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Ambiguity, Scope, and Significance: Difficulties in Interpreting Celestial Phenomena in Chinese Records

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2020

J. J. Chapman
J. J. Chapman*
Affiliation:
Dept. of East Asian Languages & Cultures, Univ. California, Berkeley, CA 97420, USA email: contactjchapman@gmail.com
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Several problems contribute to difficulties in interpreting transient celestial phenomena as described in Chinese records. Frameworks are an overarching problem. Tianwen, the modern Chinese term for astronomy, in pre-modern times included meteorological phenonemena and was concerned with omenology. Manuscripts that include star charts and comets but also meteorological phenomena and omen reading texts were routinely reframed in modern scholarship to appear as if they included only astronomical content. The scope of pre-modern tianwen, however, was broader than its modern sense. Pre-modern celestial phenomena had political and religious significance. Apparent ambiguity arises from the presence of both meteorological and astronomical phenomena in a single category and from features of the classical Chinese language. Accounting for these problems is essential for research into transient phenomena using historical archives.

Keywords

history and philosophy of astronomysociology of astronomy(Sun:) sunspotscomets: general
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 14 , Symposium A30: Astronomy in Focus XXX , August 2018 , pp. 152 - 155
Copyright
© International Astronomical Union 2020

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