Huíhuí lìfǎ shìlì 回回曆法釋例
Worked Examples of the Islamic Calendar Method by 貝琳 (校刊)
About the work
The Huíhuí lìfǎ shìlì 回回曆法釋例, in one juàn, is the explanatory companion-volume to the procedural text KR3fb003 Huíhuí lìfǎ 回回曆法 — the late-fifteenth-century printed recension by Bèi Lín 貝琳 of the Nánjīng Qīntiānjiān of the Hóng-wǔ-period Chinese translation of the Islamic ephemeris manual. Where KR3fb003 supplies the procedural specification and underlying parameters, this Shìlì walks the reader through worked examples: the division of the celestial sphere into 12 zodiacal palaces (gōng 宮 — i.e. 360°), the count of Hijra years from the epoch (Xīyù Ālābǐnián 西域阿剌必年, set at Suí Kāihuáng 19 jǐwèi = 599 CE, with the working epoch giving 786 Hijra years to Hóngwǔ jiǎzǐ 1384), the days per zodiacal “fixed month” (bùdòng de yuè 不動的月), the Persian month-names rendered phonetically (Farvardin 法而斡而丁, Ardibehesht 阿而的必喜世, Khordād 虎而達, etc.), and the procedures for computing moveable feasts and the solar/lunar mean longitudes for any given date.
Abstract
The work has no separate signed preface — its rationale is supplied by the Wú Bózōng 1383 preface attached to KR3fb003 — and opens directly with 「釋用數例 / 周天計十二宮 / 共三百六十度…」 (“Examples of use-numbers: the celestial circuit reckons twelve palaces, totalling 360 degrees…”), proceeding through the technical glossary in a strictly applied manner. As preserved in the Xùxiū sìkù quánshū recension, the Shìlì and the Huíhuí lìfǎ are physically bound as a single work in two parts; modern catalogues (the krp-titles series and Xùxiū sìkù) split them as KR3fb003 + KR3fb004.
The dating bracket follows that of its parent: notBefore 1383 (the original translation by Wú Bózōng, Lǐ Chōng, Mǎshā Yīhēi 馬沙亦黑 et al.), notAfter 1490 (Bèi Lín’s death). The printed recension as transmitted dates from c. 1477 (Chénghuà 13). Bèi Lín’s contribution to the Shìlì — as to the parent — was collation, supply of lacunae, completion of ten essential ready-reckoner tables, and the practical printing of the work; he did not redraft the procedural body.
The Persian month-name transcriptions in this juàn are an important witness to the YuánMíng Sino-Persian phonological correspondence used at the Huíhuí sītiānjiān; together with the parallel transcriptions in the Huíhuí yàofāng 回回藥方 they form the principal corpus for the study of the early-Míng Huíhuí guǎn yìyǔ 回回館譯語 lexicon as applied in technical-scientific Chinese.
Translations and research
- van Dalen, Benno. 2002. “Islamic Astronomical Tables in China: The Sources for the Huihui li.” In History of Oriental Astronomy, ed. S. M. Razaullah Ansari, 19–32. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
- 陳久金 Chén Jiǔjīn. 1996. Huí-huí tiān-wén-xué shǐ yánjiū 回回天文学史研究. Nán-níng: Guǎng-xī kē-jì chū-bǎn-shè.
- 石云里 Shí Yún-lǐ. Several papers in Archive for History of Exact Sciences (2014–18) on Sino-Islamic astronomical practice at the Míng Qīntiānjiān.
- 李亮 Lǐ Liàng. 2016. Yuán Míng lì-fǎ jí qí yánjiū 元明历法及其研究. Hé-féi: Zhōng-guó kē-xué jì-shù dà-xué chū-bǎn-shè.