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方星圖解

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Text ID
KR3fa023
Date
1694–1712
Dynasty
清

Fāngxīng tújiě 方星圖解

Explanation of the Square Star-Chart by 閔明我 (撰)

About the work

The Fāngxīng tújiě is a Qīng-period one-juǎn treatise by the Italian Jesuit 閔明我 Claudio Filippo Grimaldi, S.J. (1638–1712), on the construction, calibration and use of the fāngxīng tú 方星圖 — a square-grid (rectangular Mercator-like projection) star-map. The fāngxīng convention differs from the indigenous Chinese circular planisphere tradition (such as the Sūzhōu 1247 stone) by using a rectangular grid of huángjīng 黃經 (ecliptic longitude) and huángwěi 黃緯 (ecliptic latitude), so that small angular distances and bearings can be read directly. The work is a working tool for the Bureau’s astronomers, complementary to 南懷仁 Verbiest’s KR3fa021 Línɡtái yíxiàng zhì (which describes the observational instruments) and to the Schall-Verbiest Xīyáng xīnfǎ lìshū (which gives the theoretical framework).

Abstract

Composition window: Grimaldi’s tenure as Qīntiānjiān jiànzhèng (1694–1712). The work is one of the very few Chinese astronomical monographs explicitly authored by a Jesuit successor of Verbiest in the early Kāngxī period. It uses the Tychonic-Keplerian astronomical framework introduced into China by Schall and Verbiest; the star positions tabulated are calibrated for the Kāngxī 23 (1684) epoch — the Yǒngnián lì 永年曆 epoch adopted by Verbiest for the imperial calendar.

The Fāngxīng tú itself is a printed map (now extremely rare; copies survive in the Vatican Library, in the BNF, and at the Bibliotheca Apostolica) of about a metre square, divided into a regular huángjīng × huángwěi grid with the Chinese asterism names labelled within their conventional outlines and a brief Latin gloss. The tújiě text explains the projection, the coordinate system, the asterism nomenclature equivalences (Chinese / Latin), and the operating procedures for using the chart to predict planetary positions and to take quick observations with a quadrant.

The text is preserved in the Sìkù wèishōu shū jíkān and reprinted in the Zhōngguó kēxué jìshù diǎnjí tōnghuì (refid KX03-07-019).

Translations and research

  • Golvers, Noël. 1999. Building Humanistic Libraries in Late Imperial China: Circulation of Books, Prints and Letters between Europe and China (XVII–XVIII Cent.) in the Framework of the European Mission. Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura. — contains substantial discussion of Grimaldi’s network and his scientific output.
  • Standaert, Nicolas (ed.). 2001. Handbook of Christianity in China, Volume One: 635–1800. Leiden: Brill. — Grimaldi entry by N. Standaert and N. Golvers.
  • Jami, Catherine. 2012. The Emperor’s New Mathematics: Western Learning and Imperial Authority during the Kangxi Reign (1662–1722). Oxford: OUP.
  • Pelliot, Paul. 1928. “Le voyage de C.F. Grimaldi en Russie.” T’oung Pao 26: 311–13 — on Grimaldi’s 1685–1693 diplomatic mission to Moscow and Rome.

Other points of interest

The Fāngxīng tú is one of the very first applications of a true rectangular coordinate map projection to the heavens in a Chinese-language work. It marks a definitive turn away from the circular planisphere tradition (which had been Chinese-orthodox since the Han) toward the European working chart that became the basis of all subsequent Chinese star-mapping until the introduction of full modern catalogues in the late 19th century. The methodological influence is visible in KR3fa031 Tiānxiàng yuánwěi and (especially) in KR3fa037 Qīndìng yíxiàng kǎochéng xùbiān.

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