Chapter 232 Shengyuan Calendar

Fighting?

Li Xiang's mind was racing. He was still thinking about whether he should take advantage of the sports meet to decide on an important event, but then he was notified that a fight had broken out in Sifang Pavilion?
He asked, "Why?"

"It seems that it was because of the pricing issue. One party felt that the other party's purchase price was too cheap, so they started fighting." Li Jingren said helplessly: "In fact, each party has their own reasons. They all think that their own products are good things, so it is inevitable that they will have a dispute..."

"This is easy to do. Just let them choose a general equivalent." Li Xiang thought for a moment and continued, "Let's use Kaiyuan Tongbao as the currency to measure the value of their goods. Let's take the lead in Jingzhao Prefecture and call the people from the Ministry of Rites to join us. Don't let them sit there and watch and collect political achievements without doing anything - among the various ethnic groups, set prices based on the value of the goods, and that'll be all."

"Brother, Shinno..."

Li Jingren was interrupted by Li Xiang before he could finish his words.

"Okay, let's get this done quickly. I have something else that I need to go to the palace for."

After Li Jingren left, Li Xiang was not in a hurry to enter the palace.

To become the common ruler, it is obviously not enough to just use the Tang Dynasty's imperial reign title and bestow the Tang Dynasty's calendar.

The era name thing is okay for the Kinki region, but if the war really reaches Persia or Damascus in the future, it will take more than half a year to notify the change of era name, and the opportunity will be lost...

It's time for a new calendar.

It is not only convenient to use, but also a preparation for the future.

In the past, there was a Western calendar, which was translated into the Common Era, with the birthday of Jesus as the first year of the Common Era.

As for the Tang Dynasty... whose birthday should be used as the beginning?

Huangdi can be passed first, as he lived too long ago and it is difficult to determine the era.

Confucius' words... Confucianism has already become a de facto monopoly. If we add another Confucius, wouldn't Confucianism be able to break through the Milky Way?

Qin Shihuang definitely couldn't do it. His reputation was really not that good these days.

Not to mention Old Li, even the ministers couldn't get past this hurdle.

Of course, let’s not talk about the Qin bamboo slips. According to this theory, people thousands of years later may still point to the Labor Law and say there is no 996.

As for Liu Bang, Li Xiang really likes him. It would be fine if the founding of the Han Dynasty was used as the beginning of the calendar.

But now it is the Li family's kingdom. Isn't it a bit wrong to take the beginning of the Liu family's kingdom as the first year?
If it were Li Yuan, it would actually be possible, but... he couldn't suppress it, and he was not as good as Old Li.

As for using Lao Li, it seems a bit like flattery.

After thinking it over, Li Xiang suddenly thought of his nominal "teacher".

Yes, don’t we still have my holy ancestor, Laozi?
This is a good opportunity to give the "teacher" another title of "Taishang Xuanyuan Emperor". Well, that's it.

Of course, Li Xiang definitely did not intend to use the word "AD", because not everyone has enough IQ. It would be bad if someone from the future time traveled through time and did not understand human language and criticized him for being worshipful of foreign things.

As for the name, since he is the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, let's call him Shengyuan.

Thinking of this, Li Xiang calmed down.

Emperor Shengzu was born in the second year of Duke Xiang. Now it is the nineteenth year of Zhenguan, which is 1215 of Shengyuan.

Look, how convenient this is.

Thinking of this, Li Xiang asked someone to prepare a car and went to the palace to discuss things with Lao Li.

Li Shimin has been very idle these two days, and he doesn't have a lot of things to deal with every day.

After all, the imperial power was not yet highly centralized in that era, and there were three provinces and six ministries to help him share the burden, so Lao Li did not need to do everything himself.

Old Li now looks like an old man, holding a banana and calling out to Yuan in the courtyard of Lizheng Hall.

Banana doesn’t like flying around, but it cooperates very well with Lao Li and flies to his hand as soon as he calls.

Seeing Li Xiang coming, Lao Li sighed and said to Banana, "Go back."

Banana called out twice, then flapped its wings and flew back to the Lizheng Hall.

"Why are you here again?" Lao Li's tone was not very good.

"Then I'll leave?" Li Xiang turned his thumb and pointed behind him.

Li Shimin waved his hand and said, "Now that you are here, tell me what's going on."

I finally have the chance to spend some time with Banana. Why do you, Li Xiaoxiang, bother me instead of staying at home with your wife?
"I just thought of something important, so I wanted to discuss it with you." Li Xiang said with his hands spread out.

"Go ahead." Li Shimin lifted his robe and sat on the stone bench beside him.

