Fetching
One moment.
Fetching
One moment.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1376- 382. INTRODUCTION. 25 Nido, he meant the star culminating at dusk at that season, at the point of observation. And so of the other stars and seasons. A Chinese astronomer at the present day would similarly express himself. Further, the most common, and what was the earliest division of the ecliptic in China, is that of the twenty-eight lunar mansions, forming what we may call the Chinese zodiac. These mansions are grouped together in four classes of seven each, assigned to the four quarters of the heavens’. Of the celestial spaces which Y4o specified, Nido is the general name for the seven mansions or constellations belonging to the southern quarter; Hwo is an old name of what is now called Fang, the central constellation of the eastern quarter ; Hsii and Mao are the central constellations of the northern and southern quarters respectively. What Y4o meant therefore was, that his astronomers could determine the solstices and the autumnal equinox by the culmination of the stars in the mansions which he specified for those seasons. And we may assume that he directed them, for the star of the vernal equinox, to Hsing, the central mansion in the southern space Nido. Now, Hsing corresponds to a (Alphard) Hydra, and small stars near it, in our stellar nomenclature; Hwo, to f, 3 in Scorpio; Hsii, to 8 Aquarii; and M4o, to Pleiades. When we wish to make the directions of Y4o available for the purpose of chronological enquiry, the question that arises is this :— When did the above-named stars culminate at dusk in China at the equinoctial and solstitial seasons? Bunsen tells us that Ideler, computing the places of the constellations backwards, fixed the accession of Yao at B.C. 2163, and that Freret was of opinion that the observations left an uncertainty of 3°, leaving a margin of 210 1 In the Official Book of Kau, a work of the twelfth century before our era, Book XXVI, par. 25, in the enumeration of the duties of the astronomer royal of that day, there is mentioned the determination of ‘the places of the twenty-eight stars,’ meaning ‘the principal stars in the twenty-eight lunar mansions.’ The names of the stars and their mansions are not mentioned ;—surely a sufficient indication that they were even then well known. See Biot’s Etudes sur l’Astronomie Indienne, &c., pp. 112, 113. 26 THE SHO KING.
2See Biot’s Etudes sur l’Astronomie Indienne, &c., pp. 112, 113. 26 THE SHO KING. years’. Qn the other hand, J. B. Biot found in the directions a sufficient confirmation of the received date for Y4o’s accession,— B.C. 2357%. Appended to this Introduction is a chart of the stars as they were visible in China in B.C. 2300, which the Rev. C. Pritchard, Savilian Professor of Astronomy in the University of Oxford, kindly prepared for me. An inspection of it, in the manner directed by him, will show that the phenomena indicated by Y4o to his astronomers were all apparent at that date. This fact must be accepted as a strong proof of the approximate correctness of the chronology, which places Y4o in the twenty-fourth century B.c. The precession of the equinoxes, it has already been observed, was not known in China till more than 2500 years after the time assigned to Yao, so that the culminating stars at the equinoxes and solstices .of his remote period could not have been computed back scientifically in the time of the Kau dynasty, during which the collection of the Sh existed. The form in which the directions are given, and other things in the Canon, savour, indeed, of legend, and I have not claimed for it that in its present form it be received as a document contemporaneous with the reign of Yao. I have argued, however, that the compiler of it had before him ancient documents, and one of them must have contained the facts about the culminating of the stars, which I have now endeavoured to set in a clear light. The mention of these culminating stars does seem to fix Y4o’s place in chronology in the twenty-fourth century B. C., and to show that at that remote era it was the custom to make and to record astronomical observations of the heavenly bodies. Having respect to these things, my claim to have the documents of the Sha from the Speech at Kan, nearly two centuries later than Yao, downwards, regarded as contemporaneous with the events which they describe, cannot be considered extravagant. 7. In the 27th Book of the 5th Part, the Marquis of 1 Egypt's Place in Universal History, III, pp. 400, 401. * Etudes sur 1’Astronomie Indienne, &c., pp. 361-366. INTRODUCTION. 27
