Sānyuán lièshè rùxiù qùjí jí 三垣列舍入宿去極集
Compendium of the Three Enclosures, the Sequence of Asterisms, their Right Ascensions and Declinations
About the work
This Míng anonymous compendium in one juǎn is a tabular star-catalog. The title decomposes into the four organising principles of the catalog:
- Sānyuán 三垣 — the Three Enclosures (Zǐwēi, Tàiwēi, Tiānshì) of the circumpolar and zenithal sky;
- Lièshè 列舍 — the sequence (liè 列) of asterism “lodgings” (shè 舍) across the sky;
- Rùxiù 入宿 — the rùxiù dù 入宿度, the right-ascension coordinate giving how far a star lies in degrees within its lunar lodge (xiù 宿);
- Qùjí 去極 — the qùjí dù 去極度, the polar-distance coordinate giving the declination of each star from the celestial pole.
The catalog is in tabular (biǎo 表) form. Each entry gives the asterism name, the star number within the asterism, the rùxiù and qùjí coordinates, and (where relevant) the astrological assignment. It is the working tool of the Míng-bureau astronomer, complementary to the verse mnemonic of 王希明’s Bùtiān gē (KR3fa005) and to the diagrammatic túshuō of KR3fa014 – KR3fa016.
Abstract
The work is anonymous (yìmíng 佚名) and undated. The coordinate system used — rùxiù + qùjí — is the standard pre-Jesuit equatorial-and-polar-distance system, decisively superseded by the Jesuit-introduced huángjīng + huángwěi 黃經、黃緯 (ecliptic longitude and latitude) after the Chóngzhēn lìshū of 1635. This places the work firmly in the late-Míng pre-Jesuit window. The composition bracket adopted here (1368–1644) is the Míng dynasty; the work most likely belongs to the late Míng (the 1500–1635 sub-window), but no internal evidence narrows it further.
The coordinates given are calibrated for a specific epoch (the lìyuán 曆元) which is not securely identifiable from the surviving text; analogy with other Míng catalogs suggests the Dàtǒng lì 1384 epoch. Pan Nai (1989) treats the work in his comprehensive survey of pre-modern Chinese stellar coordinates and notes that its tabular discipline anticipates the much larger Jesuit-collaboration star tables of the KR3fa021 Línɡtái yíxiàng zhì of 南懷仁 Verbiest (1674).
The work survives in the Sìkù wèishōu shū jíkān and is reprinted in the Zhōngguó kēxué jìshù diǎnjí tōnghuì (refid KX03-07-016).
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. — surveys the rùxiù / qùjí coordinate tradition in pre-Jesuit catalogs.
- Sun Xiaochun and Jacob Kistemaker. 1997. The Chinese Sky During the Han: Constellating Stars and Society. Leiden: Brill.
- Stephenson, F. Richard. 1994. “Chinese and Korean Star Maps and Catalogs.” History of Cartography, vol. 2.2, Chicago: UCP, 511–578.