seeing stars in the han sky - semantic scholar · 2017-10-01 · early china 25, 2000 seeing stars...

Early China 25, 2000

Seeing StarS in the han Sky*

David W. Pankenier

In 1995 archaeologists excavated an extraordinarily well-preserved Eastern Han tomb in the ancient Xinjiang oasis settlement of Niya 尼雅.1 Buried by drifting sands since at least the third century, in Han times the silk route town of Niya was one of the most remote outposts of Chinese civilization. The clothing and accessories of the tomb occupant, who was Europoid, were in perfect condition. From the standpoint of Han astral beliefs, the most notable item is a multicolored silk brocade armguard on which the epigram wu xing chu dong fang li zhong guo 五星出東方利中國 (“When the Five Planets appear in the east it is benefi-cial for China”) is woven into the fabric along with images of sun and moon, tiger, dragon, crane, peacock, and unicorn. One could hardly ask for more vivid proof of the pervasiveness of astrological thinking in Han times than this fashion statement from the period. The astral motif not only confirms that rare gatherings of the five visible planets held great significance in the popular mind, but also shows that such con-ceptions permeated all levels of society and reached the most far-flung outposts of the Han empire.2 This epigram itself recalls a statement in

* A review of the following works: Christopher Cullen, Astronomy and Mathematics in Ancient China: The Zhou bi suan jing (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), xiv + 241 pp.; and Sun Xiaochun and Jacob Kistemaker, The Chinese Sky during the Han: Constellating Stars and Society (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1997), xx + 240 pp.

1. The artifact is beautifully illustrated in Silu kaogu zhenpin 絲路考古珍品 (Shang-hai: Shanghai yiwen, 1998), 115, 258–59. See also Sun Yu’an 孫遇安, “Niya ‘wu xing jin’ xiao shi” 尼雅五星錦小識, Wenwu tiandi 文物天地 1997.2, 10–11, and facing p. 49; and Yu Zhiyong 于志勇, “Xinjiang Niya chutu ‘wu xing chu dong fang li zhong guo’ cai jin qian xi” 新疆尼雅出土五星出東方利中國彩錦淺析, in Xi yu kaocha yu yanjiu xu bian 西域考察與研究續編, ed. Ma Dazheng 馬大正 and Yang Qian 楊兼 (Urumchi: Xinjiang renmin, 1998), 187–95. (My thanks to Victor Mair for the latter reference.)

2. The veneer of Han imperial culture in this region may otherwise have been rather thin—note the unconventional si xiang 四象”four images” motif on the arm-guard in lieu of the azure dragon, somber warrior (entwined turtle/snake), white

186 S e e i n g S ta r S i n t h e h a n S k y

the Shiji 史記, “Tian guan shu” 天官書 (Treatise on the heavenly offices),3 where the same general principal is enunciated. But it resonates even more strongly with a statement by Emperor Xuan 宣帝 (r. 74–49 b.c.) in connection with a campaign in the far northwest against the rebellious Western Qiang 西羌 in the late summer of 61 b.c.:

今五星出東方中國大利蠻夷大敗. Now, the Five Planets appear in the east, [signifying that] China will benefit greatly, while the Man and Yi barbarians will be utterly vanquished.4

The Emperor’s precise knowledge of the location of the planets is perhaps less surprising than his reprimand of veteran General Zhao Chong guo 趙充國 for not immediately pressing his advantage against the rebels, despite the favorable astrological circumstances. With the possible exception of Wang Mang’s 王莽 reign, conventional portrayals of Han political and military thinking do not generally lead one to expect the positions of the planets to have played such a direct role in military strategy. Somewhat different in character are the manuscripts excavated in 1976 at Mawangdui 馬王堆 relating to astrology and celestial phenom ena. The texts on the manuscripts include catalogues that describe or illustrate in precise detail planetary behavior, clouds (or auroras), and comets, along with their associated prognostications.5 Virtually all of the comets are interpreted as portents of large-scale military action. In the received historical sources, a spectacular comet so impressed Emperor Wu 武帝 (r. 141–87 b.c.) that a new era called Primal Light (yuan guang 元光) was inaugurated in 134 b.c. to commemorate the appearance of this “long star” (chang xing 長星).6 The comet was observed twice during Emperor

tiger, and vermilion bird typically associated with the cardinal directions in such cosmological contexts.

3. Shiji (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1959), 27.1328.4. Han shu 漢書 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1962), 69.2981. For a discussion of this epi-

sode and the Niya brocade armguard, see David W. Pankenier, “Applied Astrology, Archaeology, and the Northwest Frontier in mid-Han Dynasty,” Sino-Platonic Papers 104 (July, 2000), 1–19.

5. See Xi Zezong 席澤宗, “Mawangdui Han mu boshu zhong de huixing tu” 馬王堆漢墓帛書中的彗星圖, in Zhongguo gudai tianwen wenwu lunji 中國古代天文文物論集 (Beijing: Kexue, 1989), 29–34; Gu Tiefu 顧鐵符, “Mawangdui boshu ‘Yun qi hui xing tu’ yanjiu” 馬王堆帛書雲氣彗星圖研究, in Zhongguo gudai tianwen wenwu lunji, 35–45; Xi Zezong, “Mawangdui Han mu boshu zhong de ‘Wu xing zhan’” 馬王堆漢墓帛書中的五星占, in Zhongguo gudai tianwen wenwu lunji, 46–58.

6. Use of the term chang xing rather than a conventional term such as hui xing 彗星 “broom star” may indicate that the comet tail was exceptionally long in this instance.

