Title

A New Study on the Suchou Astronomical Chart

Author

Y.-L. Huang 

Genre

Article  

Pages

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Abstract

     The Suchou 蘇州 astronomical chart is one of the famous star charts in Chinese history. Most precious studies of the chart have concentrated on identifying the constellations or determining the accuracy of the chart. This article, however, deals with the following historically oriented questions: 1. Did the author of the chart, HUANG Shang 黃裳, posses a good knowledge of astronomy? 2. What was HUANG Shang’s objective in making such a chart?3. On what original source the chart based? 4. Had the Southern Sung government loosened its legal restrictions on distributing astronomical knowledge when WANG Chih-yüan 王致遠 set p a stone engraving of the chart in the Suchou prefectural school? This study may provide some aluable 

background concerning the Suchou Astronomical Chart.