37. In the 27th Book of the 5th Part, the Marquis of 1 Egypt's Place in Universal History, III, pp. 400, 401. * Etudes sur 1’Astronomie Indienne, &c., pp. 361-366. INTRODUCTION. 27 Lii on Punishments, there is a historical reference which would carry us back four centuries beyond the time of Yao. It is said that, ‘According to the teachings of antiquity, AZih Yd was the first to create disorder.’ There is no intimation, however, of the time when this rebel disturbed the happy order and innocence which had previously prevailed ; and the very same sentence brings the review of antiquity down to the time of Shun. But the chronologers place him in the reign of Hwang Ti, towards the end of the twenty-seventh century B.c. Other writers describe the struggle between him and Hwang Ti, in which dragons, mists, and the invention of the compass play conspicuous parts. It is to the credit of the Sh, and an evidence of its being a genuine collection of historical memorials, that this cursory reference to KAih Y0 is the only mention in it of any name older than that of Yao. Tue Use or THE Cart. This chart is intended to represent approximately the aspect of the principal zodiacal stars as seen above the horizon of any place in central China, at any hour of any day, about the year B.C. 2300. In order to apply the chart to a practical purpose, the reader is advised to cut out a sheet of paper (cardboard is preferable) with its upper edge exactly fitting the curved line A BOCD, and to draw, near to the bottom of the paper, a line coinciding with ‘the hour-line’ on the chart. This being done, if it be asked what will be the aspect of the heavens when the Sun sets at the Vernal Equinox, the reader is to move the line at the bottom of the cardboard along the horizontal ‘hour-line’ of the chart until the place of the Sun in the Ecliptic at the Vernal Equinox O just touches the curved top of the paper; then all the stars not covered over are above the horizon at the time of that sunset, viz. in this case Aldebaran, Sirius, Spica, &c.; the Pleiades are just setting, Regulus and a Hydra are very near the meridian, 8 Centauri is on the point of rising, and a Serpentis is well up above the horizon. This exactly corresponds with that state of the heavens which Y4o, (alleged in the Chinese records to have flourished about B.c. 2300,) indicated to his astronomers (Hst and Ho) would be the case, viz. that he would find the star (or the 28 THE SHO KING. stellar division) Shun Hwo (corresponding, it is said, to a Hydre) culminating at the time of sunset at the Vernal Equinox’.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1376- 382. INTRODUCTION. 25 Nido, he meant the star culminating at dusk at that season, at the point of observation. And so of the other stars and seasons. A Chinese astronomer at the present day would similarly express himself. Further, the most common, and what was the earliest division of the ecliptic in China, is that of the twenty-eight lunar mansions, forming what we may call the Chinese zodiac. These mansions are grouped together in four classes of seven each, assigned to the four quarters of the heavens’. Of the celestial spaces which Y4o specified, Nido is the general name for the seven mansions or constellations belonging to the southern quarter; Hwo is an old name of what is now called Fang, the central constellation of the eastern quarter ; Hsii and Mao are the central constellations of the northern and southern quarters respectively. What Y4o meant therefore was, that his astronomers could determine the solstices and the autumnal equinox by the culmination of the stars in the mansions which he specified for those seasons. And we may assume that he directed them, for the star of the vernal equinox, to Hsing, the central mansion in the southern space Nido. Now, Hsing corresponds to a (Alphard) Hydra, and small stars near it, in our stellar nomenclature; Hwo, to f, 3 in Scorpio; Hsii, to 8 Aquarii; and M4o, to Pleiades. When we wish to make the directions of Y4o available for the purpose of chronological enquiry, the question that arises is this :— When did the above-named stars culminate at dusk in China at the equinoctial and solstitial seasons? Bunsen tells us that Ideler, computing the places of the constellations backwards, fixed the accession of Yao at B.C. 2163, and that Freret was of opinion that the observations left an uncertainty of 3°, leaving a margin of 210 1 In the Official Book of Kau, a work of the twelfth century before our era, Book XXVI, par. 25, in the enumeration of the duties of the astronomer royal of that day, there is mentioned the determination of ‘the places of the twenty-eight stars,’ meaning ‘the principal stars in the twenty-eight lunar mansions.’ The names of the stars and their mansions are not mentioned ;—surely a sufficient indication that they were even then well known. See Biot’s Etudes sur l’Astronomie Indienne, &c., pp. 112, 113. 26 THE SHO KING.