D AV I D W . PA N K E N I E r 187

Wu’s reign (in 134 and 121 b.c.), and was dubbed Chi You’s Banner 蚩尤之旗 in commemoration of the primordial battle at the dawn of Chinese civilization between that cosmic miscreant Chi You and the Yellow Thearch 黃帝; notably, Chi You’s Banner is among the comets illustrated in the Mawangdui comet atlas.7 Yet another striking illustra-tion in the Mawangdui comet atlas suggests that the ubiqui tous, ancient symbol of the swastika probably began as a depiction of the unique and unforgettable appearance of a large comet approaching the earth head-on, streamers of glowing dust and gas trailing off pinwheel-fashion from the head of the comet as it slowly rotated. With the exception of fragmentary accounts of ritualized combat such as the performances of “horn butting” and “cosmic kickball” associated with the New Year’s festivities,8 examples from the earliest period of reenactments of cosmogonic myths and astrological omens have seldom been preserved in China. Most of the artifacts and textual evidence that have survived, such as shi 式 “cosmographs” used in astral divination,9 the Mawangdui documents, inscribed weapons,10 star catalogues attrib-

See Michael Loewe, “The Han View of Comets,” in his Divination, Mythology and Monar-chy in Han China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 77–79; see also Derk Bodde, Festivals in Classical China: New Year and Other Annual Observances during the Han Dynasty (206 b.c.–a.d. 220) (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975), 121.

7. Chi You’s Banner may actually have been a giant comet whose fearsome close approaches to the earth (and possible fragmentation, like Comet Shoemaker-Levi 9, into multiple “sun-like” pieces) were preserved in cultural memory, ultimately to be commemorated in popular Han time reenactments of the primordial cosmic combat. For a discussion of Chi You’s cometary connections and Chinese myths of cosmic con-flict, see D.W. Pankenier, “Heaven-sent: Understanding Cosmic Disaster in Chinese Myth and History,” Natural Catastrophes During Bronze Age Civilisations: Archaeological, Geological, Astronomical, and Cultural Perspectives, BAr International Series 728 (Oxford: Archaeopress, 1998), 187–97.

8. See Michael Loewe, “The chüeh-ti Games: A re-enactment of the Battle between Chih-yu and Hsüan-yüan?” Divination, Mythology and Monarchy, 141–53; Mark Edward Lewis, Sanctioned Violence in Early China (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 148–50. For Mesoamerican cosmic kickball parallels, see Benny J. Peiser, “Cosmic Catastrophes and the Ballgame of the Sky Gods in Mesoamerican Mythology,” Chronol-ogy and Catastrophism Review 17 (1995), 29–35.

9. See Li Ling 李零, “Shi tu yu Zhongguo gudai de yuzhou moshi (shang)” 式圖與中國古代的宇宙模式 (上), Jiuzhou xuekan 九州學刊 4.1 (April 1991), 5–52; and “Shi tu yu Zhongguo gudai de yuzhou moshi (xia)” 下, Jiuzhou xuekan 4.2 (July 1991), 49–76. See also, John S. Major, Heaven and Earth in Early Han Thought: Chapters Three, Four and Five of the Huainanzi (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993), 39–43; and Christopher Cullen, Astronomy and Mathematics in Ancient China, 43–49, and n. 30 below.

10. Li Ling, “An Archaeological Study of Taiyi 太一 (Grand One) Worship,” Early Medieval China 2 (1995–96), 1–39. See also Li Jianmin 李建民, “Taiyi xinzheng: yi


uted to the Warring States astrologers Shi Shen 石申 and gan De 甘德, astrological portents,11 calendrical systems,12 and the like, probably represent only a fraction of the knowledge and popular belief about the cosmos that existed in late Warring States and Han times. In part because of its technical nature, analysis and interpretation of this material has been sporadic, so that the influence of astrological ideas on the cultural and intellectual life of the period has received less attention than it deserves. One milestone was the publication in 1993 of John S. Major’s Heaven and Earth in Early Han Thought: Chapters Three, Four, and Five of the Huai-nanzi (Albany: State University of New York Press). Major’s magisterial translations of the chapters from Huainanzi dealing with astronomy and cosmology for the first time made this aspect of Han intellectual history accessible to a wider readership. This comprehensive compen-dium of second century b.c. thought comprises by far the best single volume introduction to the whole spectrum of early Han astronomical and cosmological thinking. In his “General Introduction to Early Han Cosmology” (pp. 23–53) which precedes the translations Major provides a remarkably concise and thorough overview of the basic concepts as well as of the intellectual milieu that produced the texts themselves, in which comprehensive knowledge of the natural world is set forth as an essential qualification for rulership. As Major notes:

The Huainanzi is of interest in part because of the lively picture it provides for us of the intellectual atmosphere at the court of an up-to-date Chinese ruler of the second century b.c.e. . . . On the evidence of the cosmological chapters of the Huainanzi, his court scholars would have included astronomers, calendrical special-ists, astrologers versed in the manipulation of the cosmograph . . .

Guodian Chujian wei xiansuo” 太一新證: 以郭店楚簡為線索, Chūgoku shutsudo shiryō kenkyū 中國出土資料研究 3 (1999), 46–62.

11. See Wolfram Eberhard, “The Political Function of Astronomy and Astronomers in Han China,” in Chinese Thought and Institutions, ed. John K. Fairbank (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957), 33–70; and Hans Bielenstein, “An Interpretation of the Portents in the Ts’ien Han-shu,” Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities 22 (1950), 127–43.

