Julian Calendar Research Articles

Modeling terrestrial net ecosystem exchange using machine learning techniques based on flux tower measurements

Identifying the complex relationships of Net Ecosystem Exchange (NEE) of CO2, as an underlying factor of land surface, and atmosphere interactions is extremely important to the dynamic of carbon fluxes. Assessment of the model-based estimation of land-atmosphere carbon flux across various plant functional types (PFTs) can support the accurate identification of the carbon cycle and the adaptation and mitigation of climate change programs. Five different machine learning methods named Multiple Linear Regression (MLR), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Decision Tree (DT), Gradient Boosting Machine (GBM) and Random Forest (RF) were used to predict daily NEE magnitude. In this study, 24 sites classified into four PFTs of Deciduous Broadleaf Forest (DBF), Evergreen Needle-leaf Forest (ENF), Mixed Forest (MF) and Grassland (GRA) were examined through ground-based flux tower data. The numbers of sites were six, four, six and eight for DBF, ENF, MF and GRA respectively, while measurement periods varied from two to thirteen years. The model calibration and validation were carried out using 70%and 30% of the data-set, respectively. The models’ performances were assessed using statistical indices including the coefficient of determination (R2), the Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE), bias error (Bias) and root mean square error (RMSE) through Python software. Based on statistical indices, the models showed different levels of capability when analyzing data from the DBF, ENF, MF and GRA sites. Among the models, RF showed the best performance, MLR showed the poorest performance, while SVM, GBM and DT models all had moderate responses. The effect of both air and soil temperatures, as the state variables, were examined to assess model performance. Whether soil temperature is included in the model plays a more important role in the performance of the models in grassland than in forest. Soil temperature inclusion, as an input variable, improved the models’ performance about 14% in grassland, while it improved performance 2.4%, 2.4% and 3.5% in ENF, MF and DBF, respectively. Finally, to assess the models' performances, the NEE behavior in terms of over- or under- estimation was investigated across each PFT and over various phenological periods. The results indicate that high uncertainty occurs between the 140th and 220th days of the Julian calendar for forested areas and between the 120th and 210thdays for grassland.

Once Again on Boris Godunov’s Birthday. Heinrich von Logau’s Account

European diplomatic sources from the early 17th century provide us with previously unaccounted for data on Russian history. Thanks to a report by Georg Tectander, a member of Emperor Rudolph II’s mission to Russia, we can now establish the exact date of birth for Boris Godunov. An unpublished manuscript by Tectander’s contemporary and compatriot, Baron Heinrich von Logau, who visited the Tsardom of Russia at the same time, allows us to verify this date as well as to broaden our perspective on everyday life and ceremonial of the royal court, on the Tsar’s personal piety and on the status of the ancient tradition of celebrating birthdays and name days. Moreover, analyzing various calendars used by the diplomats of that era allows us to ascertain that one’s preference for the Gregorian or Julian calendar was not defined by national strategies only but remained a matter of personal choice that was subject to change during one’s life.

Decoding with Gematria the Number 1737, Jesus Christ’s Lifespan in Weeks, according to a XX-Century Mystic

The paper reports a mathematical exercise, mainly based on Jewish Gematria, to decode the integer 1737, Jesus’ lifespan calculated in weeks according to the Italian mystic Maria Valtorta. We show that the sequence of integers 1000 + 700 + 37 = 1737 describes the character Jesus, seen as the Messiah. The first two integers can be directly interpreted with Gematria; the third can be related to Jesus’ life, both as 33 + 4—the number of years (33) and months (4) of his life—, or as 34 + 3—the calendar year of his death (34, Julian calendar) and the number of days (3) to Resurrection. With the exponential function, other meanings can be extracted from 1737, related to the Act of Creation, in Jewish terms, and/or to the second person of the Trinity, in Christian terms. From the integer 1737, it is also possible to estimate the approximate hour of Jesus’ birth and verify the hour of death reported in the Gospels. Since the knowledge and mathematical tools we have used were surely not known to Maria Valtorta, it is surprising to arrive at a self-consistent and coherent framework from what she writes.

