Qīndìng yíxiàng kǎochéng 欽定儀象考成
Imperially Determined Investigation of the Astronomical Instruments and Stellar Phenomena by 允祿 (Yǔnlù, Zhuāng qīnwáng, 1695–1767, 清, fèngchì zhuàn 奉敕撰) and 戴進賢 (Ignaz Kögler, S.J., Dài Jìnxián, 1680–1746, 清, fèngchì zhuàn); with 紀利安 (Bernard-Kilian Stumpf, S.J., Jì Lì’ān, 1655–1720) credited for the dìpíng jīngwěi yí construction; and the principal Chinese collaborators Èěrtài 鄂爾泰 (1677–1745), Zhāng Zhào 張照 (1691–1745), Hǎiwàng 海望, and Sānhé 三和
About the work
A 30-juan (per the zǒngmù; the 提要 says 32 juàn) imperial revision-and-supplement of Ferdinand Verbiest’s 南懷仁 (Nán Huáirén, 1623–1688) Língtái yíxiàng zhì 靈臺儀象志 of 1674. Chartered by Qiánlóng 9 (1744) following Ignaz Kögler’s memorial of that year identifying the inadequacy of the Verbiest catalog after seventy years of stellar precession. Completed Qiánlóng 17 (1752); Qiánlóng’s imperial preface dated 11th-month, Qiánlóng 21 (December 1756).
The work has two principal contributions:
(1) The Jīhéng fǔchén yí 璣衡撫辰儀 (Armillary-and-Balance Touching-the-Stars Instrument) — a new astronomical instrument designed by Yǔnlù’s editorial committee in consultation with the Beijing Jesuits, incorporating elements of the Verbiest “Six Instruments” of 1674 (the equatorial instrument, the ecliptic instrument, etc.) into a unified three-tiered armillary structure. The instrument’s design rationale, exposition, and diagrams occupy the first 2 juàn (the jīngshǒu shàngxià 卷首上下); the instrument itself was cast in bronze under Hǎiwàng’s supervision and installed atop the Beijing Astronomical Observatory in 1754, where it stood until the late-Qīng period (and where parts of it survive today). It is the eighth and final addition to the historic series of Beijing imperial astronomical instruments.
(2) A complete new star catalog, in three coordinate systems, for the new epoch of Qiánlóng 9 (1744, jiǎzǐ) — superseding Verbiest’s 1674 catalog. The catalog adds 1,614 newly-identified stars to Verbiest’s roster of 1,469 (a final total of 3,083 stars), based on Beijing telescopic observations made by the Jesuit Bureau directors and their staff in the 1730s-1740s. The stars are tabulated by ecliptic coordinates (vols. 1–13), equatorial coordinates (vols. 14–25), special tables for the moon-and-five-planets-in-relation-to-fixed-stars (vol. 26), and the Milky Way’s longitude-and-latitude grid (vols. 27–30). The new stars include many added through telescopic observation that had not been visible to Verbiest’s 1670s naked-eye survey.
The Qiánlóng preface frames the project as a continuation of the Kāngxī tradition: “the Sage Ancestor Benevolent Imperial Ancestor [Kāngxī] commanded the Bureau Minister Nán Huáirén [Verbiest] to make new the six instruments…” and “the Sage Ancestor [Kāngxī’s] essence-and-brightness in step-heaven and fixing-time, the Way [is such that] using the six instruments’ degrees down to the present, there must early be timely revisions”. The work thereby positions itself as the necessary periodic adjustment to the Kāngxī-period instruments-and-catalogs after seventy years’ stellar precession.
Tiyao
[Sub-classification: 子部, Tiānwén suànfǎ class 1, tuībù sub-category. Edition: WYG.]
Respectfully examined: Yùdìng Yíxiàng kǎochéng, 32 juàn, by-imperial-decree compiled, Qiánlóng 9 [1744]; completed Qiánlóng 17 [1752]; the imperial-composed preface promulgated.
