[KS] Online Lecture: Visualising Time-Space in East Asia: Mapping 'Round Heavens & Square Earth’ from Ancient Rotating Devices to Late Modern Commercial Maps

[Hu, Jing]

Dear colleagues,

On December 5th at 6:00 pm (CET), Dr. Vera Dorofeeva-Lichtmann (CNRS, Paris; Fellow at the Einstein Center Chronoi and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science) will present a talk titled “Visualizing Time-Space in East Asia: Mapping ‘Round Heavens & Square Earth’ from Ancient Rotating Devices to Late Modern Commercial Maps.” Dr. Dorofeeva-Lichtmann will explore the ancient Chinese concept of ‘Round Heavens & Square Earth’ and its representation in Korean atlases.

Please more information on the lecture series and the Zoom link to the lecture, please check: https://www.bbaw.de/veranstaltungen/veranstaltung-visualising-time-space-in-east-asia?tx_news_pi1%5Baction%5D=detail&tx_news_pi1%5Bcontroller%5D=News&cHash=197af5303aa17a05271a5ef629687e41

Below is the Abstract:

Early Chinese astrological devices, shi 式/栻 , usually translated as “cosmographs,” “diviners’ boards,” or more recently as “diviners’ mantic astrolabes” or simply “cosmic models,” are known from the 2nd century BC. Made of lacquered wood, these portable instruments consist of a static square plate, representing the Earth, and a rotating disc placed on top of it, representing the Heavens.

Development of “commercial” printing for commoners in late imperial China gave rise to schematic cosmographic maps (ca. early 17th century, onwards). Their structure strikingly resembles shi, with the difference that the square Earth is placed in the centre of the round Heavens. These maps were then transmitted to Korea. They apparently served as one of inspirations of the circular world maps found in popular Korean atlases (18th-19th centuries).

The aim of this presentation is to show how the ancient Chinese concept of ‘Round Heavens & Square Earth’ visualised as a time-space relationship continued to be in use in East Asia until the beginning of the 20th century, co-existing with modern Western science.


Best,
Jing



Hu, Jing
胡靜 (호정)
[sie/ihr; she/her]
East Asia Department · Subject Specialist for Korean Studies
Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz
Potsdamer Straße 33
10785 Berlin

+49 30 266 436 110
jing.hu at sbb.spk-berlin.de<mailto:jing.hu at sbb.spk-berlin.de>
www.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/en/<http://www.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/en/>
https://crossasia.org/en/

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