NINEHOUND / THE READING ROOM
From the classics
People, arguments and practical ideas in the original texts.
The Kangxi Calendar Case: bloodshed sparked by choosing a burial date
The trigger for the early Qing’s largest calendar trial was a burial-date choice rather than an astronomical calculation. Yang Guangxian accused Johann Adam Schall von Bell of choosing a prince’s funeral date whose orientation, year, and month all violated fatal taboos. A dispute over science entered battle dressed in the language of auspicious dates.
Read the story ↗Shao Yong: observing things from his Nest of Ease in Northern Song Luoyang
Shao Yong lived in Luoyang for thirty years, wandering by day and “observing things” at night as he wrote Supreme Principles Governing the World. He declined office and did not formulate teachings to frighten people, yet later generations recognized him as the founder of Plum Blossom Numerology—a title he probably would not have accepted himself.
Read the story ↗Astronomy and unusual tales in Shen Kuo’s Dream Pool Essays
In Dream Pool Essays, Shen Kuo records an observation of objects in a concave burning mirror: the image is inverted, and he discusses how image formation changes with distance. These Northern Song scholar-official’s notes contain what this article reads as a rare ancient Chinese description of an experiment.
Read the story ↗Su Song’s water-powered astronomical tower: the Northern Song’s celestial clock
In the seventh Yuanyou year, 1092, Su Song completed a water-powered astronomical tower. Standing three zhang and five chi high, it combined time announcements, a display of celestial motions, and armillary-sphere observation. The article describes it as ancient China’s largest astronomical instrument and the occasion for his Essentials of the New Astronomical Instrument.
Read the story ↗Writing inside a fish and fox cries by firelight: Chen Sheng and Wu Guang’s first battle for public opinion
On the eve of the Dazexiang uprising, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang put silk bearing the red words “Chen Sheng shall be king” inside a fish, then arranged a nocturnal fox-like cry by a shrine: “Great Chu shall rise; Chen Sheng shall be king.” This was no miracle. The Records of the Grand Historian explicitly describes a campaign they planned themselves to mobilize opinion.
Read the story ↗The Ming Tombs and the legend of finding the auspicious spot: the Yongle Emperor and Liao Junqing
Was Liao Junqing’s selection of a burial site for the Yongle Emperor merely a feng shui legend, or did it really happen? The Veritable Records of Ming Taizong provide a clear account: in the fifth month of Yongle 7, the court began building an imperial tomb at Changping. Minister of Rites Zhao Gong led Liao Junqing and other men versed in geomancy to select a site, and they chose Huangtu Mountain. Zhu Di inspected it himself and renamed it Tianshou Mountain. The Palace Museum’s introduction to the Ming Tombs also records Liao’s participation in the survey. What we need to distinguish is the documented fact that he helped select the site from the marvelous stories later added around his “finding the auspicious spot.”
Read the story ↗Liu Bowen: the early Ming adviser turned into a legend
“He knew five hundred years into the past and five hundred into the future”: popular lore made Liu Ji almost an immortal. Yet the Liu Ji of the History of the Ming is an adviser versed in celestial studies who repeatedly suffered political exclusion. His biography records military and political strategy as well as interpretations of celestial omens; “miraculous diviner” alone cannot describe him.
Read the story ↗The Chifu Talisman: the “heavenly document” behind Liu Xiu’s accession
In the sixth month of Jianwu 1 (25 CE), Liu Xiu erected an altar south of Hao County and declared himself emperor. Among the reasons his officials urged him to accede was a Chifu Talisman brought from Guanzhong. The Book of the Later Han preserves more than one passage about this talisman. Those passages cannot simply be merged into a single quotation—and that is what this article sets out to clarify.
Read the story ↗Wang Mang’s prophecy production line: when portents became instruments of government
Before Wang Mang replaced the Han, signs of a heavenly mandate kept being “discovered” in the capital: a white stone dug from a well bore a vermilion inscription announcing that the Duke of Anhan, Mang, should be emperor; a bronze token and silk diagram found before Weiyang Palace proclaimed that Heaven had issued an imperial token and its presenter would become a marquis. These were political promotion documented in the Book of Han, rather than proof of divine intent. Ban Gu describes the production line more bluntly than later readers might expect, even identifying who produced its output.
Read the story ↗Jing Fang: the Western Han scholar who made the Changes into a weather forecast
The Western Han scholar Jing Fang assigned the sixty-four hexagrams to the more than 360 days of the year. His Book of Han biography says he divided them into rotating daily duties, taking wind, rain, cold, and warmth as signs. He effectively attached a weather-divination system to the Zhouyi, linking earlier and later traditions of interpreting natural signs.
Read the story ↗Guo Pu: the Eastern Jin diviner who read for Wang Dun
The Eastern Jin diviner Guo Pu cast a reading for the powerful Wang Dun and declared that his military venture would accomplish nothing. Wang Dun was furious and had him killed. Later, Wang Dun’s campaign did fail, and he died ill. Guo Pu’s biography in the Book of Jin records this episode, an unusual example in an official history of using divination to remonstrate with a powerful official.
Read the story ↗Can every statement in the Biography of Diviners be attributed to Sima Qian?
The narrative about Sima Jizhu, “The Grand Historian says,” and “Master Chu says”: three voices within one Biography of Diviners. Learn to locate, distinguish, and cite them while leaving room for questions about the text’s composition.
Read the story ↗Two Han officials visited a diviner—and found themselves questioned
They wanted to find an exceptional person outside the court, yet began by judging him through the size of his official position.
Read the story ↗Confucius read the Changes until its bindings broke—and still wanted more time
The most interesting part is that a man later called a sage still felt he had not fully understood the book.
Read the story ↗