Volumes 1 (上下) [in the bound recension, the volumes-1 are split into upper-and-lower] are the Imperial-composed Jīhéng fǔchén yí. Juàn 1–13 are the comprehensive-account of the constant-stars and the constant-stars’ yellow-path longitude-and-latitude tables. Juàn 14–25 are the constant-stars’ equatorial longitude-and-latitude tables. Juàn 26 is the moon-and-five-planets’ distances-from-the-fixed-stars in yellow-and-equatorial longitude-and-latitude tables. Juàn 27–30 are the Milky Way’s longitude-and-latitude tables.
According to the jīhéng (armillary) institution: Mǎ Róng and Zhèng Xuán’s commentaries on the Shàngshū both take it [jīhéng] to be the húnyí (armillary sphere); this is its inherited method. From the Táng and Sòng onward, [the húnyí] became increasingly detailed in arrangement. However, with the multiplication of the rings, the harm of obstruction-and-shadow could not be avoided. Guō Shǒujìng analyzed it into the Jiǎnyí 簡儀 (Simplified Instrument) and Yǎngyí 仰儀 (Reverse Instrument) two instruments — people praised them for convenience.
In Kāngxī 13 [1674], the Sage Ancestor Benevolent Imperial Ancestor [Kāngxī] commanded the Bureau Minister Nán Huáirén [Verbiest] to newly make six instruments — the equatorial-and-ecliptic [were] divided into two devices. None used the horizon-circle; but with the horizon-quadrant, the stellar-mansion-quadrant, the celestial-body, and the various instruments, the horizon’s longitude-and-latitude and the yellow-and-equatorial’s interlocking were all completely-furnished. Furthermore, [Kāngxī] commanded the Bureau Minister Jì Lì’ān [Stumpf] to make the Dìpíng jīngwěi yí (Horizontal Longitude-and-Latitude Instrument), combining the horizon-quadrant-and-stellar-mansion-quadrant two instruments into one — its use [was] especially convenient.
The August Above [Qiánlóng] personally approached the Língtái (Star-Watch Tower), comprehensively viewed the instruments-and-images. Holding that the húntiān (sphere-heaven) institution most closely [accords with the] ancient, but the time-degrees should appropriately follow the present — [he] altered-and-made the new instrument; bestowed-the-name Jīhéng Fǔchén (Armillary-and-Balance Touching-the-Stars). Truly weighing-the-ancient and aligning-with-the-present, deficits-and-additions exhausting goodness.
The instrument-institution has in total three layers. The exterior is then the ancient six-combinations instrument (liùhé yí), but does not use the horizon-circle. Its straight-standing double-ring is the zǐwǔ (south-meridian) circle; the obliquely-leaning single-ring is the TiānchángChìdào (Heaven-Constant Equatorial) circle. The south-and-north two poles both have round axles; the axle-base passes through the zǐwǔ double-ring, the middle-empty and the axle-inward-facing, by which to pass-through the inner-two-layer rings. Also, in accordance with the capital’s [Beijing’s] polar elevation, [it] adds 50°5’ as the zenith. At the zenith, [the operator] hangs a plumb-line in place of the horizon circle — therefore [the instrument] does not use the horizon-circle.
The interior [layer] is then the ancient three-luminaries instrument (sānchén yí), but does not use the yellow-path circle. The double-ring passing through the two poles is the Chìjí jīngquān (Equatorial-Pole Longitude-Circle); attached to the middle-waist of the Chìjí jīngquān, parallel to the TiānchángChìdào, is the Yóuxuán Chìdào (Roving-Rotating Equator). From the Jīngquān’s south-pole [it] makes two quadrant-arcs to support [the Yóuxuán Chìdào]. When the three-luminaries’ equatorial longitude-and-latitudes are measured, the yellow-path longitude-and-latitudes can be derived. Furthermore, the yellow-equatorial jùwěi (great-distance) is in antiquity far and at present near; even if over years there is difference, the instrument does not need to be re-made — therefore [the instrument] does not use the yellow-path circle.
