英语翻译For as a northern Chinese orphan living first under autocratic warlords and then under the Japanese-controlled puppets,the young Peng Ko was abandoned not only by his father but by the legitimate government of his country as well.A loving son without parents to turn t_百度作业帮
英语翻译For as a northern Chinese orphan living first under autocratic warlords and then under the Japanese-controlled puppets,the young Peng Ko was abandoned not only by his father but by the legitimate government of his country as well.A loving son without parents to turn to,Peng Ko was also a helpless patriot who saw his patria overrun by enemies from within and without.Little wonder that when he started to write fiction in the early fifties,so many of his main characters should turn out to be orphans and patriots sharing something of the author's own background and traditional sensibility.Those who can read Chinese should consult “Peng Ko as Orphan and Patriot:A Study of His Fiction,” a much longer article of mine in the Critical Essays of C.T.Hsia .1In addition to the two novels earlier mentioned,it discusses the four that established Peng Ko's reputation as a major writer of the fifties:The Setting Moon (Lo-yüeh,1956),Meteor (Liu-hsing ,1956),In Search of Father (Hsün-fu chi,1958),and Good-bye to the Mountains(Tz'u-shan chi,1960).
作为一个中国北方的孤儿,先是在独裁的军阀统治下,然后又在日本傀儡政权控制下生活.年轻的Peng Ko 不仅仅是被其父亲抛弃,也是被他国家的政府当局所遗弃.孤苦伶仃求助无门的Peng Ko也是一个无助的爱国者.他看到家园被敌人从里到外地蹂躏.这就不奇怪,在其之前五十年的小说创作中,这么多书中的角色都是孤儿和爱国者,这其实也是作者自身的背景和感受.安歇可以阅读中文的读者应该参阅“作为孤儿和爱国者,Peng Ko 小说研究”这是我在Criical Eassays of C.T.Hsia 发表的一篇篇幅较长的文章.另外,对于早先提到的两部小说中,以下四部著作讨论了奠定其主要作家地位：The Setting Moon (Lo-yüeh,1956),Meteor (Liu-hsing ,1956),In Search of Father (Hsün-fu chi,1958),and Good-bye to the Mountains(Tz'u-shan chi,1960).
作为中国北方一个孤儿的生活第一个专制下军阀，然后在日控木偶，小彭柯被遗弃不是只由他父亲而是由合法政府以及他的国家。一个可爱的儿子失去了父母的转向，彭柯也无助的爱国者谁看见他的祖国被敌人从内部和外部的。难怪他开始写小说，在五十年代初期，他的许多主要角色应该是孤儿的爱国者和分享一些作者自己的背景和传统的情感。谁能阅读汉语应该请教“彭柯为孤儿和爱国者：一个研究他的小说，“更长的文章在批评散文〉夏阳。1除...
作为中国北方孤儿先住在专制的军阀,然后在Japanese-controlled木偶,年轻的彭柯被遗弃的不但藉着他父亲,但在他的国家合法政府。爱向儿子没有父母,彭柯也是一个无助的爱国者谁看见他被敌人从四内在和外在。毫不奇怪,当他开始写的小说在五十年代初,那么多的主要特性应该变成孤儿和爱国志士分享些什么作者自己的背景和传统的情感。那些能读懂中文应参照“嘭柯为孤儿和爱国者:一项研究他的小说,“更长时间我...
作为中国北方孤儿先住在专制的军阀,然后在Japanese-controlled木偶,年轻的彭柯被遗弃的不但藉着他父亲,但在他的国家合法政府。爱向儿子没有父母,彭柯也是一个无助的爱国者谁看见他被敌人从四内在和外在。毫不奇怪,当他开始写的小说在五十年代初,那么多的主要特性应该变成孤儿...Hollywood Hot Under the Collar in China - The New Yorker
Hollywood has China fever these days in a way that reminds me of those nineteenth-century shirt makers who predicted that fortune could be theirs if only they could nudge each man in China to lengthen his shirt-tail by just one inch. As generations of prospectors have since discovered, gaining that inch can be perilous.
