Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-12T17:30:13.565Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Characteristics of Ancient China’s Astronomy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Xi Zezong
Xi Zezong*
Affiliation:
Institute for History of Natural Science Academia Sinica, Beijing, China

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

What are the characteristics of ancient China’s astronomy? Many scholars have discussed the problem. In 1939 Herbert Chatley summed up fifteen points. Joseph Needham(1959) in his great work Science and civilisation in China concentrated it into seven points.

  1. 1 the elaboration of a polar and equatorial system strikingly different from that of the Hellenistic peoples;

  2. 2 the early conception of an infinite universe, with the stars as bodies floating in empty space;

  3. 3 the development of quantitative positional astronomy and star catalogues two centuries before any other civilisation of which comparable works have come down to us;

  4. 4 the use in these catalogues of equatorial coordinates, and a faithfulness to them extending over two millennia;

  5. 5 the elaboration, in steadily increasing complexity, of astronomical instruments, culminating in the 13th century invention of the equatorial mounting, as an ‘adapted torquetum’ or ‘dissected’ armillary sphere;

  6. 6 the invention of the clock drive for that forerunner of the telescope, the sighting tube, and a number of ingenious mechanical devices ancillary to astronomical instruments;

  7. 7 the maintenance, for longer continuous periods than any other civilisation, of accurate records of celestial phenomena, such as eclipses, comets, Sunspots, etc.

Type
Ancient Astronomy and its Characteristics
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 91: History of Oriental Astronomy , 1987 , pp. 33 - 40
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

References

Bernard, H. (1935). Matteo Ricci’s Scientific Contribution to China p.54, Beijing.Google Scholar
Chatley, H. (1939). Ancient Chinese Astronomy, Occasional Notes of R.A.S., 5, pp.65–74.Google Scholar
Chen, Meidong, (1983). Observation Practices and Evolution of the Ancient Chinese Calendar, Lishi Yanjiu, 4, 85–87.Google Scholar
Dubs, H.H. (1983). The History of the Former Han Dynasty. 1, p.240–1, >Baltimore, Waverly Press.Google Scholar
Eberhard, D. (1957). The Political Function of Astronomy and Astronomers in Han China. In Chinese Thought and Institutions edited by Fairbank, John K., pp.33–77, Chicago.Google Scholar
Kuhn, T.S. (1979). The Essential Tension, p.118, Chicago.Google Scholar
Legge, J. (1872). tr. The Chinese Classics translated 5, part 1, p.245, London.Google Scholar
Liu, Jinyi et al., (1984). Astronomy and its History (in Chinese) pp.34–5, Beijing.Google Scholar
Mason, S.A. (1953). A History of the Sciences, pp.23–24, London.Google Scholar
Nakayama, S. (1966). Characteristics of Chinese Astrology, Isis, 57(4) 442–454.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Needham, J. (1959). Science and civilisation in China, 3, p.458, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Ricci, M. (1913)- Opere storiche, 2, pp.284–5, Macerata.Google Scholar
Xi Zezong, , (1982). Verbiest's Contribution to Chinese Science; Proceeding of the First International Conference on the History of Chinese Science, Leuven, Belgium, (in press).Google Scholar
Xi Zezong, , (1983). The Application of Historical Records to Astrophysical Problems, Proceedings of Academia-Sinica-Max Plank Society Workshop on High Energy Astrophysics, Beijing, pp.158–169.Google Scholar
Ye Xiaoqing, , (1984). On the Position of Science and Technology in Traditional Chinese Philosophy;Proceedings of the Third International Conference on the History of Chinese Science, Beijing, (in press).Google Scholar
Zhu Kezhen, , (1951) Ancient China’s Great Contributions to Astronomy, Kexue tongboa, 2(3), 215–219.Google Scholar