『춘추』 왕력(王曆)③ - 주력(周曆)에서 하력(夏曆)으로, 그리고 공자의 “행하지시(行夏之時)”

Abstract

During the Pre－Qin(秦) Dynasty era, there were the records that there had been many calendar systems, such as gǔ-liù-lì(古六曆 : six ancient calendar systems). Then, the fact that particularly zhōu-lì(周曆) and xià-lì(夏曆) were mainly discussed among them resulted from a lot of discussions from the differences in the calendar system in 『Chūn-qiū(春秋)』 known to have been written by Confucius from the calendar system in “Xíng-xià-zhī-shí(行夏之時 : implement the calendar of Ha dynasty.)” that Confucius mentioned himself to his disciple. Zhōu-lì(周曆) with dōngzhì-yuè(冬至月 : the 11th month of the lunar calendar) as the first month of a year had the system of the lunar calendar, and xià-lì(夏曆) called as the calendar of Ha(夏) dynasty had the system of jié-qì-lì(節氣曆 : a kind of the solar calendar that divides one year of 365 days into 24 solar terms) with yín-yuè(寅月 :one month from the present Feb 5) as the first month of a year. These two calendars had definite differences in the first months of a year, names of seasons, and the lunar calendar and the solar calendar. The fundamental reason why Confucius recommended the performance of xià-lì(夏曆) as a way to run the nation was not that it started from the philosophical view of the universe that among the 'three zhēng’(三正)' of tiān-zhēng(天正 : the first month of a year with the heaven as the standard), dì-zhēng(地正 : the first month of a year with the earth as the standard) and rén-zhēng(人正 : the first month of a year with humans as the standard), but that he wanted to emphasize the importance of practical national economic policies to enhance agricultural productivity. It becomes the criterion that even though Confucius emphasized that politicians should not have moral flaws ideally, with regard to public policies, he wanted to stress politicians’ duties based on the reality a lot.