Chinese Comets and the Record of the World’s Changes

The ancient Chinese were the world’s first and best astronomers. Carl Sagan dates their astronomical record-keeping back to 1500 BC. Star catalogues listed hundreds of comets over hundreds of years, and included detailed information on dates, appearance, and location of comets.

The Chinese drew up the world’s first cometary atlas, too, the Mawangdui Silk, as it’s called, ca. 300 BC. Here’s a portion of it:

Chinese Comet Atlas

And here’s one of my favorite entries from the “Record of the World’s Changes,” by Li Ch’un, 602-667:

“When a comet appears in the Constellation Hydra, there is war and some conspire to overthrow the emperor. Fish and salt are expensive. The emperor dies. Rice also becomes expensive. There is no emperor in the country. The people hate life and don’t even want to speak of it.”

“The people hate life and don’t even want to speak of it.” Indeed.