page_title: Chinese astronomy
section_title: Celestial globe (渾象) before Qing Dynasty
hierarchical_section_title: Chinese astronomy / Equipment and innovation / Celestial globe (渾象) before Qing Dynasty
context_page_description: Astronomy in China has a long history, beginning from the Shang Dynasty. Chinese star names later categorized in the twenty-eight mansions have been found on oracle bones unearthed at Anyang, dating back to the middle Shang Dynasty, and the mansion system's nucleus seems to have taken shape by the time of the ruler Wu Ding.
  Detailed records of astronomical observations began during the Warring States period and flourished from the Han period onward. Chinese astronomy was equatorial, centered as it was on close observation of circumpolar stars, and was based on different principles from those prevailing in traditional Western astronomy, where heliacal risings and settings of zodiac constellations formed the basic ecliptic framework. Needham has described the ancient Chinese as the most persistent and accurate observers of celestial phenomena anywhere in the world before the Islamic astronomers.
context_section_description: Besides star maps, the Chinese also made celestial globes, which show stars' positions like a star map and can present the sky at a specific time. Because of its Chinese name, it is often confused with the armillary sphere, which is just one word different in Chinese (渾象 vs. 渾儀).
  According to records, the first celestial globe was made by Geng Shou-chang (耿壽昌) between 70 BC and 50 BCE. In the Ming Dynasty, the celestial globe at that time was a huge globe, showing the 28 mansions, celestial equator and ecliptic. None of them have survived.
caption: Celestial globe from Qing Dynasty
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