12. See Nathan Sivin, “Cosmos and Computation in Early Chinese Mathematical Astronomy,” T’oung Pao 55 (1969), 1–73; Zhang Peiyu 張培瑜, “Xin chutu Qin Han jiandie zhong guanyu Taichu qian lifa de yanjiu” 新出土秦漢簡牒中關于太初前曆法的研究, in Zhongguo gudai tianwen wenwu lunji, 69–82; and Chen Jiujin 陳久金 and Chen Meidong 陳美東, “Cong Yuanguang lipu ji Mawangdui tianwen ziliao shitan Zhuanxu li wenti” 從元光曆譜及馬王堆天文資料試探顓頊曆問題, in Zhongguo gudai tianwen wenwu lunji, 83–103.


geographers, cartographers, and specialists in the natural sciences. The King of Huainan’s meticulous attention to the phenomena of the natural world was to be emulated by Chinese emperors throughout the history of the empire. (p. 52)

at the same time, as John Major also points out, the Huainanzi is located precisely at the cusp of a transition from the old order to a new order still in the process of formation. As a result, the cosmological synthesis represented by the Huainanzi chapters on the patterns of Heaven, topog-raphy, and the seasons provides a treasure trove of ideas ranging from archaic cosmogonic myths and correlative cosmology to contemporary speculation on the art of rulership. Thanks to the exceptional quality of the translations, lucid annotations, and ample scholarly appa ratus accom panying the text, immediately upon publication Heaven and Earth in Early Han Thought became an indispensable sourcebook and ready reference for the cosmological thought of the Han period. More recently, new research and translations have been published that considerably advance our understanding of the prevailing cosmologi-cal paradigms and observational sophistication of astronomers during the Han period. This research establishes new benchmarks in terms of acces sibility and methodological sophistication, in some cases clarifying concepts that were previously opaque, in others offering much needed guidance to the uninitiated, while at the same time providing basic refer-ence materials essential for future research on the history of astronomy and cosmology in early China. Two of these recently published books are the focus of this review article.

Astronomy and Mathematics in Ancient China: The Zhou bi suan jing

by Christopher Cullen

This is the first volume in a monograph series published by the Needham research Institute featuring work on East Asian science and culture that develops or links up with the encyclopedic Science and Civili-sation in China series. Christopher Cullen is Senior Lecturer in the History of Chinese Science and Medicine at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and Deputy-Director of the Needham research Institute in Cambridge. The Zhou bi suan jing 周髀算經 (a.k.a. Zhou bei suan jing) is a collection of ancient Chinese texts on astronomy and mathematics traditionally attributed to the early years of the Zhou dynasty, hence the title “Gno-mon of the Zhou” (Zhou bi). As the author shows in his detailed analysis


of the contents, however, the work was most likely compiled in the first century b.c. during the Former Han Dynasty “by an individual or by a group with some common interest” (p. 140), hence the text “can-not be understood as a single unified book” (p. 101). Most of the Zhou bi is taken up by calculations of the dimensions of the cosmos using observa tions of the shadow cast by a vertical pole gnomon. Analysis of the text shows that its author(s) was an adherent of the gaitian 蓋天 cosmography in which the parasol-shaped heavens were thought to rotate about a vertical axis above an essentially flat earth. In addition to being, in the view of A.C. Graham, the principal surviving docu-ment of early Chinese science, the text is unique according to Cullen, in being “the only rationally based and fully mathematised account of a flat earth cosmos” (p. xi). Scholarly opinions as to the value of the Zhou bi have diverged considerably. So that readers may judge its value for themselves, Cullen’s aim is to locate the text in its historical and scientific context and make it accessible to anyone with an interest in the history of Chinese science and culture. In this he succeeds admirably. This is a broadly informative study of a unique document in the history of Chinese science. As clear and precise as Cullen’s translation of the text of the Zhou bi is, it occupies barely fifteen percent of the volume. The preceding four chapters (pp. 1–170), “The Background of the Zhou bi,” “The Zhou bi and its Contents,” “The Origins of the Work,” and “The Later History of the Zhou bi,” are equally indispensable. Following the translation are three appendices dealing with substantive aspects of the main commentary to the text, that of Zhao Shuang 趙爽 (fl. third century a.d.): “Zhao Shuang and Pythagoras’ Theorem,” “Zhao Shuang and the Height of the Sun,” and “Zhao Shuang and the Diagram of the Seven heng.” Taken together, this supporting material provides a comprehensive account of the intel-lectual, institutional, scientific, and political milieu that produced the text. In the process of elucidating the context of the Zhou bi and helping the reader make sense of the concepts and methods invoked by its author(s), Cullen provides a lucid and highly readable survey of the development of Chinese cosmography, the cultural and ideological importance of calendrical astronomy in ancient China, the main methods of observation of astronomical phenomena, the problem of the calendar and successive early Chinese solutions to it, Chinese computational procedures, and a capsule history of the development of early Chinese astronomical theory and practice. All this and more is set forth in a jargon-free style accessible to the general reader, while at the same time satisfying the demands of the specialist for comprehensive and informative references and Chinese characters.


To illustrate the kind of valuable insights Cullen derives from his analysis of the methodology of the Zhou bi, consider his discussion (pp. 80, 92) of how not to impose Western categories on early Chinese thought processes (the presentist fallacy), as when application of the method of similar triangles, and especially angular measure, would seem intuitively obvious in certain contexts, but are shown not to have figured at all in the conceptual apparatus of the time:

[I] suggest that we need to tread very carefully to avoid interpret-ing the thought-patterns of ancient authors in terms of our modern preconceptions. I use the term ‘angular-measure’ here for want of a better, but from the outset I must state my conviction that the concept of angle as found (say) in Euclid is wholly absent from early Chinese mathematics. . . . The du, then, is wholly confined to the heavens in ancient China. As we have seen, it certainly had its origin there, either as a unit of the sun’s daily motion or possibly as a measure of the interval in days between the dusk transits of successive celestial bodies. The same could of course be said of the Western degree: why this measure soon descended to earth while its cousin remained in orbit must remain a matter for speculation. (p. 92)

