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On the use of the Chinese Hsuan-ming calendar to predict the times of eclipses in Japan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

John M. Steele
John M. Steele
Affiliation:
University of Durham
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Extract

According to the Nihongi, a chronicle of Japan written in A.D. 720, the first Chinese calendar was brought to Japan in the year A.D. 554. It is now generally agreed that before this time there was no native calendrical system and that earlier dates given in the Nihongi were calculated retrospectively, and in some cases inaccurately, using Chinese systems (Nakayama, 1969: 7–8). The Chinese calendar was not only a method for keeping track of the days but also a complete astronomical system for calculating the movements of the heavenly bodies.

Type
Notes and communications
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 61 , Issue 3 , October 1998 , pp. 527 - 533
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1998

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References

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