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This online lecture is part of a lecture series titled “Maps and Mapping in Global History and Culture I”
Abstract:
Early Chinese astrological devices, shi 式/栻 , usually translated as “cosmographs,” “diviners’ boards,” or more recently as “diviners’ mantic astrolabes” or simply “cosmic models,” are known from the 2nd century BC. Made of lacquered wood, these portable instruments consist of a static square plate, representing the Earth, and a rotating disc placed on top of it, representing the Heavens.
Development of “commercial” printing for commoners in late imperial China gave rise to schematic cosmographic maps (ca. early 17th century, onwards). Their structure strikingly resembles shi, with the difference that the square Earth is placed in the centre of the round Heavens. These maps were then transmitted to Korea. They apparently served as one of inspirations of the circular world maps found in popular Korean atlases (18th-19th centuries).
The aim of this presentation is to show how the ancient Chinese concept of ‘Round Heavens & Square Earth’ visualised as a time-space relationship continued to be in use in East Asia until the beginning of the 20th century, co-existing with modern Western science.
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The lecture series is jointly organised by Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte and Einstein Center Chronoi.