Currently floundering on Chinese shoals is Christian Bale, the angular and ornery British actor who is starring in the most expensive Chinese film ever made. “” is Zhang Yimou’s take on the 1937 massacre in which Japan’s imperial army killed tens of thousands of Chinese civilians in Nanjing. The massacre is one of the most notorious moments of China’s twentieth century and a centerpiece of national and political history. Set to open tomorrow in Beijing and in the U.S. later this month, the film had its first preview this week in a government building in the center of Beijing, and it is likely to be one of the biggest releases of the year in a country where box-office returns soared more than sixty per cent last year.
Early responses have been consistent. The Wall Street Journal
that it portrays the “Japanese as monochrome monsters.” At one point, it noted, “a Japanese soldier chasing the Chinese schoolgirls through the cathedral shouts: ‘Lieutenant come up here, we’ve got virgins!’”
“Hokum”
the Hollywood Reporter. The AFP
it “the latest in a string of films and TV series from China promoting national unity against an evil Japan.”
Bale, who is fresh off an Oscar for “The Fighter,” is one of the first big Hollywood stars to anchor a Chinese film, and he ambled into a bit of a P.R. buzzsaw this week when he arrived in Beijing for a press junket. He told reporters that he knew little of the history before starting work on the picture, and, when
on the red carpet about whether the film was over the top, he blinked—“I haven’t ever considered that question before”—and conceded that he did not quite know what he was in for: “It’s fascinating, as, a newcomer. I’ve learned an awful lot hearing about how the movie has to be approved before it can be released.” As the question kept coming up, he aimed for a lighter note—“It’s far more a movie about human beings and the nature of human beings’ responses to crisis”—before deciding on umbrage as the right reaction to questions about possible propaganda purposes: “That would be a bit of a knee jerk reaction,” he . “If anybody had that response, I don’t think they’re looking closely enough at the movie.”
It’s been barely a month since another group of filmmakers found themselves bumbling into a more complicated situation than they expected. In October, Relativity Media, of “Bridesmaids” and “The Social Network,” came to eastern China delighted to shoot, as it put it, a “hilarious comedy” in “in a place as amazing as Linyi.” That’s Linyi in Shandong province, which Sophie Richardson of Human Rights Watch
the Washington Post is, indeed,
an “amazing place”—in the “amazing abuses Linyi officials have heaped on one of China’s best-known legal-rights activist and his family.”
Yes, Linyi is less known for hilarious comedy than for arguably the most famous and long-running human-rights debacle in recent memory: the case of the blind, self-taught lawyer Chen Guangcheng, who demanded that local officials obey the law and has been held incommunicado with his wife and young daughter in their farmhouse since being released from prison in 2010.
When I and others asked Relatively if it any plans to loosen its embrace of Linyi, the company made no mention of the issue but sent a statement that said in part that it “has been a consistent and outspoken supporter of human rights and we would never knowingly do anything to undermine this commitment.”
Knowing a bit of history is not as hard as it sounds. Chen Guangcheng and Linyi, after all, had been the subject of .
Photograph by ChinaFotoPress via Getty Images.
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Have a login?From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article contains
text. Without proper , you may see
instead of .
(North Polar region). This map is thought to date from the reign of
(705–710). Founded in , . Constellations of the three schools were distinguished with different colors: white, black and yellow for stars of ,
respectively. The whole set of star maps contained 1,300 stars.
Astronomy in
has a very long history, with historians indicating that they [the Chinese] were the most persistent and accurate observers of celestial phenomena anywhere in the world before the Arabs. Star names later categorized in the
have been found on oracle bones unearthed at , dating back to the middle
(), and the mansion (xiù:宿) system's nucleus seems to have taken shape by the time of the ruler
Detailed records of astronomical observations began during the
(fourth century BC) and flourished from the
onward. Chinese astronomy was equatorial, centered as it was on close observation of circumpolar stars, and was based on different principles from those prevailing in traditional Western astronomy, where heliacal risings and settings of zodiac constellations formed the basic ecliptic framework.
