{ "id": "epfm5qqtb5", "slug": "qintian-calendar", "title": "Qintian calendar", "updated": "2026-09-30", "topic_path": [ { "id": "society", "label": "Society and history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society" }, { "id": "society.history", "label": "History and archaeology", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history" }, { "id": "society.history.asia", "label": "Asian history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history.asia" }, { "id": "society.history.asia.china", "label": "China", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history.asia.china" }, { "id": "society.history.asia.china.5d10k", "label": "Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (907 to 979)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history.asia.china.5d10k" }, { "id": "society.history.asia.china.5d10k.culture-and-works", "label": "Culture and works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history.asia.china.5d10k.culture-and-works" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.chn.t500.society.history.asia.china.5d10k.culture-and-works", "label": "China · 500 BC to AD 999: Culture and works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t500.society.history.asia.china.5d10k.culture-and-works", "path": [ { "id": "geo.chn", "label": "China", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t500", "label": "China · 500 BC to AD 999", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t500" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t500.society", "label": "Society and history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t500.society" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t500.society.history", "label": "History and archaeology", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t500.society.history" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t500.society.history.asia", "label": "Asian history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t500.society.history.asia" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t500.society.history.asia.china", "label": "China", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t500.society.history.asia.china" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t500.society.history.asia.china.5d10k", "label": "Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (907 to 979)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t500.society.history.asia.china.5d10k" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t500.society.history.asia.china.5d10k.culture-and-works", "label": "Culture and works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t500.society.history.asia.china.5d10k.culture-and-works" } ] } ], "excerpt": "The Qintian calendar (钦天历) was the official calendar of the Later Zhou dynasty, compiled by Wang Pu and the last calendar of the Five Dynasties period.", "snippet": "The Qintian calendar (钦天历) was the official calendar of the Later Zhou dynasty, compiled by Wang Pu and the last calendar of the Five Dynasties period.", "node": "society.history.asia.china.5d10k.culture-and-works", "markdown": "# Qintian calendar\n\nThe Qintian calendar (钦天历) was the official calendar of the [Later Zhou](https://www.edgepedia.org/later-zhou) dynasty, compiled by [Wang Pu](https://www.edgepedia.org/wang-pu) (王朴) on the order of Emperor Shizong of Later Zhou (世宗), who received the commission in 显德二年 and completed the work after more than a year; it was put into use from the [New Year](https://www.edgepedia.org/new-year) of the following year[1](https://www.shidianguji.com/zh/book/NGJ892411999024316105490/chapter/1lvhra68asqoj). According to the *History of Song*, it remained in service at the founding of the Song dynasty until it was replaced by the Yingtian calendar, exactly as a contemporary astronomer had predicted[2](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋史/卷068) • [3](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋史/卷461). \n\n| Fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Subject | Qintian calendar (钦天历), the last calendar of the Five Dynasties period[4](https://cjournal.hep.com.cn/1001-8735/CN/10.3969/j.issn.1001-8735.2025.04.012) |\n| Author | Wang Pu, then 端明殿学士 and 左散骑常侍, ordered by Emperor Shizong to examine and correct the old calendar[1](https://www.shidianguji.com/zh/book/NGJ892411999024316105490/chapter/1lvhra68asqoj) |\n| Date | Commissioned in 显德二年; completed after more than a year of work[1](https://www.shidianguji.com/zh/book/NGJ892411999024316105490/chapter/1lvhra68asqoj) |\n| Size | Fifteen juan, named for the era: 显德, 钦天[1](https://www.shidianguji.com/zh/book/NGJ892411999024316105490/chapter/1lvhra68asqoj) |\n| Structure | Four chapters: 步日, 步月, 步星, and 步发敛; comprising a 历经 in one juan, the 历 in eleven juan, the 草 in three juan, and the 显德三年七政细行历 in one juan[5](https://www.70thvictory.com.tw/wenxue/guoxue/shibu/182476.htm) |\n| Constant | Unified divisor (统法) of 7,200[5](https://www.70thvictory.com.tw/wenxue/guoxue/shibu/182476.htm) |\n| Replacement | Superseded by the Yingtian calendar[2](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋史/卷068) |\n\n## Origin: author, compiler, and date\n\nEmperor Shizong ordered the reform because the earlier 调元历, made by the Astronomer-Royal Ma Zhongji (马重绩) under Emperor Gaozu of Jin (晋高祖), had drifted over the years after its promulgation, its methods gradually falling into error[1](https://www.shidianguji.com/zh/book/NGJ892411999024316105490/chapter/1lvhra68asqoj). The emperor chose Wang Pu because he was skilled in calendrical computation. Pu received the commission in 显德二年 and, working for more than a year, produced the calendar in fifteen juan and presented it to the throne[1](https://www.shidianguji.com/zh/book/NGJ892411999024316105490/chapter/1lvhra68asqoj).\n\nThe record in the Song history adds a contemporary detail: the Astronomer-Royal Wang Chune (王处讷) had himself been ordered to revise the faulty old calendar, and his work was finished but not yet submitted when Wang Pu presented the Qintian calendar, which was considered quite precise[3](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋史/卷461).