Overview
Key data
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Excavated | 1978, Leigudun tomb 1, Suixian (now Suizhou), Hubei |
| Date | c. 433 BCE (year of Marquis Yi’s death) |
| Object | Lacquered wooden chest, no. E.66 |
| Imagery | Names of the twenty-eight mansions, Azure Dragon and White Tiger on the lid |
| Significance | Among the earliest complete depictions of the twenty-eight mansions |
What the image contains
At the centre of the lid is the graph for the Dipper; around it the names of the twenty-eight mansions are written, with the Azure Dragon and White Tiger painted on either side. The characters agree broadly with those in later transmitted texts and can be compared directly.
It is an early instance of the whole sky drawn as an image, showing that the mansion system was already fixed in the early Warring States.
Its use for dating
The arrangement of the mansions on the lid reflects the sky of its own time. Because of precession the fixed stars have shifted, and the epoch of observation can be worked back from the map; the result agrees with the tomb’s date.
Another lacquered chest from the same tomb (E.61) also carries a star map.
Value
That so complete a star image should exist in the early Warring States shows how early the Chinese star-official system took shape.
The piece and the mansion names in the Rites of Zhou and the Erya corroborate one another, making it a benchmark in archaeoastronomy.
Compiled and arranged by Chujia Kuang.