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Overview
Key data
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Author | Zhu Yu |
| Completed | 1119 (first year of Xuanhe, Northern Song) |
| Nature | A notebook recording the observations of his father Zhu Fu |
| Famous passage | The Guangzhou sea-going ships steering by the compass |
The record of the compass at sea
The work records that the pilots of the sea-going ships at Guangzhou “know the geography: at night they observe the stars, by day the sun, and in thick weather the compass.”
This is among the earliest explicit records in Chinese literature of the compass used at sea.
It belongs to the last years of the Northern Song, following closely on the compass usages recorded in the Mengxi Bitan.
Its relation to astronomical navigation
Ancient navigation was chiefly directed by the stars: “at night they observe the stars.”
The compass allowed direction to be kept on thick days too, a great advance in navigation.
For the transmission of astronomical technique, the value of this passage lies not within the calendar but in the method of orientation on which the calendar rests.
Value
The work records much overseas observation and the business of the maritime trade office.
Its passage on the Guangzhou ships is key material for the history of Chinese navigation and of the use of the compass.
Full text
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The title, date, summary and index structure compiled here are offered under CC BY 4.0 (attribution: Chujia Kuang · kuangchujia.com).
The full electronic text (about 28,824 characters) is taken from the Chinese Wikisource text of Pingzhou Ketan; that part is offered under CC BY-SA 4.0 (attribution — share alike); source: zh.wikisource.org.
The electronic text has not been collated by us; please check the original before citing.
Compiled and arranged by Chujia Kuang.