Chapter 1207 Stone Dragon
"Today the Ears are planted."
Qin Jun came over early in the morning to say hello, and after greeting him respectfully, he went to look through the almanac as a routine.
The almanac is thick but not too big. Each page is only about the size of a palm. It is printed on a single page with engraving, and the back is blank.
Tear a sheet after a day, not only the year, month, day, but also the twenty-four solar terms, good and bad taboos, stems and branches, and many other contents.
Qin Lang drank the egg tea made for him by his eldest son, and said with a smile, "Growing awns, busy planting, the solar term of May means that there are seeds of awns that can be harvested."
The seeds of awn crops such as barley and wheat have matured, and it is urgent to harvest them. Summer crops such as late rice, millet, and millet are also the busiest season for sowing.
When spring competes with the sun and summer competes, people often say that the three summers are busy seasons, that is, they are busy with summer harvesting, summer planting and summer management of spring sowing crops. This is the busiest season of the year for farmers, and it is also the season when the common people are most motivated.
"Today is Friday, Xiaoji, the **** of wealth is in the north, the **** of blessing is in the south, the **** of joy is in the northeast, and the **** of honor is in the north; the auspicious time is in Bingyin, Dingmao, Gengwu, Xinmo, Guixi..." Qin Jun tore off this Zhang Huangli, talking to his father.
Calendar is a symbol of imperial power. Qin Tianjian must prepare the calendar for the next year in advance, and then ask the emperor for approval, and then promulgate it to government offices across the country at the end of the year.
The so-called Fengzhengshuo means that the imperial calendar must be used.
At the beginning of the founding of the Tang Dynasty, it continued to use the Sui Dynasty's Daye Calendar, and then promulgated its own Wuxu Yuan Calendar, creating the first calendar in ancient China that used the Dingshuo method in the civil calendar, but this calendar is prone to even big moons or In the case of Lian Xiaoyue, for example, there would be four consecutive months in the 19th year of Zhenguan, so Li Chunfeng from the Ether History Bureau took the lead in making the Zhenguan calendar.
Based on the original fixed moon method, the advanced new moon method is created to solve the loophole that it is easy to appear consecutively and the size of the moon does not conform to the daily habits.
Since Zhenguan, the national power of the imperial court has increased greatly, and it has also increased a large amount of financial support for astronomy and calendar. Especially after Li Chunfeng took charge of the Taishi Bureau, the imperial court even increased the number of officials and students of the original Taishi Bureau dozens of times. The increase of officials and students in astronomy and calendar has greatly improved the business capability of Taishi Bureau.
The ancients also discovered that the earth revolves around the sun for about 365 days, and the moon takes about 29 and a half days from the new moon (new moon) to the full moon (wang) to the end of the moon (dark). There are twelve months in a year, and there are almost thirty days in a month.
Then, in the calendars of various dynasties, it is not easy to grasp this number more accurately. The year is accurate, but the month is often inaccurate, so there will be leap years, leap months, and large and small months, just to ensure more accuracy and prevent the error from getting bigger and bigger.
For example, there are lunar calendars, solar calendars, and astrological calendars in the calendar.
The lunar calendar is the lunar calendar, which is formulated based on the regular cycle of the moon. The Dingshuo method and the Pingshuo method are all calculated according to the moon. Although this can guarantee the accuracy of the month to the greatest extent, it does not take into account the relationship between the earth and the sun. The law of operation cannot reflect the change of seasons and affects the guidance of farming.
So the ancients also studied the Ganzhi calendar, which takes the beginning of spring to the next beginning of spring as a year, and divides twelve months by 24 solar terms, with two solar terms per month and no leap month.
These two calendars have their own advantages and disadvantages. The monthly calendar cannot reflect the seasonal agricultural time, and the astronomical calendar is not as accurate as the monthly calendar.
Therefore, in recent years, the Taishi Bureau has spent a lot of energy and integrated the solar calendar on the basis of the lunar calendar to form a combined yin and yang calendar. Taking the change cycle of the moon phase, that is, the synodic month as the length of the month, and adding the twenty-four solar terms of the Ganzhi calendar, Referring again to the length of the solar return year, the average calendar year is adapted to the return year by setting the leap month.
The difference between this new calendar and the Gregorian calendar is that there are 365 or 366 days a year. The Yin-Yang year will have a difference of 10 or 20 days compared with the Gregorian year, so the leap method is added. Through precise calculations, the number of days between the tropical year and the synodic month is coordinated, such as the seven-leap method in nineteen years. Nineteen years plus seven leap years form an ideal cycle.
The new calendar is still called Zhenguan Calendar, but with the word Huang added, the full name is Datang Zhenguan Emperor Calendar.
Because this new calendar is more accurate, especially for the people to guide the farming time, it is very accurate, so everyone is used to calling it the lunar calendar.
Every year, the Taishi Bureau prepares the almanac of the following year in the previous year, and divides it into twelve volumes, one volume per month, which will be presented to the emperor, and will be reviewed by the emperor at the end of the year and issued to various places.
In order to spread the almanac better and play a positive role, at the suggestion of Qin Lang and other officials, the imperial court allowed private publication. The specific process is to first apply to the imperial court, and then obtain a copy of the master copy stamped by the Taishi Bureau According to this, it is either copied or engraved and printed, and then sold and circulated.
Each copy of the imperial calendar sold must be reviewed and stamped by the Taishi Bureau, which not only ensures that there will be no printing errors, but also ensures that the imperial court can reasonably collect royalties.
