Overview
Key data
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Completed | 729 (seventeenth year of Kaiyuan, Tang) |
| Compiler | Gautama Siddha, of Indian descent, an official of the Tang astronomical bureau |
| Volumes | 120 |
| Important contents | The epochs of the six ancient calendars; the measures of the twenty-eight mansions; the star-officials of the Shi, Gan and Wuxian schools; quotations from lost books |
Nature and scale
The Kaiyuan Zhanjing is the officially compiled Tang compendium of astral divination, in 120 juan.
It is arranged by class, gathering the astronomical and divinatory lore of earlier ages into one work.
Its compiler, Gautama Siddha, came of an Indian calendrical family and served in the Tang astronomical bureau, versed in both Chinese and Indian methods.
Its service in preserving old books
The work quotes a great many old books, not a few of them now lost.
The epochs and methods of the six ancient calendars survive chiefly through its quotations,
making it one of the only sources for the study of high antiquity’s calendars.
Its account of the star-officials of the Shi, Gan and Wuxian schools is likewise the fullest.
The astronomical material
Apart from the prognostications, the measures of the twenty-eight mansions, the field-allocation system,
and a body of Indian astronomical material have independent value for the history of science.
Its record of the Indian “Navagraha calendar” is key material for the history of astronomical exchange between China and abroad.
Value
The Kaiyuan Zhanjing is a book that preserves what would otherwise be lost:
many lost works survive in fragments through it, and many chronological questions can be discussed only because of it.
No study of ancient calendars, ancient star-officials, or astronomical exchange can dispense with it.
Compiled and arranged by Chujia Kuang.