Abstract
In this chapter I explain the contemporary understanding of comets and describe a few important historical comet appearances. Finally, I consider the philosophy of unification of humanity and nature in early China, which grounds the dominant early Chinese view of astronomical events.
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Notes
- 1.
The IAU’s Resolution B5 (“Definition of a Planet in the Solar System”) reads: “A planet is a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.”
- 2.
Schechner (1997, 24-25).
- 3.
Rehak (2006, 71), basing his claims on Cassius Dio, says that several red comets appeared in the year of Augustus’ death, which according to Cassius “confirmed his deification”.
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- 5.
Specifically the Song “Neo-Confucian” philosopher Zhu Xi is associated with this concept, which was at the core of both his metaphysics and ethical theory.
- 6.
John Major writes: “The principal message of the chapter is that all things in the cosmos are interconnected, that human plans and intentions are subject to the influence of various cosmic cycles and correlations, and that such cycles and correlations can be understood and taken into account in the formulation of policy.” (Major et al. 2010, 109).
- 7.
Roger Ames is a well-known proponent of this position, in particular that there is a lack of the idea of transcendence in early Chinese thought. Ames argues for this in many (indeed almost all) of his works, but a good and concise statement can be found in the introduction to (Ames and Rosemont 1998).
- 8.
The question of the relationship between humans and these other beings is not so easy to answer. Michael Puett argues against the idea adopted by a number of major scholars including Ames, earlier scholars such as A.C. Graham, Benjamin Schwartz, and others (Puett 2002).
References
Ames, Roger and Henry Rosemont, 1998, The Analects of Confucius: A Philosophical Translation, (New York: Ballantine)
Major, John, Sarah Queen, Andrew Meyer, and Harold Roth (eds), 2010, Huainanzi: A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Government in Early Han China, (New York: Columbia University Press)
Puett, Michael, 2002, To Become a God: Cosmology, Sacrifice, and Self-Divinization in Early China, Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press)
Raphals, Lisa, 2013, Divination and Prediction in Early China and Ancient Greece, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
Rehak, Paul, 2006, Imperium and Cosmos: Augustus and the Northern Campus Martius (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press)
Schechner, Sara, 1997, Comets, Popular Culture, and the Birth of Modern Cosmology (Princeton: Princeton University Press)
Seargent, David, 2008, The Greatest Comets in History: Broom Stars and Celestial Scimitars (New York: Springer)
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McLeod, A. (2016). Comet—A Sea of Dust and Ice . In: Astronomy in the Ancient World. Historical & Cultural Astronomy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23600-1_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23600-1_5
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