Yuan Phonology as Reflected in Persian Transcription in the Zīj-i Īlkhānī (original) (raw)
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original manuscript
""Hitherto little was known about the scholarly exchange that took place between China and the Arab Muslim lands, until the recent discovery of The Huai Ning Ma Family Genealogy which revealed that Ma Yi Ze (马依泽), an Arabian Muslim astronomer, was the progenitor of the Ma family and the pioneer of Islamic astronomy in China who came from the Western Asian Region and brought the Islamic science of astronomy and calendrical technology into China. Ma Yi Ze assisted the Northern Sung government in the drafting of the Chinese calendar, “Ying Tian Li (应天历: Follow the Will of Heaven Calendar)” in the 4th year (963 C.E) of Jianlong (建隆), the reign of Zhao Kuangying, the Founder Emperor of the Northern Sung Dynasty. It was during the Northern Sung Dynasty that the Islamic science of astronomy and calendar came to contact with the Chinese science and technology. The discovery of the three calendrical systems practiced by the Northern Sung Dynasty (960-1127) revealed an undeniable fact that the Islamic science of astronomy and calendrical technology had influenced the Chinese astronomy and calendrical technology since the Northern Sung Dynasty. Hard evidence from the Assemble Book of the Military Affairs (武经总要) drafted in the 4th year (1044) of Qingli (庆历), the Reign of Emperor Zhao Zheng, Sung Renzong of the Northern Sung further supported the argument that the method used to calculate the twelve signs in the Zodiac system and week-day system indeed derived from the Arabian Muslim astronomy and used by the Chinese science of astronomy and calendar for more than 960 years. Keywords: Ma Yi Ze, Islamic Calendar, Ying Tian Li ""
Proceedings of the XV National Conference of Astronomers of Serbia, 2009
In this article we try to answer the question how and why did Chinese ancient astronomy came into being and how did one lonesome and original calendar system on the very end of the world develop. At the beginning, Chinese people distinguished time of the year by the annual cycles of plants and animals, but soon began to determine seasons by observing celestial bodies. Early successful measuring of tropical year and synodic month made possible for Chinese people to issue first calendars very early. Spring and Autumn (Chunqiu) period (770 - 476 BC) brought forward first official calendars. Further improvement of calendars was caused owing to the development of new astronomical instruments. Chinese calendars also originate from the metaphysical concepts of Qi, Yin-Yang and 5 elements. 5 elements were connected with Chinese 5 seasons of the year and this was the first form of solar calendar. Later, it developed into solar calendar with 10 months. In the next phase, Chinese calendar turned into lunisolar calendar which also has its evolution. Chinese people invented Sifen calendar ”with division by four” (the name of this calendar). They also added 24 solar terms to make calendar harmonize with natural cycles. Li Chunfeng rearranged intercalations and used month without main solar term and divided months into short and long months. Sexagesimal system of time measuring refers to the system of Chinese 10 Heavenly Stems and 12 Earthly Branches. Its purpose is to measure time and define years, months, days and hours.
The Chinese Calendar of The Later Han Period
math.nus.edu.sg
The purpose of our project is to explain the Chinese calendar of the Later Han period, Si Fen Li ( ), and reformulate the formulas of the calendar to forms that are suitable for computer implementation. The Hou Han Shu ( ) does not give explanations for the formulas of the calendar. In our report, we discuss and explain some of the formulas for the calendar as described in [1]. In addition, we determine the pattern of big/small months and the distribution of leap years. To our knowledge this has never been discussed before.
