Astrology and Cosmology in Early China: Conforming Earth to Heaven

ISBN-13: 9781107006720 / Angielski / Twarda / 2013 / 616 str.

David W Pankenier

Opis

The ancient Chinese were profoundly influenced by the Sun, Moon and stars, making persistent efforts to mirror astral phenomena in shaping their civilization. In this pioneering text, David W. Pankenier introduces readers to a seriously understudied field, illustrating how astronomy shaped the culture of China from the very beginning and how it influenced areas as disparate as art, architecture, calendrical science, myth, technology, and political and military decision-making. As elsewhere in the ancient world, there was no positive distinction between astronomy and astrology in ancient China, and so astrology, or more precisely, astral omenology, is a principal focus of the book. Drawing on a broad range of sources, including archaeological discoveries, classical texts, inscriptions and paleography, this thought-provoking book documents the role of astronomical phenomena in the development of the 'Celestial Empire' from the late Neolithic through the late imperial period.

Recenzje

'Professor David Pankenier is a renowned sinologist who is very well known to Chinese academics. For many years his research has focused on texts and artifacts connected with ancient Chinese astronomy, yielding outstanding achievements and many profound insights … From Pankenier's book the reader can acquire a full appreciation of the special characteristics of ancient Chinese ways of thinking. He ingeniously combines in-depth analysis, discussion, and interpretation of ancient astronomy, in particular the nature and significance of astrology, to explore and integrate intellectual history and astronomy with political and military history, research from which scholars of many disciplines will derive benefit.' Li Xueqin, Director, Institute of History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, and Director, Institute of Sinology, Tsinghua University

Spis treści

Introduction; Part I. Astronomy and Cosmology in the Time of Dragons: 1. Astronomy begins at Taosi; 2. Watching for dragons; Part II. Aligning with Heaven: 3. Looking to the supernal lord; 4. Bringing heaven down to earth; 5. Astral revelation and the origins of writing; Part III. Planetary Omens and Cosmic Ideology: 6. The cosmo-political mandate; 7. The rhetoric of the supernal; 8. Cosmology and the calendar; Part IV. Warring States and Han Astral Portentology: 9. Astral prognostication and the battle of Chengpu; 10. A new astrological paradigm; Part V. One with the Sky: 11. Cosmic capitals; 12. Temporality and the fabric of space-time; 13. The sky river and cosmography; 14. Planetary portentology east and west; Epilogue; Appendix. Astrology for an empire: the 'treatise on the celestial offices' in The Grand Scribe's Records (c.100 BCE); Glossary; Index.