Twenty-four histories 17 volumes, covering astronomy, calendar, five elements and astronomical phenomena. There are traditional astronomical records in all kinds of astronomical records, which ensure the integrity of ancient astronomical records in China. These records are the main sources of data for studying the history of Chinese astronomy.
Twenty-four histories are devoted to astronomy, calendar, five elements and astronomical phenomena, including historical records, Han books, later Han books, Jin Shu, Song books, Nanqi books, Shu Wei, Sui Shu, old Tang books, new Tang books and new Tang books.
Some of these historical records are of great value for the first time in history books.
Historical Records of the Official Book written by Sima Qian, a historian of the Western Han Dynasty, summarizes the astronomical knowledge before the Western Han Dynasty, describes in detail the names of all the stars and their distribution in the fifth house of the whole day, and lists more than 90 groups of names of the stars and more than 500 stars, but their names are often different from those of later generations, which provides data for studying the evolution of the names of the stars.
Records of the Historian Tianguanshu also points out the corresponding relationship between Beidou and the stars, and the position of the stars can be determined according to the observation of Beidou. The description of the size and color of the stars shows the brightness and temperature of the stars, which is a rare information about the physical properties of the stars in ancient China.
Records of the Historian Tianguan Ji also describes many astronomical phenomena, comets, meteors and strange stars, describes their shapes and differences, and records the understanding that "a star falls on the ground and is also a stone". In addition, the laws of motion of the five major planets, the periodicity of solar and lunar eclipses, and the division of twenty-eight lodges and twelve states are all recorded here for the first time.
Hanshu was written by Ma Wenjia, a great scholar in the Han Dynasty. All-star statistics are 1 18 official, with 783 stars. Astronomical records record in detail the time when various astronomical phenomena appear, especially the time and orientation when planets move among stars, white sunlight and coma appear.
The Book of the Later Han Dynasty was written by Sima Biao, a historian in the Western Jin Dynasty, and continues to record this series of astronomical phenomena.
The "Five Elements Records" in the two books focus on events such as solar eclipse, solar eclipse, solar halo, prominence, coma, meteorite, etc., especially the eclipse and time of the solar eclipse, which gives a valuable description of the time and shape of sunspots and is an important source of early astronomical records.
Tian Wenzhi, Book of Jin, was written by Li, an astronomer in the Tang Dynasty. This is an important astronomical work. Although it came out later than Song Shu and Nanhe's Annals of Astronomy and Five Elements, it is rich in content and basically a summary of the history of astronomy before the Jin Dynasty.
Among them, there are discussions about the structure of heaven and earth, about the theory that heaven covers the night, about the theory of heaven, and the arguments and accusations between them;
The structure, size and evolution of the elephant created by each generation; There is a new description of Quantianxing, counting 283 officials, 1464 stars, which is the number of stars from Ganshiwu to China in the late Ming Dynasty summarized by Chen Zhuo.
There is a boundary between the star and the Milky Way; 12 communications with counties and 28 cabins; There are also observations of various celestial phenomena, pointing out for the first time that comets shine because of the sun, and their tails always turn their backs on the sun.
Finally, a large number of astronomical phenomena were recorded, which made the astronomical records of past dynasties continue.
Records was also written by Li. As for the structure of heaven and earth, the content of Mantianxing is quite similar to that of Golden Branch, because it was written by one person at a time. However, this book discusses the structure and trace of the armillary sphere in detail, and records for the first time the armillary sphere cast by former Zhao Kongting and Northern Wei Hulan, leaving precious information on the structure of the early armillary sphere.
Tian Wenzhi of Sui Shu also discusses the contents of covering land and missing engravings. , and record 10 five-shift system. The results of photogrammetry in Jiaozhou, Jinling and Luoyang are listed for the first time, and it is pointed out that the statement that "an inch is separated by thousands of miles" is not true.
The book also quoted Jiang Ji's discovery that "at the beginning of a day, there is air in the ground, so the color is red and big, and there is no air in the sky, so the color is white and small", which is in line with the reason of poor air.
Zhang Zixin, an astronomer who lived on an island for many years during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, was quoted as saying that the movement of the sun was fast and slow, and the movement of the planets was uneven, and the reasons for inspiration were put forward to explain it. These are all important discoveries in the history of astronomy in China.
The new and old Tang books are written by different authors, and the details are different, so you can refer to them. The two books Tian discussed in detail that the iron armillary sphere of the Northern Wei Dynasty had rusted in the early Tang Dynasty and could not be used.
