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The Han Cosmic Board (Shih)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2015

Donald J. Harper
Donald J. Harper*
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley
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Extract

The Warring States and Ch'in-Han periods witnessed not only an efflorescence of cosmological speculation but along with it the growth of intricate systems of divination, astrology, geomancy, and magic. The internal structure of the cosmos, elaborated in terms of Yin-Yang and Five Phase theories, was treated as something which could be manipulated to the advantage of a person who was initiated into the secret operations of the universe. Thus the Yin-Yang and Five Phase cycles, the trigrams of the Book of Changes, the sexagenary cycle of Celestial Stems and Earthly Branches, as well as various calendrical and astronomical observations, all served as the raw material for a diverse array of esoteric arts.

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Articles
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Early China , Volume 4 , 1978 , pp. 1 - 10
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Study of Early China 1978

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References

FOOTNOTES

1. Needham, J., Science and Civilization in China, v. III, p. 276Google Scholar, states that this method of representing constellations may be as early as the third century B.C. The oldest example of the “dot and line” method is found on the newly discovered shih from the Han tomb in Anhul” dated ca. 165 B.C. See below, footnote 11 and Fig. 1.

2. The terms t'ien p'an and ti p'an do not occur in extant Han texts. Ssu-ma Cheng fiecond half of the seventh century) describes the shih as consisting of an upper disc symbolizing heaven and a lower square symbolizing earth in his commentary to the Shih Chi. See Shih Chi (Palace edition) 127.4a. The terms t'ien p'an and ti p' an are found in various divination texts from T'ang times on.

3. Cf. the discussion of the Chinese lunar mansions in Needham, v. III, and especially the table of the lunar mansions beginning on p. 234.

4. Needham, v. IV. 1, pp. 261-273 and 314-334.

The Lun Heng refers only to a “south-pointing ladle” which can be made to point towards the south. See Lun Heng (Chu Tzu Chi Ch'enq edition), p. 173. Although its existence appears to be confirmed by drawings on Han vessels, no actual specimen of such a magnetic compass has been discovered to date. In the absence of more concrete evidence for a magnetized ladle compass-board as reconstructed by Wang and Needham, the evolution from cosmic board to ladle compass and from ladle compass to more sophisticated forms of the magnetic compass posited by these scholars must remain speculative. From my own research I believe that Needham neglects the continued Importance of the cosmic board well beyond the end of the Han and Into the Six Dynasties period. It is probable that the earliest forms of geomancy were practiced with a cosmic board, or some other similarly constructed device, and not with the hypothetical ladle compass. See below, footnote 53. Perhaps the “south-pointing ladle” in the Lun Heng represents an early attempt to produce a compass device which proved to be impracticable for use in divination or geomancy.

5. Needham, v. IV.1, p. 265. This use of the handle of the Big Dipper in ancient Chinese astronomy differs from the more recent practice of sighting along the first two stars in the bowl of the Big Dipper to find the polestar.

6. Needham, v. IV.1, p. 266.

7. See the discussion in Needham, v. IV.1, pp. 263-264. Fragments of both a heaven plate and an earth plate were found in the tomb of Wang Hsü at Lo Lang, Korea. A reconstruction of the cosmic board based on these, fragments was made by Harada Yoshito and Tazawa Kingo In their report on the excavation of the tomb. See Harada, and Tazawa, , Rakurō Gokan-en Ō Ku no Fumbo (Tokyo, 1930), Pl. cxiiGoogle Scholar. It is reproduced as Fig. 326 in Needham, v. IV.1. Fragments of a heaven plate were discovered In the so-called “Patnted Basket” tomb, also at Lo Lang, Korea. Needham, v. IV.1, Figs. 327 and 328 show these fragments.

8. This cosmic board “made of bronze, has been thoroughly described by Tun-chieh, Yen, “Pa liu jen shih p'an” Wen Wu Ts'an K'ao Tzu Liao 1958:7, 20–23Google Scholar.

9. See the site report published by the Kansu Provincial Museum In Wen Wu 1972:12, 9–21Google Scholar.

10. This cosmic board has not yet been described in any Chinese publications. Its existence was reported to me by Jeffrey Riegel, a member of the Han Studies Delegation which toured China during October and November of 1978.

