The Chinese Sky During the Han: Constellating Stars and Society (Sinica Leidensia, V. 38)

This Is A Reconstruction Of The Chinese Sky Of Two Thousand Years Ago, Based On Analysis Of The First Star Catalogue In China And Other Sources. Presented In Six Well-sized Star Maps For 100 Bc, It Is Especially Important For The History Of Astronomy. The Han Sky, With Five Times More Constellations Than Ptolemy Knew, Reflects Diverse Human Activities. The Way In Which Constellations Were Grouped Discloses A Systematic Cosmology, Uniting Universe And The State. The Work Of The Three Han Schools Is Comparable To Ptolemy's Almagest. With Three Detailed Appendices On The Constellations Of The Three Schools, Well Illustrated To Demonstrate The Relation Between Sky And Human Society, This Book Is Valuable Not Only For Astronomy Historians And Sinologists, But In General For Scholars Interested In The Ancient Cultures Of Asia.--book Jacket. Sun Xiaochun And Jacob Kistemaker. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Title Page 6 Copyright Page 7 Table of Contents 10 Preface 14 Foreword 16 Acknowledgements 20 List of Figures 22 List of Tables 24 List of Illustrations 25 Chronology of Chinese History 26 1. Introduction 28 1.1 What is the Chinese sky? 28 1.2 Why choose the Han period? 30 1.3 Why study the Chinese sky? 33 1.3.1 Positional astronomy 33 1.3.2 Historical study on star-names 34 1.4 What has been done before on the subject? 35 1.5 Purpose and method of the present study 36 1.6 The structure of the book 39 1.7 Technical remarks 40 2. Brief History of Chinese Constellations 44 2.1 Stars from remote antiquity 44 2.2 Stars in the Tianguan shu 50 2.3 Asterisms of the three astronomical schools 54 2.4 The Chinese sky during the Tang and Song 56 2.5 Star observations during the Yuan, Ming and Qing 62 3. Constellations of Shi Shi 68 3.1 Shi Shi and the Shi shi xingjing 68 3.2 The SSXJ star catalogue 70 3.2.1 The star catalogue preserved in the Kaiyuan zhanjing 71 3.2.2 Former studies on the SSXJ catalogue 73 3.3 Basic data of the SSXJ catalogue 75 3.4 Preliminary analysis based on the 28 xiu 84 3.4.1 Instruments and the method of observation 84 3.4.2 Systematic errors 85 3.4.3 Fourier analysis of the data 87 3.4.4 Estimate of the observation time of the SSXJ star catalogue 87 3.5 Analysis of the whole star catalogue 91 3.5.1 The problem of identification in the Chinese sky 91 3.5.2 Star map of 100 BC and the identification of the leading stars 92 3.5.3 The observation time of the SSXJ star catalogue 95 3.5.4 Remarks on the studies by earlier researchers 96 3.6 The sky of Shi Shi during the Han 99 4. Development by Gan Shi and Wuxian Shi 106 4.1 Gan Shi and Wuxian Shi 106 4.1.1 Gan De 106 4.1.2 Wuxian 108 4.2 Demarcation of the constellations of the three schools 110 4.3 Constellations of Gan Shi 113 4.3.1 Ideological constructions 113 4.3.2 Historical investigation of Gan Shi’s constellations 116 4.4 Constellations of Wuxian Shi 117 4.4.1 When were Wuxian Shi’s constellations named? 118 4.5 Reconstruction of the constellations of the two schools 119 4.5.1 Useful material for our reconstruction 119 4.5.2 Conventions in our reconstruction 124 5. Philosophy of the Chinese Sky 128 5.1 A reflection of human society 128 5.2 Star names and the philosophy behind 131 5.2.1 Literal meaning and astrological denotation 131 5.2.2 Different ways to name constellations 133 5.2.3 Cosmological ideas and the development of astrology 135 5.3 The relation of the sky to the seasons 140 5.3.1 Astronomical Lunar and Solar Calendars 142 5.3.2 The effect of precession 144 6. Main Structures in the Sky and their Meanings 148 6.1 The twenty eight xiu and the four Images 148 6.2 Five Palaces 154 6.3 Five celestial courts 159 6.3.1 Court of Taiwei (Privy Council) 159 6.3.2 Court of Dajiao 163 6.3.3 Court of Xin xiu 164 6.3.4 Court of Tianshi (Celestial Market) 165 6.3.5 Court of Ziwei Yuan 168 6.4 Other significant groups of constellations 170 6.4.1 Sun star and Moon star 170 6.4.2 Autumn harvest picture 172 6.4.3 Hunting picture 172 6.4.4 The Cavalry Camp 177 6.5 The structure of the Chinese sky re-examined 178 6.5.1 Inner and Outer Constellations 178 6.5.2 About the sequential order of constellations 178 Appendix I: The Constellations of Shi Shi 182 Appendix II: The Constellations of Gan Shi 200 Appendix III: The Constellations of Wuxian Shi 226 Bibliography 232 Index of Star Names 256 General Index 262 The Reconstructed Han Sky (epoch: 100 B.C.) 280 Presents the first adequate picture of the Chinese sky of 2000 years ago. Investigating the 283 constellations, it reveals that the sky as a mirror of human society was based on the philosophy and cosmology of Han times.