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Cultures of Science
Chinese astronomy in the time of the Jesuits: Studies following Science and Civilisation in ChinaViewing traditional Chinese science as one of the tributaries to be merged into the grand ocean of modern/universal science, Joseph Needham placed great importance on the period of the Jesuits in the ‘Sciences of the Heavens’ section in volume 3 of Science and Civilisation in China. He considered that period a turning point when Chinese astronomy – a representative field of Chinese science – changed from its traditional form into universal/modern astronomy. Among the work of other historians of Chinese science, Joseph Needham’s work helped foster a growing interest in the astronomical work of the Jesuits in China. After more than 50 years, as many of the details in Needham’s original work have been gradually clarified and enhanced, a new picture of the Jesuits’ contribution to Chinese astronomy has taken shape. In some important respects, that picture is quite contrary to Needham’s overall claim about the role and result of Jesuit works in the development of astronomy in China, whic...
Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage 16 (2013), 250-260
A Comparison of Astronomical Terminology, Methods and Concepts in China and Mesopotamia, With Some Comments on Claims for the Transmission of Mesopotamian Astronomy to ChinaJournal for the History of Astronomy
New Astronomy in Service of Old Astrology: Close Planetary Conjunctions in Pre-Modern China2019 •
This article introduces various definitions and criteria for the astronomical phenomena of "encroachments" (close lunar and planetary conjunctions) in pre-modern China. With improvements in observations and mathematical astronomy, the standard of encroachments began to undergo many changes leading to more precise explanations of the phenomena. Before the adoption of Huihui Lifa (Islamic-Chinese calendrical astronomy), traditional Chinese methods could not predict the phenomena of encroachments, and records of encroachments were mainly based on actual observations. These records abound in Chinese dynastic histories, and they play an essential role in the interpretation of astrological omens. In the first half of the seventeenth century, the prediction of encroachments became an effective approach for examining the accuracy of different elements of calendrical astronomy besides solar and lunar eclipses. In the meantime, with the introduction of western astronomical knowledge into China, people had a better understanding of the principle of encroachments, and they began to question its rationality in astrology. Moreover, new knowledge of encroachments also brought new insights and inspired some philosophical discussions on the structure of the cosmos. However, these new astronomical methods still served the old astrology, due to the continued requirements that astronomers interpret astrological omens.
The Rhetoric and Ritual of Celestial Signs in Early Imperial China
The Rhetoric and Ritual of Celestial Signs in Early Imperial China (Introduction only)2015 •
The Rhetoric and Ritual of Celestial Signs in Early Imperial China investigates the circulation of signs such as planets in retrograde motion, comets, oddly-shaped clouds, inclement weather, and rainbows in the Western Han (206 BCE–8 CE) and Eastern Han (25–220 CE) dynasties. Building on scholarship in the history of science and previous historical studies of omenology, the present work focuses on the rhetorical and ritual dimensions of celestial signs within broader political, literary, and technical networks. It examines technical treatises in the standard histories, manuscripts on astro-omenology from the tombs of the ruling family of Dai at Mawangdui (terminus ad quem 168 BCE), memorials to the throne, liturgical repertoires, poetic celestial journeys, and early exegetical works to illuminate how celestial signs both created discursive possibilities and were themselves shaped by generic contexts and performative goals. The dissertation argues that celestial signs became meaningful always in relation to surrounding contexts, as they were read against the constellations in which they appeared, historical circumstances, present conditions in the empire, and through the voices of the deities, supplicants, rulers, and ministers that invoked them. By examining a broad range of contexts in which celestial signs appeared, this dissertation contributes to a fuller and more balanced appreciation of the variegated roles celestial signs played in the shifting culture of early imperial China.
Archives Internationales d’Histoire des Sciences
Astronomical Tables and Practices of Philippe de La Hire in Early Modern China2020 •
This article introduces the French Jesuit JeanFrançois Foucquet (1665-1741) and his astronomical treatise Lifa wenda (Dialogue on mathematical astronomy) completed in the early eighteenth-century in China. Then the rationale and process of its compilation and the possible references are analyzed. Furthermore, the present study also examines the reasons why Foucquet translated the astronomical tables of Philippe de La Hire (1640-1718), a French astronomer , and attempted to replace the outdated Tychonic tables with such tables. In addition, an explication is given to a case for the practices of La Hire’s planetary tables and the adoption of the corresponding template table in Foucquet’s works. More significantly, this paper discusses the controversy on the acceptance of La Hire’s tables in China, to which Foucquet contributed much, as well as the impact of La Hire on Foucquet.
