History of Astronomy | Page 5

B.C., and shortly afterwards Yu-Chi made a sphere to represent
the motions of the celestial bodies. It is also mentioned, in the book
called Chu-King, supposed to have been written in 2205 B.C., that a
similar sphere was made in the time of Yao (2357 B.C.).[1] It is said
that the Emperor Chueni (2513 B.C.) saw five planets in conjunction
the same day that the sun and moon were in conjunction. This is
discussed by Father Martin (MSS. of De Lisle); also by M.
Desvignolles (Mem. Acad. Berlin, vol. iii., p. 193), and by M. Kirsch
(ditto, vol. v., p. 19), who both found that Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and
Mercury were all between the eleventh and eighteenth degrees of
Pisces, all visible together in the evening on February 28th 2446 B.C.,
while on the same day the sun and moon were in conjunction at 9 a.m.,
and that on March 1st the moon was in conjunction with the other four
planets. But this needs confirmation.
Yao, referred to above, gave instructions to his astronomers to
determine the positions of the solstices and equinoxes, and they
reported the names of the stars in the places occupied by the sun at
these seasons, and in 2285 B.C. he gave them further orders. If this
account be true, it shows a knowledge that the vault of heaven is a
complete sphere, and that stars are shining at mid-day, although
eclipsed by the sun's brightness.
It is also asserted, in the book called _Chu-King_, that in the time of
Yao the year was known to have 3651/4 days, and that he adopted 365
days and added an intercalary day every four years (as in the Julian
Calendar). This may be true or not, but the ancient Chinese certainly
seem to have divided the circle into 365 degrees. To learn the length of
the year needed only patient observation--a characteristic of the
Chinese; but many younger nations got into a terrible mess with their
calendar from ignorance of the year's length.
It is stated that in 2159 B.C. the royal astronomers Hi and Ho failed to
predict an eclipse. It probably created great terror, for they were

executed in punishment for their neglect. If this account be true, it
means that in the twenty-second century B.C. some rule for calculating
eclipses was in use. Here, again, patient observation would easily lead
to the detection of the eighteen-year cycle known to the Chaldeans as
the Saros. It consists of 235 lunations, and in that time the pole of the
moon's orbit revolves just once round the pole of the ecliptic, and for
this reason the eclipses in one cycle are repeated with very slight
modification in the next cycle, and so on for many centuries.
It may be that the neglect of their duties by Hi and Ho, and their
punishment, influenced Chinese astronomy; or that the succeeding
records have not been available to later scholars; but the fact remains
that--although at long intervals observations were made of eclipses,
comets, and falling stars, and of the position of the solstices, and of the
obliquity of the ecliptic--records become rare, until 776 B.C., when
eclipses began to be recorded once more with some approach to
continuity. Shortly afterwards notices of comets were added. Biot gave
a list of these, and Mr. John Williams, in 1871, published
_Observations of Comets from 611 B.C. to 1640 A.D., Extracted from
the Chinese Annals_.
With regard to those centuries concerning which we have no
astronomical Chinese records, it is fair to state that it is recorded that
some centuries before the Christian era, in the reign of Tsin-Chi-Hoang,
all the classical and scientific books that could be found were ordered
to be destroyed. If true, our loss therefrom is as great as from the
burning of the Alexandrian library by the Caliph Omar. He burnt all the
books because he held that they must be either consistent or
inconsistent with the Koran, and in the one case they were superfluous,
in the other case objectionable.
_Chaldæans_.--Until the last half century historians were accustomed
to look back upon the Greeks, who led the world from the fifth to the
third century B.C., as the pioneers of art, literature, and science. But the
excavations and researches of later years make us more ready to grant
that in science as in art the Greeks only developed what they derived
from the Egyptians, Babylonians, and Assyrians. The Greek historians

said as much, in fact; and modern commentators used to attribute the
assertion to undue modesty. Since, however, the records of the libraries
have been unearthed it has been recognised that the Babylonians were
in no way inferior in the matter of original scientific investigation to
other races of the same era.
The Chaldæans, being the most ancient