A Study On Related Issues Of Meteorological Cognition In Han Dynasty

Meteorology had a profound impact on the material production and cultural fields of people's life in the Han Dynasty.The interpretation of the occurrence of meteorology by the Qi of Yin and Yang appeared as early as the Qin Dynasty and had a certain influence,which became the mainstream thought in the Han Dynasty.Dong Zhongshu's interpretation system of meteorology has three contents: first,Yin and Yang and five elements interact to produce meteorology according to certain rules.Second,the Qi of controlling chaos in human society can affect the movement of the Qi of Yin and Yang,and then affect the occurrence of meteorology.Third,as a symbol of the will of heaven,meteorology provides a reference for whether the monarch's governance behavior is proper or not.The above contents basically constitute the internal logic of Dong Zhongshu's theory of the response between man and nature.Under the influence of the thought of the reaction between heaven and man,meteorology,as a representation of the will of heaven,was given specific political and cultural meanings by people of the time,taking "frost" and "wind and rain" as examples.The cold and solemn natural attributes of "frost" extend to the meaning of punishment and killing.The heavy frost is considered to be the commandment of heaven that the monarch's punishment is careless,the administration is eager and negligent,and the military is frequently used.The frost does not kill grass,suggesting that the minister is strong and the monarch is weak.In the context of Confucian scholars,the "wind and rain" encountered by Emperor Shihuang on his pilgrimage was endowed with the metaphor of God's intention to hinder his pilgrimage activities,and had a profound impact on Emperor Wudi's pilgrimage activities.Both were used as speech tools to express their political views and achieve their political goals.Based on the observation of meteorological phenomena in daily life,the Han people have many scientific and reasonable understandings.The change of the names of the eight winds in the Han Dynasty reflects the change of the ancients' generalization of the characteristics of different seasonal winds to the determination of festival phenology by the atmosphere.The Han people realized that between clouds,fog,rain,snow,and hail are different states of rain at different temperatures and other conditions,and roughly describe the process of formation and fall of clouds and rain.And looking at the shape and color of clouds and how animals react to predict precipitation.The main purpose of mastering the law of meteorological occurrence is to meet the practical demand of agricultural production.The Han people made use of and adapted to meteorological conditions to arrange their farming life,and improved the soil and farming environment with the help of precipitation.Sowing after rain was selected to improve seed germination rate.Use snow to keep heat,resist drought and kill insects,and use snow juice to improve agricultural output.In terms of coping with adverse meteorological conditions,it adopts the way of scraping frost and dew with ropes,chooses the crops with higher tolerance to adverse meteorological conditions,and invents the economical and applicable irrigation methods of infiltration and leakage,and the zone-field method and the farm-substitution method which are conducive to drought resistance and moisture conservation.In Han Dynasty,the formation of the "county reported rain" system became a timely grasp of the disaster,understand the important means of farming.Due to the limitations of The Times,the Han people could not make accurate weather predictions and effectively intervene in the weather.They could only turn to the path of praying to the gods of the mountains and rivers.The names and images of meteorological deities were complicated and varied,and their sacrificial forms and positions were changed by the change of ritual concepts in different periods.The way of praying for rain also changed.Dong Zhongshu created a rain-praying ceremony with unique characteristics of Han Dynasty based on the thought of yin-yang and five elements causing wind and rain,taking "closing Yang and opening Yin" as the principle and the theory of five elements as the system.In the Eastern Han Dynasty,praying for rain and offering sacrifices to mountains and rivers gradually spread from the central government to local governments,which became an important political measure for the ruling class to pray for rain and blessing in times of drought and appease the people.The Han people's cognition of meteorology is not single and separate,but mutually influenced and closely related in various aspects,such as god belief,politics and agricultural affairs.