ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Imperial Instruments: Tools for Astronomy and Mathematics in China from Song to Qing

Session Submission Type: Organized Session

English Abstract

The three papers in this session will address a group of related questions about the development of the material means underpinning the practice of astronomy and applied mathematics in imperial China. For instance, by what means was it decided what instruments were to be made, and why? How far did new instruments reflect developments in theory, and how far did they enable and push forward such developments? How were instruments paid for, and by whom? Was instrument making effectively a state monopoly? In some cases, the discussion will be based on textual and graphic representations of instruments that are no longer extant. But in the discussions of more recent periods, it is possible to inspect surviving specimens of the instruments we find discussed in written sources. Taken as a whole, this session aims to show how an object-based approach to two related disciplines, astronomy and mathematics, can reveal new aspects of the history of both topics.

Sub Unit

• Organized Session

Chair

• Matthieu Husson

Individual Presentations

• The Objective of Armillary Sphere Construction in the Northern Song Dynasty - Baichun Zhang, Chinese Academy of Science Institute for the History of Natural Science

• New instruments for new astronomy: the reform movement in early 17th century China - Christopher Cullen, Needham Research Institute & Darwin College, Cambridge

• Who Could Make and Use Mathematical and Astronomical Instruments? Evidence from the Late Kangxi Period (1662-1722) - Catherine Jami, CNRS

Session Organizer

• Catherine Jami, CNRS