The Foundations of Celestial Reckoning

This book makes available for the first time in English full and clear translations of the first three extant systems of mathematical astronomy in China, which were constructed between the late second century BCE and the third century CE, and which established the form that Chinese thinking about astronomical systems would take for centuries to come. It offers translations of texts on The Triple Concordance system, the Han quarter remainder system and the Uranic Manifestation system. The systems are translated in full, using a clear and consistent rendering of technical terms in the original, and accompanied by commentaries and worked examples of the calculations.

Christopher Cullen is Emeritus Director of the Needham Research Institute, Emeritus Fellow of Darwin College, and Emeritus Honorary Professor of the University of Cambridge. He is editor of the Needham Research Institute Series (Routledge).