Overview
Key data
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Period of use | 1253 – 1270 CE |
| Compiler | Tan Yu |
| Year head | Jian-yin |
Development
The Huitian calendar was made by Tan Yu, promulgated in 1253 CE and used until 1270.
The Southern Song was by then in its last phase and the Yuan armies were moving south; a new calendar could not save the state.
The last two calendars of the Southern Song
After the Huitian came Chen Ding’s Chengtian calendar, promulgated in 1271 and lasting until the fall of the Song.
The two together cover the last twenty-odd years of the dynasty.
The Huitian was used eighteen years, long by the standard of the late phase;
its method shows no particular innovation, and its long use may owe as much to a pause in politics as to its merits.
The northward shift of calendrical learning
Though Southern Song calendars changed often in its last years, the calendrical learning of the north advanced:
the Jin had Zhao Zhiwei’s Reformed Daming calendar, the Yuan Guo Shoujing’s Shoushi calendar.
The Shoushi was promulgated in 1280, ten years after the Huitian;
and with it Chinese calendrics entered a new height, while the Southern Song line died with the dynasty.
Compiled and arranged by Chujia Kuang.