When did the earliest smog appear in China? The definition of haze was first seen in the Jin Dynasty

The word "smog" has appeared in history books around the 5th century AD at the latest. "Sixteen Kingdoms Spring and Autumn" written by Cui Hong of the Northern Wei Dynasty has "smog". The "Qianliang Lu" in the book records that a riot occurred in Wuwei, Gansu Province at that time. Weird weather occurred at that time: "It was a dark moon, and there was haze everywhere."

As far as the word "haze" is concerned, it is quite ancient. It was found in the oracle bone inscriptions unearthed from the Yin Ruins in Anyang. The famous historian Guo Moruo was one of the first experts to interpret the word "haze". There is one on page 13467 of "Collection", and there is one on page 7113 of the first issue. Guo Moruo believes in "Bucci Tong Compilation and Interpretation" that there is a beast shaped like a cat under the prefix of "rain", and there is no doubt that it is the word "haze". .

In the oracle bone inscriptions that have been unearthed, at least a dozen words for "haze" have been found. It can be seen that the weather phenomenon of haze has appeared in ancient times and is not uncommon. Oracle bone divination mostly uses weather phenomena to predict good and bad luck, and hazy days were more common at one time. Soothsayers often judge haze as a cause of disaster. It can be seen that hazy days are "bad weather" and a bad omen in the eyes of ancient people.

According to the perspective of modern meteorology, sand and dust weather can be divided into three types according to the distance of visibility: sandstorm, floating dust, and haze. The humid haze with a lot of water ("rain") in the oracle bone inscriptions should be closer to the haze weather with turbid air; the drought haze that appears together with "wind" should be closer to the sandstorm. Since the Himalayas gradually emerged 40 million years ago, western China and central Asia have gradually lacked water vapor, resulting in dry weather and prone to sandstorms.