History of Oriental Astronomy: Proceedings of the Joint Discussion-17 at the 23rd General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union, organised by the Commission 41 (History of Astronomy), held in Kyoto, August 25–26, 1997

281 Pages·2002·20.57 MB·English

by  Y. Maeyama (auth.)

HISTORY OF ORIENTAL ASTRONOMY
ASTROPHYSICS AND
SPACE SCIENCE LIBRARY
VOLUME 274
EDITORIAL BOARD
Chairman
W.B. BURTON, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S.A.
([email protected]); University of Leiden, The Netherlands ([email protected])
Executive Committee
J. M. E. KUIJPERS, Faculty of Science, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
E. P. J. VAN DEN HEUVEL, Astronomical Institute, University ofA msterdam,
The Netherlands
H. VAN DER LAAN, Astronomical Institute, University of Utrecht,
The Netherlands
MEMBERS
1. APPENZELLER, Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Konigstuhl, Germany
J. N. BAHCALL, The Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, U.S.A.
F. BERTOLA, Universitd di Padova, Italy
J. P. CASSINELLI, University of Wisconsin, Madison, U.S.A.
C. J. CESARSKY, Centre d'Etudes de Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
O. ENGVOLD, Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Oslo, Norway
R. McCRAY, University of Colorado, JILA, Boulder, U.S.A.
p. G. MURDIN, Institute ofA stronomy, Cambridge, U.K.
F. PACINI, Istituto Astronomia Arcetri, Firenze, Italy
V. RADHAKRISHNAN, Raman Research Institute, Bangalore, India
K. SATO, School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Japan
F. H. SHU, University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A.
B. V. SOMOV, Astronomical Institute, Moscow State University, Russia
R. A. SUNYAEV, Space Research Institute, Moscow, Russia
Y. TANAKA, Institute of Space & Astronautical Science, Kanagawa, Japan
S. TREMAINE, CITA, Princeton University, U.S.A.
N. O. WEISS, University of Cambridge, U.K.
History of Oriental Astronomy
Proceedings of the Joint Discussion-17 at the
23rd General Assembly of the International
Astronomical Union, organised by the
Commission 41 (History of Astronomy), held in
Kyoto, August 25-26, 1997
Edited by
s. M. Razaullah Ansari
President of IUHPS Commission for History of Ancient and Medieval Astronomy
Former President of IAU Commission for History of Astronomy
Former Professor of Physics, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India
.....
"
Springer-Science+Business Media, B.V.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN 978-90-481-6033-4 ISBN 978-94-015-9862-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-015-9862-0
Printed on acid-free paper
Cover picture
Details from an Indian celestial globe made by Ghulam Hussain Jaunpuri in 1816 AD
(Courtesy Prof. M. Mahdi Ansari, Aligarh)
All Rights Reserved
© 2002 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 2002.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 2002
No part of this publication may be reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without written permission
from the copyright owner.
