The Origins of Chinese Astronomy (2024)

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Chapter Astronomy, Astrology and their Origin (Full Text)

Thomas Tao

The Origin of Civilization - book, 2021

The author states that scholars have been fascinated by the similarity in ancient astronomy in different civilizations, for example, both the Sumerians and Chinese used Jupiter’s movement in deriving their zodiac of 12 constellations and used 360 degrees in describing the sky. The author has further revealed Chinese zodiac has three phases based on ancient texts and precession, characterized by its starting constellation, Yin 寅Sagittarius at ca 5300BC, Chou 丑Capricornus at ca 3000BC and Zi 子Aquarius at ca 700BC which is still in use today in China. The Sumerians inherited the Chinese zodiac of the second phase Chou Capricornus at ca 3000BC, so did the ancient Indians and the Egyptians via their mutual trades with the Sumerians. Capricornus was used as a telling sign of planting millet during 4000BC-3000BC in the Yellow River downstream, Qian Niu牵牛as a bull being led for plowing the field, however, Sumerians changed the “bull” to Taurus as Sun in the Vernal Equinox, instead of Chinese in the Winter Solstice. The author has also made a breakthrough by determining ancient Chinese started their sexagesimal calendar in 5324BC and their first phase zodiac of 12 constellations known as Yin 寅Sagittarius was already in place then, based on ancient texts and Jupiter’s solar circle, an astonishing discovery which has also been independently verified by another astronomical event based on precession that Chinese started their Phase One zodiac around 5300BC. The author has further demonstrated Chinese used the Left Pivotal Star known as Lota-Draconis today as their North Star at 5000BC and the Right Pivotal Star known as alpha-Draconis as their North Star at 3000BC. Recent archeological findings indicate the People of East had observed the North Star at 4400BC. Chinese astronomy has always been under strict state supervision and, according to our findings revealed in this book, is the oldest known, two thousand years older than the Sumerians. These ancient People of East developed the earliest astronomy and invented the earliest calendar for one practical purpose, to determine the precise dates of their brief planting of millet, which occurs at the end of May and the beginning of June at the northern latitude of 36 degrees. This is the precise reason why the first civilization was born to farmers of millet, not to cultivators of barley, wheat, corn, or rice in warmer climates at lower latitudes.

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Published version: THE BIG DIPPER, SWORD, SNAKE AND TURTLE: FOUR CONSTELLATIONS AS INDICATORS OF THE ECLIPTIC POLE IN ANCIENT CHINA

Stefan Maeder

The findings outlined in this paper occurred in the course of an international archaeological survey focusing on early representations and accounts of the Big Dipper asterism in Ursa Major. They encompass the tentative identification of three ancient Chinese constellations, namely the sword, the snake and the turtle, which—together with the Big Dipper—surround the pole of the ecliptic at even distances from each other and from the pole itself. In fact they form a cross shape with the ecliptic pole at its center. The sword-constellation consists of the central stars of Cygnus (without the outer ‗wing'-stars). The snake-constellation contains Corona Borealis as the distinct central coil, the four northern stars of Hercules as its head and the three northern stars of Bootes as its tail. The head, shell and tail of the turtle-constellation are accurately matched by the six major stars of Cassiopeia, the feet by two stars immediately south of the celestial W-shape. These representations are found on charm-amulet coins whose obverse script is based on currency coins first issued by the later Han-period (206 B.C.–220 A.D.) without the symbols on the back. Whether the symbols on the reverse side of the coins were added already contemporary with their use as currency or later is as yet an unsettled matter. The representations are all rendered mirror inverted including the angle towards each other and towards the center of the coin. They point towards an independent undercurrent in Chinese astronomy/astrology during the first centuries A.D. which may provide a new impulse for research into the history of art and religion not only in China itself, but also in the countries influenced by its cultural achievements.

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THE CIRCUMPOLAR CONSTELLATIONS OF ANCIENT CHINA

David Allred

This thesis examines the Chinese constellations surrounding the north celestial pole and presents translated descriptions of them from the earliest star catalogs. These star catalogs come from the Shi ji, Tongzhan daxiangli xing jing, Jin shu, and Kaiyuan zhan jing, which date from the Western Han to the Tang dynasty but also contain much Zhou dynasty material. For each constellation the texts usually give its name, number of stars, position, celestial identity, earthly association, function, astrological portents, and a line of eulogy. These texts demonstrate that the Chinese believed the circumpolar region was the Purple Palace where the Celestial Thearch resided with his family and courtiers. Moreover, events in the Purple Palace resonated with events in the earthly court, and as a result signs in the heavens could be interpreted as portents affecting the state.