"It's about the calendar system." Li Xiang pondered for a moment and said, "If we only use the reign title to record the years, it's not very convenient. And if we change the reign title, it may take a long time to reach the border of the Tang Dynasty. So my grandson is thinking, can we create another calendar system so that the two calendar systems can run in parallel?"

"It just so happens that the Tang Dynasty will be preparing for a sports meet in a few days. We can take this opportunity to promote the new calendar system and highlight our holy dynasty's system."

"What calendar system?" Li Shimin didn't understand what Li Xiang meant.

"That is..." Li Xiang organized his words: "The birth of Emperor Shengzu is the beginning of the era. Emperor Shengzu was born in the second year of Duke Xiang. Now it is the nineteenth year of Zhenguan. I will calculate it. According to this calendar, now it should be 1215."

"Since the calendar starts with the birthday of our Great Tang Emperor Shengzu, this calendar should be called Shengyuan, and the second year of Duke Xiang, which is the birthday of Emperor Shengzu, is the first year of Shengyuan."

As the Khan of Heaven, Lao Li naturally understood everything immediately.

There is no need to explain the superiority of this method of dating.

First of all, the academic community would be spared countless troubles...

The most important thing is that it can deeply bind the Li Tang world and Emperor Shengzu together, further strengthening the Li Tang's mandate and legitimacy.

"This method is not bad," Li Shimin nodded and said, "The first year of Shengyuan, not bad, not bad... But this matter still needs to be discussed by the ministers, and the Taishi Bureau needs to make the final calculation. I will summon the ministers to the palace now."

Old Li has always been vigorous and resolute in his work, and this method of dating can also strengthen the legitimacy of the Li Tang Dynasty.

A group of important officials soon arrived at the Liangyi Palace, including Li Chunfeng from the Taishi Bureau.

After listening to Li Xiang's explanation of the "Shengyuan Calendar", Ma Zhou was the first to express his agreement.

"Your Highness, the Crown Prince's proposal is in favor of me."

Li Xiang didn't expect that the first person to agree would be Ma Zhou, so he nodded at him to show his friendliness.

Afterwards, all the ministers expressed their agreement.

Before the small court meeting ended, Lao Li asked Wang De to take out a bunch of sea duck eggs.

"These are the sea duck eggs that Dengzhou has just paid as tribute. They are delicious. You can take them back and try them." Li Shimin said with a smile.

The sea duck eggs were packed in small baskets so that the ministers could take them away easily.

The ministers thanked him one after another. The duck eggs were not valuable, but the emperor's kindness and favor were valuable. In addition to the duck eggs, Li Shimin also asked people to bring some seaweed to the ministers.

These are rare things in inland areas like Chang'an.

Recently, the construction of Lingyan Pavilion has been almost completed, and all the portraits have been painted. We just have to wait until the construction of Lingyan Pavilion is completed before hanging the portraits.

After the court was dismissed, the ministers began to think about auspicious things.

Promulgating a new calendar is a big deal. How can it be justified without auspicious signs?

These days, if you don’t have a good omen, you’d feel embarrassed to say hello to people when you go out.

Before leaving Liangyi Palace, Li Xiang specifically called Li Chunfeng to stop.

As the Grand Historian of the Tang Dynasty, Li Chunfeng was a man of great learning and talent.

There are online articles that describe Li Chunfeng as a disciple of Yuan Tiangang. In fact, the two of them were only said to have "co-authored" "The Book of Changes". As for their master-disciple relationship, there is no specific record.

There is a definite record that in the seventh year of Daye in the Sui Dynasty, Li Chunfeng became a disciple of Taoist Zhiyuan.

Overall, Li Chunfeng can be said to be a mathematician, astronomer and Yi scholar of this period.

Li Xiang knew that the "Linde Calendar" used by Li Zhi in his later years was the calendar created by Li Chunfeng after calculations and filling in the gaps.

Similarly, Li Chunfeng also had a better understanding of Li Xiang.

In Li Shimin's description, Li Xiang was called a disciple of the "Emperor Shengzu" who taught him in a dream.

Only he and Yuan Tiangang knew about this matter. According to the emperor, even Li Xiang himself did not know that it was the Emperor Shengzu who was giving the lecture.

It’s a pity that when Yuan Tiangang entered the court, Li Xiang was in Dengzhou.

However, according to the limited knowledge of physiognomy that he had learned, Li Xiang was definitely a great leader.

Considering the identity of that Taoist disciple, Li Chunfeng naturally did not dare to neglect him.

"Your Highness."

"No need to be so polite, Grand Historian." Li Xiang nodded. Logically, Li Chunfeng should have taken office as Grand Historian in the 22nd year of Zhenguan. He was promoted to the position ahead of schedule just because of a word he said before.