11. The initial site report for this excavation appears in Wen Wu 1978:8, 12–31Google Scholar. Archeologists have determined that the occupant of the tomb in which the cosmic board and several other divination devices were found was the second Marksman of Ju Yin , known to have died in the fifteenth year of Thearch Wen (165 B.C.). Two subsequent articles on the divination Instrimients from this tomb have appeared in K'ao Ku. See Tun-chieh, Yen, “Kuan yü Hsi Han ch'u ch'i te shih p'an ho chan p'an” , K'ao Ku 1978:5, 334–337Google Scholar and T'iao-fei, Yin “Hsi Han Ju Yin Hou ch'u t'u te chan p'an ho t'ien wen i ch' i” , K'ao Ku 1978:5, 338–343Google Scholar.

12. This device will be described in more detail below. It is worth noting that the line drawings of it which appear in Wen Wu 1978:8Google Scholar and K'ao Ku 1978:5Google Scholar are not the same. Hopefully a future article will clear up the discrepancies between the two drawings?

13. See Huai Nan Tzu (Chu Tzu Chi Ch'enq edition) 11, p. 173Google Scholar. The Erh Ya (Shih San Ching Chu Shu edition) 7.8b, places the Dipper and Culmen directly over the cosmic mountain. In his “'ang Yang Fu” , Wen Hsüan (Ssu Pu Ts'ung K'an edition) 9.4a, Yang Hsiung praises the founding monarch of the Han by stating that he “upheld the Mandate and accorded with the Dipper and Culmen.” This same theme of identification between the ruler and the cosmic axis is repeated frequently in the Prophecies and Weft Texts (ch'an wei) of the Han period.

14. See Needham, v. III, p. 261 and Schafer, E.H., Pacinq the Void (Berkeley, 1977), p. 44Google Scholar. For the most part I have used the translations of Chinese star names adopted by Schafer.

15. See the superb discussion of the polar deities in Schafer, pp. 44-48.

16. Huai Nan Tzu 3, p. 39Google Scholar.

17. Shih Chi 27.3b.

18. The idea that the Big Dipper is the agent for an immobile polar deity is developed extensively in the Weft Texts. Schafer, p. 45, cites a passage from the Ch'un Ch'iu Wei Yüan Ming Pao which states that the Grand Monad scores up primal vapor (yüan ch'i , the most basic of life forms, which it disperses by means of the Big Dipper, Another fragment from this now lost text states: “The Great Thearch in the Purple Palace neither speaks nor stirs. He causes the Dipper to revolve around the degrees [of the celestial equator] and disseminate the germinal essences…” See Kuo-han, Ma, Yu Han Shan Fang Chi I Shu (Wen Hai Ch'u Pan She photocopy), p. 2132Google Scholar.

19. Cf. Needham, v. III, p. 250 and Schafer, p. 52.

20. Huai Nan Tzu 5, p. 69Google Scholar. The Big Dipper in its capad ty as a celestial pointer 1s also termed yüeh chien (“month determinant”) in the Huai Nan Tzu because it pointed to the twelve Jupiter stations in succession during the twelve months of the year. See Huai Nan Tzu 3, p. 42Google Scholar.

21. Huai Nan Tzu 3, p. 45Google Scholar.

22. Huai Nan Tzu 3, p. 41Google Scholar.

23. See Brown, R., Researches Into the Oriqin of the Primitive Constellations of the Greeks, Phoenicians and Babylonians (London, 1899), v. I, pp. 266–267Google Scholar and Burrows, E., “The Constellation of the Wagon and Recent Archaeology,” Miscellanea Orientalia Dedicata Antonio Deimel (Rome, 1935), 34–40Google Scholar.

24. See Mukherji, K., Popular Hindu Astronomy, p. 164Google Scholar.

25. These diagrams are described in Neugebauer, O. and Parker, R.A., Egyptian Astronomical Texts, v. II (London, 1964), pp. 49–51Google Scholar.

26. Huai Nan Tzu 3, pp. 39–40Google Scholar.

27. The Wu Hsing Ta I, compiled by Hsiao Chi of the Sui, was lost in China but had been preserved in Japan. Hayashi Jussal included the text in his collection of books still preserved in Japan which had already been lost in China, the I Ts'un Ts'unq Shu (first published in 1799). The Wu Hslnq Ta I is a major source for the study of ancient cosmological theory and quotes from many early writings on astrology and divination which are no longer extant.

28. Wu Hsing Ta I (I Ts'un Ts'ung Shu edition) 4.15a.

29. See Santillana, G. de and von Dechend, H., Hamlet's mil (Boston, 1977), p. 301Google Scholar.

30. De Santillana and von Dechend, p. 301.

31. The locus classicus for the term kang chi is in the Shih Ching (Shih San Ching Chu Shu edition), “Yü P'u” (Mao 238).

32. The line in the Shih Ching already uses kang chi as an analogy for governing the people: “Zealously our king [sets] the Mainstay and Filaments across the Four Quarters.” The same analogy can be found In the Hsün Tzu and other writings of the pre-Han period. Among Han writers, Yang Hsiung made use of the analogy in Fa Yen (Chu Tzu Chi Ch'eng edition) 9, p. 26Google Scholar, where he states that gooa government depends upon the ruler's control of the Mainstay and Filaments. And he states that in high antiquity Yao was successful because he “raised up the Mainstay.”

