Chapter 52 Section 2 Staffing

Every dynasty has people who specialize in observation.According to the records of "Historical Records Tianguanshu": in ancient times, before the Gaoxin family, there were astronomical officials Chonghe Li; in the Tang and Yu periods, there were the Xi family and the He family; in the Xia Dynasty, there was Kunwu; in the Shang Dynasty, there was Wu Xian; the royal family of the Zhou Dynasty There are Shi Yi and Chang Hong, and each vassal state also has its own astronomical officer. Song has Ziwei, Zheng has Bizao, Qi has Gande, Chu has Tang Mei, Zhao has Yin Gao, and Wei has Shishenfu.They often also have priesthood and are special advisors to the emperor.

During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the highest-level astronomical official was called Taishi Ling, who was in charge of the two departments of the Observatory and Mingtang.The person in charge of the observatory is Lingtai Cheng. There are 42 assistants under Lingtai Cheng. Among them, 14 people observe the stars, two people observe the sun, three people measure the wind direction, 12 people measure the weather, three people measure the time, and seven people check the bell. There is another person called "Sheren" who takes care of some chores.In short, the division of labor is very detailed.The staffing of astronomical institutions before the Yuan Dynasty was roughly the same.

The astronomical institution in the Yuan Dynasty was called the Taishi Academy.The Taishi Academy consists of the Calculation Bureau, the Examination Bureau and the Leakage Bureau, with a total of 70 people. The astronomical institution in the early Ming Dynasty had two sub-organizations: Sitianjian and Huihui Sitianjian. Later, Sitianjian was renamed Qintianjian. In addition to the Hijri calendar, it is more important to provide the observation and calculation results to the Datong calendar for reference.Huihui Sitianjian was also renamed Huihuiqin Tianjian until the merger of the two prisons after Emperor Huihui of the Ming Dynasty. After Ming Chengzu, Nanjing was used as the old capital, and the personnel and equipment were exactly the same as Beijing.

Astronomical institutions in ancient China were royal in nature, and astronomical officials such as Taishi Ling were often appointed by the emperor himself.Since compiling the calendar and astrology for the emperor were the two main tasks of astronomical institutions, astronomers and astrologers were sometimes the same thing.It is precisely because of this that astronomical officials enjoy many privileges. For example, the laws of the Qing Dynasty specifically stipulated that officials of the Qin Tianjian should be given lighter sentences for crimes. In order to maintain the absolute rule of the emperor, the imperial court kept the observation records of the observatory strictly confidential and prohibited them from being circulated among the people. Astronomical officials were not allowed to have casual contact with ordinary people.At the same time, folks are not allowed to study astronomy privately, which hinders the popularization and improvement of astronomy.However, on the other hand, astronomical research in ancient China has always received official support, and research funds, equipment, and working conditions are fully guaranteed. Such superior conditions are not available in other ancient countries.Therefore, despite the change of dynasties, observations and records have continued for more than 2,000 years without interruption.