"Your Highness, why did you call me here? Is there something important?" Li Chunfeng asked tentatively.

"It's not a big deal. I just remembered two things and wanted to talk to you about them." Li Xiang said.

"I am all ears." Li Chunfeng bowed.

"Well...that is..." Li Xiang felt that it was not very convenient to say this, so he pulled Li Chunfeng back into the Liangyi Hall.

Li Shimin was just planning to take Banana out for some fun, but when he saw Li Xiang coming back, he felt quite helpless.

"Why are you back again?" Lao Li asked helplessly.

"Don't make a fuss, Uncle. I have something important to do." Li Xiang asked, "Do you have any paper or pen here?"

As they were talking, Li Chunfeng also walked in. After greeting Old Li, he stood next to Li Xiang.

Old Li called someone over to grind ink for Li Xiang.

Li Xiang took the brush, filled the inkstone with ink, and began to paint on the paper.

The painting is relatively simple, just a few major planets in the solar system.

"Taishi Ling, look." Li Xiang pointed to the ball on the third line and said, "This is where we are. The teacher calls it the Earth."

When he heard that it was taught by the 'teacher', Li Chunfeng retreated tactically and stood in awe.

Li Shimin didn't react at first, thinking that Xiao Yu also taught this thing?

Then I understood that how could this old man Xiao Yu know astronomy? This must have been taught to him by the Emperor Shengzu in a dream.

"This... the earth we are on, is a ball?" Li Chunfeng asked in disbelief.

"Yes." Li Xiang spread his hands: "As for why, there will be plenty of opportunities to verify it in the future."

"Then what is this?" Li Chunfeng asked, pointing at the largest ball.

"This is the sun. These lines I drew are orbits. I call them the six planets. According to their distance from the sun, they are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn." Li Xiang pointed at these balls and introduced them to the two.

The earliest link between the planets in the solar system and the five elements was found in Sima Qian's "Records of the Grand Historian: Book of Celestial Officials". However, it was not the first creation of the Grand Historian. In various astronomical books during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there were records of the correspondence between the five planets and the five elements, but the ancient books at that time are now basically lost. In many later summary books, such as "Kaiyuan Zhan Jing", relevant records are still preserved.

"This... Venus is so close to us?" Lao Li retreated tactically.

"Is it very close?" Li Xiang said happily: "Venus is 80 million miles away from us."

"Wow..." Old Li sighed.

Li Xiang even thought about it in his mind. Since Old Li is idle every day and has nothing to do, should he get an astronomical telescope for the old man to play with?

Only after learning about astronomy did I realize how vast the universe is and how insignificant I am. When the time comes, I will embrace the universe and burst the throne into pieces...

Isn't it beautiful?

"Taishi Ling, look." Li Xiang pointed at the orbits and said, "Look at these circles. They are the orbits of the planets orbiting the sun."

"You mean, we are revolving around the sun?" Li Chunfeng suddenly felt as if he had grasped something.

"Yes." Li Xiang continued, "According to the teacher, the earth under our feet revolves around the sun once, which is a year; the time it takes to revolve around the sun once is 365.2422 days."

Li Chunfeng's eyes lit up. This data... is so accurate?
You should know that in order to formulate the Dayan calendar, the monks went to Jiaozhou in the south and Tiele in the north to measure the latitudes of various places, and used various sun-measuring instruments to determine the dates of solar eclipses in various places and observe the movement of stars. The same was true when Guo Shoujing and others compiled the "Shushi Calendar". They established 27 test stations in a vast area of ​​more than 6,000 miles from east to west and more than 11,000 miles from north to south for actual measurement.

There is a saying that the modern solar calendar, also known as the Gregorian calendar, uses data from Guo Shoujing and others.

"Then...what about this?" Li Chunfeng pointed to the small ball next to the earth again.

"This little ball is the moon."

Li Xiang raised his hand and pointed to the sky, and explained in detail to Li Chunfeng and Li Shimin the principles of the moon's waxing and waning, as well as the basic principles of the earth's revolution and rotation, and solar and lunar eclipses.

"A synodic month, which is the cycle of the moon's waxing and waning, is 29.53059 days on average." Li Xiang spread his hands again.

"I understand!" Li Chunfeng slammed the table in surprise, scaring Li Shimin who was in deep thought.

Fortunately, Old Li has a good temper, and professionals like Li Chunfeng are a little... that, so no one cared.

"I have given you the specific data. I didn't remember much of what the teacher said." Li Xiang spread his hands and said, "For the rest, you have to lead others to complete it yourself."

"I understand!" Li Chunfeng said respectfully with his arms folded.

(End of this chapter)