Also: the innermost [layer] is then the ancient four-roving instrument (sìyóu yí). The double-ring passing through the two poles is the sìyóu circle; what is fixed at the sìyóu circle’s two poles is the zhíjù (vertical-distance); what is bound at the middle-center of the zhíjù is the kuīhéng (sighting-balance). At the middle-waist of the yóuquān [is] set a vertical pointer to indicate longitude-and-time; the right side of the kuīhéng [is] set a vertical pointer to indicate latitude-degree. This is what is the same in ancient and present.
Also: the stars circulate along the yellow-path; every 70 years they differ by 1 degree. The yellow-equatorial great-distance also differs by 1’ in several decades. The various tables in the Língtái yíxiàng zhì are all based on the divisions-of-then-time. Now [we] proceed to add cultivation, obtaining the precession’s true-numbers. The three constellation-walls and twenty-eight lunar-mansions and various stars, present-and-past in many-or-few — [these] are not the same. We have all taken the Qiánlóng 9 jiǎzǐ [1744] as the calendrical-epoch; verifying with actual measurements, [we] have added 1,614 stars compared with the old [list] — also what was unheard in former antiquity. [The work] tightly examines the heavens’ motion, follows the times in growth-and-loss; the way of imparting-it-as-a-pattern for ten-thousand-years’ revision-and-amendment — [it] does not exceed this compilation’s compass.
Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng 46, fifth month [June 1781].
Chief Compilers: (subject) Jì Yún 紀昀, (subject) Lù Xíxióng 陸錫熊, (subject) Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. Chief Collator: (subject) Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Abstract
Composition window: 1744 (Qiánlóng 9, the imperial chartering of the project after Kögler’s memorial; jiǎzǐ-year epoch fixed for the new star catalog) – 1756 (Qiánlóng 21, the year of the imperial preface and final promulgation). The actual editorial work (1744–1752) was completed during Kögler’s last two years and the subsequent six years under his successor Augustin von Hallerstein 劉松齡 (1703–1774, Bureau Director from 1746). The new Jīhéng fǔchén yí instrument was cast and installed atop the Beijing Astronomical Observatory in Qiánlóng 19 (1754).
The work’s significance:
(a) The new Jīhéng fǔchén yí: the eighth-and-final addition to the historic series of monumental Beijing astronomical instruments — beginning with the Yuán-period instruments by Guō Shǒujìng (1276), continuing with the Schall-Verbiest “Six Instruments” of 1670s, augmented by Stumpf’s Dìpíng jīngwěi yí of 1713, and culminating in the Qiánlóng’s Jīhéng fǔchén yí of 1754. The instrument was designed to combine the six earlier-Verbiest instruments’ separate functions into a single integrated three-tiered armillary structure — a technological synthesis paralleling the Lìxiàng kǎochéng’s editorial synthesis of the 1720s. Most of the bronze instrument survives in situ atop the Beijing Astronomical Observatory (now museum) — physical material monument of the Qián-lóng-period imperial science project.
(b) The expanded star catalog: the Yíxiàng kǎochéng’s addition of 1,614 stars to Verbiest’s catalog represents the systematic incorporation of telescopic-observation results into Chinese state astronomy. Many of the added stars were not visible to naked-eye observation; their inclusion reflects the increased availability of telescopes (the qiānlǐ jìng 千里鏡) in the Beijing residence after the Yōngzhèng period, and the systematic observational program conducted by Kögler, Hallerstein, and their staff in the 1730s-1740s. The new 3,083-star catalog remained the working catalog of the Qīntiānjiān until the late-Qīng-period reorganization.
(c) The principle of periodic revision: the 提要’s articulation of the principle that astronomical instruments and star catalogs must be periodically revised to account for accumulated precession — suí shí xiāoxī 隨時消息 (“following the times in growth-and-loss”) — frames the work as the realization of an ongoing imperial responsibility rather than as a once-for-all project. The 70-year-per-degree rate of stellar precession (correctly stated by both Kögler’s memorial and the 提要) implies that another revision should follow ~1820; in fact, the late-Qīng Qīntiānjiān’s institutional decay and the Western-astronomical revolution of the 19th century supervened before any further large-scale Chinese-court revision could be undertaken.