Li Zhu's celestial globe zodiac instrument has established a three-layer gauge ring structure of the armillary sphere, and considering the frequent changes of the ecliptic, the ecliptic can run on the ecliptic ring. Later, a group of people and Liang Lingzan cast an ecliptic sky patrol instrument to let the ecliptic swim on the equatorial ring, symbolizing precession.
"New Tang Book Field" records the structure and whereabouts of these two instruments, and lists the results of a line of measurement for 28 nights, and finds that there are systematic changes in ancient and modern measurements.
The New and Old Tang Book Tian also records the geodetic survey and achievements of the theory of Yihang and Nangong, and finds the fallacy of "an inch is separated by thousands of miles", and finds that the difference of shadow length between north and south is related to the place and season, so it is more appropriate to express the difference of shadow length with the degree of North Pole.
Tian Wenzhi's new and old Tang books also recorded various astronomical phenomena in the Tang Dynasty in a large space, which brought out the best in each other.
In particular, the old books in the Tang Dynasty recorded the affiliation and staffing of astronomical institutions in the Tang Dynasty, as well as the corresponding rules and regulations, especially the rule that officials in charge of astronomy were not allowed to associate with the people, which made astronomy gradually become a royal monopoly.
This information is very important for studying the history of Chinese astronomy. Tian Wenzhi is an important work after Jin Zhi.
The history of the old Five Dynasties and the history of the new Five Dynasties are also written by two people, only remembering the astronomical phenomena of solar eclipse and coma, but the history of the old Five Dynasties is recorded in more detail.
The History of the Song Dynasty, Tian Wenzhi, is voluminous. In addition to describing the starry sky in detail and recording various astronomical phenomena in the Song Dynasty, it also introduces the brief situation of soldiers, water transport soldiers and instrument platform manufacturing in the Northern Song Dynasty. Three papers written by Shen Kuo, namely On Soldiers, On Floating Leaks and On Scenery, are important materials in the history of astronomy.
The History of Jin is the most concise in the history of Song, Liao and Jin, but it seems unreasonable to put the contents of astronomical instruments in the history of Jin. This paper describes the situation that the musical instruments in the Northern Song Dynasty were brought to Jin after the Song Dynasty was destroyed, which provided valuable historical materials for the changes of musical instruments.
Tian Wenzhi, a history of Yuan Dynasty, described in detail all kinds of instruments created by Guo Shoujing, the situation and results of the "Four Seas Experiment" in Yuan Dynasty, and the introduction of Arabic instruments, and concentrated on seven kinds of instruments and images in the western regions. It was the most concentrated and systematic input of astronomical instruments before the Ming Dynasty. It is an important historical material after the Tang Dynasty.
Tian Wenzhi of Shi Ming is an important material to describe this situation after the confluence of Chinese and Western astronomy, and many contents should be taken from the almanac of Chongzhen. Here are the Tycho system, the data of the distance between the sun, the moon and the planet and the earth, the initial discovery of galileo telescope, the invisible stars in the southern sky and northern hemisphere of China, some astronomical instruments in the west, the ecliptic coordinate system and so on.
The main content of the law in Twenty-four History is temperament, which seems to be not closely related to astronomy. Calendar is the main content of the history of Chinese astronomy, and every historical chronicle is the information source of China history.
Starting from Historical Records and Almanac, some basic data and calculation methods of calendars have been recorded in detail in various histories, as well as the corresponding calendar evolution and theoretical problems.
In addition to calendar calculation, there are some information about the background of calendar evolution and calendar change.
The Book of the Later Han Dynasty contains the rise and fall of taichu calendar and the four seasons calendars, such as Jia Kui calendar, Yongyuan calendar, Yan Guang calendar, Han An calendar, Xi Ping calendar and lunar eclipse.
Zu Chongzhi and Dai Faxing argued about the calendar theory in Song Shu. There is a discussion about Dayan calendar in the Book of New Tang Dynasty. There is a discussion about the chronograph calendar in Yuan Li Shizhi. The history of Ming dynasty includes the evolution of calendar, the origin of Dali calendar and so on.
These are very important chapters. These are all necessary materials for studying the calendar history of our country.
In addition to the astronomy, calendar, astronomical phenomena and five elements listed above, there are some chapters on astronomy in the twenty-four histories. For example, there are many important astronomical records and some situations before and after these astronomical phenomena. The records of rites, sacrifices, duties, classics, arts and literature include astronomical institutions, astronomical sacrifices and astronomical books.
In addition, there are many biographies of astronomers in Biography of Ji Fang, Biography of Confucian Scholars, Biography of Art, Biography of Wen Yuan and Biography of Literature, which provide a basis for studying astronomers and their works and contributions. Therefore, The Twenty-four History is indeed a treasure house of China's astronomical literature history.