Chinese and European Cosmologies

Chinese cosmology

By Jesse Barham

The traditional Chinese view of the universe differed greatly from traditional Western views. The Chinese did not feel the need to explain the creation of the universe. They saw human beings and the cosmos as a natural state of being. The world needed no outside influences or beings to justify its existence. Western societies tend to see the world in more linear terms, having a set beginning and end. Seeing the world in these terms influences the way that Western civilizations interact with the world around them. Traditional Western creation myths show that the existence of humans and the world that surrounds us could not have come into being through natural processes, due to the complex nature of the universe. Outside forces must have been at work. The "...Chinese Daoist vision of the cosmic origin as Wu, or nonbeing, the primal condition
of the cosmos as hundun, or "chaos," and the cosmic formation as a continuous process (Ren, 4)." This view meshes well with the current theories of evolution and the progression of the planet Earth.
Chinese emperors employed astrologers to watch the skies day and night to look for any changes in the cosmos. Any events observed would be interpreted by the astrologers. These interpretations are based in the Chinese modes of correlative thought. The most common correlation was between the human body and the heavens. This was demonstrated by the use of numerology to relate the human body to natural cycles. One example is from the Han era text Huai-nan-izu that Henderson cites on page three of The Development and Decline of Chinese Cosmology.

“Heaven has nine layers, and man likewise has nine orifices. Heaven has four seasons with which to regulate the twelve months. Man likewise has four limbs with which to employ the twelve larger joints. Heaven has twelve months with which to regulate the 360 days (of the year). Man likewise has twelve minor limbs with which to employ the 360 lesser joints.”

This quote shows how much the Chinese believed in the unity of the cosmos and the human body. If you try to ignore or work against these correlation you are sure to fail. Not only would you be sure to fail, but you would be working toward harming yourself due to the close correlation between the body and the cosmos. Every aspect of their universe was just a portion of a larger whole.
The second place that the Chinese drew a correlation with the cosmos was in the government and its offices. This correlation gave the imperial government a cosmic importance that could not be disputed. This system dates back to the early Han era, circa 200 BC (Henderson, 5). The sky was divided into several hundred regions, asterisms, that contained an average of five to six stars (Clark & Stepheson, 33). These regions corresponded to certain governmental offices, states, or objects. Observed changes in these regions were correlated to predicted changes in the corresponding area, object, or office. The time line for these predictions was comfortably long giving ample time to identify an event that fulfilled the prediction. Here is one example that Clark and Stephenson quote on page thirty three from the ancient text the Chin-shu .

"4th year of the T'ai-ho reign period of Hai-hsi, 2nd month. A guest star was seen at the western wall of Tzu-wei. When we come to the 7th month it finally disappeared. The interpretation when a guest star guards Tzu-wei is the assassination of the Emperor by his subjects. In the 6th month Huan-wei dethroned the Emperor who became the "Duke of Hsu-hsi"."

The date of this observation is 369 AD The duration of the "guest star" being visible, five months, suggests that it was possibly a supernova or comet.
The Chinese astrologers have provided us with the most complete, continuous record of observations in history. Their record dates back to the early Han dynasty, 213 BC, when the emperor Ch'in Shih-huang started a systematic censorship of all records that did not agree with the current philosophy (Clark & Stephenson, 5). This record has proved very useful to modern astronomers who have been using it to look for sightings of ancient supernovae, novae, comets.
To the Chinese the appearance of a supernova in the heavens corresponded with a coming change in the political system. The Chinese felt that the cosmos, state, human body, and society were all a part of the same interrelated system that could not be separated. Han era cosmologists felt that any unusual events in the heavens (i.e. comets, eclipses, and "guest stars") were repercussions on a cosmic scale of a rulers misdeeds (Henderson, 37). The balance can swing both ways with the actions of humanity affecting the heavens, and the observed changes in the heavens foretelling of coming changes in the human world. This way of looking at the world brings humanity back to the natural cycle instead of elevating him above nature. A lesson that could be useful within the Western societies of today.

