The Accuracy of the Five-planet Locations Calculated by the Chinese Ancient Calendar Named Shoushi Li

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

1

History And Philosophy Of Astronomy, Ephemerides, Planets And Satellites: Individual: Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Venus, Mercury

Scientific paper

The calendar Shoushi Li is one of the most famous calendars in ancient China, which was recorded in the Lizhi (ancient calendar book of China) of Yuanshi (annals of the Yuan Dynasty from 1279 to 1367). There are seven important calculation parts, including solar terms, syzygies, corrections of the sun and the moon, eclipses and so on. The locations of the five-planet are also in the list. Almost every part has a corresponding section in the modern astronomical year book. It is the last calendar formulated only by Chinese astronomers and its period of usage (from 1281 to 1644) is the longest one in ancient China. It was also a new calendar system which cast off the traditional method by which calculations were carried out from the epoch of the distant past. The basic constants were obtained by meticulous observations and then used in calculations. In this paper, the calculation methods of planetary locations in Shoushi Li are investigated and recovered by studying the official texts of Yuanshi. (1) The locations of the ephemeris of Jupiter in 1299 are derived and our recovering method is affirmed by comparing with other studies. (2) The calculated accuracies of celestial longitudes of the five-planet from 1280 to 1650 are obtained. For Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Venus and Mercury, the average values of absolute errors are 0.49°, 1.91°, 0.70°, 2.82° and 5.01°. Jupiter and Saturn have comparatively higher accuracies. (3) Zhoulu, Lilu, Dulu, Heying and Liying are used for planetary calculations in Shoushi Li. Their accurate values, instead of those adopted in Shoushi Li, are derived and calculated by modern astronomical methods and then inputted into Shoushi models. It is found that the accuracies of planetary locations are not improved. The errors of Jupiter and Saturn are 1.83°and 1.21°. But the errors of Mercury, Venus and Mars ascend to 30.04°, 54.86°and 10.82°, respectively. It is indicated that the accuracies can not be increased by revising some of the important parameters based on modern science.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

The Accuracy of the Five-planet Locations Calculated by the Chinese Ancient Calendar Named Shoushi Li does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with The Accuracy of the Five-planet Locations Calculated by the Chinese Ancient Calendar Named Shoushi Li, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The Accuracy of the Five-planet Locations Calculated by the Chinese Ancient Calendar Named Shoushi Li will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1206388

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.