To this can also be added Cullen’s corollary observation (pp. 53, 128) that, contrary to assumptions which Western readers and students of the history of science might bring to the text, Chinese astronomers of the second century b.c. “as yet without the concept of the celestial sphere and following the paradigm of meridian transit observation, naturally saw themselves as primarily involved in measurements of time inter-vals rather than of spatial intervals on the heavens.” This situation was to change decisively within less than a century with the introduction of new observational techniques, armillary instruments, and the use of the unit du 度 as a generalized angular measure for the separation of points in the sky, as for example in the polar distances assigned to the determinative stars of the twenty-eight lunar lodges given in Shi Shen’s Xing jing 星經 (on Shi Shen’s Astral Canon, see below). Taken together, these innovations provide a clear indication of the emergence of the more sophisticated hun tian 渾天 cosmography. Astronomy and Mathematics in Ancient China is handsomely produced, and much care has been lavished on appearance and presentation. There are a few typographical errors13 and other minor blemishes, but they

13. For example, “Tiao lu li” (p. 30) for “Tiao lü li”; “tYellow road” (p. 58) for “Yel-low road”; “Zhao’s” (p. 88) for “Zhao”; “figure ar” (pp. 104, 106) for “figure 10”; “at he


do not significantly detract from what is otherwise an exemplary work of interpretation and historical scholarship and an auspicious beginning for the Needham research Institute series.

The Chinese Sky during the Han: Constellating Stars and Society

by Sun Xiaochun and Jacob Kistemaker

This, the thirty-eighth volume in the Sinica Leidensia series, represents another important contribution to the study of cosmological and astro-logical conceptions in the early imperial period. Sun Xiaochun 孫小淳 is Associate Professor of the History of Chinese Astronomy at the Institute for the History of Natural Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Jacob Kistemaker is Professor Emeritus of Physics at Leiden University and has a long-standing interest in ancient Chinese astronomy. Their collabora-tion on this project stems from a fortuitous convergence of interests and scholarly exchange between the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and the University of Leiden, which allowed Sun to pursue dissertation research there on the history of Han astronomy. Sun and Kistemaker set out to answer two questions: What did the Chinese sky look like during the Han?; and What is the meaning of the Chinese sky and the philosophy behind it? The Chinese Sky during the Han succeeds admirably in answering the first question by painstakingly reconstructing the appearance of the heavens in Han times. The authors identify some 283 constellations and asterisms (1,464 individual stars) whose names and general descriptions are preserved in three crucially important “canons of stars” (xing jing 星經) traditionally attributed to Warring States period astrologers Shi Shen and Gan De, as well as to the shadowy “Shang Dynasty” figure Wu Xian 巫咸. In the Introduction the authors survey previous work on Chinese constellations and astral nomenclature and discuss the rationale for the study, their sources, objectives, and method. They then present the substance of their research in five chapters: “A Brief History of Chinese Constellations,” “Constellations of Shi Shi,” “Development by Gan Shi and Wu Xian Shi,” “Philosophy of the Chinese Sky,” and “Main Structures in the Sky and their Meanings.” In the three appendices devoted to each of the stellar canons, the constellations, asterisms, and individual stars whose names have been preserved are identified using the conventional Western designations along with brief annotations by

pole” (p. 130) for “at the pole.” Errors of a different sort include “have lead” (p. 139) for “have led”; Zhang Heng’s Ling xian dated to both a.d. 100 and a.d. 120 (pp. 112, 140).


the authors. Six star charts showing the reconstructed Han dynasty sky conclude the work, two for the polar-regions and the remaining four showing 8h by 110° segments of the sky centered on the equator. These fold-out star charts are deceptively plain. Their graphic parsimony belies the arduous comparative study of original sources that went into producing them, which of necessity spanned the entire history of celes-tial cartography in China, a subject surveyed by the authors in Chapter Two. Precisely because Sun and Kistemaker are astronomers and historians of science it is perhaps to be expected that their investigation of the first question—What did the Chinese sky look like during the Han?— is both rigorously pursued and persuasively presented. The authors report new results concerning the history of the three early star catalogues which provide definitive answers to lingering questions about the epoch of the positional observations uniquely preserved in Shi Shi’s Astral Canon (Shishi xingjing), and establish the chronological relationship among the three star lists. Perhaps equally understandably, Chapters Five and Six devoted to the cultural significance of the ancient Chinese constel-lations are less successful, and will likely cause some raised eyebrows among knowledgeable readers. Though the authors offer a disclaimer in the Introduction with regard to valuable recent Sinological scholarship which they did not consult (which a cursory examination of the bibli-ography certainly confirms), this deficiency has not deterred them from deep forays into terrain which they have not adequately researched.14 The result is an analysis of the cultural and seasonal signifi cance of the Han dynasty sky that lurches from insightful, to superficial, to dubious and back again. The book’s deficiencies in this regard are the more worrisome because this aspect of the authors’ research is billed as merely the first installment in an ambitious ongoing project slated to produce an “‘astro-mythological’ explanation and understanding of the Chinese sky against the “climatological and social background of Asiatic

14. The consequences of this inadequate grounding in the literature are apparent, for example, on p. 50n.1, where the discredited interpretation of the Yuheng as the “Jade Observation Tube used to observe the position of stars” is repeated without qualification (see Christopher Cullen and Anne S. L. Farrer, “On the Term Hsuan Chi and the Flanged Trilobate Jade Discs,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 46 [1983], 52–76). Still another example (p. 176n.48) is the characterization of the Zhouli as a forgery perpetrated by Liu Xin (d. a.d. 23). Howlers include the refer-ences (pp. 125, 127) to the “orthodox neo-Confucianism of Dong Zhongshu” and the “typical Neo-Confucian symbolism” of the Mingtang of Emperor Wu’s time. Mistakes of this kind could easily have been avoided if the manuscript had been reviewed by knowledgeable readers prior to publication.


