Heavenly numbers : astronomy and authority in early imperial China / Christopher Cullen (Needham Research Institute and Darwin College, Cambridge, CRCAO, Paris, Sometime scholar of University College, Oxford, and Research Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge).

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cullen, Christopher, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Astronomy--China--History.

Astronomy.

China--History--221 B.C.-960 A.D.

China.

Physical Description:

1 online resource : illustrations (black and white)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2018.

Summary:

A history of the development of mathematical astronomy in China, from the late third century BCE, to the early 3rd century CE - a period often referred to as 'early imperial China'. It narrates the changes in ways of understanding the movements of the heavens and the heavenly bodies that took place during those four and a half centuries, and tells the stories of the institutions and individuals involved in those changes. It gives clear explanations of technical practice in observation, instrumentation, and calculation, and the steady accumulation of data over many years - but it centres on the activity of the individual human beings who observed the heavens, recorded what they saw, and made calculations to analyse and eventually make predictions about the motions of the celestial bodies.

Notes:

This edition previously issued in print: 2017.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 399-413) and index.

Description based on print version record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-19-104754-6

0-19-104753-8

0-19-179770-7

OCLC:

1032362911