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The History of Psuedo-planets in China (I): from 2 nd to 11 th century CE The Bright Dark Ages: Comparative and Connective Perspectives. Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore Feb 27-28, 2013 Bill M. Mak (University of Hong Kong / Kyoto University) ABSTRACT The four pseudo-planets: Luohou灣睺, Jidu黒朝, Ziqi培炁and Yuebei▽絢, are conspicuous elements in the medieval Chinese astral science. They possess no physical forms and are known to be associated with astronomical algorithms such as lunar nodes and apsides. Together with the seven "planets", they make up the eleven “luminaries”飮, a system of astral bodies that was established sometime before in the tenth century CE and became widely accepted among Chinese astronomers by the second millennium. To date, the pseudo-planets are still found in the traditional Chinese almanacs鰭悳:貯壷, as well as certain forms of Chinese horoscopes. While the representation of Luohou and Jidu mirrors their Indian antecedents, Rāhu and Ketu, Ziqi and Yuebei were Chinese inventions whose methods of calculation modeled upon those of the former. The earliest Chinese evidence extant of the calculation of the positions of Luohou and Jidu is found in the ephemeris Qiyao rangzai jue 飮珈影窒, a Buddhist astrological work compiled by an Indian monk in 806 CE. This work, together with other Dunhuang fragments, attests to the Chinese’s intense, but short-lived interest in the Indian astral science before they were transformed and absorbed into the Chinese astral system. This paper is the first of a two-part examination of the development of the Chinese pseudo-planets from the earliest description found in the Chinese Buddhist Canon up to the eleventh century CE when the Indian influences by and large ended. The examination of the import and early dissemination of the concept of pseudoplanets in China is an important case study to demonstrate how foreign and indigenous knowledge systems interact with each other on the Chinese soil, resulting not necessarily always scientific progress, but at times, curious hybrid which gained a life of its own. The second part of the examination will look at the subsequent process of sinicization and indigenization after the eleventh century in an attempt to answer the question why the scientific dialogues between the Indians and the Chinese did not result in the advancement in astronomical knowledge and why the Chinese rejected the scientific aspect of the exchange while holding tenaciously onto their mythical elements.