culture” (p.12). Because of its usefulness as a basic resource, The Chinese Sky during the Han is likely to gain recognition as an essential reference work, so it is worthwhile to spend some effort describing the book’s main contributions and perhaps less obvious shortcomings. As noted above, Sun Xiaochun is an astronomer and historian of Chinese science, while Jacob Kistemaker is a professor of atomic and molecular physics. Hence, the most valuable chapters in The Chinese Sky During the Han are those that draw most directly on the authors’ areas of expertise. Chapter Two, “Brief History of Chinese Constell ations,” traces the development of positional astronomy and cartography in China beginning with the famous seasonal “culminating stars” (zhong xing 中星) passage from the Yao dian 堯典 and concluding with the Yi xiang kaocheng 儀象考成 published circa 1757 under the auspices of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau with Ignatius Kögler (Dai Jinxian 戴進賢) as editor-in-chief. The authors’ historical account breaks no new ground,15 but is very useful as a capsule history of Chinese celestial cartography, and it shows how previous efforts to identify stars and asterisms in Han and earlier sources frequently made use of Tang, Song, and even later star maps, created many centuries after the epoch in question. The importance of an analysis of the Han sky that does not rely heavily on later stellar identifications (to the extent that Yi Shitong’s 伊世同 1981 star catalogue,16 for example, relies on the eighteenth century Yixiang kaocheng) was already emphasized in the methodological Introduction (pp. 7–9), where Gustav Schlegel’s Uranographie Chinoise,17 Edouard Chavannes’s translation of the “Tian guan shu” from the Shiji,18 and Ho Peng Yoke’s translation of the astronomical chapters of the Jin shu19 are critically reviewed. Here Sun and Kistemaker mainly wish to demonstrate that the requisite historical data and technical expertise are available to reconstruct the Han Chinese sky on its own terms. The core of the book and the authors’ most important scholarly con-tribution is Chapter Three, “Constellations of Shi Shi,” in which they

15. Where the authors do provide an original analysis of the cosmology of an an-cient source, the Zhoubi suanjing, their reconstruction of the “seven orbits and six belts” diagram (p. 24, Fig. 2.2) suffers by comparison with Appendix Three in Christopher Cullen’s Astronomy and Mathematics in Ancient China.

16. Yi Shitong, Zhongguo hengxing duizhao tubiao 中國恆星對照圖表 (Beijing: Kexue, 1981).

17. Schlegel, Uranographie Chinoise (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1875).18. Chavannes, Les Memoires Historiques de Se-Ma Ts’ien, vol. 3 (Paris: Ernest Leroux,

1898; repr., Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1967).19. Ho Peng Yoke,The Astronomical Chapters of Jin Shu (Paris and The Hague: Mouton

and Co., 1966).


examine in depth the primary source for positional astronomy in early imperial times, the Shishi xingjing or Shi Shen’s Astral Canon. This stellar catalogue, which is frequently cited in the sources from the Shiji on, has been preserved virtually in its entirety together with precise positional observations for some 120 constellations (including the twenty-eight lunar lodges) in an early Tang astrological compendium, the Kaiyuan zhan jing 開元占經 (ca. 720). Although traditionally attributed to the fourth century b.c. astrologer Shi Shen, the actual epoch of observation of the reported positions has been much studied and vigorously debated, with conclusions ranging from 450 b.c. to about a.d. 200. Previous studies, notably those of Yabuuchi Kiyoshi 藪內清,20 Qian Baocong 錢寶琮,21 and Yasukatsu Maeyama,22 have persuasively argued in favor of a date around 70 b.c. Sun and Kistemaker critically review these studies and the relevant methodological issues. Since the recorded stellar positions, in particular the polar distances of the determinative stars of the twenty-eight lunar lodges, required the use of an early armillary type instrument whose invention was contemporaneous with the emergence of the huntian cosmology, the scholarly consensus has been that the positional observations must date from the mid to late Former Han period. Sun and Kistemaker’s major accom plishment is to have devised a mathematical analysis that confirms 80–70 b.c. as the epoch of observation of the catalogue of stars in the Shishi xing jing,23 thereby permitting them to reconstruct the appearance of the Han sky based on the stars described in Shi Shen’s Astral Canon, supplemented by those of Gan De and Wu Xian. Their reconstruc-tion provides the authors with evidence to conclude that the system described in the Shishi xingjing is essentially the same as that found in the “Tian guan shu” in the Shiji as well as in the “Tianwen zhi” 天文志 (Monograph on astrology) in the Han shu 漢書. Therefore, despite the Tang date of the transmitted version of Shi Shen’s Astral Canon, we can be confident that the maps drawn in The Chinese Sky during the Han accu-rately depict the sky as it was seen in Han times. Moreover, as Sun and Kistemaker point out, the existence of a “canonical” stellar catalogue as

20. Yabuuchi, “Tō Kaigen seikyō chū no seikyō” 唐開元占經中の星經, Tōhō gakuhō 東方學報 8 (1937), 56–74.

21. Qian Baocong, “Ganshi xingjing yuanliu kao” 甘氏星經源流考, Guoli Zhejiang daxue jikan 國立浙江大學季刊 6 (1937).

22. Maeyama Yasukatsu, “The Oldest Star Catalogue in China, Shih Shen’s Hsing Ching,” in Prismata: Naturwissenschaftliche Studien—Festschrift für Willy Hartner (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1977), 211–45.