In and Outside the Square spans overall 957 pages and includes 194 illustrations. The book is in three volumes, including: • Volume I: The Ancient Eurasian World and the Celestial Pivot • Volume II: Representations and Identities of High Powers in Neolithic and Bronze China, and • Volume III: Terrestrial and Celestial Transformations in Zhou and Early-Imperial China In and Outside the Square attempts to redefine the development of ancient, classical, and early-imperial Chinese religious beliefs and practices and philosophical inquiry with reference to continuous Chinese human interaction with the celestial realm and, within that realm, the northern celestial pole. Although it has long been known that the Chinese engaged from the beginning of the imperial era (from c. 221 BC) in a pole-based astronomy, until the present no study has traced how such an astronomy, and an astrology, both originated and affected continuously the very development of both Chinese religious beliefs and practices and classical Chinese philosophical discourse. Indeed, as this book also demonstrates by way of establishing a Eurasian-and, in fact, world-backdrop for the analyses of Chinese pole-centered beliefs and practices of c. 4500 BC – AD 200, the religions of all major Eurasian civilizations transiting the Neolithic-Bronze shift toward urbanization c. 3500-400 BC likewise were anchored in pole-located high divine powers and pole-centered pantheons, and indeed in many cases it is either certain or very likely that these mostly West Eurasian religions, along with developed Southwest Asian astronomical sciences, Indo-Iranian and other Indo-European languages, writing, bronze technologies, wheeled and horse-draughted transportation technologies, and other cultural tool kits, influenced significantly Chinese developments during the 2 nd millennium BC and forward but probably much earlier. Much of the evidence for detecting the pole-centered nature and focus of the major ancient Eurasian and world religions scrutinized in this study lies in the repeated appearance in ancient art and iconography of the simplest of forms, the circle and the square. In general, this book shows, the circle represents the horizonal circumference of the observed domical heavens, while the square depicts a stellar quadrangle that approached, spun directly on, or circled very near the point of the northern celestial pole circa 5000-1000 BC, precisely when civilizations across Eurasia were urbanizing and, consequently, enormous social and political changes created the need for new and organizationally effective religions of state. The stellar quadrangle, centering on the Neolithic-Bronze pole star Thuban, offered a central and centralizing quadrangular shaping of the high divinity – or high divine structure-on which human societies could model and thus orient their own now-complex organizations on earth. Thus developed across Eurasia during this period quadrangular sacred architecture and design – the city, the temple, the altar, the ritual space, the tomb, tomb goods, personal amulets, and perhaps even the four-wheeled royal cart – that appears
2003 •
Rasayan Journal of Chemistry
THE FEASIBILITY OF SAGO BARK (Metroxylon sagu) IN Cu(II) REMOVAL: BATCH AND FIXED BED COLUMN EVALUATIONEuropean Journal of Political Economy
Monopoly unions versus efficient bargaining1989 •
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Radiation Protection Dosimetry
Radiation Induced Effects on Electrical Properties of Polyaniline1999 •
2022 •
Papers and Proceedings of the Department of …
Izdavanje povijesnih izvora2000 •
2020 •
Human Reproduction Update
Recombinant follicle stimulating hormone: development of the first biotechnology product for the treatment of infertility1998 •
Journal of Biological Chemistry
K Domain CR9 of Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) Receptor-related Protein 1 (LRP1) Is Critical for Aggregated LDL-induced Foam Cell Formation from Human Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells2015 •
Systems Microbiology and Biomanufacturing
Recent biotechnological advances and future prospective of Bacillus licheniformis as microbial cell factoriesJournal of clinical microbiology
A cohort study of the airway mycobiome in adult cystic fibrosis patients: differences in community structure of fungi compared to bacteria reveal predominance of transient fungal elements2015 •
Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges
A Multisite Initiative to Increase the Use of Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention Through Resident Training and Clinic Systems Changes2015 •
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PLOS ONE
Prevalence of metabolic syndrome and associated factors among patients with chronic Chagas disease2021 •
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2023 •
Prithvi academic journal
Mathematical Modelling of Transmission Dynamics of COVID-19: A Case Study of Nepal2020 •