2See Biot’s Etudes sur l’Astronomie Indienne, &c., pp. 112, 113. 26 THE SHO KING. years’. Qn the other hand, J. B. Biot found in the directions a sufficient confirmation of the received date for Y4o’s accession,— B.C. 2357%. Appended to this Introduction is a chart of the stars as they were visible in China in B.C. 2300, which the Rev. C. Pritchard, Savilian Professor of Astronomy in the University of Oxford, kindly prepared for me. An inspection of it, in the manner directed by him, will show that the phenomena indicated by Y4o to his astronomers were all apparent at that date. This fact must be accepted as a strong proof of the approximate correctness of the chronology, which places Y4o in the twenty-fourth century B.c. The precession of the equinoxes, it has already been observed, was not known in China till more than 2500 years after the time assigned to Yao, so that the culminating stars at the equinoxes and solstices .of his remote period could not have been computed back scientifically in the time of the Kau dynasty, during which the collection of the Sh existed. The form in which the directions are given, and other things in the Canon, savour, indeed, of legend, and I have not claimed for it that in its present form it be received as a document contemporaneous with the reign of Yao. I have argued, however, that the compiler of it had before him ancient documents, and one of them must have contained the facts about the culminating of the stars, which I have now endeavoured to set in a clear light. The mention of these culminating stars does seem to fix Y4o’s place in chronology in the twenty-fourth century B. C., and to show that at that remote era it was the custom to make and to record astronomical observations of the heavenly bodies. Having respect to these things, my claim to have the documents of the Sha from the Speech at Kan, nearly two centuries later than Yao, downwards, regarded as contemporaneous with the events which they describe, cannot be considered extravagant. 7. In the 27th Book of the 5th Part, the Marquis of 1 Egypt's Place in Universal History, III, pp. 400, 401. * Etudes sur 1’Astronomie Indienne, &c., pp. 361-366. INTRODUCTION. 27
37. In the 27th Book of the 5th Part, the Marquis of 1 Egypt's Place in Universal History, III, pp. 400, 401. * Etudes sur 1’Astronomie Indienne, &c., pp. 361-366. INTRODUCTION. 27 Lii on Punishments, there is a historical reference which would carry us back four centuries beyond the time of Yao. It is said that, ‘According to the teachings of antiquity, AZih Yd was the first to create disorder.’ There is no intimation, however, of the time when this rebel disturbed the happy order and innocence which had previously prevailed ; and the very same sentence brings the review of antiquity down to the time of Shun. But the chronologers place him in the reign of Hwang Ti, towards the end of the twenty-seventh century B.c. Other writers describe the struggle between him and Hwang Ti, in which dragons, mists, and the invention of the compass play conspicuous parts. It is to the credit of the Sh, and an evidence of its being a genuine collection of historical memorials, that this cursory reference to KAih Y0 is the only mention in it of any name older than that of Yao. Tue Use or THE Cart. This chart is intended to represent approximately the aspect of the principal zodiacal stars as seen above the horizon of any place in central China, at any hour of any day, about the year B.C. 2300. In order to apply the chart to a practical purpose, the reader is advised to cut out a sheet of paper (cardboard is preferable) with its upper edge exactly fitting the curved line A BOCD, and to draw, near to the bottom of the paper, a line coinciding with ‘the hour-line’ on the chart. This being done, if it be asked what will be the aspect of the heavens when the Sun sets at the Vernal Equinox, the reader is to move the line at the bottom of the cardboard along the horizontal ‘hour-line’ of the chart until the place of the Sun in the Ecliptic at the Vernal Equinox O just touches the curved top of the paper; then all the stars not covered over are above the horizon at the time of that sunset, viz. in this case Aldebaran, Sirius, Spica, &c.; the Pleiades are just setting, Regulus and a Hydra are very near the meridian, 8 Centauri is on the point of rising, and a Serpentis is well up above the horizon. This exactly corresponds with that state of the heavens which Y4o, (alleged in the Chinese records to have flourished about B.c. 2300,) indicated to his astronomers (Hst and Ho) would be the case, viz. that he would find the star (or the 28 THE SHO KING. stellar division) Shun Hwo (corresponding, it is said, to a Hydre) culminating at the time of sunset at the Vernal Equinox’.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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