Heavenly Numbers: Astronomy and Authority in Early Imperial China

Description

This book is a history of the development of mathematical astronomy in China, from the late third century BCE, to the early 3rd century CE - a period often referred to as 'early imperial China'. It narrates the changes in ways of understanding the movements of the heavens and the heavenly bodies that took place during those four and a half centuries, and tells the stories of the institutions and individuals involved in those changes. It gives clear explanations of technical practice in observation, instrumentation, and calculation, and the steady accumulation of data over many years - but it centres on the activity of the individual human beings who observed the heavens, recorded what they saw, and made calculations to analyse and eventually make predictions about the motions of the celestial bodies. It is these individuals, their observations, their calculations, and the words they left to us that provide the narrative thread that runs through this work. Throughout the book, the author gives clear translations of original material that allow the reader direct access to what the people in this book said about themselves and what they tried to do. Title_Pages Dedication Preface Introduction The_astronomical_empire Li_in_everyday_life_dates_and_calendars The_Emperors_Grand_Inception_and_the_defeat_of_the_Grand_Clerk The_Triple_Concordance_system_and_Liu_Xins_Grand_Unified_Theory The_measures_and_forms_of_heaven Restoration_and_recreation_in_the_Eastern_Han The_age_of_debates Liu_Hong_and_the_conquest_of_the_moon Epilogue Bibliographies Index