Dedicated to the Fond Memory of
Dr. Manali Kallat Vainu Bappu (1927-1982)
Founder Director, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore
First Indian President of the International Astronomical Union (1979-82)
Contents
Preface IX
Scientific Organising Committee xiii
1. Oriental Astronomy during the Ancient and Medieval Period
1.1 The Two Supreme Stars, Thien-i and Thai-i, and the Foundation of the
Purple Palace 3
Y. Maeyama
1.2 Islamic Astronomical Tables in China: The Sources for the Huihui li 19
Benno van Dalen
1.3 The First Equation Table for Mercury in the Huihui Ii 33
Michio Yano
1.4 Three Star Maps: Results of the Impact of Western Astronomy on Korean
Tradition in the 18th Century 45
Nha Il-Seong
1.5 Projection Methods in East Asian Star Maps 59
Kazuhiko Miyajima
1.6 Gnomon Measurements and the Obliquity of the Ecliptic 67
K.-Y. Chen
1.7 The Legends of Vasi~!ha - A Note on the Vediinga Astronomy 75
Yukio Ohashi
1.8 Spherical Trigonometry and the Astronomy of the Medieval Kerala
School 83
Kim Plofker
1.9 Astronomical Dating and Statistical Analysis of Ancient Eclipse Data 95
Kevin D. Pang, Kevin K. Yau and Hung-hsiang Chou
2. Modern Astronomy in the Orient
2.1 Philippe de La Hire at the Court of Jayasirp.ha 123
David Pingree
vii
Contents
2.2 European Astronomy in Indo-Persian Writings 133
S. M. Razaullah Ansari
2.3 Toshio Takamine's Contact with Western Astrophysics 145
David DeVorkin
2.4 The Earliest Evidence of the Introduction of Kepler's Laws into China as is
observed in the Lifa wenda 159
Keizo Hashimoto
2.5 Tebbutt vs Russell: Passion, Power and Politics in Nineteenth Century
Australian Astronomy 169
Wayne Orchiston
2.6 A New Museum of Astronomy in Korea 203
Nha Il-Seong
2.7 Oriental Astronomy: History of East Asian Mathematical Astronomy
Homage to K. Yabuuti and A. Sayili 209
Shigeru Nakayama
3. Additional Contributions
3.1 Revisiting An Eighth-Century Chinese Table of Tangents 215
QuAnjing
3.2 Recent Advances in the Studies of History of Astronomy in China 227
Li Qibin and Chen Meidong
3.3 Eclipse Records in Early Korean History: The Koryo-sa 237
F Richard Stephenson
4. Miscellaneous
Full Programme of the Joint Discussion 245
About the Contributors 247
Subject Index 261
viii
Preface
The History of Astronomy in the Orient has been vigorously researched in the last several
decades. We may recall here the publications of Joseph Needham's monumental volumes
on Science and Civilisation in China, one volume of which is devoted to Chinese Astron
omy, S. Nakayama's A History of Japanese Astronomy (Tokyo, 1969), and the School
of Edward Kennedy's writings on Islamic Astronomy,1 which particularly culminated in
the studies of the Critique of Ptolemaic Astronomy by the Islamic astronomers belong
ing to Na~lruddin rusI's School, established at Maragha Observatory during the l3-l4th
centuries.2
In this backdrop of the emphasis on astronomy in the Orient, the first IAU Colloquium
(No.9 1) on "History ofO riental Astronomy" was organised during the IAU General Assem
bly, held in New Delhi, Nov. 13-16, 1985. The Proceedings ofthe Colloquium were then
published.3 The second effort by this Commission was to organise another International
Colloquium on Interaction of European and Asian Astronomy, held in Vienna in Sept.
1990. Unfortunately its Proceedings could not be published.4
Noteworthy is that the Far East or the East Asia did not lag behind in this endeavour.
A group of historians of astronomy, II Seong Nha (of Seoul) et al set up in 1992 an
International Organising Committee to hold the First International Conference ofO riental
Astronomy (lCOA), which was held in Seoul during Oct. 6-11, 1993. The main objective
for instituting this series of conferences was the fact that "the study of the Astronomy in
the Orient is essential in order to obtain a global view of the development of astronomy
through the ages."s The Second ICOA was held in Yingtan (Jiangxi Province of China),
during Oct. 15-21, 1995.6 The Third ICOA was held in Fukuoka (Japan), Oct. 27-30,
1998,7 and the Fourth in Nanyang (China), Aug. 19-25,2001. Its Proceedings are under
preparation. We have gone here at length in order to record the efforts of historians of
astronomy in studying the history of Oriental astronomy all the world over.
