As an ancient farming nation, the Miao people constantly observed the weather and phenology for the needs of production and life, accumulated astronomical knowledge, and collectively created the Miao calendar. It has been used in the Miao society for a long time in an oral way, and it still remains and is used to varying degrees by the people in some areas. It is mainly distributed in the entire Danzhai County and parts of Kaili City, Majiang County, Leishan County, Huangping County, Duyun City, and Sandu County. Danzhai County is located in the southeast of Guizhou Province and the west of Qiandongnan Prefecture. It is adjacent to Leishan County in the east, Sandu Shui Autonomous County in the south, Duyun in the west, Kaili City in the north, and Majiang County across the Qingshui River in the northwest. It is located in the slope area on the southern edge of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and has a northern subtropical humid and warm climate. It is mainly inhabited by a Miao branch called "Ga Nao", and a relatively independent Miao local cultural circle has been formed in the territory, so the Miao calendar can be passed down relatively intact. The Miao calendar originated in the Chiyou era. After the development and improvement from the "Three Miao" to the Warring States period, it has become a yin-yang calendar with six time levels: hour, day, month, season, year, and bucket. After thousands of years, it is still used by the people. In ancient times, the Miao ancestors, as a farming tribe, constantly observed the weather and phenology, accumulated astronomical knowledge, and collectively created the Miao calendar for the needs of production and life. The ancient Miao book "Jia" circulated in Danzhai County not only records the content of the Miao calendar, but also records the process and function of the Miao calendar: After the gods of heaven and earth such as Gali and Gadui created the world, cast the sun and the moon, and cultivated mountains and forests to create living space, because there was no calendar, they did not understand the year, month, season, day and time, lived in confusion, and their production and life were disordered, so the gods gathered in the "Hunhe Black Water" to formulate the calendar, Langgui and other systems, and formulated the calendar units such as time, day, month, season, year, "dou" and their relationship with each other, and formulated the 12 zodiac signs and 84 "Gajin" to record the year, month, day and time, and also formulated the 12 directions, the basic measuring instruments such as the chi, sheng and scale, and the Langgui to maintain the order of the clan society. "Hunhe Black Water" refers to the lower reaches of the Yellow River where the Miao ancestors, led by Chiyou as the leader of the tribal alliance in ancient times, lived. The famous Miao myth narrative poem "Duowangkun" in Danzhai County says: The Miao youth Xiangxiu brought the calendar back from the heavenly palace, but it was accidentally burned. People didn't know the days and seasons. When they saw the elm and loquat trees blooming (both in winter), they thought spring had come. As a result, the seeds they sowed were frozen and rotten, and they couldn't plant seedlings. So Xiangxiu rewrote the calendar based on his memory using the calendar knowledge he learned in the heavenly palace, "writing the first five years and compiling the last five years, with the months and days all clear and the seasons all distinct." People then resumed normal production. In 1987, Tomb M45 unearthed in Xishuipo, Puyang County, Henan Province, was dated to 6,000 years ago by C14. Chinese scholar Mr. Wang Dayou believed that the tomb owner was Chi You based on the fact that the body of the tomb owner was dismembered and then reassembled and buried, which was consistent with the historical records of "Huangdi beheaded Chi You in Zhongji" and "Chi You reunited at the shoulder and hip tomb". The tomb completely preserves a star map of dragon, tiger and clam sculptures. Based on this, experts believe that the overall pattern of China's astronomical observation system of the four seasons and twenty-eight mansions was fully formed around 6,500 years ago. In ancient times, whoever mastered astronomical knowledge was the god who mastered the four seasons. For this reason, Chiyou became the name of a star in the sky: "The Book of Celestial Officials in the Records of the Grand Historian" states: "Chiyou's flag is like a comet and then bends, like a flag. When it is seen, the king will conquer the four directions." Chiyou is the ancestor of the Miao people. The Big Dipper in the M45 tomb star map is the October star of the October solar calendar, which is consistent with the Miao calendar still used by the Miao people. The October star is Xu and Wei. That is, "Jin Nang (rat)" and "Ba Li" (swallow). It is an ominous sign. "Xu two stars, the master of the tomb, the official of the tomb." All branches of the Miao people generally have the custom of offering sacrifices in October. This is exactly the month when Chiyou was killed by Huangdi in historical records. "Huang Lan Tomb Records" says: "The people of Chiyou's tomb often offer sacrifices to him in October. There was red gas coming out like crimson silk, and the people