Granting the Seasons

The Chinese Astronomical Reform of 1280, With a Study of Its Many Dimensions and a Translation of its Records

By: Nathan Sivin

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Hardcover | 20 October 2008

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672 Pages

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23.39 x 15.6 x 3.66

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China's most sophisticated system of computational astronomy was created for a Mongol emperor who could neither read nor write Chinese, to celebrate victory over China after forty years of devastating war. This book explains how and why, and reconstructs the observatory and the science that made it possible.

For two thousand years, a fundamental ritual of government was the emperor's "granting the seasons" to his people at the New Year by issuing an almanac containing an accurate lunisolar calendar. The high point of this tradition was the "Season-granting system" (Shou-shih li, 1280). Its treatise records detailed instructions for computing eclipses of the sun and moon and motions of the planets, based on a rich archive of observations, some ancient and some new.

Sivin, the West's leading scholar of the Chinese sciences, not only recreates the project's cultural, political, bureaucratic, and personal dimensions, but translates the extensive treatise and explains every procedure in minimally technical language. The book contains many tables, illustrations, and aids to reference. It is clearly written for anyone who wants to understand the fundamental role of science in Chinese history. There is no comparable study of state science in any other early civilization.

Industry Reviews

From the reviews: "The present book is a brilliant and wide-ranging study of the famous Shoushi li ... . To sum up, the present book will constitute at the same time a necessary basis of further investigations into Chinese astronomy and, more broadly, a landmark with respect to the history of world astronomy." (J.-C. Martzloff, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1166, 2009) "The present book is a study and translation of the astronomical treatise as found in the official History of the Yuan Dynasty ... . The text has been very well revised and carefully edited ... . it is an excellent and fairly complete source and reference book in a Western language for the specialist and non-specialist in the history of astronomy in China." (Andrea Breard, Mathematical Reviews, Issue 2009 i) "This impressive work is a detailed, technical study of the most innovative and significant astronomical system for generating annual almanacs in Chinese history. ... will be of special interest to historians of mathematics. ... Two appendixes in Sivin's account are also noteworthy and deserve readers' attention." (Joseph W. Dauben, The Mathematical Association of America, December, 2009)

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Non-Fiction Mathematics History of Mathematics Science Astronomy, Space & Time Astronomical Observation & Observatories

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Paperback

Published: 19th November 2010

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Preface
Introduction
Astonomical reform and occupation politics
Orientation
The Project: origins and process
The Astronomers
The Observatory and its instruments
The Records
Evaluation of the season-granting system part 1
Evaluation of the season-granting system part 2
Canon of the season-granting system part 1
Canon of the season-granting system part 2
Conclusion
The instruments of kuo shou-ching
The account of conduct of kuo shou-ching
Technical terms
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Index-glossary
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Granting the Seasons

The Chinese Astronomical Reform of 1280, With a Study of Its Many Dimensions and a Translation of its Records

At a Glance

Hardcover

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

Other Editions and Formats

Paperback

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