Chapter 3 Section 2 Astronomical Observation and Astronomical Records - "Kaiyuan Zhanjing"

In ancient China, agriculture was the foundation of the country.Observing astronomical phenomena and mastering seasonal changes play an extremely important role in agricultural production.Legend has it that in Zhuanxu's time, there was an official of "Huo Zheng", who was responsible for observing the appearance of "Big Fire" (Xin Su Er) to guide agricultural production.The first sentence of the poem "July" in the book is: "Fire flows in July, and clothes are granted in September." According to astronomical phenomena, people know that the weather will turn cold soon, and it is time to prepare winter clothes.Observing astronomical phenomena is also closely related to the ruler's political activities.In ancient times, people's level of understanding was low, and they often linked celestial phenomena with the good and bad fortune of human beings. When solar eclipses, lunar eclipses, comets, meteorites and other phenomena appeared, they were regarded as the wrath of heaven and punishment or punishment for human beings. warn.Starting from this superstitious thought, the ancients hoped to predict good and bad luck from the display of celestial phenomena, so astrology came into being.Astrology opposes celestial phenomena and human affairs, and believes that changes in celestial phenomena not only herald the blessings and misfortunes of the world, but also relate to the rise and fall of dynasties.Due to the above two reasons, astronomical observation has become a daily activity that officials must insist on, resulting in the official nature of ancient Chinese astronomy.The government's huge financial and material support is objectively conducive to the development of astronomy.

Large-scale astronomical observation activities have left us with a wealth of astronomical observation data, including records of normal astronomical phenomena and records of abnormal astronomical phenomena.The relevant chapters of the Twenty-Four Histories are dedicated to collecting astronomical records, and other historical books and local annals have also collected relevant ancient astronomical data.According to statistics, ancient literature records about 1,000 solar eclipses, more than 900 lunar eclipses, about 100 sunspots, more than 500 comets, about 180 meteor showers, about 90 new stars and supernovae, and more than 10 five-star unions.In addition, there are records of aurora, zodiacal light, variable light stars, variable color stars and strange stars.These astronomical records show great value in science because of their richness, system and long duration.

Astrological works contain a large amount of information about star position measurement, star map drawing, and observation of strange celestial phenomena, which occupy an important position in the history of astronomy.The earliest works of astrology in my country are Gan De's "Astronomical Astrology" and Shi Shen's "Astronomy" during the Warring States Period. In 1973, "Five-Star Divination" and "Miscellaneous Divination of Astronomy and Meteorology" were unearthed from the Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha. "Five-Star Astrology" gives the position table of Jupiter, Saturn, and Venus and their dynamic table in a conjunction cycle during the 70 years from the first year of Qin Shihuang (246 BC) to the third year of Han Wendi (177 BC). In "Miscellaneous Astronomy and Meteorology", the 29 pictures of comets are most interesting to historians of modern astronomy.The shapes of comet heads and tails are drawn in detail in the figure, and the corresponding names are noted below the figure, a total of 18 kinds.This is the world's earliest comet graphic data.In the Western Han Dynasty, the edifice of traditional Chinese astrology had been completed, and the number of works was unprecedented. Only "Hanshu·Yiwenzhi" listed 21, 450 volumes, not including the above-mentioned unearthed works of astrology.After the Eastern Han Dynasty, astrology developed further, and the number of astrological works listed in Sui Shu·Jing Ji Zhi has reached more than 80 and more than 670 volumes.Since the Tang Dynasty, there have been large-scale astrological works such as "Yisi Zhan", "Kaiyuan Zhanjing", "Jingyou Qianxiang New Book", "Qianxiang Tongjian", and countless small-scale works.The common feature of these works is the collection of a large amount of astronomical data from predecessors and at that time, especially concerning constellation positions and astronomical records, which are extremely valuable.For example, Li Chunfeng's "Yisi Zhan" preserved many contents of his two lost works "Li Xiang Zhi" and "Yi Si Yuan Li", and a part of "Guan Xiang Wan Zhan" between the Tang and Song Dynasties This all-sky-covering-style star map reflects the level of star maps and the star official system in the late Tang Dynasty. The "Lingtai Secret Garden" compiled by Yu Jicai in the Northern Zhou Dynasty and rebuilt by Wang Anli in the Northern Song Dynasty preserves the compilation of stellar surveys during the reign of Huangyou in the Northern Song Dynasty (1049-1054 A.D.) Yang Weide's "Jingyou Qianxiang New Book" in the Northern Song Dynasty and Li Ji's "Qianxiang Tongjian" in the Southern Song Dynasty preserved Yang Weide's measurement of the positions of the stars in the sky during the Jingyou period (1034-1038 AD) As a result, it became an indispensable document for discussing the level of star observation in the Song Dynasty.However, the most famous and well-preserved astrological work is "Kaiyuan Zhanjing".

