What were the high-tech instruments in ancient times? Great inventions of the Qin, Han and Wu Dynasties

Today, I have prepared for you: what are the ancient high-tech instruments? Interested friends please come and take a look!

After laying the foundation of astronomy in the pre-Qin period, the Qin-Han-Wu period entered the formation of the whole system. This is an extremely important period, a period of great achievements and gains.

First, the theory of astronomy

The theory of celestial structure in the Han Dynasty mainly included three theories: Ye Xuan's theory, Gei Tian's theory and Huntington's theory.

1. Ye Xuan said

This is a very unique and profound theory.

It is not clear who founded this theory. The theory was passed down by the founder's student and secretary general, Qiu Meng.

According to the Golden Heavenly Question, Meng once heard his teacher say that the heavens are an empty space devoid of any matter and are infinitely high. When one's eyes look at the vastness of the sky, it seems to be colored. It is like a yellow mountain in the distance, but when one looks at it from a distance they can see a green color. It is like looking down into a deep valley where the sky is dark. But green and black are not their true colors. The sun, moon, stars and other celestial bodies float freely in the boundless sky without any constraints. All actions are determined by chi.

The excellence of this theory is that it reveals the infinity of the universe and denies the existence of an imaginary celestial spherical shell, which is remarkable. But it did not specifically explain the laws of motion of celestial bodies such as the sun, moon, and stars, let alone the mathematical models used by astronomers. As a result, the motion of celestial bodies is fundamentally disordered, and the theory loses its practical value.

So although this theory was full of light, that light was overshadowed by its shortcomings, which were hard for the world to appreciate at the time.

2. Gaidian theory

The Gaidian theory, which was born in a round place during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, has undergone great changes since then. In particular, there are three different views on the shape of the sky shell: one is that the sky looks like a car hood; the sky looks like a hat. The sky looks like it's leaning on a hood. But all of this is secondary to refining a set of mathematical models.

The mathematical model for the hooded sky theory is documented in the Zhouyi sunjing. It describes the sun's path and is reflected in seven scales and six numbers.

Gai Tian said the structure and mathematical model of the celestial bodies were not very good. It was just an early theory. It was repaired by the Han, but it fell out of favor after all. Especially after Yang Xiong, a famous scholar at the end of the Western Han Dynasty, proposed the eight heavenly questions, fewer people believed him.

3. Tian Hong said

All indications are that Huntington's theory should also be an earlier theory. The Han Dynasty was an era when the Huntingtonian theory rapidly rose to prominence and dominance. In this era, there were many people and documents advocating the Huntingtonian theory, but very few of them could be passed down. A representative academic account is Zhang Heng's Hunyi Atlas. Although it is debatable whether the book is really the work of Zhang Heng, what is described in the book can indeed be taken as a representative view of the Huntingtonian doctrine of the Han Dynasty.

The Huntingtonian Atlas mentions a scene like this:

The universe is like an egg with a round shell, and the earth is like a yolk. The sky and the earth float on water. The sky will not fall because of the air, and the earth will float on the water without falling.

This was the early theory of the armillary sphere. Later, some scholars changed the half-air-half-water in the shell of the celestial sphere to all-air, forming the later armillary theory.

Tahiro said what attracts attention in astronomy is its mathematical model:

The weather is 365 degrees, and the Earth floats 182 degrees above the surface and sinks 182 degrees below. The North Pole is 36 degrees above the surface and the South Pole is 36 degrees below the surface. The equator is perpendicular to the polar axis and cuts through the celestial sphere into two halves. The angle of intersection of the yellow and the equator is 24 degrees. The summer solstice on the ecliptic is 67 degrees and the winter solstice is 115 degrees. These values are very close to modern precision, which established Huntington's theory as dominant in antiquity.

In essence, the theories of Ye Xuan, Gaitian and Huntington were discursive rather than empirical, as dictated by the objective conditions of antiquity. Still, in this speculation, the practical observations of ancient scholars and their highly intelligent speculative abilities are reflected.

