Ancient people's understanding of the origin of starry sky and constellations

On the earth, there are more than 6,000 stars visible to the naked eye. The ancients also observed and found some operating rules of these stars in their daily lives. In order to better observe these stars, the ancients also made countless fantasies and guesses about the starry sky, forming different starry sky cultures. Here is a brief introduction to the different understandings of the starry sky in ancient China and foreign countries.

China's understanding of the starry sky in ancient times

From some archaeological discoveries and literature records, we can know that as early as the Three Dynasties, people began to name the stars in the sky. Early household appliances such as hooves, mortars, cars, boats, dustpans and buckets. Sagittarius, Bi and other hunting gear. Chickens, dogs, cows, sheep and other animals. Then there are emperors, princes, princes and other nobles. Shangshu, Sangong, General and other official positions, Zhou, Jin, Qin, Chu and other countries. Imperial guards and household appliances such as Yu Linjun and Tianpeng. Gradually, all the systems of human society were moved to the sky.

Zhang Heng said in "Lingxian County" that "the black dragon curled left, the white tiger slammed right, the rosefinch pounced, the turtle circle was first in the back, and the yellow god Xuanyuan was in the middle. The six disturbances are all livestock, and the wolf fish is useless. Wild things are like officials of the imperial court, and people are like things, so they are prepared ... ordinary things are stupid and salty. " It can be seen that the principle of the ancients naming the starry sky is to project everything on the earth into the sky.

At the same time, in order to facilitate observation and memory, the ancients divided the starry sky into different regions, and the number of stars in each region varied from dozens to one. Each region has its own name, which is called the Star Officer, that is, the official who manages the starry sky in different regions.

There are about 38 star officials recorded in pre-Qin documents, and there are more than 200 stars. Sima Qian's "Historical Records of Heaven in Guan Shu" gives a systematic description of the star officials in the whole day, which is the earliest known systematic introduction. * * * There are 92 star officials, about 500 stars, and most of them are inherited by later generations. In History of Han Dynasty, the number of star officials has reached 1 18, accounting for 783 stars.

During the Three Kingdoms period, Emperor Taishi of the State of Wu asked Chen Zhuo to collect the records of three astrologers handed down from ancient times, namely Shi, Gan and Hsien Wu, compiled a comprehensive catalog covering 283 astrologers and 1464 stars, and drew a star map. Unfortunately, it has been lost at present and can only be known in the records of later generations. The use of Chen Zhuo's astrological classics "Jin Shu Tian Wenzhi" and "Song of mending the sky" became the basis of ancient star watching, which was still used until the Qing Dynasty.

In the early days, in order to facilitate memory, people compiled star officials and star names into rhyming poems. Known early works include Guan Xiang Fu by Bird in the Northern Wei Dynasty and Astronomical Xiang Fu by Li Bo in the Sui Dynasty. The appearance of "Song of Heaven" is a masterpiece of the previous generation, and it has also become the most popular formula for recognizing stars in later generations.

At present, the exact date of the book Song of Heaven has not been determined, and it is generally believed that it was written by Wang Ximing in the Tang Dynasty. This paper introduces Chen Zhuo's 283 stars Guanhe 1464 in the form of seven-character verse, with a star map. Zheng Qiao in the Southern Song Dynasty commented on it as "reciting a long sentence, looking at a star, not three nights, and a starry day in your heart."

At the same time, Song of the Sky also divides the whole sky into 365,438+0 regions, which are the familiar three walls and twenty-eight lodges. In fact, the names of the Four Elephants and some Twenty-eight Nights have already appeared in Erya and The Book of Songs, and some records can also be seen in Oracle Bone Inscriptions in the earlier Shang Dynasty. The names of the Twenty-eight Nights in Lv Chunqiu are complete. The systematic introduction of Sanyuan 28 Accommodation was first put forward in Song of Heaven, and this division has become the standard division method for later generations.

Understanding of the starry sky in ancient western countries

Different civilizations have different names and divisions for the starry sky, but they all reflect the history and culture of their respective nations. The following is an introduction to the naming and division of constellations in the world at present.

Currently the whole day is divided into 88 constellations. Except for some constellations in the Antarctic region of the celestial sphere, which were discovered and named after the great voyage, the naming and division of the main constellations in the northern hemisphere originated from the two river basins and Egypt.

Around 3000 BC, the Babylonians divided the brighter stars in the sky into several constellations, which were later spread to Greece and Rome and further developed. The Greeks named constellations after mythical figures and animals. By the 2nd century AD, many constellations in the northern sky had been basically determined.

In 270 BC, the ancient Greek poet Aratus (365,438+05 ~ 240 BC) mentioned 47 constellations in his long poem Things. After excluding the cause of precession, it can be inferred that the starry sky recorded in the poem should be around 2000 BC. At the same time, the blank area recorded in the starry sky shows that the observer's position should be between 35 and 36 north latitude, so some people think that the origin of dividing the starry sky into constellations was in Sumerian period of Babylon River valley in Mesopotamia, and the constellations of ancient Greece and Egypt may have been introduced from this area.

By the 2nd century, Ptolemy (90~ 168) had recorded 48 constellations with *** 1022 stars, which basically became the embryonic form of modern constellations. Later, many astronomers filled in some new constellations according to these 48 constellations.

/kloc-in the 0/7th century, the great voyage made people see the stars in the southern sky. German astronomer John Baer (1572~ 1625) published a map in 1603, and Polish astronomer Jahannes Hewelius (16 165438+). There is also the French astronomer Lacayi (17 13~ 1762), who named the constellations of Nantian successively in 1752, and determined 48 constellations of Nantian. 184 1 year, the British astronomer Herschel proposed the equator and the equator as the boundaries of the constellation. 1928, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) officially announced the 88-constellation scheme, which stipulated that the equator latitude and longitude based on the vernal equinox and equator should be 1875 as the constellation boundary.

Among these 88 constellations, the most famous one is the zodiac 12, because the sun, the moon and the five planets all run in the area where this 12 constellation is located, and this 12 constellation just surrounds the sky, forming an endless belt. Because the region where the sun moves is called the ecliptic, the 12 constellation here is also called the ecliptic 12 constellation.

The earliest zodiac sign 12 also appeared in Babylon. Around 3000 BC, the Babylonians divided the region where the sun moved in one year into twelve equal parts for astrology. From the sculptures unearthed at that time, such as boundary markers and reliefs of tombs, we can know that there were about 200 constellations and stars named at that time.

Later, these constellations spread to ancient Egypt and ancient Greece. At present, we have found more than a dozen well-preserved images of the Chinese zodiac in temples and tombs in Greece and Rome, such as the reliefs of temples such as Dandra, Ashner, Shihur and Amim, six coffins unearthed in Thebes tombs and the ceilings of some tombs.

The ancient starry sky of other civilizations

The ancient Indians divided the ecliptic into 27 equal parts and established 27 dwellings. The names of these dwellings originally came from Brahma. At present, there are two theories about the origin of 27 Indian huts, one is homologous to 28 huts in China, and the other is Indian origin.

Constellations in the Arab World is Ptolemy's masterpiece of astronomy, which was translated into Arabic in the 9th century and renamed the Grand Theory. Al Su Fei (903~986) wrote The Stars, which is called one of the three masterpieces of Islamic observational astronomy. Most of the star names used around the world now come from Arabic.