With all the aforementioned in mind, the undersigned, as the President of IAU Commis
sion 41 (History of Astronomy) for the triennial 1994-97, submitted to the Programme
Committee of 23rd IAU General Assembly (Kyoto, 1997) the proposal to organise a Joint
Discussion (JD) " ... befitting to Kyoto venue. The idea was to take stock of the research
status of history of astronomy in Asia and the Far East, to understand the intellectual
framework of the astronomers of traditional astronomy and the cross-cultural transmis
sion of astronomical ideas among themselves, and to possibly stress the new directions
and vistas opened for future in the field: History of Oriental Astronomy".8 With these
objectives in mind this Commission proposed originally the main title of the Joint Dis
cussion as "Astronomy in Asia and the Far East". The Programme Committee approved
the proposal with the stipulation that the title of the JD should be the "History of Oriental
Astronomy". The Commission 41 accepted that suggestion naturally.
This Joint Discussion was held during Aug. 25-26, 1997 in Kyoto. It consisted of
five sessions for oral presentations and a poster session. The talks were scheduled and
distributed according to two broad themes: 1. Oriental Astronomy during the Ancient
and Medieval Period, and 2. Modern Astronomy in the Orient. The former covered
ix
Preface
Chinese, Indian, Islamic, Japanese and Korean traditional astronomy. The second theme
was devoted to the transmission of European astronomy into the Non-European countries,
and also to the modem astronomy as carried out presently in these countries. The detailed
programme is given in these Proceedings, see p. 245. We may refer here also to the sum
mary of the various contributions which were published in the Highlights ofA stronomy.9
However, since the published summaries were constrained only to a maximum of 3 pages,
it was decided that the whole Proceedings should be published, comprising detailed contri
butions. The permission for this publication granted by J. Andersen, the General Secretary
of the IAU, is hereby gratefully acknowledged.
These Proceedings comprise nineteen contributions. They cover the various cultural
areas as follows: On the East Asian - Chinese, Japanese and Korean - indigenous astron
omy four oral presentations, four additional contributions along with two talks on the
transmission of European astronomy; on Ancient Indian astronomy two talks along with
two on modem astronomy in India; two talks on transmission of Islamic astronomy in
China, and three presentations on modem European astronomy. It may be mentioned that
the additional contributions were supposed to be presented orally but for the respective
scholars who could not participate due to some reasons.
It may be noted that whereas the East Asia and India is well represented, the contribu
tions on astronomy in Islamic cultural area is rather nil, despite the fact that in the last half
of the twentieth century enormous amount of researches in the Islamic astronomy have
been carried out as mentioned above. In this respect our own personal efforts to rope in a
couple of historians of Islamic astronomy did not bear any fruit either. The main reason
appears to be, however, that the bulk of historians of astronomy of Islamic Middle Ages
are not attached to the Commission 41. This is also true actually of many a historian of
ancient and medieval astronomy. This fact has to be taken note by the Commission 41.
A few participants, who gave their talks, did not submit their detailed papers for these
Proceedings. We are not including the abstracts of their talks, since the summaries oftheir
talks have already been published in the Highlights ofA stronomy. For the same reason we
are not paraphrasing or enumerating also the essential points of all contributions published
here, as is usual.
Finally, we may emphasise the importance of studies in the history of astronomy the
world over by recalling the following. At the XXlst International Congress of History of
Science (held in Mexico City, July 8-14, 2001), two specific sections were devoted to
Physics and Astronomy. Further, the present author, in the capacity of the President of the
Joint IUHPS and IAU Commission on History of Astronomy, organised a symposium:
"Astronomical Heritage of Non-European Cultural Areas", which was well attended with
18 talks. In all, there were about 50 talks concerning history of astronomy. Further, the
General Assembly ofIUHPS approved the creation of a new Commission for the History of
Ancient and Medieval Astronomy (President, S.M.R. Ansari). Here it will be appropriate
to quote Edward Kennedy, one of the foremost living historians of Islamic Astronomy,
" ... if we delete (which we should not) the fundamental Hellenistic contribution, ... we
can say that ancient and medieval astronomy was all Oriental."IO Obviously, the aim of
this new commission particularly is to include in its purview besides Oriental astronomy
also Greek astronomy, astronomical history, astronomical iconography, archeoastronomy
and even starlores, i.e., cultural ramification of astronomy in human society in general.
x