THEODORUS THE GREEK, THE POPE’S MITROPOLICH’ OF ROME. REVISITING THE RELATIONS BETWEEN RUS AND THE PAPACY IN THE LATE 11TH CENTURY

The paper gives grounds for the viewpoint that historians can treat as probably valid the record in the Nikon Chronicle dated 6599 Creation Era (1091 CE) reporting the arrival of Theodorus the Greek’s papal mission from Rome in Kyiv with numerous saints’ relics. Arguments are put forward in favour of Theodorus’ identification with Pope Urban’s legate Teuzo, cardinal of San Giorgio in Velabro, who could have been set off to Rome, accompanied by Prince Yaroslav Sviatopolchich, whom the former could have met at the consecration of St. Egid Basilica in Somogyvár. This mission could be juxtaposed with the translation of the relics of Saint Nicholas from Myra to Bari and its commemoration being established as a Church holiday (May 9 Julian Calendar).

ԸՆԴՀԱՆՈՒՐ ՀԱՅԿԱԿԱՆ ԱՄՍԱՆՈՒՆՆԵՐԻ ԾԱԳՈՒՄՆԱԲԱՆՈՒԹՅԱՆ ՀԱՐՑԻ ՇՈՒՐՋ/QUESTIONS ON THE SUBJECT OF THE ORIGIN OF COMMON ARMENIAN MONTH NAMES/К ВОПРОСУ О ПРОИСХОЖДЕНИИ ОБЩЕАРМЯНСКИХ НАЗВАНИЙ МЕСЯЦЕВ

The purpose of this article is to examine the genealogy of common Armenian month names, to reveal the period of their naming, which has been examined by a number of famous grammarians. It has been shown that five of the ancient Armenian month names are native Armenian words: tre, kaghots, arats, areg, avelyats, seven are borrowings from Farsi: mehekan, ahekan. mareri, hrotits, navasard, sahmi, margats. Four of them are Persian month names, three are cooperative words that have turned into month names in Armenian culture: navasard, sahmi, margats. The month name Hori remains unexplained. For the first time, a comparison has been made between the month names of Old Armenian, Middle Armenian and Modern Armenian. In the Middle Armenian status, the names of the months were mainly taken from the Julian Calendar which later passed to the Modern Armenian language. Some of them differ from the Modern Armenian month names in writing and pronunciation, and others are borrowings from Arabic and Turkish. Latin (Roman) month names are used in modern Armenian, because the Armenians switched to the Julian calendar from the 18th century, borrowing all the Latin month names. The constant pairing of the dates of the months of the Armenian calendar (“Tomar”) with the Julian one compiled by some cineradiographs was also presented, as well as the days contained in the Armenian months were given, as a result of which it became clear that they were different in their temporal inclusion in different centuries.

Dating the Birth of Jesus Christ on Hanukkah

The still controversial date of the birth of Jesus Christ (Nativity Day) is investigated by using multidisciplinary elements: historical tradition, ancient calendars (Julian and luni-solar) and astronomical calculations. The Nativity Day dates of Western—December 25—and Eastern traditions—January 6—have been compared with Kislev 25, the initial day of the Jewish feast Hanukkah, reported in an ancient source of the IV century as the Nativity Day. The same source sets the Epiphany on Tevet 6. Astronomical calculations allow us to reconstruct moon phases and ancient luni-solar calendars, and to verify whether Hanukkah can be associated to the Nativity Day of the Christian tradition. By considering the leap years wrongly introduced in the first decades of the Julian calendar, and the flexibility of the Jewish luni-solar calendar of 2000 years ago—regarding the beginning of months and embolismic years—our astronomical calculations show that the Nativity Day set on Kislev 25 is compatible with the Eastern tradition, 6 January 1 after Christ, in agreement with the year calculated by Dionysius Exiguus. Moreover, also the Epiphany is compatible with the Eastern tradition of January 6, if it is set on Tevet 6 of a year later, just in the day indicated by an ancient source of the IV century.

