从“岁尽增年”到“岁初增年”——中国中古官方计龄方式的演变

From "Counting from the End of the Year" to "Counting from the Beginning of the Year" :Evolution of the Official Method of Counting Age in Middle Antiquity in China

中国古代尤其是中古时期,官方年龄与民间年龄计算方法的最大区别在增年的时间节点上。最迟从汉武帝时代开始,民间形成了以岁首元日即农历春节为节点的增年方式;官方则因应户籍制度的设计,以民众著籍亦即官府造籍的标准时间为增年节点。《史记·仓公列传》淳于意称"臣意年尽三年,年三十九岁",岳麓秦简0552说爽"尽廿六年廿三岁",都是按官方增年方式计算年龄。由于造籍标准时间不同,官方的增年时间节点也会随之变化。秦汉时期八月造籍,官方年龄就以八月增年;唐代在造籍年的前一年年末预报"来年手实",造籍的标准时间实际上是在正月。至迟从唐代起,官方年龄已经变成了岁初增年,制度与礼俗最终合二为一。

In ancient China,particularly in middle antiquity,the biggest difference between the official and the popular way of counting age lay in when one became a year older.From the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty at the latest,popular custom regarded the first day of the year,i.e.the lunar Spring Festival,as the point at which one was a year older.The government,on the other hand,in accordance with the design of the household registration system,used the standard time of household registration(i.e.the time when government officials registered the household) as the point at which the person concerned was a year older.In the 'Biography of Cang Gong'(Chunyu Yi) in the Shi Ji(Records of the Grand Historian),Chunyu Yi states that he was 39 years old at the end of the 3rd Year of Emperor Wen of Han,and Qin bamboo slip No.0552 at the Yuelu Academy records that Shuang was 23 years old by the end of the 26 th Year of the First Emperor of Qin.These are all examples ages calculated by the official method.But since the standard registration time varied,the point of time officially used to add age increments also varied.During the Qin and Han dynasties,household registrations were compiled in August,so one officially became a year older in August.Under the Tang,the populace had to submit their 'household information for the coming year' in advance,at the end of the year previous to the year in which the government would carry out household registration,so the standard registration time was actually the first month of the lunar year.From the Tang Dynasty at the latest,the official way of counting age was from the beginning of the lunar year,finally bringing together government institutions and folk custom.