Zhǔnzhāi xīnzhì jǐlòu túshì 準齋心制幾漏圖式
Diagrams of the Table-Clepsydra Designed in the Heart of the Zhǔnzhāi Studio by 孫逢吉 (撰)
About the work
The Zhǔnzhāi xīnzhì jǐlòu túshì is a Southern-Sòng monograph in one juǎn on the design, graduation and use of a particular form of small lòuhú 漏壺 (water-clock or clepsydra) called the jǐlòu 幾漏 — literally “table clepsydra” — devised by the author in his Zhǔnzhāi 準齋 (“Levelling Studio”). The work consists primarily of technical diagrams (túshì 圖式) of the instrument, with brief explanatory text accompanying each plate. The catalog note “Zeitmessung” (time-measurement) places the work in the zǐbù 子部 tiānwén sub-genre of horological treatises.
Abstract
The work survives in the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn citations and was recovered for the Sìkù tradition; it is a primary witness to the Southern-Sòng tradition of horological-instrument design that culminates in the famous mechanical astronomical clock-tower of 蘇頌 Sū Sòng at Kāifēng (1086–92) and in the Xīnyí xiàng fǎ yào 新儀象法要. Sūn’s jǐlòu is a much simpler instrument than Sū Sòng’s clock-tower: it is a desk-top compensated-flow clepsydra of the type developed in the HànTáng tradition and refined under the Sòng Sītiānjiān. The Zhǔnzhāi studio name is the author’s signature and gives the work its title.
The diagrams treat (a) the form of the vessels and the sequence of kāishuǐ 開水 (regulated-flow) compensating tanks, (b) the design of the biāogān 標桿 (the rising indicator-rod with floats and tally-marks), (c) the graduation of the kè 刻 (the 100-kè day) and the seasonal correction, and (d) the deployment of the instrument under different climatic conditions. The work is the principal companion text to the catalog’s KR3fa007 Tónghú lòujiàn zhìdù 銅壺漏箭制度 (anonymous Sòng), a related description of a bronze-pot floating-indicator clepsydra.
Translations and research
- Joseph Needham, Wang Ling and Derek J. de Solla Price. 1986 [1960]. Heavenly Clockwork: The Great Astronomical Clocks of Medieval China. 2nd ed. with supplement by John H. Combridge. Cambridge: CUP. — the foundational study of Sòng-period Chinese horology, with extensive discussion of the lòu-hú tradition; cites the Zhǔnzhāi work.
- 華同旭 Huà Tóngxù. 1991. Zhōngguó lòukè 中國漏刻. Hefei: Anhui kēxué jìshù. — comprehensive Chinese-language study of the clepsydra tradition; cites Sūn Féngjí.
- Jeon Sang-woon 全相運. 1974. Science and Technology in Korea: Traditional Instruments and Techniques. MIT Press. — relevant for the Korean Choson-period transmission and refinement of Sòng clepsydra designs.
Other points of interest
The text is one of the very few surviving pre-Yuán monographs on a single class of scientific instrument by its designer, in the genre that combines treatise and engineering drawing (túshì 圖式). It is paralleled in this respect by Sū Sòng’s Xīnyí xiàng fǎ yào (1094) for the great clock-tower, and contrasts with the abstract-mathematical Suànjīng tradition.
Links
- Companion: KR3fa007 Tónghú lòujiàn zhìdù 銅壺漏箭制度.
- Related: Sū Sòng’s Xīnyí xiàng fǎ yào 新儀象法要 (cataloged in the Sòng technical literature).