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In his last essay just weeks before his death at the age of 91, David S. Nivison says, "Breaking into a formal system - such as a chronology - must be like breaking into a code. If you are successful, success will show right off." Since the late 1970's Nivison has focused his scholarship on breaking the code of Three Dynasties (Xia, Shang, Zhou) chronology by establishing an innovative methodology based on mourning periods, astronomical phenomenon, and numerical manipulations derived from them. Nivison is most readily known in the field for revising (and then revising again) the date of the Zhou conquest of Shang, and for his theory that Western Zhou kings employed two calendars (His so-called "Two yuan" theory), the second being set in effect upon the death of the new king's predecessor and counted from the completion of post-mourning rites for him (i.e., a "second 'first' year"). Nivison's enabling discovery that the Bamboo Annals (BA) had a historical basis was initially designed to make Wang Guowei's analysis of lunar phase terms (the so-called "Four quarter" theory that separated each month into four quarters) work for Western Zhou bronze inscriptions. In order to do so he had to assume that some inscriptions used a second yuan counted from completion of mourning. The king's death was the most important event late in a reign, so this implied that a king's reign-of-record was normally counted from the second yuan, omitting initial mourning years. It follows that when the unexpressed mourning years are forgotten (or edited out) but the dates of the beginning and end of the dynasty are still known, the remaining reigns-of-record cluster toward the beginning and end, and a reign in the middle is enlarged. Problems, ideas, and solutions like the one described above are found throughout this new collection of important works on chronology, astronomy, and historiography.
Regional studies --- History --- Australasian & Pacific history --- Astronomy, Chinese. --- China --- Chinese astronomy --- Chinese History, Early Chronology, Excavated Texts, Astronomy.
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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.
Astronomers -- China -- Biography. --- Astronomy, Chinese --History. --- Astronomy, Chinese. --- Mathematics -- China -- History. --- Astronomy, Chinese --- Astronomy & Astrophysics --- Physical Sciences & Mathematics --- Astronomy - General --- History --- Astronomy --- History. --- Mathematics. --- Observations, Astronomical. --- History of Mathematical Sciences. --- Astronomy, Observations and Techniques. --- Observations. --- Astronomy—Observations. --- Astronomical observations --- Observations, Astronomical --- Math --- Science --- Annals --- Auxiliary sciences of history
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Astronomers --- Astronomy, Chinese. --- Biography. --- Verbiest, Ferdinand, --- Astronomy, Chinese --- Biography --- christendom --- godsdienst --- Christianity --- Verbiest, Ferdinand --- History of Asia --- Christian church history --- Ecclesiology --- opvoeding --- missies --- 929 VERBIEST, FERDINAND --- #gsdb8 --- 695 --- S09/0506 --- S13B/0411 --- S13B/0413 --- 266 <51> --- 271.5-9 --- Chinese astronomy --- 271.5-9 Jezuïeten: missies --- Jezuïeten: missies --- Physical scientists --- Algemene geschiedenis --- China: Foreign relations and world politics--China and Russia --- China: Christianity--Ferdinand Verbiest --- China: Christianity--Scientific activities and works of SJ --- Missies. Evangelisatie. Zending--China --- Nan, Huai-jen, --- Nan, Huairen, --- 南懷仁, --- Verbiest, Ferdinand (1623-1688) --- Ontdekkingsreizen --- China --- Azië --- Verbiest, Ferdinand $c S.J. --- 페르비스트 --- フェルビースト, フェルジナンド --- 南, 怀仁 --- 南, 懷仁 --- Ontdekkingsreis --- Nederland --- Vietnam --- Zuid-Afrika --- Kust --- Literatuur --- #GBIB: jesuitica --- Astronomers - Belgium - Biography --- Verbiest, Ferdinand, - 1623-1688 --- Verbiest (ferdinand) --- Biographie
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