Shi Shen

Shi Shen

Shi Shen, the year of birth and death remains to be examined. He was also known as Shi Shenfu, Shi Shenfu or Shi Shenfu. He was an astronomer and astrologer of the Wei state in the middle Warring States period. He was born in Kaifeng. He was one of the Chinese who named the crater on the back of the moon after him. He wrote eight volumes of astronomy, which was honored as Shi Shi Xing Jing after the Western Han Dynasty. The eight volumes of astronomy and the eight volumes of Gande's xingzhan are collectively called Ganshi Xingjing, which plays an important role in the history of astronomy in China and the world.

Profile

Shi Shen has systematically observed the movement of five planets, namely, gold, wood, water, fire and earth. He has discovered the rules of their occurrence, recorded their names, and determined the positions of 121 stars. The data have been used by later astronomers. After long-term observation and detailed examination, 138 stars with 810 stars have been detected.

According to Kaiyuan ZHANJING, there are 62 Zhongguan, 30 Waiguan and 28 suos, totaling 120. At the same time, we give the degree of arrival and the degree of depolarization of 121 stars in 120 seats of Shi's catalogue.

The eight volumes of astronomy are lost. Later generations, together with the eight volumes of Gande's xingzhan, called it "Ganshi Xingjing", also known as "Xingjing". It was included in the book "daozang" published in Zhenghe period of the Northern Song Dynasty, with the title of "Tongzhan Xiangxiang Licheng Jing". There are two volumes of Gan Shi Xing Jing in this book. Although some later generations have added some embellishments to it, it still has the original appearance. It is a document with high scientific value for astronomical research.

The research achievements of Shi Shen and Gande are valued by the astrologers in the past dynasties, and a large number of their research achievements are quoted in the official history of astronomy. The craters on the back of the moon are named after the late world famous scientists. Among them, five Chinese names were selected (the other four were Zu Chongzhi, Zhang Heng, Guo Shoujing and WAN Hu). Because of his outstanding contribution to astronomical research, Shi Shen's name was also listed in the Moon Palace. The crater named after Shi Shen is located in the northwest corner of the back of the moon, not far from the North Pole. The coordinates of the lunar surface are 105 ° East and 76 ° north, covering an area of 350 square kilometers.

important contribution

Shi Shen's contribution to astronomy is the location of stars near the ecliptic and their distance from the North Pole determined by him and Gande of Chu. It is the oldest star table in the world. According to legend, he measured 138 stars, a total of 810. According to some contents of Shi Shen's works preserved in Kaiyuan ZHANJING of Tang Dynasty, the most important one is the coordinate position of 121 stars marked with "Shi Shi Yue" (the records of 6 star officials lost in today's Kaiyuan ZHANJING). According to the calculation of astronomical phenomena in different times, modern astronomers show that some of the coordinate values (such as the depolarization of Shi's central and extraterrestrial officials and the inner and outer degrees of the ecliptic) may have been measured in the Han Dynasty, while the other part (such as the twenty-eight degrees of solar distance) really coincides with the age of Shizhong in the fourth century BC.

China is one of the earliest countries in astronomy. Due to the need of agricultural production and calendar making, Chinese ancestors began to observe astronomical phenomena very early, and used them to determine the location, time and season.

Main impact

Writing

Shi Shen and Gande had a great influence in the Warring States, Qin and Han Dynasties, forming two parallel schools. Shi Shen's works were honored as Shi Shi Xing Jing after the Western Han Dynasty. After the Han and Wei dynasties, the Shi school continued to write works, which were all crowned with the word "Shi", such as "Shi Xing Jing Bu Zan".

During the Three Kingdoms period, Wu Tai Shi ordered Chen Zhuo to combine Shi, Gan, and Wu Xian (astronomers in the Yin and Shang Dynasties) to form a constellation system of 283 and 1464 stars. Since then, there have been astrological works integrating the three astrological palaces. One of them is called "Xingjing", also known as "Tongzhan Xiangxiang Lixing Jing", which was once included in daozang. In Song Dynasty, the book was called "Gan Shi Xing Jing" and named "Han Gan Gong, Shi Shen Zhu". It was first recorded in Chao Gong Wu's "Jun Zhai Du Shu Zhi" and has been handed down till now. The book includes the Xingguan of Wu Xian family and the place names of Tang Dynasty, so it can't be regarded as the original works of Shi Shen and Gande.

The Warring States period was the time when Chinese astronomers established, perfected and systematized the quartile calendar. It can be seen from the scattered historical documents that Shi Shenfu played an important role in the development of the quartile calendar. Its contributions are as follows:

"Shiji tianguanshu" said: "so Gan, Shi Li five-star method, only Yinghuo anti retrograde." "Astronomical annals of the Han Dynasty" says: "the push of the five stars in the ancient calendar, the dead and the rebellious. To Gan's and Shi's meridians, Yinghuo and Taibai are retrograde The Kaiyuan ZHANJING contains the calculation method of Shi's Venus movement (including travel). It can be seen that Shi Shenfu has a method to calculate the movement of five stars, and has involved the calculation of Mars and Venus retrograde.

