Orateur
Description
Upon the establishment of the Ming dynasty, the first emperor ordered the
translation and adaptation of the Hijri Islamic calendar and its related calculation
methods and ushered in a new era in the application of Islamicate mathematical
astronomy in early modern China. To coordinate the Hijri and the Chinese
calendrical systems, as well as to make use of these calendrical systems for its
political causes, the Ming court devised algorithms that established reference
points, including the Hijri Epoch (li yuan 曆元) and Year 1 of the Hexadecimal Cycle
(jiazi nian 甲子年).
In the case of the Hijri Epoch factor, lack of attentiveness to a required coordination
of the solar and lunar systems led a flawed algorithm and subsequently a flawed
result. This talk will explore the impact of such a flaw on the application of
astronomy at the court and outside of it between the 14th and 17th centuries.
The set of astronomical algorithms and reference points that were established
during the late 14th century continued to be used, with some modification, as
factors in the various astronomical calculations and adjustments taken in the
Chinese courts up to the 17th century. They impacted the way Islamic astronomy
was implemented at the Chinese courts, its level of accuracy and eventually its
inferiority vis-à-vis European astronomical predictions. As such, the calculation of
these factors became a subject of debate among Chinese astronomers that lingered
even long after the Hijri calendar fell out of grace at the Chinese court. At the same
time, these calculated factors greatly shaped the cultural and religious identities of
China's Islamic communities by producing a flawed timeframe for the history of
Islam in China
