2^0 Shinzo Shtnjo 



7. The Star-catalogue of Shih-Shen :^i^. 



We find in historical records, that there were in the Chan-Jmo 

 age (480-250 B.C.), two eminent astronomers Shih ^ and Kan -^, 

 that tliey observed the five planets and the starry heavens, and tliat 

 they each compiled a catalogue of fixed stars. These catalogue have, 

 however, long been lost in oblivion. 



Quite recently, I happened to make a study of the remnants of 

 these catalogues scattered as quotations among several books from the 

 early T'ang dynasty (about the 7th century A.D ) — the K'ai-yilan- 

 cJian-cMng ^jt^j0:, T'ien-iven-yao-lu 5c^1c^j T'ien-ti-jm'-Jmang- 

 cJiih ^M^M^-' f^nd also a book recently excavated in Tun-huang 

 >|^^, and I was lucky enough to be able to reproduce a catalogue of 

 about 120 stars, all with positions as measured by Shih-Shen ^^. 

 I was also able to estimate the probable date of observation as ca. 

 300 B.C., by utilizing the phenomenon of precession. If we remind 

 ourselves that the oldest star-catalogue in the Occident is that of 

 Ptolemy containing 1020 stars with positions observed by Hipparchus 

 at about the second century B.C., we see that the catalogue of Shih- 

 Shen stands not at all inferior to it. The degree of accuracy of the 

 star-positions is also about the same for both. 



8. Concluding Remarks. 



I have so far followed the development of the astronomical 

 science in China, from the remotest ages down to the Han dynasty 

 in tlie second century B.C. It is just for this earliest period that 

 the true natiu-e of things has been to some degree buried in the remote 

 obscurity of ancient times, and hence concerning this period there are 

 many divergencies of opinion among scholars. I believe I have been 

 able to take off the veil and disclose the true state of affairs to a 

 certain extent. 



We see that there is no trace at all at least before 104 B.C. of 

 the introduction of the Western science of astronomy to the Orient ; 

 we see, on the contrary, that the development in the Orient was 

 rather a little in advance of that in the Occident. 



After the epoch of T'ai-ch'u (104 B.C.), the further development 

 of the astronomical science in China, its propagation to India on one 