In Wei state, the quartile calendar was issued, which used the rule of 365 + 1 / 4 days per year, 29 + 499 / 940 days per month, seven Intercalations in 19 years and one cycle in 76 years. Its basic data and structure are similar to historical records · Lishu, so all kinds of documents are omitted.

The method of ganzhijiri is used to cycle Jiri.

This method is recorded in tianguanshu of Shiji.

Use Zhou Zheng to begin with the month of the winter solstice.

According to tianguanshu in Shiji, there were four famous astronomers in the Warring States Period: "in Qi, Gan Gong; in Chu, Tang Mei; in Zhao, Yin Gao; in Wei, Shi Shen." Each astronomy has astrology content. In their works, we can see the situation of war at that time, and record all kinds of statements for political events, that is, "Tian compiled Qi, three divided Jin, and for the Warring States period. In recent times, twelve princes and seven kingdoms' prime ministers and kings of the Twelve Kingdoms and seven kingdoms spoke of following (vertical) the balance, while Gao, Tang, Gan and Shi discussed their books and biographies on the basis of current affairs, so they had a lot of experience. " Shiji Zhengyi quoted Liang Ruan Xiaoxu's Qilu in the Southern Dynasty as saying, "Shi Shen, a Wei man, wrote eight volumes of astronomy in the Warring States period." Unfortunately, the book has been lost.

The fragmentary fragments of Shi Shen's works quoted in the book of astronomy in Hanshu can give us a glimpse of his research contents in astronomy and Astrology: "the year star (i To win in Northeast China, Shi's "Jian Jue Xing" (also known as Tian Gu Bang) " "See tanyun (Tiantan, a kind of comet with a sharp tail), such as a cow" in Shi Shi To the northwest, Shi's "see gun cloud (i.e., tiangun, a kind of comet, with sharp ends), like a horse" In Shi Shi Shi, "the spear, sandalwood, gall and comet are different, and their calamities are one too." there must be a king who breaks the country and disorganizes him, and he will be killed. The rest of the calamities are endless, and they are drought, ferocity, hunger and violent disease. "

Catalogue

A catalogue is a compilation of the coordinates of several stars (often together with other characteristics) measured. It is an important tool in astronomy. In ancient China, many star catalogues were compiled. The earliest one was in the Warring States period. Its observer was Shi Shen, also known as Shi Shenfu or Shi Shenfu, who was from the state of Wei. The time of Shi Shen's activity was about the 4th century BC. He wrote eight volumes of astronomy. Because of its high value, he was honored as Shi Shi Xing Jing by later generations. Unfortunately, Shi Shi Xing Jing was lost after Song Dynasty. Now we can only find some excerpts from the astronomy Book Kaiyuan ZHANJING of Tang Dynasty. Later generations compiled a Shi's catalogue from these fragments, in which there are 28 constellations (each constellation is called the constellations of this constellation) and 115 other stars (there are 121 stars in the original Shi's Xingjing, of which 6 are missing in the present Kaiyuan ZHANJING, and Shi Shen shared equatorial coordinates to record more than 800 stars) .

Shi's catalogue is the basis of ancient astrometry, because the data of 28 degrees of orbit (the difference of right ascension between the local orbit and the lower orbit) is used to measure the position and motion of the sun and moon stars. This is an important basic data in Chinese astronomical calendar.

During the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, the astronomical calendar had a wide range of development and progress. Sima Qian said in the historical records and Almanac: "after you Li, Zhou Shi Wei and his accompanying officials were in power. The history did not record the time and the monarch did not tell the new moon. Therefore, the children of Chou people were scattered, either in Zhuxia or Yidi." "Chou Ren" refers to the astronomer who has been handed down from generation to generation. At that time, for the needs of agricultural production and astrology, all countries attached great importance to astronomical observation and research. According to the records of astronomy in the book of Jin, "Lu youzishen, Jin youbuyan, Zheng youbaizao, song youziwei, Qi yougande, Chu youtangmei, Zhao youyingao, Wei youshishen all hold astronomy, and they all have their own views on Astronomy (the officials in charge of astronomy in various countries put forward explanations to the rulers according to the changes of astronomical phenomena." This kind of situation plays a positive role in the observation of astronomical phenomena and the improvement of planetary and stellar knowledge.

calendar

In terms of calendar, Shi Shen's chronology is unique, especially in the 12-year cycle of metallurgy, chaos, abundance, shortage, water, drought and other forecasting methods. The characteristic of Shi Shen's Sui Xing method is that it doesn't use the names of Taisui, Taiyin and Sui Yin, but uses the name of shetige. According to Gan's theory, shitige is not only the first year's name, but also a symbol of the year. In the first and second years of the annals of the year and the star, the word "shetige" is used, and after the third year, it is used. Its name is probably due to the transformation of Sheti. Photo tigue is the name of the star, on the extension line of dipper near Arcturus. The ancients used it with dipper to determine the season. "She ti"

Chinese PinYin : Shi Shen