The Link Up of Confucian Classics and Calender Study

Deduction of the Historical Calendar Table in Spring and Autumn Period depends heavily on the intercalation of Leap month and consecutive solar months. In that period, the leap month was not intercalated in the middle of a year; hence it was intercalated at the end of the year, sometimes every three years or sometimes every other years rather than one in two years in a row or twice a year. However, previously, in order to accommodate itself to dates in Spring and Autumn Annals, the Historical Calendar Table intercalated the leap month and consecutive solar months in a disputable way. Actually, dates in Spring and Autumn Annals didn’t necessarily conform to those of the Lu State. When Confucius wrote Spring and Autumn Annals, he based his writing on the records of the history of Various States, whose calendar differed from that of the Lu State, so the months and days didn’t match each other. A lack of understanding of the differences between the calendar in the Lu State and the one in Various States or the fact that solar eclipse might happen on the last day of last month or this month or the differences between the date of obituary and the date of death when a feudal prince passed away would render the layout of the calendar inconsistent with that of the usual ones. With its deduction based on the calendar of the Lu State and on borrowing half day and supported by examples from Spring and Autumn Annals, this paper yields a calendar table which differs from that deducted by other scholars and can provide reference for other textual researchers.