In order to compete for the market, each company will not only ensure the consistency of the content in the imperial calendar of the Taishi Bureau, but also add some things of their own to attract customers.
The master board of the Taishi Bureau is generally very clean, with the year, month, day, solar terms, good and bad luck, and the week system, stems and branches, etc. are introduced.
There are also booksellers who will publish some current affairs content, such as imperial edicts, etc., and some booksellers even simply invite investment and advertise, and basically all merchants will leave blank spaces on the calendar for use as drafts.
According to the report of the Taishi Bureau, last year in the 16th year of Zhenguan, the number of almanacs printed and sold in various places reached an astonishing three million. On average, every four households have one almanac.
The Taishi Bureau is only responsible for reviewing and stamping, and the royalties received in a year exceed one million guan. It has directly changed from the original cold water and cold yamen to a well-known and wealthy yamen in the capital. In the past, everyone envied Taipu Temple, because Taipu Temple was used as a horse administration office, and they only had hundreds of thousands of dollars in income from selling horse manure from various horse farms in the capital every year.
In the past, everyone envied Taipusi. This horse dung money belonged to their small treasury.
But now the Taishi Bureau is just a small yamen saved by the secretary. As a result, it now relies on a calendar book to earn millions a year. The officials and even the students of the Taishi Bureau are all of high welfare.
Of course, booksellers actually earn more.
Just like the lunar calendar that Qin Jun is torn up now, it is run by the Qin family as the major shareholder. The Qin family's almanacs are all issued by engraving, and there are various styles, such as hardcover and paperback. It is also the first to attract investment and sell advertisements. almanac.
Wall calendars, desk calendars and other styles are much better than ordinary book style.
Exquisite printing and rich content, especially in booksellers and bookstores all over the world, the Qin family's almanacs accounted for more than half of the Tang almanac market, with more than one million copies sold every year.
Relying on its huge sales volume, it earns a lot of money just from the advertising fee. Every year, the cover advertisement king will fight for the head and blood, directly breaking through the top of the million.
They really sell almanacs, but the Qin family has long stopped selling almanacs. The Qin family’s almanacs may also be newspapers, magazines, poetry collections, etc.
The Qin family's almanac is completely a small encyclopedia, with a book in hand, there is a lot of information in it. The Qin family not only monopolizes half of the Tang Central Plains almanac, but also actively sells them overseas. Goguryeo, Baekje, Silla, Tamra, and Waguo Gaya in Haidong, Linyi, Chenla, and Pyu in the south, what other wolf tooth repairs are there? , Gan Tuoli, Lion Kingdom, etc.
A bilingual version of the almanac has been launched in a targeted manner, so that the people of the vassal states will no longer live in confusion. It doesn’t matter even if they can’t understand the advanced Chinese characters of the Tang Dynasty. A small symbol is simple and clear.
In recent years in Weijiayu, the surrounding countries have become vassals one after another in Datang. They enshrine Zhengshuo of Datang, use the year title and calendar of Datang, and get the almanac given by the court every year, but they often don’t have much ability to copy, print and distribute. The printing technology mastered by the Qin family is much cheaper than copying or printing books by others. In the past, competition was a blow to dimensionality reduction, and no businessman from a small country could afford it.
The Qin family directly recruited all the businessmen from these small countries as their local dealers, and gave them a share of the profits, but they took all of them into their own pockets, and even quickly seized the local market through these local people.
The various additional contents on the Qin family almanac have also become the biggest cultural export.
The Emperor Zhenguan Calendar of the Tang Dynasty has become the best-selling book in the world, and its sales volume is the world's leading, unmatched.
Now everyone is used to looking at the almanac first when they get up in the morning, not only the date but also the season, as well as good and bad luck. Even before going out for a long trip, you should first ask about good or bad luck.
Even if you want to build a house or something, you have to look at the almanac to choose an auspicious time and direction.
What are the six dragons to control the water, five oxen to plow the fields, the time of Tai Sui, the twenty-eight constellations, and the twelve construction stars? The common people believe in this set of things the most. The so-called seeking good fortune and avoiding evil, people hope for a good omen. Those who have mastered this kind of knowledge before There are very few people, and it is not easy to invite a celestial master, but now, just take a look at the almanac, which is equivalent to buying an almanac, and inviting a celestial master at home.
"Today is advisable to get married, get engaged, and avoid opening a business or traveling."
Qin Lang just smiled, and asked his son to give him the torn-out almanac, glanced at him, and then picked up a charcoal pencil that he carried with him and wrote a few words on the blank space on the back.
"Go to Shilong Island Lecture Hall for me, and give this to Cun En Cunxian and the others."
Qin Jun saw that the paper was folded, so he didn't ask about the content, "I'm going to get the sealing wax for the envelope."
"No need, just a few messages."
Shilong Island is the Cavite of the later generations. It is only 30 miles away from San Francisco in the northeast. It strangles the entrance of San Francisco Bay. Qin Lang disliked them for being uneducated, so he changed the name to Stone Dragon Island.
In fact, this is not exactly an island. There is a thin tail connecting the land, which is equivalent to a peninsula.
The big mouth facing San Francisco has several feet of deep water, which is a natural and excellent harbor, and the Shilong Bay formed under the huge body of the Tyrannosaurus rex is also a calm and excellent fishing ground.
Qin Lang built the Luzon Lecture Hall on Shilong Island, upgraded the training camp to a lecture hall, and took Shilong Island as the campus camp, which can not only concentrate on learning and training, but also play a guarding role.
(end of this chapter)