23. In the process reaffirming Maeyama’s contention that the polar alignment of the instrument used in making the stellar measurements was off by about one degree.


early as mid-Han ensured that the stellar configurations and nomen-clature would change little thereafter, much as Western tradition was definitively shaped by Ptolemy’s Almagest and Tetrabiblos compiled in the second century a.d. In view of their repeated assertions that the “school” or “complete system” or “catalogue” of Shi Shen dates from late in the Former Han dynasty, however, it is important to note that what Sun and Kistemaker have actually demonstrated is that the positional observations recorded in the Kaiyuan zhanjing date from ca. 70 b.c. This does not mean that Shi Shen’s Astral Canon did not exist prior to this—it certainly did. The “Tian guan shu” in the Shiji (ca. 110 b.c.) predates the recorded observations by roughly half a century, and in it Sima Qian explicitly cites Shi Shen as the source of many of his stellar identifications. Given the existence of a depiction of the complete lunar lodge system from the late fifth century b.c. tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng 曾侯乙,24 it is hardly a stretch to imagine that other constellations also were recognized in astral lore before the functional systematization of the lunar lodges. Warring States and Zhou period texts like the Shijing 詩經, Zuo zhuan 左傳, Guo yu 國語, and Xia xiao zheng 夏小正 make reference to some of them. A similar pattern of development was followed in Mesopotamia, where the zodiac, more or less as we know it, emerged during the early first millen nium b.c., many centuries after astrological prognostication began and the first aster-isms were identified. As the authors themselves note (p. 96), we know the names of some seventy Sumerian constellations dating from about 2300 b.c. Although they rely heavily on the descriptions and positional data of some ninety asterisms and 412 stars found in the “Tian guan shu,” where one finds clear evidence of regional variation dating at least from the Warring States period,25 the authors place heaviest emphasis on the Han, claiming that “the complete system was formed during the Han; the Han ideology is obviously recognizable in the structure of the sky” (p. 13). As a broad generalization this may be true, especially as regards the additional asterisms and stars attributed to Gan De and Wu Xian,

24. Wang Jianmin 王健民 et al., “Zeng Hou Yi mu chutu de ershiba xiu qinglong baihu tuxiang” 曾侯乙墓出土的二十八宿青龍白虎圖象, Wenwu 文物 1979.7, 40–45. The hamper lid bearing the depiction is illustrated and interpreted by Sun and Kistemaker on p. 20.

25. A point emphasized in the Foreword (p. xiv), where Bo Shuren 薄樹人 refers to pre-Han stars and asterisms: “Because Chinese asterisms primarily came into being during the Warring States period, astronomers who served different masters built up rather different systems. . . . Due to many reasons, some systems of asterisms have been buried in oblivion.”


which in many cases can be shown to derive from the “Tian guan shu” (p. 26). And, as the authors note:

[I]n the Tian guan shu typical ideas reflecting the political system were presented, like a central imperial court controlling the prov-inces. . . . [W]e see clearly the idea of constructing the sky as a celestial counterpart of the terrestrial imperial state . . . hence the book’s title Celestial Officials. (p. 22)

Nevertheless, in their zeal to depict the Han sky as inspired by the cen-tralized and hierarchical imperial system, Sun and Kistemaker have a tendency to overstate the case, since much of the material in “Tian guan shu” predates the Qin and Han dynasties.26 Given the heavenward ori-entation of ancient Chinese cosmo-political ideology from the earliest times, whether, and to what degree, terrestrial institutions were in fact modeled on the centralized and hierarchical organization of the heavens, rather than the other way round, is an important question and deserv-ing of consideration. Such a possibility seems not to have occurred to the authors. Chapter Four, “Development by Gan Shi and Wu Xian Shi,” is devoted to documenting the authors’ argument that, on the whole, the lists of con-stellations attributed to Gan De and Wu Xian represent mid-Han ampli-fications of the system documented in the “Tian guan shu” in the Shiji. Gan De, who is mentioned in the Shiji only in connection with plane tary motions, is thought to have lived through the end of the Qin dynasty. The evidence for Wu Xian (Shaman Xian) is even sketchier, though he was a well-known semi-divine figure in late Zhou and Han times.27 Wu Xian is mentioned in the Shiji, “Yin benji” 殷本紀 (Basic annals of the Yin dynasty), as a Shang official, but this quasi-legendary figure’s connection with astronomical observation is impossible to confirm.

26. Although Sun and Kistemaker note in passing pre-Han references to stars and constellations (p. 18), they take no account of the textual and archaeological evidence for the “old degree” systems of determinative stars of the lunar lodges, which predate the Han dynasty and the positional measurements in Shi Shen’s Astral Canon. This lapse is the more surprising in that the analysis of the locations of the determinative stars plays a crucial role in their reconstruction of the Han sky, and studies have shown that the older systems chose different determinative stars in many instances. On the “old degree” systems, see, Wang Jianmin and Liu Jinyi 劉金沂, “Xi Han ruyin hou mu chutu yuanpan shang ershi ba xiu gu ju du de yanjiu” 西漢汝陰侯墓出土圓盤上二十八宿古距度的研究, in Zhongguo gudai tianwen wenwu lunji, 59–68; and especially Song Huiqun 宋會群 and Miao Xuelan 苗雪回, “Lun ershi ba xiu gu ju du zai xian Qin shiqi de yingyong ji qi yiyi” 論二十八宿古距度在先秦時期的應用及其意義, Ziran kexue shi yanjiu 自然科學史研究 14.2 (1995), 140–53.

