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Seeing Stars in the Han Sky

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A review of the following works: CullenChristopher, 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.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2015

David W. Pankenier
David W. Pankenier*
Affiliation:
Dept. of Modern Foregn Languages, 9 Maginnes Hall, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 18015
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Early China , Volume 25 , 2000 , pp. 185 - 203
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Copyright © Society for the Study of Early China 2000 

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References

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 Yu'an, Sun 孫遇安， “Niya ‘wu xing jin’ xiao shi” 尼雅五星錦》、識， Wenwu tiandi 文物天地 1997.2, 10–11 Google Scholar, and facing p. 49; and Zhiyong, Yu 于志勇, “Xinjiang Niya chu tu ‘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. Dazheng, Ma 馬大正 and Qian, Yang 楊兼 (Urumchi: Xinjiang renmin, 1998), 187–95Google Scholar. (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 armguard in lieu of the azure dragon, somber warrior (entwined turtle/snake), white tiger, and vermilion bird typically associated with the cardinal directions in such cos-mological contexts.

3. Shiji (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1959), 27.1328 Google Scholar.

4. Han shu 漢書 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1962), 69.2981 Google Scholar. For a discussion of this episode and the Niya brocade armguard, see Pankenier, David W., “Applied Astrology, Archaeology, and the Northwest Frontier in mid-Han Dynasty,” Sino-Platonic Papers 104 (07, 2000), 1–19 Google Scholar.

5. See Zezong, Xi 席澤宗, “Mawangdui Han mu boshu zhong de huixing tu” 馬王堆漢墓帛書中的§星圔, in Zhongguo gudai tianwen wenwu lunji 中國古？弋天文文物論集 (Beijing: Kexue, 1989), 29–34 Google Scholar; Tiefu, Gu 顧鐵符， “Mawangdui boshu ‘Yan qi hui xing tu’ yanjiu” 馬王堆帛書雲氣彗星圇研究, in Zhongguo gudai tianwen wenwu lunji, 35–45 Google Scholar; Zezong, Xi, “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 Google Scholar.

6. Use of the term chang xing rather than a conventional term such as hut xing 彗星 “broom star” may indicate that the comet tail was exceptionally long in this instance. See Loewe, Michael, “The Han View of Comets,” in his Divination, Mythology and Monarchy in Han China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 77–79 Google Scholar; see also Bodde, Derk, 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 Google Scholar.

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 conflict, see Pankenier, D.W., “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), 187–97Google Scholar.

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

9. See Ling, Li 李零, “Shi tu yu Zhongguo gudai de yuzhou moshi (shang)” 式圇與中國古代的宇宙模式 (上), Jiuzhou xuekan 九州學刊 4.1 (04 1991), 5–52 Google Scholar; and “Shi tu yu Zhongguo gudai de yuzhou moshi (xia)” 下, Jiuzhou xuekan 4.2 (07 1991), 49—76 Google Scholar. See also, Major, John S., 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 Google Scholar; and Cullen, Christopher, Astronomy and Mathematics in Ancient China, 43–49, and n. 30 belowGoogle Scholar.

10. Ling, Li, “An Archaeological Study of Taiyi太一 (Grand One) Worship,” Early Medieval China 2 (1995–1996), 1–39 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Jianmin, Li 李建民, “Taiyi xinzheng: yi Guodian Chujian weixiansuo” 太一新證:以郭店楚簡爲線索, Chügoku shutsudo shiryō kenkyü 中國出土資料研究 3(1999), 46–62 Google Scholar.

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

12. See Sivin, Nathan, “Cosmos and Computation in Early Chinese Mathematical Astronomy,” T'oung Pao 55 (1969), 1–73 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Peiyu, Zhang 張培瑜， “Xin chutu Qin Han jiandie zhongguanyu Taichu qian lifa de yanjiu” 新出土秦漢簡牒中關于太初前曆法的硏究, in Zhongguo gudai tianwen wenwu lunji, 69–82 Google Scholar; and Jiujin, Chen 陳久金 and Meidong, Chen 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 Google Scholar.

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 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).

14. The consequences of this inadequate grounding in the literature are apparent for example, on p. 50n.l, where the discredited interpretation of the Yuheng as the “Jade Observation Tube used to observe the position of stars” is repeated without qualification (see Cullen, Christopher and Fairer, Anne S. L., “On the Term Hsuan Chi and the Flanged Trilobate Jade Discs,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 46 [1983], 52–76 CrossRefGoogle Scholar). 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 referenees (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.

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

16. Shitong, Yi, Zhongguo hengxingduizhao tubino 中國恆星對照圖表 (Beijing: Kexue, 1981)Google Scholar.

17. Schlegel, , Uranographie Chinoise (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1875)Google Scholar.

18. Chavannes, , Les Mémoires Historiques de Se-Ma Ts'ien, vol. 3 (Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1898; repr., Leiden: EJ. Brill, 1967)Google Scholar.

19. Yoke, Ho Peng, The Astronomical Chapters of Jin Shu (Paris and The Hague: Mouton and Co., 1966)Google Scholar.

20. Yabuuchi, , ״Tō Kaigen seikyō chü no seikyō” 唐開元占經中0星經， Tō;hōgakuhō 東方學報 8 (1937), 56–74 Google Scholar.

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

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

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.

24. Jianmin, Wang 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圇象， Wenwu 文物 1979.7, 40–45 Google Scholar. 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.”

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, Jianmin, Wang and Jinyi, Liu 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 Google Scholar; and especially Huiqun, Song 宋會群 and Xuelan, Miao 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，力, Ziran kexue shi yanjiu 自然科學史硏究 14.2 (1995), 140–53Google Scholar.

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

28. A particularly illuminating study of the influence of cosmology and religion on the professional activities of Han dynasty Chinese astronomers is Cullen's, Christopher “Motivations for Scientific Change in Ancient China: Emperor Wu and the Grand Inception Astronomical Reforms of 104 B.C.,” Journalfor the History of Astronomy, 24, pt 3 (08 1993), 185–203 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

29. Although Sun and Kistemaker briefly review the different observational meth-ods used to locate the sun and moon against the stellar background, and note that the constellations 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, Pankenier, David W., “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), 261–79CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For discussion of the theory and practice of field application astrology, including the use of shi cosmographs, see Yong, Li 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 Google Scholar.

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.”

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 corresponding 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 Xiaoyuan, Jiang 江曉原, Tianxue zhen yuan 天學眞原 (Shenyang: Liaoning jiaoyu, 1991), 276–383 Google Scholar (esp. pp. 302–13 for the debate about the origin of the twenty-eight lunar lodges).