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Work of Art of the Han Dynasty Unearthed in China and Observations of Solar Phenomena

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Xu Zhen-tao
Xu Zhen-tao*
Affiliation:
Purple Mountain Observatory, Nanjing, China

Extract

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In Chinese ancient times the Sun worship was in vogue. Mainly there were two sorts of the worship rites: 1) for rising and setting Sun; 2) for solar eclipses. Many evidences for Sun worship have been found in Chinese ancient books and bone inscriptions (Xu Zhentao et al.1985).

The everyday worship to the Sun certainly caused spontaneous observations for solar phenomena. Since the ancients only had a limited knowledge they could not understand what were these phenomena and they, however, created many wonderful myths to describe them. These myths about Solar phenomena have vividly been expressed in the works of art of the Han Dynasty recently unearthed. So analysing the works of art we may trace the original phenomena of solar activity.

Type
Ancient Astronomy and its Characteristics
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 91: History of Oriental Astronomy , 1987 , pp. 51 - 56
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

References

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