European Cosmology

By Scott Fraundorf

    In contrast to China and the Middle East where cosmic events, including supernovae, were almost always recorded by observers; sightings of supernovae went almost completely without mention in Europe. There were a few exceptions to this, but in general they went either unnoticed, or in the cases of some of the brightest supernovae ignored. There were a few sightings here and there, but for the most part records of European sightings remain rare. This lack of records would have been hard to maintain considering the brightness and visibility of some of the supernovae that could have been seen in the skies over Europe. While in China many “Guest Stars”, or supernovas, were not only recorded but used to predict dynastic changes, social prosperity, or unrest. Europeans who also had considerable knowledge of the sky just went about their daily lives ignoring the existence of such notable cosmic events. There were some sightings, but too few considering the number of supernovae that would have been visible in European skies (Murdin & Murdin, 7).
    One good example of a European sighting is the supernova of AD 185. In a description by Herodias of Rome in AD 250 he mentioned a star that "shown continuously by day". He seems to be referring specifically to the star that exploded in 185 AD(Murdin & Murdin, 7). There was also a 4th century history of the reign of Emperor Commodus that seemed to refer to the same event as it occurred right before the a civil war. He describes the heavens as being ‘ablaze’ (Murdin & Murdin, 7). Another European sighting took place in 1006 AD, and is the most significant account of a supernovae in Europe before the age of Brahe and Kepler. It was sighted by a monk in Switzerland who wrote the Pars Altera (919-1044 AD), which was a chronicle of the Benedictine Abbey at St. Gall. (Paul Murdin & Leslie Murdin pg. 7, 15).   Beyond these two sightings Europe was for the most part silent and indifferent to cosmic events. The sighting of 1006 was the last before Tyco Brahe saw one centuries later.
    How could the Europeans have managed to ignore these dramatic cosmic events? In 1054 a supernova that was as bright as Venus lit up the European sky. It was visible in daylight for three weeks, and visible in the night sky for 2 years. It is believed to be the brightest supernova that shone in our skies during all of recorded human history. It was sighted by both Chinese and Japanese astronomers and is believed to be the present day Crab Nebula. Yet there was not one mention of it in all of European annuals (Murdin & Murdin, 7). One proposed explanation for the lack of records of this supernova is that its appearance coincided with the split in Christianity between the Roman Catholic Church to the west and the Greek Orthodox Church in the east. Events were leading up to the split between July 16 and 24, 1054 when the formal break occurred between the patriarch Michael Cerularins and Pope Leo IX. This was also known as the Great Schism (Murdin & Murdin, 7-8). During such a time of turmoil it might have been dangerous to record such a notable cosmic event. It doesn't seem beyond belief that the church Fathers might have destroyed any records of the supernova of 1054. (Murdin & Murdin, 8).
    The next supernova was not the first to be seen in Europe, but the first one to be seriously studied in 1572. The first observation was made on November 6 by Wolfgang Schuler of Wittenberg (Moore, 95). He saw the star in the constellation of Cassiopia. On November 7 it was sighted by Paul Heinzel of Augsburg, Bernhard Lindauer of Winterthur in Switzerland, and Michael Mastin of Tubingen. But the most famous person to see the star and the person who received the fame was a Danish astronomer by the name of Tyco Brahe. Brahe was at the beginning of his career in 1572, and it was this supernova that inspired him to devote his lifetime to making accurate measurements of the positions of the stars and planets. (Murdin & Murdin, 27) & (J.L.E. Dreyer, 38) Brahe had just recently invented a new sextant that allowed him to measure the distances between stars and allowed him to find the exact position of the New Star and measure its angular distance from the stars in Cassiopia. Interestingly enough Brahe’s sextant was not much more precise than the accuracy needed to measure the annual parallax of the stars. He kept track of the star until it disappeared from the sky eighteen months later (Moore, 97). His measurements were accurate to a 10th of a degree, and he found that its position remained unchanged (J.L.E. Dreyer, 39) & (Murdin & Murdin, 28-29).
    Some of his contemporaries advanced the position that perhaps it was moving directly away or directly toward Earth, but these explanations didn't stick. If it had been a comet and moving across the sky like comets normally do Brahe would have detected its motion in a period of hours. Over many months he detected no motion whatsoever ruling out the possibility that it was a comet or a planet. The farthest known planet's motion at the time would have been evident within a week, and this object hadn’t shown any motion for far longer than that. In addition to these arguments the fact that planets shine without twinkling was used to show that this was indeed a star. (Murdin & Murdin, 29) (J.L.E. Dreyer, 41-43)
    In the De Stella Nova Tycho said “I conclude this star is not some kind of comet or fiery meteor, whether these are generated beneath the moon or above the moon, but that is a star shining in the firmament itself one that has never been seen before in our time or in any stage since the beginning of the world.” (Murdin & Murdin, 28). Later he goes on to say “that in the ethereal region of the celestial world no change of generation or of corruption occurs . . . . but celestial bodies always remain the same like unto themselves in every way.” Evidently his argument was that God had masked the supernova from earthly eyes since the creation choosing to reveal it at any time.
     On October 17, 1604 Brahe’s former assistant Johannes Kepler saw a new star that he described as competing with Jupiter in brilliance and was colored like a diamond. It had been sighted just days before by a pair of Italians, and an astronomer by the name of I. Altobellie in Vienna. On October 10, a court official in Prague, J. Brunowsky, caught a glimpse between the clouds of the new star and notified Kepler (Murdin & Murdin, 31). Kepler made arrangements to continue his observations, but in November the supernova moved too close to the sun to be seen. It reappeared in January but was fading continuing to be invisible until October of 1605, and was carefully observed by Kepler and others until then. (Murdin & Murdin, 31). After the Supernova in 1604 the next supernova able to be sighted with the naked eye was relatively recent in 1987 and was our first good chance at understanding the nature of these awesome cosmic events.
    The history of European observations of supernovae had been lacking up until the modern era. Since Kepler, no supernova have been recorded in our galaxy. In 1987 a star exploded in the Large Magellanic Cloud a galaxy neighboring our own. Before the era of modern physics and space exploration, European records tell us very little of the sky. The lack of records may reflect more on the Europeans themselves and their view of an “unchanging” cosmos. The 1054 supernova was only seen by one monk in Switzerland. Europe’s lack of acknowledgment of these cosmic events for most of its written history up until the age of Kepler and Brahe is striking, and reflects the power that European religions held over ideas about the cosmos. A universe centered around the Earth rather than filled with billions of stars and having no center.