Yueling 月令

Yueling 月令 "Proceedings of government in the different months" was a book on the monthly phaenology through the year. It was compiled by an unknown person and is transmitted as a chapter of the Confucian Classic Liji 禮記. This chapter is similar to the older calendrical treatise Xia xiaozheng 夏小正 which in turn is part of the sub-classic Da Dai Liji 大戴禮記.

For each of the twelve months, the astronomical phenomena are described, the climate, the acitvities of animals like birds and insects, and the activities of the farmers. An example: "In the last month of spring, the sun is in Wei 胃, the constellation culminating at dusk being Qixing 七星, and that culminating at dawn Qianniu 牽牛. Rainbows begin to appear. In this month the influences of life and growth are fully developed; and the warm and genial airs diffuse themselves. The rains of the season will be coming down, and the waters beneath will be swelling up." or "The Elaeococca begins to flower. Moles are transformed into quails. Duckweed begins to grow. The crooked shoots are all put forth, and the buds are unfolded."

Compared to the Xia xiaozheng, the Yueling is much more detailed, and also more reliable, because the proper text of the older calendar is spoiled by transmission. The text of the Yueling includes the descriptions of 25 constellations.

The later standard system of the 28 constellations is thus nearly complete. Very interesting are the statements about the culminations of the constellations at dusk and at dawn. In comparison to the much older text Yaodian 堯典, a chapter of the Classic Shangshu 尚書, which only describes four constellations (Niao 鳥, Huo 火, Xu 虛, and Mao 昴), the progress in astronomical knowledge is decisive. On the basis of these descriptions it can be seen that that the text of the Yueling corresponds to the astronomical situation of the last millennium BCE, with the earliest possible date being 620 BCE.

The few names of the solar terms (jieqi 節氣) mentioned in the Yueling do not yet constitute the full system as it developed later. It is said, for instance, that in the first month of spring, "there takes place the inauguration of spring" (yi li chun 以立春), and that in the second "rains begins to fall" (shi yu shui 始雨水), while in the last month of spring "the buds are (all) unfolded" (meng zhe jin da 萌者盡達), and in the first month of summer, "the husbandman is stimulated to work [vigorously]" (ming nong mian zuo 命農勉作). The first two are identical to the commonly used ones (Lichun and Yushui), while the last two examples do not correspond to any of the established solar terms.

A further difference between the Xia xiaozheng and the Yueling is that the latter includes wealth of information about human acitivities, some of which are deeply influenced by correlative thinking that became fashionable during the Han period 漢 (206 BCE-220 CE). According to this complex philosophy, human action was restricted by numerous cosmic influences, either positive or negative.

As part of the Classic Liji, the Yueling naturally attracted the interest of many Confucian scholars and was often commented along with the other chapters of the Liji. Cai Yong 蔡邕 (132-192), a late Han-period 後漢 (25-220 CE) scholar, wrote a sentence commentary, Yueling zhangju 月令章句, the Song-period 宋 (960-1279) scholar Zhang Fu 張虙 (jinshi degree 1195) wrote the Yueling jie 月令解, the Ming-period 明 (1368-1644) scholar Huang Daozhou 黄道周 (1585-1646) the Yueling mingyi 月令明義, and during the Qing period 清 (1644-1911), Mo Xi 莫熺 (fl. 1669) authored the Yueling kao 月令考 and Sun Guoren 孫國仁 (dates unknown) the Liji Yueling kaoyi 禮記月令考异.