Astronomy and mathematics in ancient China : the Zhou bi suan jing / Christopher Cullen.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 227-235) and index.

The background of the Zhou bi -- The Zhou bi and its contents -- The origins of the work -- The later history of the Zhou bi -- Zhou bi suan jing: translation -- The preface of Zhao Shuang. The book of Shang Gao. The book of Chen Zi. The square and the circle. The seven heng. The shapes of heaven and earth; day and night. The xuan ji; polar and tropical conditions. The graduated circle and north polar distance. The shadow table. Lunar lag. Rising, setting and seasons. Calendrical cycles -- Appendix 1 Zhao Shuang and Pythagoras' theorem -- Appendix 2 Zhao Shuang and the height of the sun -- Appendix 3 Zhao Shuang and the diagram of the seven heng -- Appendix 4 The old shadow table.

This is a study and translation of the Zhou bi suan jing, a Chinese work on astronomy and mathematics which reached its final form around the first century AD. The author provides the first easily accessible introduction to the developing mathematical and observational practices of ancient Chinese astronomers and shows how the generation and validation of knowledge about the heavens in Han dynasty China related closely to developments in statecraft and politics. The book will be of equal interest to historians of science and those studying the history of Chinese culture.

Local access dig. pdf. [Cullen-Zhoubi.pdf]

Online borrowing at the Internet Archive

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).

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

Introduction -- The astronomical empire -- Li in everyday life: dates and calendars -- The emperor's grand inception, and the defeat of the grand clerk -- The triple concordance system and Liu Xin's 'Grand unified theory' -- The measures and forms of heavens -- Restoration and re-creation in the Eastern Han -- The age of debates -- Li Hong and the conquest of the moon -- Epilogue.

"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 centers on the activity of the individual human beings who observed the heavens, recorded what they saw, and made calculations to analyze and eventually make predictions about the motions of the celestial bodies"-- Provided by publisher

Local access dig.pdf [Cullen-Heavenly Numbers.pdf]