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Astral science in early imperial China : observation, sagehood and the individual / Daniel Patrick Morgan, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris

Author
Morgan, Daniel (Daniel Patrick)
Published
Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2017.
Physical Description
1 online resource (xii, 257 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).
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Contents
Introduction -- The world below -- Observing the signs -- Granting the seasons -- Reverent accordance with prodigious heaven -- What the ancients had yet to learn -- Conclusion.
Summary
Challenging monolithic modern narratives about 'Chinese science', Daniel Patrick Morgan examines the astral sciences in China c.221 BCE-750 CE as a study in the disunities of scientific cultures and the narratives by which ancients and moderns alike have fought to instil them with a sense of unity. The book focuses on four unifying 'legends' recounted by contemporary subjects: the first two, redolent of antiquity, are the 'observing of signs' and 'granting of seasons' by ancient sage kings; and the other two, redolent of modernity, involve the pursuit of 'accuracy' and historical 'accumulation' to this end. Juxtaposing legend with the messy realities of practice, Morgan reveals how such narratives were told, imagined, and re-imagined in response to evolving tensions. He argues that, whether or not 'empiricism' and 'progress' are real, we must consider the real effects of such narratives as believed in and acted upon in the history of astronomy in China.
Subject(s)
ISBN
9781316488270 (ebook)
9781107139022 (hardback)
9781316504291 (paperback)
Note
Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 11 Aug 2017).
View MARC record | catkey: 34850326