The work’s institutional context places it as the third in the Yǔnlù-era trio of post-1730 Qīng imperial astronomical projects: the KR3f0019 Lìxiàng kǎochéng hòubiān (1742, theoretical-astronomical revision), the present KR3f0020 Yíxiàng kǎochéng (1744–1756, instrumental-and-observational revision), and the parallel Lǜlì yuānyuán-related compilations. Together these constitute the Qián-lóng-period systematic upgrading of the KāngxīYōngzhèng imperial scientific program.
For the predecessor work (Verbiest’s 1674 Língtái yíxiàng zhì — not in the Sìkù’s included list but referenced throughout), see external scholarship. For the parallel theoretical work, see KR3f0019. For the principal authors, see 允祿, 戴進賢, 紀利安.
Translations and research
- Jami, Catherine. The Emperor’s New Mathematics: Western Learning and Imperial Authority during the Kangxi Reign (1662–1722), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
- Han Qi 韓琦, Tōng-tiān zhī xué: Yēsū-huì shì hé tiānwén-xué zài Zhōng-guó de chuán-bō 通天之學, Beijing: Sānlián, 2018.
- Pan Nai 潘鼐, Zhōng-guó tiān-wén yí-qì shǐ 中國天文儀器史, Shàng-hǎi: Shànghǎi Kē-jì Jiào-yù Chū-bǎn-shè, 2005.
- Standaert, Nicolas (ed.). Handbook of Christianity in China, vol. 1, Leiden: Brill, 2001.
- Pan Nai 潘鼐, Zhōngguó hènxīng guāncè shǐ 中國恆星觀測史, Shàng-hǎi: Xué-lín Chū-bǎn-shè, 2009 (essential reference on the Yí-xiàng kǎo-chéng star catalog).
- Sun, Xiaochun. “Mapping the Skies: The Yixiang kaocheng and the Cataloguing of Stars in Eighteenth-Century China”, in C. Cullen and S. Vita (eds.), Studies in Premodern Chinese Mathematics and Astronomy, [forthcoming proceedings].
- Wáng Píng 王萍, “Yí-xiàng kǎo-chéng yǔ Qián-lóng-cháo de tiān-wén shì-yè” 儀象考成與乾隆朝的天文事業, in Zhōng-yāng yán-jiū-yuàn jìn-dài-shǐ yán-jiū-suǒ jí-kān.
Other points of interest
The Beijing Astronomical Observatory (Guānxiàngtái 觀象臺), at the southeastern corner of the inner-city wall, has been an active astronomical site since at least the Yuán dynasty (1279). The cluster of bronze instruments installed atop its tower over the 17th-18th centuries — the Verbiest six (1674), the Stumpf two (1713), and the Yǔnlù-era Jīhéng fǔchén yí (1754) — survives largely intact, having been removed by the Eight-Power-Allied-Forces in 1900–1901 to Berlin and Paris but mostly returned in the 1920s. The instruments are now the centerpiece of the Beijing Ancient Observatory Museum, one of the most important physical-material sites for the history of pre-modern Chinese-Western astronomical exchange.
The Qiánlóng emperor’s claim — “holding that the húntiān institution most closely [accords with the] ancient, but the time-degrees should appropriately follow the present” — articulates the characteristic Qián-lóng-period synthesis-of-ancient-and-modern: the Jīhéng fǔchén yí’s spherical-armillary form reaches back to the Mǎ RóngZhèng Xuán Shàngshū commentary on Yáo’s jīhéng, while its measurement-and-observation-precision incorporates the latest European astronomical practice. The instrument is, in effect, an architectural-mechanical translation of the late-imperial Chinese editorial-historical position into bronze.