33. “San Kang Liu Chi” is the title of ch. 29 of the Po Hu T'ung, See Som, T.T., Po Hu T'ung (Leiden 1952), v. II, pp. 559–564Google Scholar. Som chooses to translate kang as “major relationship” and chi as “minor relationship”, thus obscuring the significance of the analogy.

34. Han Shu (Wang Hslen-ch'ien Pu Chu edition) 21A.3b.

35. Han Shu 21A.13b.

36. For a table of two series of names for the individual stars of the Big Dipper see Schafer, p. 51.

37. Granet, M., La Pensée Chinoise (Paris, 1934), p. 282Google Scholar.

38. The Han Shu passage clearly suggests that heaven is covered by net-like strands which arch down from the Big Dipper, the Mainstay, towards the lunar mansions along the celestial equator. Other cosmological theories describe the structure of the kanq and the chi in the sky differently. See Schafer, pp. 241-242, for a description of the kang and chi as developed in certain of the Taolst scriptures.

39. The antiquity of the Dipper dial is borne out by the fact that the degree measurements are not those adopted in Huai Nan Tzu 3 or in the calendrlcal treatise of the Han Shu (cf. Needham, v. III, Table 24) but rather correspond almost perfectly with those found in the Hsing Ching the fragmentary astronomical writings of Kan Te and Shih Shen (fourth century B.C.). The relevant passages of the Hsing Ching have been preserved in quotations in the K'ai Yüan Chan Ching, compiled by Gautama Siddhartha during the K'al Yüan reign period (713-741). See K'ai Yüan Chan Ching ch. 60-63.

40. On the Dipper dial and the cosmic board the seventh star is pointing directly towards Horn (chiao ); one of the lines passing through the Tifth star on the Dipper dial points towards Dipper (tou, i.e. the Southern Dipper); and the bottom ot the bowl of the Dipper on both instruments is positioned above Triaster (shen). Shih Chi 27. 3a states: “The Handle jostles the Dragon Horn, the Transverse [Jade Transverse, the fifth star] 1s alligned with the Southern Dipper, and the Bowl is cushioned against the head of Triaster.”

41. See Harada and Tazawa, Pl. cxil.

42. Needham, v. IV.1, p. 264, already observed that the Big Dipper on the fragment of a heaven plate from the “Painted Basket” tomb Is reversed: “Curiously, the drawing of the Great Bear Is Inverted, as if a mirror Image, or as if seen from ‘outside the world’… It would be interesting to know whether the Inversion was a general practice among the Han makers of shih, and if so, why they adopted it.” In fact, it is the reconstruction based on the fragments from the tomb of Wang Hsü which is in error. As the archeologica1 evidence now demonstrates, it was the standard practice to construct the cosmic board on the model of the sky as viewed from the outside.

43. In fact, both Instruments represent perhaps the earliest stages in the development of the celestial globe In China. Needham, v. III pp. 382-389, traces the development of the true solid celestial globe via a kind of “demonstratlonal armi Hary sphere” (hun hslang ) which was first devised by Chang Heng ca. 125 A.D. for computational purposes at the same time as he developed his sophisticated “observational armlllary sphere” (hun i). Sometime early in the third century a model of the earth supported on a pin was placed at the center of the nest of rings and the testimony of Wang Fan ca. 250 Indicates that by then the armlllary sphere was set into a box-like casing which symbolized the earth. This form of demonstrational armillary sphere persisted down through the T'ang and into the Sung period. Li Ch'un-feng's treatise on astronomy in the Sui Shu also describes a kind of celestial globe from the mid-sixth century which consisted of a round ball marked with star positions and which, significantly, was surrounded by an external horizontal ring representing the earth (cf. Needham, v. III, p. 384). Surely the cosmic board provided the technological precedent for positioning a model of the sky inside an outer incasement which Itself provided the ground orientations necessary for charting the rotation of the heavens.