Chrononyms in Stratagema Oeconomicum by S.Gubert and in Lifliandskaia Ekonomiia by M.V.Lomonosov (a comparative study)

Stratagema Oeconomicum by S.Gubert (first ed. 1645) is a German-language manual on farming in the historical region of Livonia. This German text, as well as its Russian translation Lifljandskaia Ekonomiia (“Economy of Livonia”) signed by M.Lomonosov (1747), contains numerous calendar dates in the form of proper names (chrononyms). Most of these names refer to religious holidays and Christian saints’ days of remembrance. A comparative study of chrononyms from the two texts approaches issues that were not fully resolved in previous works, namely, revealing the strategies used by the Russian author and identifying the reasons for deviations from the original text. An analysis of the linguistic material shows that in the selection of equivalents for German chrononyms, the Russian translator used both the Orthodox Church calendar and the traditional Slavic almanac. Many significant Christian figure are not represented in the Slavic folk calendar, and this led to cases in which names from the German book were replaced with names indicating different, albeit close, calendar dates. In addition, the days of remembrance of some Christian saints differ in the Western and Eastern traditions, which also caused a number of replacements with shifts in dates. Other factors, e. g. climate of Russia and the use of the Julian calendar, did not have a significant impact on the translation of chrononyms. The main aim of the adaptation carried out by the Russian translator, most likely, was the desire to present calendar milestones and intervals in a form familiar to the Russian reader.

150 years of the Serbian Medical Society

May 4, 2022 marks the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Serbian Medical Society. For a nation, unlike ours, that has lived in peace for centuries, it would be an event of exceptional national significance and a reason for pride and satisfaction. In the context of difficult history of our people, which has lasted for centuries, such an event is incomparably more important. With such endurance and success, the Serbian Medical Society has become one of the oldest and most valuable institutions of our people and our state. It was founded on April 22, according to the Julian calendar (May 4, according to the Gregorian calendar) in 1872, during a century in which, after the failed First Serbian Uprising, the Serbs fought in the Second Uprising to become a vassal principality within the Ottoman Empire, and succeeded ? not merely using weapons, but also with wisdom and patience. Upon triumphing, its newly forming wisdom and its people first started to dream of full independence, and henceforth of the restoration of the Serbian state within its historical borders. Today, it is difficult to imagine the foresight and courage of the Serbian doctors to establish the Serbian Medical Society at a time when Serbia had only 63 doctors, seven of whom were ?masters of surgery? (medical assistants) and one dentist, all that at time when doctors of Serbian origin could be counted on the fingers of one hand. The Serbian Medical Society was founded soon after, or even before, medical associations in some advanced European countries for which the tragic history of the Serbian people was something they could hardly believe.

Leopold Skulski – minister spraw wewnętrznych w Rządzie Obrony Narodowej Wincentego Witosa: 24 lipca 1920 – 28 czerwca 1921

Leopold Skulski was born on November 3 (according to the Julian calendar, November 15), 1877, in Zamość, in an impoverished noble and intellectual family. He was a pharmacist and chemical engineer. In the Legislative Sejm, he headed the club of the National People’s Union. From December 13, 1919 to June 9, 1920, he was the president of the Council of Ministers. On July 24, 1920, in the Government of National Defense led by Wincenty Witos, he became the Minister of the Internal Affairs and also a member of the State Defense Council. During the Polish-Bolshevik war of 1920, he headed the most important civil department in the country – the administration of internal affairs – and, as a result, was the head of the “internal front”. After leaving the government on June 28, 1921, he was, among others, member of the State Tribunal (1925–1928), president of the Polish Radio and president of the Association of Żyrardów Plants. After September 17, 1939, he was arrested and shot by the Soviet authorities in unknown circumstances. Probably buried in Kuropaty in Belarus.

Masquerade Games in the Pernik Region of Bulgaria: Preserving and Promoting Intangible Cultural Heritage

The focus of this text is the masquerade tradition in central-west Bulgaria and activities related to its safeguarding and promotion. The essence of the survakar games in the Pernik Region is described, as well as its significance in traditional culture and its contemporary manifestations. The games with masks in the region are performed on the Surva feast day (14 January; also St. Basil’s Day according to the Julian calendar). The text notes the importance of the custom in the local community’s traditional culture. The main characters in the survakar groups, which are typical of both the past and the present, are presented, as are some new phenomena related to the feast. The tendencies in the context of the dynamics and events of the twentieth century are outlined, thanks to which the masquerade tradition has maintained its vitality until the present day. Some processes that have threatened the vitality of these masquerade games in the past are considered. Various local activities related to the safeguarding of the tradition are presented. The role of the community is important for the transmission of cultural practice to future generations, as is the role of local cultural institutions and organizations in preserving the tradition. Some ways of popularizing the local heritage and the joint work of the main actors engaged in safeguarding the region’s intangible cultural heritage today are emphasized.