Some elements of
reached China with the expansion of
(25–220 AD), but the most detailed incorporation of Indian astronomical thought occurred during the
(618-907), when numerous Indian astronomers took up residence in the Chinese capital, and Chinese scholars, such as the great
, mastered its system.
collaborated closely with their Chinese colleagues during the , and, after a period of relative decline during the , astronomy was revitalized under the stimulus of Western cosmology and technology after the
established their missions. The telescope was introduced in the seventeenth century. In 1669,
was completely redesigned and refitted under the direction of . Today, China continues to be active in astronomy, with many observatories and .
Further information:
One of the main functions was for the purpose of timekeeping. The Chinese used a , but, because the cycles of the sun and the moon are different,
had to be done.
was considered to be a symbol of a dynasty. As dynasties would rise and fall, astronomers and astrologers of each period would often prepare a new calendar to be made, with observations for that purpose.
Astrological
was also an important part of astronomy. Astronomers took careful note of "guest stars", which suddenly appeared among the . The
that created the
observed in 1054, now known as the , is an example of a guest star observed by Chinese astronomers, recorded also by the , although it was not recorded by their European contemporaries. Ancient astronomical records of phenomena like supernovae and comets are sometimes used in modern astronomical studies.
The Chinese developed three different cosmological models. The Gai Tian, or hemispherical dome, model conceived the heavens as a hemisphere lying over a dome-shaped earth. The second cosmological model, associated with the Hun Tian school, saw the heavens as a
not unlike the spherical models developed in the
traditions. The third cosmology, associated with the Xuan Ye school, viewed the heavens as infinite in extent and the celestial bodies as floating about at rare intervals, and "the speed of the luminaries depends on their individual natures, which shows they are not attached to anything."
Main article:
The divisions of the sky began with the
In 1977, a lacquer box was excavated from the tomb of Yi, the marquis of Zeng, in Suixian,
Province. Names of the 28 lunar mansions were found on the cover of the box, proving that the use of this classification system was made before 433 BC.
As lunar mansions have such an ancient origin, the meanings of most of their names have become obscure. Even worse, the name of each lunar mansion consists of only one Chinese word, the meaning of which could vary at different times in history. The meanings of the names are still under discussion.
Besides the 28 lunar mansions, most constellations are based on the works of
and , who were astrologists during the period of
(481 BC - 221 BC) in China.
In the late period of the , the agricultural scientist and mathematician
(1562 - 1633 AD) introduced 23 additional constellations near to the Celestial South Pole, which are based on star catalogues from the West (see ).
In the fourth century BC, the two Chinese astronomers responsible for the earliest information going into the
Translated name
Chinese Catalogue name
Shi Shen astronomy
Shi Shen tianwen
Astronomic star observation
Tianwen xingzhan
These books appeared to have lasted until the sixth century, but were lost after that. A number of books share similar names, often quoted and named after them. These texts should not be confused with the original catalogues written by them. Notable works that helped preserve the contents include:
Translated name
Chinese name
Book of Celestial Offices
Tianguan shu
This is the astronomical chapter of the , a massive history compiled during the late 2nd century BC by the
scholar and official . This chapter provides a star catalogue and discusses the schools of Gan De and Shi Shen.
Ma Xian (馬顯)
Star Manual of the Masters Gan and Shi
Gan Shi Xingjing
Despite having the name credited to Shi and Gan, it was lost and later compiled circa 579 AD as an appendix to the Treatise on Astrology of the Kaiyuan Era, and summarized in the book 郡齋讀書志.
In the astronomical chapters of the text
Kaiyuan Zhanjing
During the reign of
(712-756 AD). After analyzing and providing a summary on the work of Gan De and Shi Shen, Tang era astronomers mentioned the names of more than 800 stars that were found, 121 of them marked with positions. The astronomical
were also translated into the Kaiyuan Zhanjing.