"Kaiyuan Zhanjing", the full name is "Da Tang Kaiyuan Zhanjing", a total of 120 volumes, was collectively compiled by the Indian astronomer Qu Tan Sida who was ordered to lead the staff of the Taishijian during the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty.After the book was completed, as a royal secret, it has been locked in the palace and is rarely circulated.Afterwards, it went through vicissitudes of life, almost to the point of being lost.In the forty-fourth year of Wanli Emperor Shenzong of the Ming Dynasty (1616 A.D.), a man named Cheng Mingshan in She (sheshe) County, Anhui Province accidentally discovered a copy of the "Kaiyuan Zhanjing" in the belly of a Buddha statue when he was renovating it.At that time, people copied it one after another, and the book was circulated.The most widely handed down edition is the Hengdetang edition in the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty. "Kaiyuan Zhanjing" also traveled east to Japan, and there are ancient manuscripts of this book in Japan.

For modern scholars, "Kaiyuan Zhanjing" is equivalent to a huge treasure house of historical documents.During the writing process of the book, more than 300 ancient documents were used, many of which have been lost.According to statistics, the book compiles and quotes 77 and 82 ancient astronomical and astrological works that have been lost. Although "Kaiyuan Zhanjing" is a work of astrology, the content it includes far exceeds the scope required by astrology, and its richness is far better than other similar ancient books. In the first two volumes of "Kaiyuan Zhanjing", "Heaven and Earth Names and Styles", the discussion on the structure of heaven and earth has been collected by various schools since the Han Dynasty.Some of these contents, such as Jiang Ji's "Huntian Lun Responses to Difficulties", the record of Emperor Wu of Liang calling a group of ministers to discuss the structure of heaven and earth in the Changchun Palace, and the criticism of Jiang Ji by the ancestor of the Southern Dynasty, etc., are only found in the this book.And Zu Wei's "Huntian Lun" and Lu Ji's "Huntian Xiangshuo" are also more detailed than the records in "Book of Jin · Tianwen Zhi" and "Sui Shu · Tianwen Zhi".In addition, the discussion on the theory of earthquakes in Volume 2 also provides important clues for us to understand the content, spread and development of the traditional theory of earthquakes that explains some celestial phenomena.

With the exception of volumes 103 to 110, "Kaiyuan Zhanjing" is full of astrological content since volume 3, which is a collection of various astrological works since the Han Dynasty. Items such as astrology, five-star astrology, star astrology, flower comet (beibei) astrology, cloud and gas astrology, climate astrology, vegetation, birds, animals, human ghosts, artifacts, etc. are described in categories.This not only provides rich material for us to discuss the ancient cultural phenomenon of astrology, but also provides necessary help for us to understand the observations of various astronomical phenomena by the ancients.For example, in Volume 9 of the book, there is a record of the observation of the solar eclipse by using the water basin method in the Jingfang of the Han Dynasty. It is actually the observational record of the ray-like corona.