Analyses of a datable solar eclipse record in Maya Classic period monumental inscriptions

ABSTRACTHistorical records of total solar eclipses provide vital information for computing the rotation of the Earth and understanding its long-term variations in the time before modern measurements. While eclipses recorded around Eurasia and North Africa for millennia have been subjected to consideration in this context, eclipse records in the American continents have received little attention. In this study, we analysed the solitary observational record for a solar eclipse conducted by the ancient Maya on 790 July 16 in the Julian calendar, recorded on the Stela 3 of Santa Elena Poco Uinic (N16°35′, W91°44′). This stela has an eclipse glyph and is associated with a total solar eclipse. Taking the up-to-date Earth rotation (ΔT) rate into account, our calculations locate this site slightly out of the totality path. The visibility of the total solar eclipse from Santa Elena Poco Uinic would require ΔT to be 4074 s < ΔT < 4873 s. In comparison with the contemporary eclipse records, this yields a short-term increase in ΔT ≥ 800 s between 761 and 790 and a decrease in ΔT ≥ 580 s between 790 and 873. Therefore, the total solar eclipse on 790 July 16 cannot be expected to have been visible from Santa Elena Poco Uinic, unlike what has been previously considered. We conclude that this stela probably records a partial solar eclipse of great magnitude (≈0.946) visible under favourable meteorological conditions or is based on hearsay from the southern coastal area.

The Twenty-Four Egyptian Days in Yiddish

Abstract The object of this study is a list of twenty-four Egyptian days in Yiddish discovered at the end of a Hebrew miscellany from medieval Ashkenaz, preserved in the Basel Universitätsbibliothek. Egyptian days are inauspicious days for bloodletting; these are listed according to the Julian calendar and sometimes identified by saint names and feast days. The list is edited and translated into English. Dates and variants of these Egyptian days are then compared with those of the only other known list of its kind, found in the earliest dated astro-medical fragment in Old Western Yiddish, from 1396–1397. A tabular comparison and descriptive commentary of the names and dates in both lists follows. Preceding this analysis, the status and knowledge of Jewish physicians in medieval Ashkenaz is addressed, as well as a brief description of Ms R IV 2, revealing its rich content and some of its codicological and paleographical characteristics.

Roman Catholic Church and Greek Catholic Clergy in Relations to the Orthodox Church in Poland between 1951 and 1970

After World War II, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics sought to liquidate the Greek Catholic Church. In 1946, a non-constitutional synod was held in Lviv which liquidated the Greek Catholic Church and incorporated it into the Russian Orthodox Church. Similarly, Romanian communist authorities liquidated the Greek Catholic Church in 1948 and the same took place in the Czech Republic two years later. In the Polish People’s Republic, the authorities did not even try to make the liquidation bear the marks of legality. The communist authorities considered that resettlement of the hierarchs and most of the clergy as well as the Greek Catholic followers to the Soviet Ukraine and the rest of them to the west and north of Poland solved the problem. However, the priests and their followers made every effort to re-establish the Greek Catholic Church in Poland. Greek Catholic clergy tried to find their faithful in the place of settlement and, if possible, start their pastoral service in the native rite. This is how regular services in Chrzanów began. Taking advantage of the kindness of some Roman Catholic priests, Greek Catholic liturgies began to take place in Cyganek, Bytów and Kwasów. The faithful, who were deprived of priests, also began to organize their own religious life. They met in larger groups in private homes, where they prayed and sang religious songs. They tried to celebrate the holidays according to the Julian calendar and in accordance with the native tradition. Because of that, the communist authorities decided to make the Greek Catholics convert to the Orthodox Catholic Church. Therefore, Orthodox Catholic institutions were opened for the Greek Catholics on the basis of the Greek Catholic Church in Poland. Despite initial success, the initiative ended in failure. Most of the Orthodox Catholic institutions collapsed after Greek Catholic liturgy had been resumed as the faithful returned to their church.

