c. 2100 BCE

Astronomy in China

Interest in and use of astronomy developed independently in cultures around the world. The roots of Chinese astronomy date back to prehistoric and Bronze Age times, based on archaeological evidence of star and constellation names preserved in ancient burial sites. Like other civilizations before and since, the early Chinese were intimately tuned in to the cycles and motions of the Sun, Moon, and stars, and each of the major dynasties of early China enlisted astronomers to develop their own elaborate solar- and lunar-based calendar systems. They were diligent and thoughtful in their astronomical observations, carefully recording evidence of changes in the sky, including solar and lunar eclipses, sunspots, the motions of the planets, and the appearance of new comets or supernovae. Astronomers today still use unique records kept by Chinese astronomers from the Xià, Shāng, and Zhōu dynasties (about 2100–250 BCE) for historical astronomical research.

Chinese astronomers developed new and accurate instruments for observing the heavens, including large celestial globes and armillary spheres that were used to map the stars and constellations and track the motions and brightnesses of planets and “Guest Stars” such as comets and novae. More sophisticated versions of these instruments were used right up until the introduction of the telescope in the seventeenth century to develop Chinese theories of planetary motion that rivaled those being developed using similar methods by Western astronomers such as Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler.

The early Chinese appear to have had a number of complex cosmological models of the universe. Some models envisioned the heavens as a dome or celestial sphere (as in early Western cosmology), while others viewed the heavens as infinite and somewhat chaotic. Long before it was fashionable in the West, some early Chinese astronomers had deduced that the Moon and other celestial bodies were spherical. The potential clash with the prevailing worldview of the Earth as flat didn’t seem to be a problem because the emphasis of early Chinese astronomical studies—consistent with the prevalent concepts and practices of Confucianism—was on careful observations of the way the universe simply was, or at least appeared to be.

Illustration c. 1827 by Japanese woodblock print artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi depicting the fictional scholar and military strategist Wu Yong from the classic Chinese novel Water Margin, along with several astronomical instruments, including a celestial globe and an astrolabe quadrant (foreground).