64, and 502/17 days, average 29 days 12
> > hourse 43 minutes 40.6 seconds; mistake 22.3 seconds.
> >
> > >From here it is not far to the Chinese Chong cycle:
> > 235 lunations eaqual 19 solar (tropical) years. We know
> > that cycle as Meton cycle, named for a Greek astronomer
> > who flourished in the 5th century BC. However, it had
> > long before been discovered and used by the Chinese.
> >
> >
> > Next time: moon god? anthropomorphic lid from Banshan,
> > province Gansu, around 2500 BC; Museum of Far Eastern
> > Antiquities, Stockholm, Sweden (64 modulo 48 ?)
> > -
> > Regards Franz Gnaedinger www.seshat.ch

Relevant Pages

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  • Re: hypothetical Yangshao calendar (early China)
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    (sci.anthropology)
  • Re: hypothetical Yangshao calendar (early China)
    ... The Chinese Bi, from around 3400 till 2000 BC, are flat ... to crucial numbers of my calendar, ... So a Bi could actually be a symbol of the sun and moon, ... the month of 30 days and the cycle of 64 lunations. ...
    (sci.archaeology)