Orientation of Gothic-Mudéjar Churches in Southern Spain

Most of the earliest new churches built in Andalusia (southern Spain) following the thirteenth-century Christian Reconquista occupied the sites of former mosques. In some cases, these churches incorporated pre-existing architectonic elements – particularly minarets, which were converted into bell towers – or took some inspiration from Islamic architecture, creating a combination of Gothic style and elements from Muslim architecture known as Gothic-Mudéjar. This paper analyses the orientation pattern of a group of 68 Gothic-Mudéjar churches built in the cities of re-conquered Andalusia up to the early fifteenth century, and the normalised frequency distribution of azimuths is compared with published data for the qibla (the direction toward which Muslims turn to pray) observed at a group of 82 Andalusian mosques. Results confirm that a large number of churches were oriented via a 90° anticlockwise rotation from orientation to the qibla after placing the apse in the former eastern wall of the mosque. It is further argued, based on the histogram and a distinctive peak around 84°, that the architects aligned these churches to sunrise over the local horizon for 25th March according to the Julian calendar, the date of the canonical equinox. This practice reflects Church teaching and a medieval foundation-stone rite involving a dawn vigil, and the built structures reflect the limited technical capacity of the church builders. The method of orientation would also have created a precedent for the alignment of some later churches in southern Spain dedicated to the Virgin of the Assumption to sunrise on 15th August, the Feast of the Assumption.

Confessions and boundaries in the Holy Roman Empire: The Brandenburg, Minden, and the Calendar in 1668

Between 1583 and 1700, there were two calendars in use in the Holy Empire, with a gap of ten days between them. It is generally said that one of the calendars, the Gregorian, was Catholic, and the other, the old Julian calendar, was Protestant. There is no theological reason for this division, nor is it absolute, a fact demonstrated by the case studied in this article. In 1668, the Elector of Brandenburg (Protestant) imposed a transition to the (supposedly Catholic) Gregorian calendar on his subjects of the principality of Minden in Westphalia (with a Protestant majority). The arguments of the various protagonists in this decision and the debates it engendered reveal synergies and shifts between the religious and other domains (including economic), warping these categories that are often reified in historiography. Moreover, the debate shows that Minden’s border was embedded in the variety of scales that were mobilized according to their particular interests by various actors. This case study thus permits us to re-situate spatial and category-specific boundaries – which seem consubstantial with the notion of the territorial State in the Empire – in a complex social game that can only be understood through a wide range of sources.

Of Calendars—and Kings—and Why the Winter is Boiling Hot

Abstract This article documents the evolution and survival of an institution that has persisted nearly two and a half millennia until the present day. This institution, the Mandæan calendar, has evolved since its origins in the early Hellenistic period, and has been faithfully maintained since 472 ce at the latest. Its essential structure, 12 equal months of 30 days extended with the addition of five days to maintain its correspondence with the passage of the seasons, has evidently not changed since its initial adoption. After introducing the basic elements of time-keeping among Mandæans today, the article addresses the system of days, months, years, eras, and ages employed in the Mandæan scriptures, and correlates them with the present Mandæan calendar as well as the Julian and Gregorian calendars.

“The Propagandists are Younger Women”

The 1924 Church reform, through which the Romanian Orthodox Church decided to adopt the Revised Julian Calendar, led to dissent movements, mostly comprised of peasants, especially in the villages of Moldavia and Bessarabia. Considering the calendar change a heresy, these groups soon developed into religious communities that came to be known as Old Calendarists, or “stylists,” followers of “the old-style calendar.” Led by defrocked priests and monks who rejected the reform, the groups very quickly became the target of the secret police and the Gendarmerie. What also drew the attention of the authorities and the Orthodox Church was that women, especially the younger ones, seemed to play important roles within the communities, not only in terms of membership, but also in preserving and spreading the Old Calendarists’ beliefs and religious ideas. As many members of the communities were being arrested, and their churches were destroyed, these women also suffered imprisonment, monastic incarceration, or were forced to hide from the authorities in caves or huts that they built in the woods. Though subjected to various forms of persecution, which continued through the communist period, the majority of them held strong to their beliefs and contributed to the forging of a religious identity. Using archival documents, in the forms of letters, postcards, photos, and declarations as primary sources, and drawing on interviews conducted with contemporary nuns and members of the Old Calendarist communities, the present article explores the personal stories of young Old Calendarist women. Building upon the work of Anca Șincan, this article challenges the notion that transmission of religion was the exclusive prerogative of older women.

RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHUVASH CALENDAR AND THE RITUAL COMPLEX KALAM

The process of mass Christianization and the use of the official language and the Julian calendar in the administrative offices of local authorities influenced heavily the traditional calendar of the Chuvash people. First of all, the names that denoted the months of the transition period, as well as the name of the main Chuvash rite at the vernal equinox – Kalam, were subjected to semantic transformation. Prior to mass Christianization of the Chuvash people, their calendar year began with the month of norăs / nurăs. This term, along with the concept of a 5-day week, was borrowed from the neighboring Iranian language no later than the 4th–8th centuries AD. Before this period the ancestors of the Onoğurs-Bulgar could name the first month of the year as having the meaning «head month [of the year]» and have, like all Proto-Turkic, a 3-day week. The latter is well reflected in the rules for dividing individual parts of moon phases in the Onoğuro-Bulgar calendar, as well as in a 9-day division of moon phases in the calendars of the Chuvash, the Tuvinians and some other Turkic peoples. Number 9 expresses the main idea of the harmonious unity of the three forces of the universe: the Sky (the Sun), the Man from the middle world and the Earth, where the remnants of his ancestors are. The chronotope of Kalam ritual complex reflects the universal idea of «dying «and «resurrecting» nature. The complex was formed on the basis of the ancient cult of the Sun among the proto-Turks, who associated the year (in the meaning of a «warm season») only with the summer sun. With the development of cattle breeding and the emergence of the concept of a two-season (summer and winter) calendar year, the idea of its beginning also changed. The Chuvash, like other Turkic peoples, divided the months into two groups: summer months and winter ones. Later on, the ancient Turks began to mark transition periods from one season to another. The ancient Turks understood summer and winter as the time of heat and frost «birth and death». Sĕren rite, which originally symbolized treating and seeing off the ancestral spirits, gradually transformed into the agricultural festivals Akatui (sĕren) and Sabantui «plow wedding».

NOMINA ANIMALIUM IN LATERCULUS BY POLEMIUS SILVIUS. THE BEGINNINGS OF THE LITURGICAL CALENDAR (5TH CENTURY)


 
 
 Creating Laterculus, Polemus Silvius, a 5th-century author, was the first to attempt to integrate the traditional Roman Julian calendar containing the pagan celebrations and various anniversaries with new Christian feasts. Laterculus, as it should be remembered, is a work that bears the features of a liturgical calendar. In addition to dates and anniversaries related to religion and the state, the calendar contains several other lists and inventories, including a list of Roman provinces, names of animals, a list of buildings and topographical features of Rome, a breviary of Roman history, a register of animal sounds and a list of weights and sizes. Therefore, Laterculus, just like a traditional Roman calendar, was also used for didactic purposes.
 This paper aims to refer in detail to the zoological vocabulary, specifically the register of animal names and sounds included in this source. Laterculus contains in total over 450 words divided into six groups, including 108 words in the four-legged animal section, 131 in the bird section, 11 crustaceans, 26 words for snakes, 62 words for insects and 148 for fish. The sounds of animals, which are also included in one of the lists added to this calendar and titled Voces variae animancium, are also worth mentioning. A brief discussion on the history of the Roman calendar and the liturgical calendar certainly helps to present the issue referred to in the title to its fullest extent.
 
 

Conditional distribution selection for SPEI-daily and its revealed meteorological drought characteristics in China from 1961 to 2017

Drought is one of the most complex natural disasters, while meteorological drought is the root cause of other types of drought. In this study, all meteorological drought events in China from 1961 to 2017 were calculated using the SPEI of the Julian calendar as a time step. The duration and intensity of meteorological drought events and the major meteorological factors that dominated their development were analyzed and discussed. Our study reveals that the normalized results of the log-logistic distribution almost subject to the standard normal distribution; SPEI-daily can capture more detailed drought process than SPEI-month; The frequency of meteorological drought events in the eastern monsoon area of China is high, the duration is short, and the intensity of drought is weak, while the frequency of drought events the northwest arid region is low, the duration is long, and the intensity is strong; Trend of the drought events' frequency of China from 1961 to 2017 is consistent with the global trend; The dominant factors of drought events by Sobol's global sensitivity analysis revealed that the frequency of drought events dominated by PET in the northwest arid region and southern China decreased from 1961 to 1980, and began to increase after 1990; The characteristics of the changes in China's meteorological drought events that we reveal can not only provide reference for disaster prevention and mitigation, but also provide insights for China to adapt to global climate change.