The Great Firmament Star Manual Common to Astrology
通占大象曆星經
Tongzhan taxiangli xingjing
This renamed star manual is incorporated in the
(巫咸) has been one of the astronomers in debate. He is often represented as one of the "Three Schools Astronomical tradition" along with Gan and Shi. The Chinese classic text Star Manual of Master Wu Xian (巫咸星經) and its authorship is still in dispute, because it mentioned names of twelve countries that did not exist in the , the era of which it was supposed to have been written. Moreover, it was customary in the past for the Chinese to forge works of notable scholars, as this could lead to a possible explanation for the inconsistencies found. Wu Xian is generally mentioned as the astronomer who lived many years before Gan and Shi.
astronomer and inventor
(78-139 AD) not only catalogued some 2500 different stars, but also recognized more than 100 different constellations. Zhang Heng also published his work Ling Xian, a summary of different astronomical theories in China at the time. In the subsequent period of the
(220-280 AD),
(陳卓) combined the work of his predecessors, forming another star catalogue. This time, 283 constellations and 1464 stars were listed. The astronomer
( AD) created a new catalogue, which was believed to contain thousands of stars. Unfortunately, many of the documents of that period were destroyed, including that of Shoujin. Imperial Astronomical Instruments (儀象考成) was published in 1757 and contains 3083 stars exactly.
with a cylindrical projection.
star maps represent the oldest existent ones in
Main article:
The Chinese drew many maps of stars in the past centuries. It is debatable as to which counts as the oldest star maps, since
and old artifacts can also be considered star maps. One of the oldest existent star maps in printed form is from 's ( AD)
of ;AD, which was included in the
treatise on his . The most famous one is perhaps the
found in , . Uncovered by the British archaeologist
in 1907, the star map was brought to the
in . The map was drawn on paper and represents the complete sky, with more than 1,350 stars. Although ancient Babylonians and Greeks also observed the sky and catalogued stars, no such complete record of the stars may exist or survive. Hence, this is the oldest chart of the skies at present.
According to recent studies, the map may date the manuscript to as early as the seventh century AD (Tang Dynasty). Scholars believe the star map dating from 705 to 710 AD, which is the reign of . There are some texts (Monthly Ordinances, 月令) describing the movement of the sun among the sky each month, which was not based on the observation at that time.
Chinese astronomers recorded 1,600 observations of solar and lunar eclipses from 750 BC. The ancient Chinese astronomer
(fl. fourth century BC) was aware of the relation of the moon in a solar eclipse, as he provided instructions in his writing to predict them by using the relative positions of the moon and the sun. The radiating-influence theory, where the moon's light was nothing but a reflection of the sun's, was supported by the mathematician and music theorist
(78–37 BC), yet opposed by the Chinese philosopher
(27–97 AD), who made clear in his writing that this theory was nothing new. Jing Fang wrote:
they have shape but no light. This they receive only when the sun illuminates them. The former masters regarded the sun as round like a
bullet, and they thought the moon had the nature of a mirror. Some of them recognized the moon as a ball too. Those parts of the moon which the sun illuminates look bright, those parts which it does not, remain dark.
The ancient Greeks had known this as well, since
supported the theory of the moon shining because of reflected light. The Chinese astronomer and inventor
(78–139 AD) wrote of both
in the publication of Ling Xian (靈憲), 120 AD:
The sun is like fire and the moon like water. The fire gives out light and the water reflects it. Thus the moon's brightness is produced from the radiance of the sun, and the moon's darkness (pho) is due to (the light of) the sun being obstructed (pi). The side which faces the sun is fully lit, and the side which is away from it is dark. The planets (as well as the moon) have the nature of water and reflect light. The light pouring forth from the sun (tang jih chih chhung kuang) does not always reach the moon owing to the obstruction (pi) of the earth itself—this is called 'an-hsü', a lunar eclipse. When (a similar effect) happens with a planet (we call it) an occulation (hsing wei); when the moon passes across (kuo) (the sun's path) then there is a solar eclipse (shih).