Two, the Hunyi device

The fruitful results of astronomy in the Han Dynasty not only benefited from the progress of astronomical instruments, but also included these astronomical instruments.

In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, Luo improved the original Hunyi device and used it to re-measure the distance between the twenty-eight nights, thus formulating the calendar.

Geng Shouchang invented the first armillary sphere during the reign of Emperor Xuan Di of the Han Dynasty.

In the fourth year of Yongyuan of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the folk astronomer Fu An added an ecliptic to the traditional armillary sphere. This improvement caught the attention of Jia Kui, a famous scholar. He achieved this result when he presided over the production of the armillary sphere in the fifteenth year of Yongyuan and named it the Huangdao bronze instrument. The pinnacle of astronomical instrument making in this period was Zhang Heng's water-based statue.

These astronomical instruments can be categorized into two main groups: the Hun-Tian-Yi and the Hun-Tian-Yi.

1. Huntian Instrument

Huntian Instrument is an instrument for observing celestial bodies. It is made according to the principle of armillary sphere. The most basic armillary sphere has a fixed equatorial ring and a red diameter ring that can rotate around the polar axis. The red diameter ring is equipped with a peephole.

When using the armillary sphere, the position of the equatorial ring of the armillary sphere is first aligned with the equatorial ring of the Earth, and then the peephole is aligned with the celestial body to be observed, so that the specific value can be read out on the equatorial ring.

The use of the equatorial ring as the observation reference is based on the ancient astronomical science of China, with the equatorial coordinates as the reference coordinates. However, ancient Chinese astronomical science did not exclude other coordinate systems, so the ecliptic ring, the ecliptic ring, the geodesic ring, the meridian ring, the equinox ring, and the 100-degree ring were added later. By adding one ring at a time, more values could be read in a single observation, further improving the accuracy of the observation.2. Hunxiang

Hunxiang is an instrument that shows the visual motion of celestial bodies and is the originator of modern celestial instruments.

The main body of the Hunxiang is a sphere symbolizing the celestial sphere, on which the equator, the ecliptic circle, the sun, the moon, the stars and other celestial bodies are painted.

The Hunxian symbols enabled people to visualize the celestial phenomena of the time, day and night, and helped people to learn, explore and master the knowledge of the celestial bodies.

Zhang Heng created a more advanced oceanic armillary sphere on the basis of the armillary sphere invented by Geng Shouchang. Its main body was a copper sphere about 5 feet in diameter, with yellow, equatorial, and 28 constellations of stars. Attached to the sphere are the horizon circle and the meridian circle. The entire celestial sphere, half above and half below the horizon, can be rotated around the axis of the sphere to show the actual sky as it can be seen. The entire armillary sphere is also connected to a hydraulic propulsion unit. Utilizing the dripping force of the broken kettle and the timing of the broken kettle, the armillary sphere was able to keep up with the changes of day and night, and the demonstration of the armillary sphere was consistent with the actual heavens.

This is a remarkable invention. From a close distance, the water-borne armillary sphere could visualize the actual changes in the heavens, thus popularizing the theory of armillary sphere. In the long run, it was of great significance to the development of astronomy and the invention of mechanical timekeeping devices.

The progress of astronomical instruments, especially the improvement of the armillary sphere, may first be attributed to the observation and recording of celestial events.

By the Han Dynasty, the precision of the observation of the sun, the moon, and the five stars had been improved, and the contents were constantly expanded. For example, the observation of solar eclipses not only had a specific date, but also recorded the point, direction, first loss, and time of last contact. Another example is the observation of sunspots, which clearly recorded the time of their appearance, image, size, position, etc.

From the Han Dynasty onwards, on the one hand, the evolution of dynasties was normal, and there were regular observations of celestial phenomena within dynasties. On the other hand, the official history began in the Han Dynasty and became the most important document for preserving astronomical information in ancient times.

This is one of the important elements of the astronomical system formed during the Han Dynasty.