27. See Major, Heaven and Earth in Early Han Thought, 199.


As in the case of Shi Shen, attributions to Gan De and Wu Xian of star names and astrological opinions accumulated during the Later Han, culminating in the conflation of the three xing jing or catalogues of 283 constellations and 1,464 individual stars attributed to the three “schools” by Chen Zhuo 陳卓 in the late third century. A Tang dynasty star chart from Dunhuang 敦煌 showing the stars identified by each catalogue in different colors (The Chinese Sky during the Han, facing p. 28) probably reproduces Chen Zhuo’s handiwork. By analyzing the extent to which the three lists of stars are derivative from or comment on one another, and by dating one Xi Meng 郗萌, a commentator on Wu Xian’s Astral Canon (the latest of the three), Sun and Kistemaker are able to establish a terminus ante quem of a.d. 74 for Wu Xian’s list of forty-four constella-tions. Thus, the complete scheme of stars and constellations mapped by the authors is securely dated to the first century b.c. (that is, from about 70 b.c. to a.d. 74). The remainder of the chapter is devoted to discussion of the method-ology used by the authors to identify the constellations named by Gan De and Wu Xian, and to an analysis of the innovations these “additions to the framework of Shi Shen’s school” represent. Here again, a principal focus is the extent to which the ideological content of Gan De’s and Wu Xian’s stellar nomenclature reflects the Han institutional and cultural milieu. The authors note only in passing (p. 80, n. 13) evidence in the Shiji of distinctly different regional schemes of the twenty-eight lunar lodges, which are said to have been separately “adopted” by the schools of Shi Shen and Gan De. So committed are the authors to the thesis that the three catalogues are essentially creations of the late Former Han that the possibility that the persistence of distinct traditions through the Han might reflect deeply rooted regionalism is never seriously considered. Another problem with the presentation is an unevenness of narrative that occurs so frequently one wonders which of the book’s misstate-ments and inconsistencies are the result of carelessness, mistransla tion, indifferent editing, or a combination of all three. The reader is repeat-edly put in the position of having to guess at the authors’ actual mean-ing, which is sometimes at odds with what the text plainly says. For example, on p. 124 the authors attribute the “establishment” of three major constellations—the celestial courts of Taiwei 太微, Dajiao 大角, and Tianshi 天市—to the three “schools” in mid-Han times, despite the fact that all three are mentioned in the Shiji, “Tian guan shu.” At the same time, they note without further comment Lü Zifang’s 呂子方 study identifying the three constellations as representative of ancient regional cultures (p. 124, n.16). From the ensuing discussion (p. 124) it is apparent


that their intent was probably to say something like “Our interest here is to show how these courts were expanded [not ‘established’ as written] by the three schools, and how their construction and naming of constel-lations reflects the cultural background.” Not until Chapter Five, “Philosophy of the Chinese Sky,” do the authors take pains to distinguish Han innovation from ancient tradi-tion, while at the same time elaborating on the theme that the sky was a reflection of the terrestrial world:

All astrological descriptions about the sky from the middle of the Former Han onward were aimed at the construction of a correlat-ing frame between the celestial background and the terrestrial society. . . . This does not mean that the astrological meanings of constellations have all been invented by Han astrologers. Ancient knowledge about the sky was certainly inherited and new astrologi-cal denotations were based on ancient traditions, otherwise they would not have been accepted. (p. 107)

It is in this context that the authors’ assertion that the completion and mapping of the whole sky was accomplished during the Han should be understood. Just as cosmology, portentology, and calendar reform became important concerns of the imperial state, so too did an expan-sionist impulse and the prevailing yin/yang and five phases correlative cosmology leave their mark on the heavens.28 By the mid-first century the process of populating the heavens with constellations was completed. Tellingly, the entire sky is given over to the Chinese world, leaving the non-Chinese periphery virtually un-represented in the sky and astro-logically significant only as a reflex of Chinese concerns, principally in military affairs. Constellations could hardly be invented and placed willy-nilly in the heavens. How they were identified—by shape, position, legendary association, etc.—and how they fitted into the scheme of the whole sky are, according to Sun and Kistemaker, all susceptible to analysis and interpretation. The authors cover both new and familiar ground, show-ing how the names and locations of the constellations derive from the actual or perceived structure of the sky, from the activities identified with the particular seasons of the year when certain stars were promi-

28. A particularly illuminating study of the influence of cosmology and religion on the professional activities of Han dynasty Chinese astronomers is Christopher Cullen’s “Motivations for Scientific Change in Ancient China: Emperor Wu and the Grand Inception Astronomical reforms of 104 b.c.,” Journal for the History of Astronomy, 24, pt. 3 (August 1993), 185–203.


nent , and from their functional relationship to the movements of the sun and moon.29 The general interpretive scheme as set forth here also informs the glosses accompanying the individual stellar identifications in the three appendices. As the authors point out, most descriptions of constellations were in the form of astrological protases, so that the iden-tity of a particular stellar configuration usually connotes its astrological function and sphere of influence. Given the association of a particular asterism with a particular context—for example, the military—changes or irregularity connected with that asterism (even the fixed stars were thought capable of changing their orientation!) will be interpreted astro-logically as having consequences within that context. This relationship underlies an interesting passage from Zhang Heng’s 張衡 Ling xian 靈憲 (quoted on p. 97):

Stars materially originated from the earth below; but their essence was perfected above. They are randomly scattered in the sky, but every one of them has its own distant connections. In the wilder-ness stars denote articles and objects; at court they denote officials; among people they denote human actions.

Zhang’s comment is in keeping with ideas of sympathetic resonance (gan ying 感應) between the celestial and terrestrial realms so fundamen-tal to cosmological thinking during the Han, most notably that of Dong Zhongshu 董仲舒. Perhaps it also reflects sensitivity to the protean role of the stars in astrology at different levels of society and at different times in the past. (To take one obvious example, the legendary romance between the Oxherd [Altair] and Spinning Maiden [Vega], had little if anything to do with affairs of state.) Inexplicably, however, the authors attribute to Liu Xin 劉歆 (d. a.d. 23) the development of the Field Allocation ( fen ye 分野) system of astral-terrestrial correspondences (p. 106), despite the fact that such correspondences figure prominently in Warring States and Former Han astrological texts, including the Zuozhuan, Guoyu, and Shiji.30

29. Although Sun and Kistemaker briefly review the different observational methods used to locate the sun and moon against the stellar background, and note that the con-stellations in different parts of the sky relate differently to the paths of the sun and moon, no account of the origins of this phenomenon is offered. Here again, an opportunity to explore the evidence of the accretional process by which the sky was populated with imaginative constructs is overlooked in favor of a “slice in time” account that privileges the fully developed scheme of mid-Han times.