made it Chiyou’s flag. "Some Chinese books in modern my country also revealed the fact that the Miao people created and used the Miao calendar: such as Tan Cui's "Shuo Man": "The Hua Miao people in Xingui (now Guiyang City) and Guangshun (now Changshun County) did not know the correct calendar, and used the twelve zodiac signs and the summer as the beginning of the year." Guo Zizhang's "Qian Ji Zhu Yi Miao People": "They did not know the correct calendar, and used rats and horses to record the midnight and the sun, and the days were also the same. The beginning of the year was in the third month of winter, and each chose one of them, which was called the beginning of the year. The Eastern Miao and Western Miao took the full day of October as the beginning of the year." The Republic of China's "Draft of Bazhai County Chronicles": "For the selection of auspicious days for marriages and funerals, the twenty-eight constellations and ten earthly branches (the original text is like this, it is a mistake for the twelve earthly branches) are used, which is called the Miao Jiazi. "These records prove that until modern times, at least part of the Miao people still did not use the "correct calendar" promulgated by the court, but used a calendar that used the twelve zodiac signs and the twenty-eight constellations to record time, which was different from the Xia calendar. The Miao calendar is different from the calendars of other ethnic groups. It mainly uses the duodecimal system and the unique eighty-four-digit system. The duodecimal system is expressed between the hour and the day, the day and the "dou", the month and the year, and the year and the "dou". "Hunhe Heishui" records: "Twelve hours a day, twelve zodiac signs a day," "Twelve days a 'dou'," "Twelve days a round "Twelve months make one year, twelve months make one year", "twelve years make one 'dou'", "twelve years make one ji". The Miao calendar is a lunar calendar, but it is different from the Xia calendar and other lunar calendars, mainly in the calendar months. The Miao calendar month is a new moon and a full moon, and is divided into big months and small months. "Big months have thirty days, small months have twenty-nine days". And the method of adding a leap month is used to adjust the relationship between the calendar month and the calendar year. The Miao calendar year is a tropical year, and the average length of the year is the same as the solar calendar, that is, 365.25 days. The "season" in the Miao calendar bears obvious traces of a natural calendar. "Make two sections every other year, and make two halves every other field. Six months in the cold season and six months in the warm season". The Miao calendar circulated in Danzhai County does not use the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, but uses the Chinese zodiac and "Gajin". The twelve Chinese zodiac signs used in the Miao calendar (rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, chicken, dog, pig), except for the rabbit, all appear in large numbers in the Miao primitive myths and creation epics. This is consistent with the Miao mythological thinking. Among the twelve Chinese zodiac signs, the Rat Time is the first, namely the Rat Time, the Ox Time, the Dog Time, and the Pig Time. In ancient times, incense ropes were used to measure the time according to the specified length burned. There are two main reference standards, namely (spring and autumn), the Rabbit Time when the sky is just bright, and the Chicken Time when the sky is just dark. The current accurate expression is that the Rat Time is from 23:00 to 1:00, the Ox Time is from 1:00 to 3:00, and the rest is deduced accordingly. It can be seen that the Miao calendar uses the Rat Time as the boundary between days. The day is based on the Rat Day. The twelfth day is called a "dou" day. Since the Miao people have the habit of counting at both ends, there is a saying that one "dou" is thirteen, and two "dou" are twenty-five. The Miao calendar month starts with the Tiger month, which can also be called January and February according to the monthly sequence. The Miao people usually call the days in the month "night" (hmangt) instead of "day" (hnaib), which reflects that the length of the Miao calendar month is purely based on the observation of the moon at night, that is, the synodic month. The Miao calendar year starts with the Year of the Rat, and the Year of the Rat and the Year of the Ox are repeated in a cycle. Twelve years are called a "dou" year. The calendar method with "dou" as the cycle is exactly the same as the "Suixing calendar" method once practiced by the Han nationality in the Spring and Autumn Period, which used the movement of Jupiter on the ecliptic for a cycle of twelve years, reflecting the The ancestors of the Miao and Han peoples may have reached a consensus on astronomical observation. The "Jin" in the Miao calendar means "middle" or "value", which refers to the coordinate position of the stars in the celestial body within a specific period of time. "Ga Jin" also has an idealistic interpretation in the Miao calendar. "Ga Jin" is composed of 12 zodiac signs and 28 constellations (thunder, big dragon, bamboo rat, wild cat, sun, big tiger, small tiger, crab, buffalo, woman, mouse, swallow, pig, small