The Chinese Sky During the Han

The Chinese Sky During the Han

Author: Xiaochun Sun

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 9789004107373

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Presents the first adequate picture of the Chinese sky of 2000 years ago. Investigating the 283 constellations, it reveals that the sky as a mirror of human society was based on the philosophy and cosmology of Han times.


The Chinese Sky during the Han

The Chinese Sky during the Han

Author: Xiaochun Sun

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2021-09-13

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 9004488758

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A reconstruction of the Chinese sky of two thousand years ago, based on analysis of the first star catalogue in China and other sources. Presented in six well-sized star maps for 100 BC, it is especially important for the history of astronomy. The Han sky, with five times more constellations than Ptolemy knew, reflects diverse human activities. The way in which constellations were grouped discloses a systematic cosmology, uniting universe and the state. The work of the three Han schools is comparable to Ptolemy's Almagest. With three detailed Appendices on the constellations of the three schools, well illustrated to demonstrate the relation between sky and human society, this book is valuable not only for astronomy historians and sinologists, but in general for scholars interested in the ancient cultures of Asia.


Lost Discoveries

Lost Discoveries

Author: Dick Teresi

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2010-05-11

Total Pages: 468

ISBN-13: 143912860X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

*A New York Times Notable Book* Boldly challenging conventional wisdom, acclaimed science writer and Omni magazine cofounder Dick Teresi traces the origins of contemporary science back to their ancient roots in this eye-opening and landmark work. This innovative history proves once and for all that the roots of modern science were established centuries, and in some instances millennia, before the births of Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton. In this enlightening, entertaining, and important book, Teresi describes many discoveries from all over the non-Western world—Sumeria, Babylon, Egypt, India, China, Africa, Arab nations, the Americas, and the Pacific islands—that equaled and often surpassed Greek and European learning in the fields of mathematics, astronomy, cosmology, physics, geology, chemistry, and technology. The first extensive and authoritative multicultural history of science written for a popular audience, Lost Discoveries fills a critical void in our scientific, cultural, and intellectual history and is destined to become a classic in its field.


Astrology and Cosmology in Early China

Astrology and Cosmology in Early China

Author: David W. Pankenier

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2013-10-10

Total Pages: 617

ISBN-13: 1107006724

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Drawing on a vast array of scholarship, this pioneering text illustrates how profoundly astronomical phenomena shaped ancient Chinese civilization.


Picturing Heaven in Early China

Picturing Heaven in Early China

Author: Lillian Lan-ying Tseng

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2011-07-25

Total Pages: 480

ISBN-13: 0674060695

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Preliminary Material -- Images and References -- Constructing the Cosmic View -- Engraving Auspicious Omens -- Imagining Celestial Journeys -- Highlighting Celestial Markers -- Mapping Celestial Bodies -- Visibility and Visuality -- Illustration Credits -- Endnotes -- Works Cited -- Index -- Harvard East Asian Monographs.


Picturing Heaven in Early China

Picturing Heaven in Early China

Author: Lillian Lan-ying Tseng

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2020-03-17

Total Pages: 479

ISBN-13: 1684175097

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Tian, or Heaven, had multiple meanings in early China. It had been used since the Western Zhou to indicate both the sky and the highest god, and later came to be regarded as a force driving the movement of the cosmos and as a home to deities and imaginary animals. By the Han dynasty, which saw an outpouring of visual materials depicting Heaven, the concept of Heaven encompassed an immortal realm to which humans could ascend after death. Using excavated materials, Lillian Tseng shows how Han artisans transformed various notions of Heaven—as the mandate, the fantasy, and the sky—into pictorial entities. The Han Heaven was not indicated by what the artisans looked at, but rather was suggested by what they looked into. Artisans attained the visibility of Heaven by appropriating and modifying related knowledge of cosmology, mythology, astronomy. Thus the depiction of Heaven in Han China reflected an interface of image and knowledge. By examining Heaven as depicted in ritual buildings, on household utensils, and in the embellishments of funerary settings, Tseng maintains that visibility can hold up a mirror to visuality; Heaven was culturally constructed and should be culturally reconstructed.


Astronomy Across Cultures

Astronomy Across Cultures

Author: Helaine Selin

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 678

ISBN-13: 9401141797

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Astronomy Across Cultures: A History of Non-Western Astronomy consists of essays dealing with the astronomical knowledge and beliefs of cultures outside the United States and Europe. In addition to articles surveying Islamic, Chinese, Native American, Aboriginal Australian, Polynesian, Egyptian and Tibetan astronomy, among others, the book includes essays on Sky Tales and Why We Tell Them and Astronomy and Prehistory, and Astronomy and Astrology. The essays address the connections between science and culture and relate astronomical practices to the cultures which produced them. Each essay is well illustrated and contains an extensive bibliography. Because the geographic range is global, the book fills a gap in both the history of science and in cultural studies. It should find a place on the bookshelves of advanced undergraduate students, graduate students, and scholars, as well as in libraries serving those groups.


Yellow Sky

Yellow Sky

Author: T. P. M. Thorne

Publisher:

Published: 2015-01-15

Total Pages: 672

ISBN-13: 9780957500440

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

It is the middle of the 2nd Century, and the world is mired in chaos. In China, it is the third century of rule for the Han Dynasty, and all is far from well. A strange alliance of corrupt officials and supposedly timid court eunuchs have managed to gain a firm grip on power, and any that oppose them are slandered as 'Partisans' and all but destroyed. As the years wear on, a coalition of nobleman officials - including Confucius' descendant Kong Rong, polymath Cai Yong, the influential Yuan clan heir Yuan Shao and rising star Cao Cao - dedicates itself to challenging the wrongdoers, while in the country at large, a number of new and dangerous movements rally the weary and frustrated common folk against their rulers. The most dangerous of these new movements is the Taoist sect known as the 'Way of Peace', whose leader inspires an uprising that is known to history as the 'Yellow Turban Rebellion'. But these divisive troubles all precede a unifying horror: Dong Zhuo. The obedient provincial inspectors make way for ambitious provincial governors, and passive calls for change are replaced by armed dissent: this is the beginning of the chaos that precedes the arrival of the famous 'Three Kingdoms era' that changed China forever.