Timekeeping was both a royal duty and a royal prerogative in Korea since the period of the Three Kingdoms (ä¸ĺć䝣, ca. 37 BCE to 668 AD) of Silla, Baekje, and Goguryeo. Although sundials and clepsydras (water clocks) were the main timekeepers, there were also fire clocks such as incense sticks at temples. Chinese calendrical systems, instruments for astronomy, and timekeeping systems were introduced to the Korean peninsula in antiquity, while from 554 AD Baekje sent calendrical scientists to Japan to supervise calendarâ and clockâmaking there. Among the achievements of such missions was the water clock of the Japanese emperor Tenji (r. 661â671) which was made in 671. In Gyeongju, the capital of Silla, a royal observatory known as the Cheomseongdae (çťćčş) was built in 647 and a water clock was constructed at the temple Hwangryongsa in 718; the latter was used to announce time by striking large bells in the bell tower, as was the case also with the bell shown in Fig. 1.
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Notes
- 1.
âNight-watchâ and ânight-watch pointâ are technical terms from ancient Chinese timekeeping. The expression ânight-watchâ is used for the Korean word gyeong (ć´, geng in Chinese), about a 2-h period in the nighttime. There were five gyeong each night, corresponding with the 2-h blocks or âdouble-hoursâ from around 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., and each gyeong was divided into five jeom (éť, dian in Chinese), an expression translated as (night-watch) âpoint.â
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MoonâHyon, N. (2008). Time in Korea. In: Selin, H. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4425-0_9337
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