chronology

chronology, any method used to order time and to place events in the sequence in which they occurred. The systems of chronology used to record human history, which are closely related to calendar systems, vary in scope, accuracy, and method according to the purpose, degree of sophistication, and skills of the peoples using them.

Scientific chronology, which seeks to place all happenings in the order in which they occurred and at correctly proportioned intervals on a fixed scale, is used in many disciplines and can be utilized to cover vast epochs. Astronomy, for example, measures the sequence of cosmic phenomena in thousands of millions of years; geology and paleontology, when tracing the evolution of Earth and of life, use similar epochs of hundreds or thousands of millions of years. Geochronology reckons the more distant periods with which it deals on a similar scale; but it descends as far as human prehistoric and even historic times, and its shorter subdivisions consist only of thousands of years. Shortest of all are the chronological scales used in the recording of human events in a more or less systematic and permanent manner. These vary in scope, accuracy, and method according to the purpose, degree of sophistication, and skill of the peoples using them, as do the calendrical systems with which they are inextricably bound up. For further details see the article calendar.

It is difficult to fix ancient historical chronologies in relation to scientific chronology. The terms of reference of ancient peoples were vague and inconsistent when judged by modern standards, and many of their inscriptions and writings have inevitably disappeared. The gaps in their records are increasingly filled in and their inconsistencies removed by the results of archaeological excavation. Guided by these findings, scholars can confirm, refute, or amend chronological reconstructions already tentatively made. Astronomical calculation and dating by radioactive-carbon content are also helpful in the work of fixing ancient chronologies.

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Chinese

Chinese legendary history can be traced back to 2697 bc, the first year of Huang Ti (Chinese: Yellow Emperor), who was followed by many successors and by the three dynasties, the Hsia, the Shang, and the Chou. Recent archaeological findings, however, have established an authentic chronology beginning with the Shang dynasty, though the exact date of its end remains a controversial topic among experts. The so-called oracle-bone inscriptions of the last nine Shang kings (1324–1122 bc) record the number of months up to the 12th, with periodical additions of a 13th month, and regular religious services on the summer and winter solstice days, all of which indicates the adjustment of the length of the lunar year by means of calculations based on the solar year. Individual days in the inscriptions are named according to the designations in the sexagenary cycle formed by the combination of the 10 celestial stems and 12 terrestrial branches. Every set of 60 days is divided into six 10-day “weeks.” Also recorded are numerous eclipses that can be used to verify the accuracy of the Shang chronology. In the oracular sentences of the last Shang king, Chou Hsin, the year of his reign is referred to as “the King’s nth annual sacrifice.”

From the beginning of the following (Chou) dynasty, the word year was etymologically identical with “harvest.” Thus, “King X’s nth harvest” meant the nth year of his reign. The lunar month was then divided into four quarters—Ch’u-chi, Tsai-sheng pa, Chi-sheng pa and Chi-szu pa—and the practice of using the 60 cyclical names for the days was continued. Thus, in the inscription on a Chou bronze vessel, a typical date would read: “In the King’s nth harvest, in the nth quarter of the nth month, on the day X-y, etc.”

The tradition of recording events by referring to the king’s regnal year continued until 163 bc, when a new system, nien-hao (“reign-period title”), was introduced by Emperor Han Wen Ti of the Former Han dynasty (206 bc–ad 8). Thereafter, every emperor proclaimed a new nien-hao for his reign at the beginning of the year following his accession (sometimes an emperor redesignated his nien-hao on special occasions during his reign). A typical date in the nien-hao system might read, “the third year of the Wan-li reign period” (Wan-li san nien). In order to date any event in Chinese history, it is necessary to convert the year in the period of the designated nien-hao into the Western calendar.

During the Chou dynasty the civil year began with the new moon, which occurred before or on the day of the winter solstice. This “first month” of the Chou year (Chou cheng) was equivalent to the 11th month of the Hsia year (Hsia cheng) or to the 12th month of the Shang year. The first emperor, Shih Huang-ti, of the short-lived Ch’in dynasty (221–206 bc) made the year begin one month earlier—i.e., with the lunation (the period of time between one new moon and the next) before the one in which the winter solstice occurred. The Ch’in year was continuously used until 104 bc, when Emperor Han Wu Ti promulgated the T’ai-ch’u calendar by reverting to the Hsia cheng—i.e., by taking the third month of the Chou year, or the second lunation after the winter solstice, as the first month of the civil year. This lunar year (or Hsia cheng) was used till the last day of the Ch’ing, or Manchu, dynasty (1644–1911/12). When in 1911 the first republic was founded, the solar year was officially adopted, but successive governments kept the nien-hao tradition by referring any date to the number of years since the establishment of the republic—e.g., 1948 was chronicled “the 37th year of the republic.” In 1949, when the People’s Republic of China was proclaimed, the old system was replaced by the Gregorian calendar.

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