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Overview
Key data
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Period | Northern Liang (Sixteen Kingdoms) |
| Compiler | Zhao Fei |
| Intercalation cycle | 221 in 600 years |
| Year head | Jian-yin |
A new intercalation cycle
The Xuanshi calendar was made by Zhao Fei of Northern Liang and named for the era. Its point of interest lies in the change it made to the long-standing intercalation cycle.
Seven intercalations in nineteen years is in fact slightly too frequent; over time the intercalary months fall out of place. Zhao Fei set the cycle at 221 intercalations in 600 years — looser than the old rule and closer to the truth. It was an early and deliberate reform.
Influence
Its methods were valued by the Northern Wei and prepared the way for Zu Chongzhi’s proposal of 144 intercalations in 391 years in the Daming calendar.
The calendar was used only in one region, yet its methods spread widely; it is a key document for the exchange of calendrical learning between the Northern and Southern Dynasties.
Full text
No electronic full text of this work is available here. This calendar has no separate transmitted text; its methods survive scattered in the calendrical treatises of the standard histories. Among the histories held here, see Weishu, Calendrical Treatise.
The title, date, summary and index structure compiled here are offered under CC BY 4.0 (attribution: Chujia Kuang · kuangchujia.com).
Compiled and arranged by Chujia Kuang.