Third, the calendar system

The Qin Dynasty used the Zhuanxu calendar, one of the six ancient calendars. After the Qin Dynasty unified China, it became the national calendar. However, it was not completely preserved, so later generations knew little about it.

Nowadays, people can know the Zhuanxu calendar only because of some basic data, such as the number of the year, the crescent policy, the time, and the calendar. It was briefly preserved during the Kaiyuan years of the Tang Dynasty.

It was used until the beginning of the Han Dynasty, because the world had just been occupied at the beginning of the Han Dynasty, and it was too late to change to a new calendar. It wasn't until Emperor Wu of Han that a change in the calendar was on the agenda. In 104 BC, the aspiring Emperor Wu of Han ordered Gongsun Qing, Hu Sui and Sima Qian to discuss the formulation of the Han Calendar. At the same time, more than 20 famous folk astronomers and astrologers of the time were recruited to participate in the specific work. After some intense work, a **** proposed 18 drafts. After collective discussion, verification and comparison, finally adopted Deng Ping's program, the first calendar of the Han Dynasty was born. This is China's first calendar, the Taichu Calendar, which was developed by a national organization.

Good things happen. The original text of this calendar has long been lost. The good thing is that at the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Xin converted the main data in this calendar into three calendars. Posterity can basically understand the Taichu calendar.

The three-body calendar contains the theory of qi, the intercalary method, the transportation of food, and the five-star cycle. It sets leap months as months without air and sets 23 food seasons out of 135 lunar months. These may have been the contents of the original calendar.

The calendar was abolished in the first year of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and a series of articles were introduced, including Jia Kui and Others compiled the Quaternary Calendar. So named because two of the most basic constants, the end-of-year date and the new moon policy, are identical to the quarterly calendar of the Warring States period.

The most accomplished calendar in the entire Han Dynasty was the Qianxiang Calendar, compiled by Liu Hong in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. At the beginning of the Qianxiang Calendar, it became the Emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the year, set in the eleventh year of Jian'an. However, this calendar was not adopted during the Eastern Han period and was not officially promulgated until the second year of Wu.

In the history of ancient Chinese calendars, the Ganxiang Calendar is considered an epoch-making calendar. This epoch-making significance is mainly reflected in the fact that:

The Ganxiang Calendar is the first calendar in the history of Chinese astronomy in which the moon's movement is late.

The Ganxiang Calendar explicitly introduced the concept of the node moon for the first time and gave a fairly accurate value of 27.55336;

The Ganxiang Calendar reduced the number of barrels of fractions of the reoccurring year, i.e., the value of 365 days in a year was increased to 365.246179 days, which was more accurate.

The Dry Calendar introduced the concept of eclipse limits, making it more accurate to determine when eclipses occur.

The Dry Phase Calendar also created a more accurate five-star algorithm that performs three skills per month.

So far, we can see why the Ganophase Calendar is called an epoch-making calendar.

From the moment the Taichu Calendar was born, it announced a major event in the history of Chinese astronomy: the formation of the ancient Chinese calendar.

It is well known that China's ancient calendar was a yin and yang calendar, i.e., the movement of the sun was used to date the year, and the movement of the moon was used to date the month. In order to make the date of a year coincide with that of a month, leap months were used to solve this problem. However, this is not really unique to the ancient Chinese calendar, as most calendars in the world are lunisolar.

Some people believe that the 24 solar terms are c

So what is unique about the ancient Chinese national calendar? If you take a look at historical calendars, you'll quickly realize that if you're not a professional, you'll never understand them. It turns out that the ancient Chinese national calendars were actually astronomical calendars, not ordinary civilian calendars.

In these calendars, there is a special set of astronomical data. If you're an expert, you can see the value of these data and use them to calculate the answers you need. For example, do you want to know when there will be a solar eclipse? Then the result can only be calculated based on the relevant data provided by the calendar and the relevant calculations and formulas. If you are not an expert, you will get nothing.

This is the characteristic of the ancient Chinese national calendar.

The system began to take shape when the first calendar was introduced.