30. See, for example, David W. Pankenier, “Applied Field Allocation Astrology in Zhou China: Duke Wen of Jin and the Battle of Chengpu (632 b.c.),” Journal of the American Oriental Society 119.2 (1999), 261–79. For discussion of the theory and prac-


Chapter Six, “Main Structures in the Sky and their Meanings,” returns to a theme adumbrated by the authors in the Introduction:

The Chinese sky has been developed and modified by Han astro-nomical schools to fit into the Chinese tradition, history and way of thinking. But originally, in its primitive mythological sense, it reflects the lore and tales of the Eurasian people. For a real understanding of the original meaning of the names of the older constellations of Shi Shen’s school and the 28 xiu, a comparison with classical Chinese, Indian and Middle Eastern mythology will be necessary. (p. 11)31

Here one encounters a particularly problematical aspect of the book: a penchant for discerning non-Chinese influences on the earliest “astro-mythological” strata of Chinese stellar lore and astrology. Thus, the authors claim:

The existence of analogous lunar lodge systems, probably all origi-nating from the last millennium b.c., indicates a lively communica-tion between these widespread peoples. The pre-Han Chinese sky, visible in the constellations of Shi Shen’s school, reflects the same stories as one can find in the Hindu-Vedic or in the Sumerian sky. We are not ready to draw conclusions based on these analogies in this book, but we want to emphasize that it is sometimes helpful to know them when trying to explain shapes and positions of constel-lations in the Han sky and to understand the mysterious names of some xiu constellations. (p. 12)

In fact, however, Sun and Kistemaker do draw conclusions based on such analogies, without adducing any evidence to substantiate their diffusionist theory. As a result, it is impossible to judge whether such analogizing is a relic of the “pan-Babylonism” of an earlier generation, or whether there is any real basis for the authors’ interpretations. For example, some readers will be taken aback by the assertion on p. 113 that consensus has already been reached regarding the question of a common origin of the Chinese, Indian, and Arabic lunar lodge systems. Although scholars like Zhu Kezhen 竺可楨, Xia Nai 夏鼐, and Joseph

tice of field application astrology, including the use of shi cosmographs, see Li Yong 李勇, “Dui Zhongguo gudai hengxing fenye he fenye shipan yanjiu” 對中國古代恆星分野和分野式盤研究, Ziran kexueshi yanjiu 11.1 (1992), 22–31.

31. See also p. 19 where the authors contradict, in a single paragraph, their stated conclusion that there is a consensus in favor of a common origin for the system of twenty-eight lunar lodges (p. 113), and that not all lodges are situated near the ecliptic (p. 111). In the latter case, this fact is even deemed “remarkable.”


Needham all subscribed to this thesis, more recent dispassionate study of the chronological and astronomical issues involved shows that the evi-dence is far from conclusive.32 For Sun and Kistemaker, however, simply posing the question of cultural influence is apparently proof enough of the hypothesis: “We do not intend to treat this problem in depth in this book, but the question itself shows the manifold links of the Chinese sky with ancient civilizations, not only Chinese, but also Asiatic” (p. 8). An example of the facility with which the authors occasionally discern cross-cultural parallels is found in the gloss attached to lunar lodge Zhen 軫 “carriage rail” (LM #28) in Appendix 1 (p. 161). There we are told that at this position in the Sumerian sky was a crow named UGA that was “probably identical with the three-legged crow san zu wu 三足烏, representing the sun in Chinese mythology.” Moreover, “UGA became the roman crow Corvus, which is now the western name for the same constellation.” The rationale seems to be that since the Sumer-ian constellation antedated the Chinese, the presence of crows in both traditions means the Chinese san zu wu must be the result of cultural influence from Mesopotamia, much as Corvus descended from UGA. Given examples like this, it goes without saying that the authors’ inter-pretations of the meaning of constellations in some cases should be used with caution. Besides the problems already mentioned, and in addition to an awk-wardness of translation and tortured syntax that occasionally renders the meaning opaque, the book is rife with typographical errors and mis-spellings, far too many to even begin to list here. Pinyin transcriptions of Chinese names and terms, in particular, are frequently misspelled and unreliable. All these annoyances could easily have been eliminated with a modicum of effort; the numerous errors of this kind convey the impression that no one bothered either to edit or proofread the manu-

32. Adding to the confusion in regard to this topic, in the gloss for the lunar lodge Xing (Alphard; LM #25) in Appendix 1 (p. 161) one reads:

This equatorial position of the ju xing [determinative star] of xiu Xing, together with the following ju xing of xiu Zhang and xiu Yi is a strong point to demon-strate the existence of an independent Chinese system of lunar lodges. The cor-responding Indian and Arabic determinative “stars” follow the ecliptic, about 30 degrees more to the North.

As a result it is not at all clear what Sun and Kistemaker mean by asserting that “these systems must have had the same origin.” For a balanced discussion of the history of the debate about the Babylonian influences on Chinese civilization generally, and on astronomy in particular, see Jiang Xiaoyuan 江曉原, Tianxue zhen yuan 天學真原 (Shen-yang: Liaoning jiaoyu, 1991), 276–383 (esp. pp. 302–13 for the debate about the origin of the twenty-eight lunar lodges).


script. This is truly unfortunate, as the volume is very expensive and, by virtue of its usefulness as a ready reference, likely to become a fixture on many reference shelves. Though flawed in certain respects, the major shortcomings of The Chinese Sky during the Han are largely confined to the interpretive chap-ters, which are of comparatively minor importance. The core of the study— the reconstruction of the sky as it was seen in mid-Han times, the studies of the three astral canons, their dates and relationship to each other, and the identifications of the stars they name—represent a significant scholarly achievement. On balance, therefore, it should be emphasized that The Chinese Sky during the Han represents an important contribution to scholarship and an essential reference for research on Han astronomy and celestial cartography. Given the usefulness and accessibility of these new sources for the astronomy, astrology, and cosmology of early China, future studies of the period will have little excuse for not lifting their gaze skyward on occasion. They’ll have a much easier time of it than in the past.

seeing stars in the han sky - semantic scholar · 2017-10-01 · early china 25, 2000 seeing stars...

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