Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-fqc5m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-27T07:51:52.002Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A Chinese Eratosthenes of the Flat Earth: A Study of a Fragment of Cosmology in Huai Nan Tzu

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Extract

This paper attempts to deal with a short passage found at the end of the third chapter of the Huai Nan tzu book, a compendium of learning assembled in about 120 B.c. under the patronage of the prince Liu An I first became interested in it after reading the tantalizing reference in Needham (SCC, III, 224). (It occurs to me that the preceding sentence or some variant of it is likely to occur in learned journals with a high frequency for the next 50 years at least.) My first efforts to understand the original text led me to the conclusion that it was unique in a number of ways and had points of interest that did not fully appear in the version of Maspero, 1929, 348 ff. Professors A. C. Graham and D. C. Lau both gave very generously of their time in discussions of my first draft. Professor Graham raised the question of possible Mohist influences and brought to my notice a commentary by the Ch'ing scholar Ch'ien T'ang , Huai Nan tzu t'ien wen hsün pu chu c. 1788. I did not feel able to follow Ch'ien in all he wrote, but was relieved to find that we reached the same general conclusions about what the text was saying, although Ch'ien seems to miss much that is important. While there are still some obscurities of language in what appears to be a rather corrupt text, I offer the version given here with a fair degree of conviction that it does not substantially misrepresent the intentions of the unknown author. Any errors that I have obstinately retained despite the helpful advice given to me throughout the time I was engaged on this work are, of course, my responsibility alone.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1976

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Chatley, H. 1938. ‘The heavenly cover’, Observatory, LXI, 764, 1021.Google Scholar
Pao-tsung, Ch'ien. 1932. A history of Chinese mathematics. Peking: Academia Sinica.Google Scholar
Pao-tsung, Ch'ien (ed.). 1963. Suan ching shih shu . [Collated and punctuated.] Peking: Chung Hua Shu Chü.Google Scholar
T'ang, Ch'ien. c. 1788. Huai Nan tzu t'ien wên hsün pu chu [Preface dated 1788.] (Ying-yin Chin-hai .) Shanghai: Ta-tung Shu-chü 1935, Also in Huai Nan hung lieh chi chieh . Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1933.Google Scholar
Chou pei suan ching . ?First century B.c. Author unknown. SPTK; also in Ch'ien Pao-tsung, 1963.Google Scholar
Dreyer, J. L. E. 1906. History of the planetary systems from Thales to Kepler. Cambridge: University Press. [Reprinted 1953 as A history of astronomy from Tholes to Kepler. New York: Dover Publications.]Google Scholar
Yeh, Li. Thirteenth century A.d.Ching chai ku, chin t'ou . In Ts'ung-shu Chi-ch'eng .Google Scholar
Lucretius, , c. 40 B.c.De rerum natura. Edited and translated by Bailey, C.. 3 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1947. Translated by R. E. Latham as The nature of the universe. (Penguin Classics.) Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1951.Google Scholar
Maspero, H. 1924. ‘Légendes mythologiques dans le Chou king’, Journal Asiatique, cciv, janvier-mars, 1100.Google Scholar
Maspero, H. 1929. ‘L'astronomie chinoise avant les Han’, T'oung Pao, xxvi, 267356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Needham, J. 1959. Science and civilisation in China, 111. Mathematics and the sciences of the heavens and the earth. Cambridge: University Press.Google Scholar
San ts'ai t'u hui . 1609. Encyclopaedia, compiled 1609 by Wang, Ch'i. Huai Yin Ts'ao, T'ang edition, c. 1609. [Reprinted: Taipei: Ch'eng Wen Publishing Co., 1970.]Google Scholar
Shih san ching chu su . [Commentaries (mainly Han) and subcommentary (T'ang and later) on the thirteen classics.] Edition of Chin Ch'ang Shu Yeh T'ang 1798.Google Scholar
Sui shu . 636–56. Compiled by Chêng, Wei and others, A.d. 636–56. Punctuated and collated edition: Peking: Chung-hua Shu-chü, 1973. Also in SPTK.Google Scholar
Chieh-fu, T'an. 1935. Mo-chingi-chieh . Shanghai: Commercial Press.Google Scholar
Ch'ung, WangA.d. 82. Lun hêng . SPTK. Translated by Forke, A. as Lunhêng, philosophical essays of Wang Ch'ung. Leipzig: Otto Harrassowitz, 19071911.Google Scholar
K'o-chün, Yen (ed.). 1836. Ch'üan Shang Ku San Tai Ch'in Han San Kuo Liu Ch'ao wên [Complete collection of pre-T'ang fragments. Reprinted 1958 and 1965 by Chung-hua Shu-chü, Peking.]Google Scholar