"Gan and Shi Xingjing" is the earliest astrological work in my country, but it has been lost for a long time.However, in the "Kaiyuan Zhanjing", we can see a large number of quotations and compilations, including a "Shi's Star List".This catalog records the positions of 121 stars, and is one of the earliest star catalogs in the world, earlier than the Hippago star catalog of ancient Greece and the Ptolemy star catalog of ancient Rome. The "Shi's Star Catalog" uses equatorial coordinates to describe the positions of stars, which shows that my country has applied a relatively advanced equatorial coordinate system in astronomical observations at the latest in the Warring States Period.In Volume 23 of the book, there is an excerpt from Gander's discussion on Jupiter, saying that Jupiter "has a small red star attached to its side, which is called an alliance."According to the research of scientific workers, this small red star attached to Jupiter is the brightest one among Jupiter's satellites - Europa.In Europe, this Jupiter satellite was not observed until after Galileo invented the telescope, nearly 2,000 years later than China.

Unlike most of the content of the whole book, there is almost no astrological content in volumes 103 to 110 of "Kaiyuan Zhanjing".Among them, Volume 103 introduces the "Linde Calendar" compiled by Li Chunfeng, an astronomer in the early Tang Dynasty.This calendar inherits the achievements of Sui Dynasty astronomer Liu Zhuo's "Huangji Calendar", and has made many advances in astronomical data and related mathematical calculations. It is an important work in the history of Chinese calendars.Regarding "Lin De Li", both "Old Book of Tang" and "New Book of Tang" have records, but there are many mistakes and differences. When "Kaiyuan Zhanjing" was compiled, "Linde Calendar" was in use, so its records naturally have greater reference value for the study of "Linde Calendar".

The Tang Dynasty was a grand era with frequent cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries. The "Kaiyuan Zhanjing" has preserved some historical materials for astronomical exchanges between China and India.Volume 104 of the book contains the Indian calendar "Jiu Zhi Li" compiled by Gautama Siddhartha.Indian astronomy was once influenced by Greek astronomy, and its system is very different from ancient Chinese astronomy.Judging from the astronomical data in the calendar, the "Jiuzhi Calendar" is slightly rougher than the calendar in our country at that time, but some astronomical concepts and calculation methods are relatively advanced, which are worth learning from.The content of "Jiu Zhi Li" in the book not only provides precious materials for the study of ancient Sino-Indian cultural exchanges, but also provides a rare historical document for the study of the history of Indian astronomy.

Xingguan is a form of star naming in ancient China. A Xingguan is a combination of stars, and the number of stars varies.Ancient Chinese astronomers are divided into many schools, many schools have their own system of star officials, there are similarities and differences among them.During the Three Kingdoms period, Wu Taishi ordered Chen Zhuo to synthesize the three main star official systems in ancient times—Gan’s (Gande), Shi’s (Shi Shen), and the same while reserving differences, and synthesize them into 283 star officials, including 1464. complete system of stars.This system was accepted by later generations and became the traditional Chinese star naming system.However, due to Chen Zhuo's comprehensive success, the original appearance of the three star officials gradually became unknown to the world.In volume 106 to volume 110 of "Kaiyuan Zhanjing", there are "similarities and differences of the twenty-eight constellations in ancient and modern times", "similarities and differences of Shi's Zhongguan constellation in ancient and modern times", "similarities and differences of Gan's Zhongguan in ancient and modern times", "Gan's Zhongguan constellation in ancient and modern times". "Shiwaiguan", "Wuxianzhongguan", etc., listed in turn the similarities and differences of the twenty-eight mansions and the positions of the three star officials.In this way, in connection with the relevant content of the astrological astrology of Gan, Wuxian, and foreign officials in the previous volumes 69 to 71, we have a general understanding of the original appearance of the three star officials.A large number of astronomical records in ancient China often used star officials as the reference coordinates of astronomical events. Therefore, the study of star names and star officials' evolution is not only of historical value, but also concerned by modern astronomers.

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