Dunhuang map

Dunhuang map

The Dunhuang map or Dunhuang Star map is one of the first known graphical representation of stars from ancient Chinese astronomy, dated to the Tang Dynasty (618–907). Prior to this map, many of the star information mentioned in historical Chinese texts have been questioned.Whitfield, Susan. [2004] (2004). [http://books.google.com/books?id=9AUxnUNRekgC The Silk Road: Trade, Travel, War and Faith.] British Library Staff. Serindia Publications. ISBN 1932476121.] The map provide a graphical verification of the star observations, and are part of a series of pictures on one of the Dunhuang manuscripts.

History

The scroll was discovered among the many manuscripts in the Mogao Caves by Chinese Taoist Wang Yuan-lu in the 1900s. [ [http://idp.bl.uk/pages/collections_ch.a4d International Dunhuang Project.bl.uk] ] One of the first public mentioning of this script in Western studies was from Joseph Needham's 1959 version of the book "Science and Civilisation in China". Since that time only few publications have been devoted to the map, all being Chinese publications. Much of the research done on this map today is conducted by International Dunhuang Project.

Colors

The symbols for the stars are divided into three different groups. They groups are presented in three colors presenting the "Three Schools of Astronomical tradition".

{|class="wikitable"! width=10% | Color ! width=20% | Chinese Astronomer! width=40% | Comments
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Black || Gan De (甘德) |
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Red || Shi Shen (石申) ||
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White || Wu Xian (巫咸) || There has been inconsistencies in his works. He is generally known as the astronomer who lived before Gan and Shi. [Peng, Yoke Ho (2000). [http://books.google.com/books?id=_P6C4JO4JCUC Li, Qi and Shu: An Introduction to Science and Civilization in China.] Courier Dover Publications. ISBN 0486414450]
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width=20% | Yellow || Others
-

References

ee also

* Chinese star maps


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