() used the models of lunar eclipse and solar eclipse in order to prove that the celestial bodies were round, not flat. This was an extension of the reasoning of Jing Fang and other theorists as early as the Han Dynasty. In his
of ; AD, Shen related a conversation he had with the director of the Astronomical , who had asked Shen if the shapes of the sun and the moon were round like balls or flat like fans. Shen Kuo explained his reasoning for the former:
If they were like balls they would surely obstruct each other when they met. I replied that these celestial bodies were certainly like balls. How do we know this? By the waxing and waning of the moon. The moon itself gives forth no light, but is l the light is the light of the sun (reflected). When the brightness is first seen, the sun (-light passes almost) alongside, so the side only is illuminated and looks like a crescent. When the sun gradually gets further away, the light shines slanting, and the moon is full, round like a bullet. If half of a sphere is covered with (white) powder and looked at from the side, the covered part will
if looked at from the front, it will appear round. Thus we know that the celestial bodies are spherical.
When he asked Shen Kuo why eclipses occurred only on an occasional basis while in conjunction and opposition once a day, Shen Kuo wrote:
I answered that the ecliptic and the moon's path are like two rings, lying one over the other, but distant by a small amount. (If this obliquity did not exist), the sun would be eclipsed whenever the two bodies were in conjunction, and the moon would be eclipsed whenever they were exactly in position. But (in fact) though they may occupy the same degree, the two paths are not (always) near (each other), and so naturally the bodies do not (intrude) upon one another.
A method of making observation instruments at the times of
The earliest development of the
in China goes back to the 1st century BCE., as they were equipped with a primitive single-ring armillary instrument.This would have allowed them to measure the north polar distance (去極度, the Chinese form of declination) and measurement that gave the position in a hsiu (入宿度, the Chinese form of right ascension).
During the
(202 BC-9 AD), additional developments made by the astronomers
(落下閎), , and
(耿壽昌) advanced the use of the armillary in its early stage of evolution. In 52 BC, it was the astronomer Geng Shou-chang who introduced the fixed equatorial ring to the armillary sphere. In the subsequent
(23-220  AD) period, the astronomers
added the elliptical ring by 84 AD. With the famous statesman, astronomer, and inventor
(78-139 AD), the sphere was totally completed in 125 AD, with horizon and meridian rings. It is of great importance to note that the world's first
(i.e., water-powered) armillary sphere was created by Zhang Heng, who operated his by use of an inflow
(see Zhang's article for more detail).
Designed by famous astronomer
in ;AD, it solved most problems found in armillary spheres at that time.
The primary structure of abridged armilla contains two large rings that are perpendicular to each other, of which one is parallel with the equatorial plane and is accordingly called "equatorial ring", and the other is a double ring that is perpendicular to the center of the equatorial ring, revolving around a metallic shaft, and is called "right ascension double ring".
The double ring holds within itself a sighting tube with crosshairs. When observing, astronomers would aim at the star with the sighting tube, whereupon the star's position could be deciphered by observing the dials of the equatorial ring and the right ascension double ring.
A foreign missionary melted the instrument in ;AD. The surviving one was built in ;AD and was taken to what is now . It was then stored in a
Embassy in 1900, during the . Under the pressure of international public discontent, Germany returned the instrument to China. In 1933, it was placed in , which prevented it from being destroyed in the . In the 1980s, it had become seriously eroded and rusted down and was nearly destroyed. In order to restore the device, the
government spent 11 months to repair it.
Celestial globe from
Besides star maps, the Chinese also made celestial globes, which show stars' positions like a star map and can present the sky at a specific time. Because of its Chinese name, it is often confused with the armillary sphere, which is just one word different in Chinese (渾象 vs. 渾儀).
According to records, the first celestial globe was made by Geng Shou-chang (耿壽昌) between 70 BC and 50 BC. In the , the celestial globe at that time was a huge globe, showing the 28 mansions, celestial equator and ecliptic. None of them have survived.
Celestial globes were named 天體儀 ("Miriam celestial bodies") in the . The one in
was made by Belgian missionary
(南懷仁) in ;AD. Unlike other Chinese celestial globes, it employs 360
rather than the 365.24 degrees (which is a standard in ancient China). It is also the first Chinese globe that shows constellations near to the Celestial South Pole.
The inventor of the -powered armillary sphere was
(78-139 AD) of the . Zhang was well known for his brilliant applications of mechanical gears, as this was one of his most impressive inventions (alongside his
to detect the
that struck hundreds of miles away).
