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Night watches

The Chinese night watch system was originally derived from the proportional decimal hour system that was in use during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods (c. 770–221 BC). These proportional hours had names:

  • daytime hours: morning, forenoon, midday, afternoon, evening (ˈdziu, ˌjy, ˈdzuŋ, ˈbou, ˍdzik)
  • nighttime hours: A, B, C, D, E (ˉgap, ˍjyt, ˊbiŋ, ˈdiŋ, ˍmou)

In this system, the five night watches (ˈgaŋ), numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, were the hours A, B, C, D, E. (Li & Jiang, 2018; cf. “Page:Gujin Tushu Jicheng, Volume 024 (1700-1725).djvu/54”, 2020)

Each watch was subdivided into five equal parts which we could call subwatches. The beginnings of these five subwatches were called points (ˊdim), numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

The system was later realigned to modern duodecimal hour boundaries, but it’s superfluous to announce night watches of this later kind if we’re already sounding Westminster-style chimes. This is why this script follows the older, original system. (Also, it’s useful to know “it’s now sundown” or “it’s already past the middle of the night”, etc.)

This script uses chimes that follow the patterns described by the Wikipedia article for Chinese night watches:

  • 1st watch: long–short, struck 3 times
  • 2nd watch: short–short, struck 2 times
  • 3rd watch: long–short–short, struck 3 times
  • 4th watch: long–short–short–short, struck 4 times
  • 5th watch: long–short–short–short–short, struck 5 times

All these except the first follow a recognizable pattern. Striking a gong just once is too easy to miss, so they used a pattern that didn’t fit: The odd one out is the first watch.

References

打更 [Calling out the hour]. (2021). Wikipedia. Retrieved August 17, 2021, from https://zh.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%E6%89%93%E6%9B%B4&oldid=65321028

Li, M.-N. & Jiang, Z.-Z. (2018). 時光奧秘 [The mystery of time]. Taipei, Taiwan: Son Book. Retrieved September 10, 2021, from https://books.google.ca/books?id=QG-BDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT135&lpg=PT135

Lin, T.-Y. (2007). 午時三刻⸺古中國的時間制度 [“Three after seven”? Systems for timekeeping in ancient China]. Science Development, 420, 58–63. Retrieved from https://ejournal.stpi.narl.org.tw/sd/view?vlId=E8E36F2F-73CB-4924-8F5F-D18489D89422

Page:Gujin Tushu Jicheng, Volume 024 (1700-1725).djvu/54. (2020). In Wikisource. Retrieved September 10, 2021, from https://zh.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Page:Gujin_Tushu_Jicheng,_Volume_024_(1700-1725).djvu/54&oldid=1817171