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The Foundations of Celestial Reckoning gives the reader direct
access to the foundational documents of the tradition of
calculation created by astronomers of the early Chinese empire
between the late second century BCE and the third century CE. The
paradigm they established was to shape East Asian thought and
practice in the field of mathematical astronomy for centuries to
come. It was in many ways radically different from better known
traditions of astronomy in other parts of the ancient world. This
book includes full English translations of the first three systems
of mathematical astronomy adopted for use by imperial astronomical
officials, together with introductory material explaining the
origin and nature of each system, and a general introduction to the
work as a whole. The translations, which are accompanied by the
original Chinese text, give a consistent rendering of all technical
terms, and include detailed explanatory notes. The text in which
the second of the three systems is found also includes a unique
collection of documents compiled around 178 CE by two experts in
the field, one of whom was the author of the third system
translated in this book. Using material transcribed from government
archives of the two preceding centuries, these scholars carefully
document and review controversies and large-scale official debates
on astronomical matters up to their own time. Nothing equivalent in
detail and clarity has survived from any other ancient culture. The
availability of the totality of this material in English opens new
perspectives to all historians of pre-modern astronomy.
In recent decades various versions of Chinese medicine have begun
to be widely practiced in western countries, and the academic study
of the subject is now well established. However, there are still
few scholarly monographs that describe the history of Chinese
medicine and there are none at all on the medieval period. The
collection presented here is an example of the kind of
international collaboration of research teams, centers and
individuals that is required to begin to study the source materials
adequately.
The primary sources for this research come from a collection of
medieval manuscripts discovered in 1900 in a walled-up room in the
Buddhist cave-shrines of Dunhuang, Gansu Province, west China.
Dunhuang was formerly an important Silk Road town, and formed the
base of one of the first garrisons to be established during the Han
period to secure the safe passage of soldiers, officials and
traders between east and west. While the majority of the
manuscripts stored in the cave are copies of Buddhist scriptural
texts, there are also thousands of non-Buddhist texts, both
religious and secular. The presence among these of some one hundred
medical texts suggests that the Dunhuang prefectural school was a
centre for copying and transmitting medical writings. In the
collection we find the earliest handwritten copies of well-known
classical medical treatises, together with hitherto unknown medical
works, including illustrations and charts, texts related to
religious and popular healing traditions and, excitingly, extensive
portions of texts previously known only through brief quotations in
later works.
This is the first book to discuss this fascinating material in a
western languagein the century since the Dunhuang library was
discovered, and it is likely to remain the only book of its kind in
English for a considerable time.
The Foundations of Celestial Reckoning gives the reader direct
access to the foundational documents of the tradition of
calculation created by astronomers of the early Chinese empire
between the late second century BCE and the third century CE. The
paradigm they established was to shape East Asian thought and
practice in the field of mathematical astronomy for centuries to
come. It was in many ways radically different from better known
traditions of astronomy in other parts of the ancient world. This
book includes full English translations of the first three systems
of mathematical astronomy adopted for use by imperial astronomical
officials, together with introductory material explaining the
origin and nature of each system, and a general introduction to the
work as a whole. The translations, which are accompanied by the
original Chinese text, give a consistent rendering of all technical
terms, and include detailed explanatory notes. The text in which
the second of the three systems is found also includes a unique
collection of documents compiled around 178 CE by two experts in
the field, one of whom was the author of the third system
translated in this book. Using material transcribed from government
archives of the two preceding centuries, these scholars carefully
document and review controversies and large-scale official debates
on astronomical matters up to their own time. Nothing equivalent in
detail and clarity has survived from any other ancient culture. The
availability of the totality of this material in English opens new
perspectives to all historians of pre-modern astronomy.
This is a study and translation of the Zhou bi suan jing, a Chinese
work on astronomy and mathematics which reached its final form
around the first century AD. The author provides the first easily
accessible introduction to the developing mathematical and
observational practices of ancient Chinese astronomers and shows
how the generation and validation of knowledge about the heavens in
Han dynasty China related closely to developments in statecraft and
politics. The book will be of equal interest to historians of
science and those studying the history of Chinese culture.
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