dragon, snail, dog, pheasant, chicken, eagle, ape, otter, goose, ghost, wasp, horse, spider, snake, earthworm), a total of 84. The "Draft of the Chronicles of Bazhai County" in the Republic of China called it "Miao Jiazi", with "Lei Su Hu" (Miao language translation, the same below) as the beginning, and it goes on and on: Thunder Su Hu, Big Dragon Su Rabbit, Bamboo Rat Su Dragon, Wild Cat Su Snake, Sun Su Horse, Big Tiger Su Sheep, Small Tiger Su Monkey, Crab Su Chicken, Buffalo Su Dog, Woman Su Pig, Rat Su Rat, swallow occupies ox, pig occupies tiger, dragon occupies rabbit, snail occupies dragon, dog occupies snake, pheasant occupies horse, chicken occupies sheep, eagle occupies monkey, ape occupies chicken, otter occupies dog, goose occupies pig, ghost occupies rat, wasp occupies ox, horse occupies tiger, spider occupies rabbit, snake occupies dragon, earthworm occupies snake (the same applies to the following). The "Gajin" of the Miao calendar and the naming of the 28 mansions of the Han Dynasty have many similar or similar meanings, reflecting the origin relationship between the two. The Miao "Gajin" and the 28 mansions of the Shui people recorded in the "Shuishu" have 22 identical literal translations, which also clearly reflects their exchange or origin relationship. The Miao calendar has developed and evolved, the most prominent of which is that the "monthly construction" (the beginning of the year) has been changed from the rat month to the tiger month, and from 2 seasons to 4 seasons. The 12 zodiac signs and 28 mansions are combined to form 84 "Gajin" to record time, day, month, and year, which can be called original in the creation and application of the world calendar. The Miao calendar incorporates religious and cultural consciousness in its application, so it not only has the function of expressing time, but also has the auxiliary function of expressing religious culture. It bears obvious marks of Miao culture and the totem era, and belongs to the ancient calendar before the Spring and Autumn Period. These two functions have played a dominant role in the production and life of the Miao society in history, and they still have a profound impact now. In particular, the "Ga Jin" of the day still has a profound impact on the people who use the Miao calendar today, and permeates their production, life, festivals, sacrifices and other aspects. The Miao calendar is circulated in the three major Miao dialect areas. Each dialect area chooses the zodiac day of the ox, rabbit, dragon and other similar zodiac days in the same tenth, winter and twelfth month to celebrate the Miao New Year. The Miao calendar in Danzhai County is completely different from the calendars of the Han and other ethnic minorities. It does not use the Ganzhi method, but uses the 12 zodiac signs and 28 constellations to form 84 different "Gajin". This is probably unique in the calendar practice of the world and China, and has a distinct regional ethnicity. It has a profound influence in the areas where it is spread. The Miao people respect the Miao calendar in their production, life, festivals, sacrifices, weddings and funerals. The Miao calendar has the effect of customary law in the areas where it is spread and is very authoritative. In the areas where the Miao calendar is spread, the Miao calendar still has a profound impact on the masses and permeates all aspects of their production, life, festivals, sacrifices, such as "breaking ground", sowing, moving, getting married, celebrating festivals, sacrificing, erecting monuments, etc., all of which are carried out according to the selection of auspicious days according to the Miao calendar "Gajin", and are very practical. The Miao calendar was created and used before the great migration and dispersion of the Miao ancestors, that is, before the Sanmiao, Yao, and Shun eras, and is very similar to the unearthed The calendar is consistent with the oracle bone artifacts of the calendar, the "Tiaoli" in the "Historical Records" about the use of the "Tiaoli" in the Yellow Emperor's era, the clam-shaped astrological map unearthed from the M45 tomb in Xishuipo, Puyang, Henan, and Mr. Liu Yaohan's assertion that there was a calendar in the era of Fuxi and Nuwa, and has a high degree of historical material characteristics; the twelve zodiac animals used in the Miao calendar, except for the rabbit, all appear in large numbers in the Miao primitive mythology, "Jia" and the creation epic (song), among which the ox, tiger, dog, and chicken (bird) are also totems of some clans of the Miao ancestors, with primitive religious characteristics. Now there are very few people who can master the use of the Miao calendar. Most of them are priests, wizards, and merchants over the age of 60 or 70, and most of them only know the use of special "Gajin" representing good and bad luck in weddings and funerals. Its inheritance is also in danger due to the impact and influence of modern civilization. In addition, the Miao people do not have their own national language, and the Miao calendar cannot be widely disseminated and inherited through tangible carriers. The Miao calendar is on the verge of extinction in China. (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.) (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.)