Most historians of Islamic science generally regard that the rise and spread of Islam has in many ways contributed to the transmission of Islamic sciences to the West. As a result, particular attention was given to the transmission of scientific knowledge to the West. Indeed, most modern accounts of science in the medieval Islamic world, whether by Western or Muslim writers, have ignored what may well be called Islamic science in China. However, recent researches conducted by privileged writers in China, using the large collection of medieval Chinese manuscripts in several prominent libraries in China, have shown that a lot is yet to be uncovered regarding the contributions of Islamic science towards the enhancement of Chinese civilization. Some of the results of the research undertaken have already appeared in scholarly journals in the Chinese language which unfortunately are still not easily obtainable outside the realm of academic libraries. To our knowledge, not much has been published outside of China. It is therefore timely for scholars to venture into this area in order to make the reading public, especially let the academic communities aware of the issue. This paper is therefore a first attempt to survey the extent of the influence and impact of Islamic science on Chinese science, pertaining to the science of astronomy in particular. Nevertheless, this paper does not claim to present a general overview of Islamic astronomy, for it deals with only one of the many topics dealt with Islamic science, particularly Islamic science of astronomy in the Chinese Northern Sung Dynasty (960-1127). In this particular period, Arab Muslim astronomers from the Western Asian Region had not only made great contributions to the West, but also to the Far East, especially China, where Islamic science of astronomy and calendrical technology had clearly influenced the development of Chinese science and technology, especially in the field of astronomy. Keywords: Ma Yi Ze, Islamic Calendar, Ying Tian Li
The Chinese Calendar of The Later Han Period Acknowledgements
Helmer's office and required joining the project. He accepted our request and helped us to contact Deans' office so that we co uld take this module. We are greatly appreciated all the things he did for us. We hope this report will not disappoint him; contrarily, we hope it can help him in some ways. 388 4.2 PATTERN AND DISTRIBUTION 400 4.2.1 Pattern of Consecutive Big Months (Lian Da ) 40 4.2.2 Distribution of Leap Year 43 APPENDIX A 455 APPENDIX B 46 APPENDIX C 47
The impact of Islamic science to a particular civilization could be evaluated from 750-1500 C.E. and this period covered corresponding time in Chinese history were Tang Dynasty (唐: 618-960 CE), Northern Sung Dynasty (北宋: 960-1127 C.E), Mongol Yuan Dynasty (元: 1206-1367) and Ming Dynasty (明: 1368-1644). We would make brief introduction to the historical background and development of Islamic science of astronomy in China in this chapter. It has been generally regarded by most historians of Islamic science that the rise and spread of Islam had contributed in many ways to the transmission of Islamic sciences to the West. As a result, their researches have concentrated on scientific knowledge that was transmitted to the West. Indeed, most modern accounts of science in the medieval Islamic world, whether by Western or Muslim writers, have ignored what may well be called the Islamic aspects of Islamic science in China. Recently, however, researches conducted by exclusive privileged writers in China using the large collection of medieval Chinese manuscripts in several prominent libraries in China have shown that very much is yet to be uncovered regarding the contributions of Islamic sciences towards the enhancement of Chinese civilization. Some of the results of the research undertaken have already appeared in scholarly journals in Chinese language which unfortunately are still not easily obtainable outside the realm of academic libraries. To our knowledge not much has been published outside China. It is therefore timely for scholars to venture into this area of research in order to make the reading public, at least the academic communities are aware of the issue. This study is an attempt to address this issue. Key words: Jiu Zhi Li (Capturing the Nine Star Calendar), Ju Tan Xi Da (瞿曇悉达: Siddhanta or Hanta Siddha?), Western Region (西域), Sexagesimal System (六十进制), 360 Degree Concept (360度概念),
Template Tables and Computational Practices in Early Modern Chinese Calendric Astronomy
Centaurus, 2016
This article introduces a writing format, the 'template table' (suanshi,) that was designed to guide the process of calendrical astronomical calculations in early modern China. In conjunction with another kind of text, known as 'detailed procedures' (xicao,), users could perform calculations easily by operating the 'template table' and extracting data from given numerical tables. This method, that not only normalized the use of numerical tables but also linked instructions with the corresponding tables in computational practices, became widespread from the Ming period (1368-1644) onwards. Wanting to acquire this computational regimen, the Joseon court of Korea (1392-1897) even sent skilled officers to China to learn it secretly. The circulation of the template method beyond China suggests its significance. The article also discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using this method.