44. It is possible even without a working model of the cosmic board to show how the cosmic board could have been used as a demonstratlonal model of the heavens In Han calendrlcal computations. As has already been discussed, the handle of the Dipper points towards a different section of the sky during each month of the year. In order to determine the degree of the displacement of the Dipper's handle, the constellation must be observed at the same time every day. According to Shih Chi 27.3b, the position of the handle is always to be observed at dusk, i.e. during the hour designated yu (5-7 P.M.). As an example, let us calculate the position of the Dipper's handle at the summer solstice. Following the data given in Huai Nan Tzu 3, the handle should point towards wu (S) at the t fine of the summer solstice in the fifth lunar month. If we look at Fig. 1, it can be seen that the fifth month is placed above the lunar mansion Well (ching) on the heaven plate. By counting along the (unar mansions in a clockwise direction, the fifth from Well is Mane (mao ) which is alligned with yu (i.e. the time of dusk) on the earth plate. Therefore, in order to determine the position of this handle of the Dipper at the hour yu during the fifth month, we must count forward for a distance of five lunar mansions. In Fig. 1 the handle of the Dipper 1s pointing towards Horn. The fifth lunar mansion from Horn is Star (hsing), which is alligned with wu (S) on the earth plate. Thus, the cosmic board is a working model of the calendrlcal theory described in the Huai Nan Tzu. Of course while variables such as the precession of the equinoxes would render the fixed system of the Huai Nan Tzu Inaccurate over time, the fact remains that the cosmic board 1s still an accurately constructed model of the rotation of the Dipper.

45. Shjh Chi 128.6a-8a.

46. Huai Nan Tzu 3, p. 51Google Scholar.

47. The idea that the year was divided Into times of Punishment (hsing) and times of Virtue (te) evolved out of the cosnraloglcal theories of theTate Warring States period. Associated with the Yin and Yang cycles, it was sometimes stated that the motions of the moon and the sun determined the cycles of Punishment and Virtue respectively; and it was also believed that the Big Dipper was an Indicator of cosmic Punishment and Virtue. Both Ideas are explained In detail in Huai Nan Tzu 3.

48. i.e. the Five Phases.

49. Han Shu 30.62b-63a.

50. Han Shu 99C.2b.

51. Han Shu 99C.27a.

52. Needham, v. IV.1, pp. 271-272, has created a minor controversy by attempting to show that Wang Mang resorted to the cosmic board in order to determine the proper southward orientation, i.e. that he used it as one might have used the hypothetical ladle compass. The simple fact that the architecture of royal audience halls would already have predetermined the requisite cosmic orientations, for the Chinese ruler always occupied a northern position facing towards the south, argues against the need for a cosmic board to point out the south. Ultimately, however, the final refetation of Needham's interpretation lies In a better understanding of the cosmic board Itself. The cosmic board is not a compass to suggest, as Needham does, that the handle of the Dipper mentioned in the Han Shu passage, “was not the constellation but either its image engraved on the shih's ‘heaven plate’ or indeed its lodestone model” (p. 272), 1s to ignore the fundamental distinction between a demonstrational model of the heavens and a primitive compass. Further, there is not a single bit of evidence, from either written records or recent archeological discoveries, to suggest that the object named shih could ever substitute a lodestone ladle for the Big Dipper engraved on its heaven plate; and none of the later texts on divination with the cosmic board ever describe its use as a kind of simple compass. The: function of the cosmic board was to reduce the cosmos into a mechanistic model which could duplicate exactly its macro-cosmic counterpart. With such a device it would no longer be necessary to look at the sky in order to determine where the Dipper lay; and its position could be calculated even in daylight or at other times when actual observation of the constellation was not possible.

53. In addition to the Dipper dial and cosmic board discovered in the Anhut tomb, there was a third object which also consists of a rotating disc mounted on a square board. For references, see above, note 11. Chinese researchers have found, that the symbolic arrangement of the Instrument corresponds to a divination system called “Nine Palaces of the Grand Monad” (t'ai i chiu kung) described in the Huang Ti Nei Ching and in sections of the Wu Hsing Ta I. All of tnese new discoveries add to our knowledge of the way in which cosmological models were incorporated into physical objects Intended for divination, computation, or perhaps gaming. Both the liu po game board and mirrors with the TLV design show a similar, although less elaborate, symbolic reduction of heaven and earth. There is a book in the Han Shu bibliographic catalogue titled “Golden Casket of the Canopy [of heaven] and Chassis [of earth]” (K'an yü Chin Kuei ) of which only a few fragmentary quotations survive (see Han Shu 30.70a and the Pu Chu commentary). The book is known to have expounded on the art of geomancy and the terra “Specialist of the Canopy and Chassis”, first seen In Shih Chi 127.7a, was the traditional name for a geomancer. A passage in Huai Nan Tzu 3, p. 51Google Scholar, states: “On the Canopy and Chassis the masculine is slowly moved, thereby perceiving the feminine” (graph yin has been deleted on the basis of a version of this passage quoted in the commentary at Wen Hsüan 7.2b). My own Interpretation of this passage is that the Canopy and Chassis refer not only to heaven and earth but also to the disc and square board of an instrument similar in construction to the cosmic board. To “move the masculine” would then refer to rotating the disc until the proper allignment was made with the square board (the feminine). Thus I would argue that the geomancers of the Han period made their esoteric computations with a device of the same general type as the cosmic board, if not with the cosmic board itself. Few, if any, of the extant texts on geomancy can be dated with certainly to before the Sung period and the descriptions of performing geomantic operations vrith a magnetic compass found in many of them is a rather late development in the art.

