Hi everyone, I’m Ally. Welcome to Five Thousand Years
A Chinese period drama caught my attention recently
It’s called “The Longest Day in Chang’an”. It’s very popular right now
The whole drama is about what happened in Chang’an during a 24-hour time frame
I thought this was an interesting premise and it made me think about how people kept time in ancient China
For example we see this sundial scene a lot which tells you what time it is in the story
So how does this thing work? Did ancient people use the same timekeeping system as today?
In today’s video, let’s take a look at what are some of the ways that ancient Chinese people kept time
before the invention of clocks and watches
There were three types of devices that common people used to tell time. The first one is the sundial
The world's oldest sundial is from Egypt in 1,500 BC
And the earliest written record from China was from “The Book of Han” in 82 AD
The sundials in China are usually marked in 12 sections
Each one is called one Shichen, which roughly equals to two hours in today’s time
According to Du Yu’s commentary of “Zuo Zhuan”
each Shichen had a unique name that described the activities people would do during that time
The first Shichen starts at 11pm and ends at 1am, and it’s called Yeban, which means midnight
Then it’s Jiming, rooster crowing; Pingdan, daybreak; Richu, sunrise; Shishi, mealtime;
ancient Chinese people, especially commoners only ate two meals per day so this is when they would eat their first meal
Yuzhong, approaching noon; Rizhong, midday; Ridie, sun decline; Bushi, dinnertime
this is when people would eat their second and last meal of the day
Riru, sunset; Huanghun, dusk; Rending, settling down
There were other names associated with each Shichen, but they were more or less similar in meaning
During the Han Dynasty, Shichen were given names from the 12 earthly branches, which was an ancient ordering system
The 12 Shichen were then renamed to zishi, choushi, yinshi, maoshi, chenshi, sishi, wushi, weishi, shenshi, youshi, xushi, and haishi
These became the most commonly used terms for the later dynasties until the last dynasty
By the Song Dynasty, each Shichen was further divided into two sections
with the first half called chu, or the initial hour, and the second called zheng, or the central hour
People called the new half Shichen xiaoshi which literarily means small hour, to differentiate it from the old Shichen
And to this day, hours are still called xiaoshi in China
Other than the sundials, which can’t work without the sun
Chinese people also used another type of time keeping device called Kelou
According to “The Book of Sui”, the Yellow Emperor invented this method of dripping water through a device and observing the markings to tell time
That was more than 4,000 years ago and since then every dynasty improved upon it to make the time keeping device more accurate
Other substances such as mercury and sand were also used in place of water
The Ke in Kelou literally means "mark" or "engraving"
People divided a day’s time into 100 sections and made 100 markings on the water clock
and 1/100th of a day is therefore called one Ke
This 100 Ke system was used even before the 12 Shichen system was developed
But the problem was 100 can’t be divided by 12 in whole, making it difficult to keep track with the two systems at the same time
So it was briefly adjusted to 120 Ke, 96 Ke, and 108 Ke during history
Not until the late Ming and early Qing dynasty, the 100 Ke was finally changed to 96 Ke to match the Western hour system
When it’s converted to our time today, one Ke equals to 15 minutes
When it’s converted to our time today, one ke equals to 15 minutes. And that’s why Chinese people use Yi ke or one ke to say 15 minutes
Other than Shichen and Ke, night time in China had its own time keeping system as well
One is called Jing. There are five Jing per night, each one is 2 hours long, the same length as Shichen
It starts at Xushi and ends at Yinshi
Each Jing can be further divided into five Dian, so each Dian is 24 minutes
For example, Chinese emperors usually start their morning meetings at Wu Jing San Dian. Wu means five and san means three
So Wu Jing is 3 am, and San Dian is 72 minutes, so therefore Wu Jing San Dian means 4:12 am
That’s how early emperors and officials started working in ancient China
There was another type of timekeeping device that used burning incense as measurements
“The Longest Day in Chang’an” showed a replica of an ancient fire clock
As the incense was burning shorter and shorter, metal balls were dropped to signal the passing of time, until a full Shichen had passed
Incenses were mold into different thickness, lengths, and shapes to fit people’s need
The one I have at home was burning for about two hours long
There were ancient records about incense lasting as long as a few days and even a whole month
So to recap, we talked about the sun clock, water clock, and fire clock
but everything we mentioned today were mostly used for timekeeping within a day
Ancient Chinese people also had their own system for weeks, months, and years
and the telescoping instruments they used were extremely advanced and intricate
I will be talking about that in another video, so don’t forget to subscribe if you are interested
Also check out my channel for more videos on traditional Chinese culture and values, as well as Chinese fashion and history
Thank you for watching. I’ll see you next time!