Tiānxiàng yí quántú 天象儀全圖
Complete Atlas of the Celestial-Image Instrument by 徐敬儀 (輯)
About the work
The Tiānxiàng yí quántú is a Míng-period one-juǎn set of star-and-sky diagrams compiled by Xú Jìngyí 徐敬儀. The title “tiānxiàng yí” 天象儀 (“celestial-image instrument”) refers to the armillary-and-celestial-globe instruments of the imperial astronomical bureau; quántú 全圖 indicates that the work undertakes to give the complete sky in diagram form, presumably an enlarged sky-planisphere comparable to the YuánMíng tradition of stone planispheres (the famous Sūzhōu 1247 Píngjiāng tiānwén tú of Huáng Shāng 黃裳 being the most familiar predecessor).
Abstract
Composition window: Míng dynasty (1368–1644). No narrower date is securely recoverable. The work belongs to the same Míng popular-astronomy genre as the KR3fa015 Tiānwén túshuō of Yuán Qǐ 袁啟 and the KR3fa016 Tiānwén sānshíliù quántú; together these constitute a small Míng group of illustrated single-juǎn sky-handbooks intended for use outside the imperial bureau. They are valuable witnesses to the pre-Jesuit Chinese asterism inventory, the convention being that of 王希明’s Bùtiān gē (KR3fa005) with Yuán Shòushí lì updates.
The text is preserved in private Míng libraries, in the Sìkù wèishōu shū jíkān, and is reprinted in the Zhōngguó kēxué jìshù diǎnjí tōnghuì (refid KX03-07-012).
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language translation located.
- Pan Nai 潘鼐. 1989. Zhōngguó héngxīng guāncè shǐ 中國恆星觀測史. Shanghai. — places the Míng sky-handbooks in the history of asterism cataloging.
- Sun Xiaochun and Jacob Kistemaker. 1997. The Chinese Sky During the Han. Leiden: Brill.
- Stephenson, F. Richard. 1994. “Chinese and Korean Star Maps and Catalogs.” In Harley & Woodward (eds.), The History of Cartography, vol. 2.2 (Cartography in the Traditional East and Southeast Asian Societies), Chicago: UCP, 511–578.