Yu Xi
Yu Xi (
Background and official career[edit]
The life and works of Yu Xi are described in his biography found in the Book of Jin, the official history of the Jin dynasty.[1] He was born in Yuyao, Guiji (modern Shaoxing, Zhejiang province, China). His father Yu Cha (
Works[edit]
In 336 AD Yu Xi wrote the An Tian Lun (
Yu Xi wrote a critical analysis of the huntian (渾天) theory of the celestial sphere,[1] arguing that the heavens surrounding the earth were infinite and motionless.[4] He advanced the idea that the shape of the Earth was either square or round, but that it had to correspond to the shape of the heavens enveloping it.[4] The huntian theory, as mentioned by Western Han dynasty astronomer Luoxia Hong (fl. 140–104 BC) and fully described by the Eastern Han dynasty polymath scientist and statesman Zhang Heng (78–139 AD), insisted that the heavens were spherical and that the Earth was like an egg yolk at its center.[6] Yu Xi's ideas about the infinity of outer space seem to echo Zhang's ideas of endless space even beyond the celestial sphere.[4] Although mainstream Chinese science before European influence in the 17th century surmised that the Earth was flat and square-shaped, some scholars, such as Song dynasty mathematician Li Ye (1192–1279 AD), proposed the idea that it was spherical like the heavens.[7] The acceptance of a spherical Earth can be seen in the astronomical and geographical treatise Gezhicao (
Yu Xi is known to have written commentaries on the various Chinese classics.[1] His commentaries and notes were mostly lost before the Tang dynasty, but the fragments preserved in other texts were collected in a single compendium by Qing-dynasty scholar Ma Guohan (1794–1857).[1]
See also[edit]
- History of science and technology in China
- Kunyu Wanguo Quantu, Chinese world map published in 1602 by the Jesuit Matteo Ricci and Ming-Chinese colleagues, based on European discoveries
- Shanhai Yudi Quantu, Chinese world map published in 1609
Citations[edit]
- ^ a b c d e Knechtges and Chang (2014), p. 2010.
- ^ Knechtges and Chang (2014), p. 2009.
- ^ The first English rendering is given by Needham and Ling (1995), p. 220, whereas the second translated title is provided by Knechtges and Chang (2014), p. 2010.
- ^ a b c d Needham and Ling (1995), p. 220.
- ^ a b Sun (2017), p. 120.
- ^ Needham and Ling (1995), pp. 216–217.
- ^ Needham and Ling (1995), pp. 498–499.
- ^ a b Needham and Ling (1995), p. 499.
- ^ Needham and Ling (1995), pp. 227, 499.
- ^ Cullen (1993), pp. 269–270; see also Song and Chen (1996), p. 308.
References[edit]
- Cullen, Christopher. (1993). "Appendix A: A Chinese Eratosthenes of the Flat Earth: a Study of a Fragment of Cosmology in Huainanzi", in Major, John. S. (ed), Heaven and Earth in Early Han Thought: Chapters Three, Four, and Five of the Huananzi. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-7914-1585-6.
- Knechtges, David R.; Chang, Taiping. (2014). Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature: a Reference Guide, vol 3. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-26788-6.
- Needham, Joseph; Wang, Ling. (1995) [1959]. Science and Civilization in China: Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth, vol. 3, reprint edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-05801-5.
- Song, Zhenghai; Chen, Chuankang. (1996). "Why did Zheng He’s Sea Voyage Fail to Lead the Chinese to Make the ‘Great Geographic Discovery’?" in Fan, Dainian; Cohen, Robert S. (eds), Chinese Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, translated by Kathleen Dugan and Jiang Mingshan, pp 303-314. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. ISBN 0-7923-3463-9.
- Sun, Kwok. (2017). Our Place in the Universe: Understanding Fundamental Astronomy from Ancient Discoveries, second edition. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-54171-6.