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Overview
Key data
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Completed | Presented in 139 BCE (second year of Jianyuan, Emperor Wu) |
| Compilers | Liu An, Prince of Huainan, and his retainers |
| Chapters | “Treatise on Astronomy,” “Seasonal Ordinances,” and others |
| Core content | Cosmogony, the twenty-eight mansions, the twenty-four solar terms, shadow measurement |
The complete record of the twenty-four solar terms
The treatise gives the complete names and order of the twenty-four terms:
from “forty-six days after the solstice comes the beginning of spring,” the two solstices, two equinoxes, four beginnings and the mid-term breaths are set out in order.
This is the earliest complete text of the twenty-four solar terms.
From then on the twenty-four terms became a fixed part of the calendar.
The twenty-four solar terms took shape by stages: first the two solstices, then the two equinoxes, then the four “beginnings,” then a division into eight nodes, and only then into twenty-four terms. The complete names and order of the twenty-four terms first appear in the “Treatise on Astronomy” of the Huainanzi.
Shadow measurement and the calendar
The treatise records the method of measuring the sun’s shadow with a gnomon, giving the shadow lengths at the winter and summer solstices,
and taking the fixing of the solstice as the starting point of the calendar.
It also states that “the sun moves one degree a day and fifteen days make one node,” tying the division of the terms to the sun’s motion.
Cosmology and the stars
The chapter opens with the process by which heaven and earth separated and all things came to be,
then records the twenty-eight mansions, the five planets and the field-allocation system, bringing astronomical knowledge into one whole frame.
Its doctrines draw on Daoist, Yin-Yang and Confucian sources, a specimen of the fusion of early Han learning.
Value
For the formation of the twenty-four solar terms this text is indispensable.
Joined with the seventy-two signs of the “Explanation of the Seasonal Instructions,” it became the standard equipment of later almanacs.
Full text
Simplified Chinese (TXT) ｜ Traditional Chinese (TXT)
The reader shows the text section by section, with the original tables preserved; the first few lines give source and licence. If scripts are disabled, use the TXT links above.
The title, date, summary and index structure compiled here are offered under CC BY 4.0 (attribution: Chujia Kuang · kuangchujia.com).
The full electronic text (about 166,149 characters) is taken from the Chinese Wikisource text of Huainanzi — “Treatise on Astronomy”; that part is offered under CC BY-SA 4.0 (attribution — share alike); source: zh.wikisource.org.
The electronic text has not been collated by us; please check the original before citing.
Compiled and arranged by Chujia Kuang.