\n\n## Contents\n\nThe calendar takes its name from the era, 显德钦天, and is organized as four computational chapters: one on the sun (步日), one on the moon (步月), one on the planets (步星), and a final chapter on the seasonal divisions and hexagram periods (步发敛)[5](https://www.70thvictory.com.tw/wenxue/guoxue/shibu/182476.htm). The fifteen juan comprised the 历经 in one juan, the 历 in eleven juan, and the 草 in three juan; apart from these stood a separate 显德三年七政细行历 in one juan giving the daily positions of the seven governors[5](https://www.70thvictory.com.tw/wenxue/guoxue/shibu/182476.htm). Its epoch count runs from a first year jiazi to 显德三年, totaling 72,698,452 years, with a unified divisor of 7,200[5](https://www.70thvictory.com.tw/wenxue/guoxue/shibu/182476.htm).\n\nWang Pu also cleaned house astronomically. In his memorial he removed the doctrines of the eclipse-spirit head and tail (蚀神首尾), writing that he had searched the records and calendars of the former dynasties, ancient and modern, and found no such text, judging it a foreign superstition of Indian monks, and that he had accordingly deleted it entirely[5](https://www.70thvictory.com.tw/wenxue/guoxue/shibu/182476.htm).\n\nModern study of its planetary section (步五星术) shows twelve named algorithms with a clear computational framework, moving from mean motion to true motion. It was the first calendar in which the correction algorithms at the node points of each segment were identical to the algorithms for correcting the time and position of conjunction, and it introduced the variable divisor (变历) as the independent variable for computing corrections, a device that later planetary theory in the traditional calendar built upon[4](https://cjournal.hep.com.cn/1001-8735/CN/10.3969/j.issn.1001-8735.2025.04.012).\n\n## Implementation and replacement\n\nEmperor Shizong read the calendar, personally composed a preface for it, and ordered the Astronomer-Royal to put it into use beginning with the New Year's day of the following year; all previous calendars were abolished at the same time[5](https://www.70thvictory.com.tw/wenxue/guoxue/shibu/182476.htm).\n\nThe [Song dynasty](https://www.edgepedia.org/song-dynasty) continued to use the Zhou Xiande Qintian calendar at its founding. Wang Chune's verdict had been delivered years earlier: examining the calendar with Wang Pu, he told him privately that it could be used for the moment but would soon go into error, and pointed out where; Pu was deeply convinced[3](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋史/卷461). The error appeared on schedule, within roughly two years of the Song's adoption of the calendar[2](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋史/卷068). Within astronomical theory, its planetary algorithms set a structural model that later 步五星术 followed[4](https://cjournal.hep.com.cn/1001-8735/CN/10.3969/j.issn.1001-8735.2025.04.012).\n\n## Assessment and disputed points\n\nThe history's own verdict is double-edged. The Song account calls the calendar quite precise when presented, yet records Wang Chune's warning that it would soon go into error, and the official narrative of the Song calendars opens with its replacement for inaccuracy[3](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋史/卷461) • [2](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋史/卷068). Modern computation, using tables of the Chongxuan calendar to supply its lost tables, finds mean absolute errors in the planets' ecliptic longitudes over the first thirty years of use of 1.18°, 2.62°, 1.81°, 2.48°, and 5.38° for the five planets[4](https://cjournal.hep.com.cn/1001-8735/CN/10.3969/j.issn.1001-8735.2025.04.012).\n\nThe transmitted text is itself contested. The Qing scholar [Qian Daxin](https://www.edgepedia.org/qian-daxin) (钱大昕) noted that the chapters on solar and lunar motion in the [Old History of the Five Dynasties](https://www.edgepedia.org/old-history-of-the-five-dynasties) lack the tables of盈缩 and 朓朒 numbers, and that only after Liu Xisou (刘羲叟) recovered the original classic was Pu's calendar made complete; he blamed [Ouyang Xiu](https://www.edgepedia.org/ouyang-xiu) (欧阳修), whose New History deleted material that should have stood, so that a work meant to be complete ended incomplete[6](https://www.shidianguji.com/zh/book/CADAL01025188/chapter/1l46tl8jdwvgf). The two histories also disagree on numbers: the Jovian orbital rate is 761 in the Old History but 966 in the New, and the juan count of the 历经 is given as eleven in one place while the 崇文总目, as quoted in the Jade Sea, gives twenty[1](https://www.shidianguji.com/zh/book/NGJ892411999024316105490/chapter/1lvhra68asqoj). The correction tables of the calendar are lost, so the soundness of its correction algorithms cannot be fully examined[4](https://cjournal.hep.com.cn/1001-8735/CN/10.3969/j.issn.1001-8735.2025.04.012).\n\n## References\n\n1. [旧五代史卷一百四十（识典古籍，[宋] 薛居正 撰）](https://www.shidianguji.com/zh/book/NGJ892411999024316105490/chapter/1lvhra68asqoj)\n2. [《宋史》卷六十八 (passages naming the subject, Wikisource transcription)](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋史/卷068)\n3. [《宋史》卷四百六十一 (passages naming the subject, Wikisource transcription)](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋史/卷461)\n4. [《钦天历》行星算法及精度研究](https://cjournal.hep.com.cn/1001-8735/CN/10.3969/j.issn.1001-8735.2025.04.012)\n5. [《旧五代史》卷一百四十 志二·历志（含《显德钦天历经》）](https://www.70thvictory.com.tw/wenxue/guoxue/shibu/182476.htm)\n6. [《廿二史攷异·五代史卷五》（识典古籍整理本）](https://www.shidianguji.com/zh/book/CADAL01025188/chapter/1l46tl8jdwvgf)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › History and archaeology › Asian history › China › Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (907 to 979) › Culture and works*\n\n*Initially written Sep 25, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026 · Last review: Sep 30, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/qintian-calendar", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/qintian-calendar.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Qintian calendar\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/qintian-calendar. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Qintian calendar](https://www.edgepedia.org/qintian-calendar)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/qintian-calendar](https://www.edgepedia.org/qintian-calendar). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Qintian calendar\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/qintian-calendar. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "The Qintian calendar was the official calendar of the Later Zhou dynasty, compiled by Wang Pu and the last calendar of the Five Dynasties period." }