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In and Outside the Square: The Sky and the Power of Belief in Ancient China and the World, c. 4,500 BC - AD 220. Volume III: Celestial and Terrestrial Transformations in Zhou and Early-imperial China

John Didier

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The Pleiades and Hyades as celestial spatiotemporal indicators in the astronomy of archaic and indigenous cultures

Michael Rappenglueck

Prähistorische Astronomie und Ethnoastronomie (= Nuncius Hamburgensis – Beiträge zur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaft 3, Wolfschmidt, Gudrun, ed.), 2008, pp. 12-29, 2008

Since prehistoric and protohistoric time and all over the world most notably the Pleiades (M45) and to a less degree the Hyades (Mel 25) had attracted great attention among the people. In particular the Pleiades were important in archaic cultures. Since earliest times ancient cultures thought about the shape of both open clusters, and the number of stars within. But there is evidence from ethnological and archaeological records that the theme group and the spatiotemporal functionality related to both open clusters are rooted far deep in time, already in the Palaeolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age. Material objects, myths, rituals, later early written scientific records show rational concepts associated with the Pleiades and Hyades as celestial spatiotemporal indicators in the astronomy of archaic and indigenous cultures.

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Geometrizing Chinese Astronomy? The View from a Diagram in the Kashf al-ḥaqāʾiq by al-Nīsābūrī (d. ca. 1330)

Yoichi Isahaya

Overlapping Cosmologies In Asia: Transcultural and Interdisciplinary Approaches, 2022

This paper deals with a section of a Persian astronomical work entitled Kashf al-ḥaqāʾiq-i zīj-i īlkhānī (Uncovering the truths of the Zīj-i īlkhānī) by Niẓām al-Dīn al-Nīsābūrī (d. ca. 1330) that includes some unique and exceptionally early materials on a Ptolemaic interpretation of Chinese astronomy. This work is a commentary on the Zīj-i īlkhānī (Īlkhānid astronomical handbook) by Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (1201–1274), the first Islamicate astronomical handbook (zīj) to make reference to a Chinese calendar. Although a certain resemblance has been noted between the zīj and the li (the Chinese astronomical system) in terms of content, a striking difference is apparent in their cosmologies. The former was based on the geometrical universe of western Eurasian astronomy, while the latter embodied the numerical cosmology of the eastern Eurasian tradition. In the Kashf al-ḥaqāʾiq, al-Nīsābūrī took a noteworthy approach to the Chinese calendar, especially in using a geometrical diagram to explain a numerical procedure in a section on the lunar anomaly. In other words, a fourteenth-century scholar in Iran interpreted one aspect of Chinese astronomy through Ptolemaic geometrical representation, of which Islamicate astronomers were masters. His diagram can be regarded as a nexus between the cosmologies of western and eastern Eurasia.

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Ancient Chinese Astronomical Analysis of the Chapter, Wigi Haeng in Youngchu (Spiritual Pivot)

Woosen Ur

Korean Journal of Acupuncture, 2019

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Astrology and Cosmology in Early China: References

David Pankenier

Astrology and Cosmology in Early China

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A Comparison of Astronomical Terminology, Methods and Concepts in China and Mesopotamia, With Some Comments on Claims for the Transmission of Mesopotamian Astronomy to China

John Steele

Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage 16 (2013), 250-260

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Snake, Turtle and Sword: Ancient Chinese Constellations Identified

Stefan Maeder

The findings outlined in the following article occurred in the course of an international archaeological survey focusing on early representations and accounts of the “Big Dipper”-asterism in Ursa Major. They encompass the tentative identification of three ancient Chinese constellations, namely the sword, the snake and the turtle, which –together with the “Big Dipper” - surround the pole of the ecliptic at even distances to each other and to the pole itself. In fact they form a cross-shape with the ecliptic pole at its center. The sword-constellation consists of the central stars of Cygnus (without the outer “wing”-stars). The snake-constellation contains Corona Borealis as the distinct central coil, the four northern stars of Hercules as its head and the three northern stars of Bootes as its tail. The head, shell and tail of the turtle-constellation are accurately matched by the six major stars of Cassiopeia, the feet by two stars immediately south of the celestial “W”-shape. These representations are found on charm/amulet coins whose obverse script is based on currency coins first issued by the later Han-period (206 B.C. – 220 A.D.) without the symbols on the back. Whether the symbols on the reverse side of the coins were added already contemporary with their use as currency or later is as yet an unsettled matter. The representations are all rendered mirror inverted including the angle towards each other and towards the center of the coin. They point towards an independent undercurrent in Chinese astronomy/astrology during the first centuries A.D. which may provide a new impulse for research into the history of art and religion not only in China itself, but also in the countries influenced by its cultural achievements.

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The Origins of Chinese Astronomy (2024)
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