Started by
(蘇頌) and his colleagues in ;AD and finished in ;AD, his large astronomical
featured an armillary sphere (渾儀), a celestial globe (渾象) and a mechanical chronograph. It was operated by an
mechanism and the earliest known . However, 35 years later, the
army dismantled the tower in ;AD upon taking the capital of . The armillary sphere part was brought to , yet the tower was never successfully reinstated, not even by Su Song's son.
Fortunately, two versions of Su Song's treatise written on his clock tower have survived the ages, so that studying his astronomical clock tower is made possible through medieval texts.
The polymath Chinese scientist
() was not only the first in history to describe the -needle , but also made a more accurate measurement of the distance between the
that could be used for . Shen achieved this by making nightly astronomical observations along with his colleague , using Shen's improved design of a wider sighting tube that could be fixed to observe the polestar indefinitely. Along with the polestar, Shen Kuo and Wei Pu also established a project of nightly astronomical observation over a period of five successive years, an intensive work that even would rival the later work of
in Europe. Shen Kuo and Wei Pu charted the exact coordinates of the planets on a star map for this project and created theories of planetary motion, including .
Buddhism first reached China during the Eastern Han Dynasty, and translation of Indian works on astronomy came to China by the
(220–265 CE). However, the most detailed incorporation of Indian astronomy occurred only during the Tang Dynasty (618-907), when a number of Chinese scholars—such as —were versed both in Indian and Chinese astronomy. A system of Indian astronomy was recorded in China as Jiuzhi-li (718 CE), the author of which was an Indian by the name of —a translation of Devanagari Gotama Siddha—the director of the 's national astronomical observatory.
The astronomical table of
was translated into the Chinese astronomical and mathematical book
(Kaiyuan Zhanjing), compiled in 718 AD during the . The Kaiyuan Zhanjing was compiled by , an astronomer and astrologer born in , and whose family was originally from . He was also notable for his translation of the
calendar into .
Early European drawing of the .
Gaocheng Astronomical Observatory. It was built in 1276.
Islamic influence on Chinese astronomy was first recorded during the
astronomer named
introduced the concept of 7 days in a week and made other contributions.
in order to work on calendar making and astronomy during the
and the succeeding . The Chinese scholar
accompanied
to Persia in 1210 and studied their calendar for use in the Mongol Empire.
brought Iranians to
and an institution for astronomical studies.
Several Chinese astronomers worked at the , founded by
in 1259 under the patronage of
in Persia. One of these Chinese astronomers was Fu Mengchi, or Fu Mezhai.
In 1267, the Persian astronomer , who previously worked at Maragha observatory, presented Kublai Khan with seven , including a terrestrial
and an , as well as an astronomical , which was later known in China as the Wannian Li ("Ten Thousand Year Calendar" or "Eternal Calendar"). He was known as "Zhama Luding" in China, where, in 1271, he was appointed by Khan as the first director of the Islamic observatory in Beijing, known as the Islamic Astronomical Bureau, which operated alongside the Chinese Astronomical Bureau for four centuries. Islamic astronomy gained a good reputation in China for its theory of planetary , which did not exist in Chinese astronomy at the time, and for its accurate prediction of eclipses.
Some of the astronomical instruments constructed by the famous Chinese astronomer
shortly afterwards resemble the style of instrumentation built at Maragheh. In particular, the "simplified instrument" (jianyi) and the large
show traces of Islamic influence. While formulating the
in 1281, Shoujing's work in
may have also been partially influenced by , which was largely accepted at Kublai's court. These possible influences include a pseudo-geometrical method for converting between
and , the systematic use of
in the underlying parameters, and the application of
in the calculation of the irregularity in the planetary motions.
(r. ) of the
(), in the first year of his reign (1368), conscripted Han and non-Han astrology specialists from the astronomical institutions in Beijing of the former Mongolian Yuan to
to become officials of the newly established national observatory.