54. There are two books on the use of the cosmic board listed in the Han Shu bibliographic catalogue, Han Shu 30,72a, No trace of them survives and the earliest method of performing divination with the cosmic board for which we have clear descriptions is known as the Six Jen method. Wu Hsinq Ta I 5,2a-4a contains a long quotation from the “Six Jen Cosmic Board Scripture” (Liu Jen Shih Ching). According to the Sui Shu bibliographic catalogue, Su1 Shu (Palace edition) 34.23b, a book by this name in six chüan existed in the imperial library of the Liang but had already been lost. The Radiant Blessing Six Jen Spirit Fixing Scripture (Ching Yu Liu Jen Shen Ting Ching), compiled by Yanq Wei-te during the Ching Yu Reign period (1034-1037), provides a complete description of divination using the cosmic board based In large part on quotations from older writings. Yen Tun-chieh, “Pa liu jen shih p'an,” provides a simplified mathematical analysis of the numerological procedures involved in Six Jen divination.

55. Pao P'u Tzu (Chu Tzu Chi Ch'eng edition) 18, p. 93, instructs the Taolst adept to meditate on the star “Sustainer” (fu) in the Big Dipper when he senses that some demonic force has attacked. Sustai ner Is one of the two secret stars belonging to the Big Dipper and is usual1y Identified with the tiny star attached to the sixth star of the Big Dipper. See Schafer, p. 51 and 67, The Chen Kao contains many of the spiritual Instructions revealed to Yang Hsi by a host of celestial divinities during the years 364-370. These together with the divinely revealed scriptures transcribed by Yang Hsi formed the scriptural fount of the Shang Ch'ing sect of Taoism. At Chen Kao (Harvard-Yenching Tao Tsang Concordance no. 1010) 5.13b a method for overcoming a demon attack is described as follows: “If you know that It is a demon test then meditate on the Seven Stars before your face or above your head and thereby expell it.” The same method is repeated in T'ao Hung-ching's more esoteric collection of the Instructions of the Shang Ch'ing deities, the Secret Instructions for Ascending to Perfection (Teng Chen Yin Chüeh). At Teng Chen Yin-Chüeh (Harvard - Yenchlng Concordance no. 421) 2.14b, the same line quoted above is followed by T'ao's own commentary: “Still meditating on the Guardian of the Inch [one of the chambers occupied by spirits in the head of a Taolst adept], the Seven Stars will come forth and cover the head with the handle pointing out in front to strike at it.”

56. Shang Ch'ing meditation, including various forms of meditation centered on the Big Dipper, has been studied exhaustively in two recent publications by Isabelle Robinet. See Robinet, I., “Randonnées extatiques des taoistes dans les astres,” Monumenta Serica XXXII (1976), 159–273CrossRefGoogle Scholar and also her Meditation Taoïste (Paris, 1978)Google Scholar. Pacing the Mainstay is also described In Schafer, pp. 238-242.

57. Han Shu 45.18a.

58. Sou Shen Chi (Han Wei Ts' ung Shu, edition of Ho Yün-chung ) 6.2a and 7.1a.

59. Meditation on the divine numina of the Dipper stars was not the only way to dispell noxious apparitions or to draw down the celestial deities. The use of various talismans, among them magic mirrors, was also very Important. In this volume of Early China E.H. Schafer describes a recently excavated T'ang Taoist mirror, drawings of which are also found in the Tao Tsang. In addition to representing various Taolst deities, the mirror shows the Big Dipper and the lunar mansions exactly as they are found on the heaven plate of the cosmic board. The similarity between heaven plate and Taolst mirror is not. coincidental and we may quite confidently conclude that the heaven plate served as the prototype for the mirror; and further that the magical potency of the mirror derives In large part from Its association with the Big Dipper.