That year, the Ming government summoned for the first time the astronomical officials to come south from the upper capital of Yuan. There were fourteen of them. In order to enhance accuracy in methods of observation and computation, Emperor Taizu reinforced the adoption of parallel calendar systems, the
and the . In the following years, the Ming Court appointed several
astrologers to hold high positions in the Imperial Observatory. They wrote many books on Islamic astronomy and also manufactured astronomical equipment based on the Islamic system.
The translation of two important works into Chinese was completed in 1383: Zij (1366) and al-Madkhal fi Sina'at Ahkam al-Nujum, Introduction to Astrology (1004).
In 1384, a Chinese
was made for observing stars based on the instructions for making multi-purposed Islamic equipment. In 1385, the apparatus was installed on a hill in northern .
Around 1384, during the , Emperor
ordered the
translation and compilation of , a task that was carried out by the scholars Mashayihei, a Muslim astronomer, and Wu Bozong, a Chinese scholar-official. These tables came to be known as the
Lifa (Muslim System of Calendrical Astronomy), which was published in China a number of times until the early 18th century, though the
had officially abandoned the tradition of Chinese-Islamic astronomy in 1659. The Muslim astronomer
was known for his attacks on the Jesuit's astronomical sciences.
The introduction of Western science to China by
priest astronomers was a mixed blessing during the late sixteenth century and early seventeenth century.
was introduced to China in the early seventeenth century. The telescope was first mentioned in Chinese writing by , who wrote his Tian Wen Lüe in 1615. In 1626,
(Tang Ruowang) published the Chinese treatise on the telescope known as the Yuan Jing Shuo (The Far-Seeing Optic Glass). The
(明思宗, ) of the
acquired the telescope of
(or Johann S Deng Yu-han) in 1634, ten years before the collapse of the Ming Dynasty. However, the impact on Chinese astronomy was limited.
of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries brought Western astronomy, then undergoing its own revolution, to China. After the
early in the seventeenth century, the Roman Catholic Jesuit order was required to adhere to
and ignore the
teachings of
and his followers, even though they were becoming standard in European astronomy. Thus, the Jesuits initially shared an Earth-centered and largely pre- astronomy with their Chinese hosts (i.e., the - views from Hellenistic times). The Jesuits (such as ) later introduced Tycho's geoheliocentric model as the standard cosmological model. The Chinese often were fundamentally opposed to this as well, since the Chinese had long believed (from the ancient doctrine of Xuan Ye) that the celestial bodies floated in a void of infinite space. This contradicted the Aristotelian view of solid concentric crystalline spheres, where there was not a void, but a mass of air between the heavenly bodies.
Of course, the views of Copernicus, , and
would eventually triumph in European science, and these ideas slowly leaked into China despite Jesuit efforts to curb them in the beginning. In 1627, the
(Bu Mige) introduced 's Copernican Rudolphine Tables with much enthusiasm to the Ming court at . In Adam Schall von Bell's Chinese-written treatise of Western astronomy in 1640, the names of Copernicus (Ge-Bai-Ni), Galileo (Jia-li-lüe), and Tycho Brahe (Di-gu) were formally introduced to China. There were also Jesuits in China who were in favor of the Copernican theory, such as Nicholas Smogulecki and Wenceslaus Kirwitzer. However, Copernican views were not widespread or wholly accepted in China during this time.
(Liu Songling) created the first spherical astrolabe as the Head of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau from 1739 until 1774. The former Beijing Astronomical observatory, now a museum, still hosts the armillary sphere with rotating rings, which was made under Hallerstein’s leadership and is considered the most prominent astronomical instrument.
While in , the
aided the Japanese with the first modern observatory of Japan in 1725, headed by Nakane Genkei, whose observatory of astronomers wholly accepted the Copernican view. In contrast, the Copernican view was not accepted in mainstream China until the early nineteenth century, with the
missionaries such as , , and .
Astro Observatory
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; Wang Ling (1995) [1959]. Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  .
Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures, edited by Helaine Selin. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1997. S.v. "Astronomy in China" by Ho Peng Yoke.
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Chan Ki-hung: Chinese Ancient Star Map, Leisure and Cultural Services Department, 2002,
Gems of the ancient Chinese astronomy relics,
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