Sang-Hyeon Ahn

CATALOGUE OF METEOR SHOWERS AND STORMS IN KOREAN HISTORY

《삼국사기》, 《고려사》, 《조선왕조실록》, 《승정원일기》 등 정통 한국 사서 원전에 수록되어 있는 천문관측 자료에서 별똥비와 별똥 소나기 기록을 검색하여 천문학적인 검토를 거쳐 그 목록을 작성하였다. 한국 사서에 나오는 별똥비 기록은 현재 국제 학계에 1958년 Imoto와 Hasegawa가 영문으로 발표한 논문이 표준이 되고 있는데, 이 문헌은 주로 1917년에 조선총독부에서 주관한 연구과제의 일환으로 일본인 관구리길가 작성한 보고서를 바탕으로 하고 있다. 그가 만든 목록은 날짜나 원전 인용 상의 오류를 상당히 포함하고 있으므로 본 연구에서는 한국의 정사서 원전을 검색하여 철저한 고증을 거쳐 수정되고 확장된 별똥비 및 별똥 소나기 목록을 작성하였다. 그 결과 지난 2천년 동안 한국의 역사서에는 별똥 소나기가 25번, 센별똥비가 4번, 보통 별똥비가 5번 기록되어 있었다. 그 가운데 일부는 사자자리 별똥비, 페르세우스 별똥비, 핼리혜성의 의해 생기는 물병자리- n 별똥비와 오리온자리 별똥비 등에 속한 것으로 보이는 것이 있었으나, 상당히 많은 기록들은 이에 속하지 않았다. 본 연구에서 제시한 목록은 추후 많은 천체물리학적 연구에 유용할 것이다. 【We present a more complete and accurate catalogue of astronomical records far meteor showers and meteor storms appeared in primary official Korean history books, such as Samguk-sagi, Koryo-sa, Seungjeongwon-ilgi, and Chosen-Wangjo-Sillok. So far the catalogue made by Imoto and Hasegawa in 1958 has been widely used in the international astryonomical society. The catalogue is based on a report by Sekiguchi in 1917 that is mainly based on secondary history books. We observed that the catalogue has a number of errors in either dates or sources of the records. We have thoroughly checked the primary official history books, instead of the secondary ones, in order to make a corrected and extended catalogue. The catalogue contains 25 records of meteor storms, four records of intense meteor-showers, and five records of usual showers in Korean history. We also find that some of those records seem to correspond to some presently active meteor showers such as the Leonids, the Perseids, and the n -Aquarids-Orionids pair. However, a large number of those records do not correspond to suck present showers. This catalogue we obtained can be useful for various astrophysical studies in the future.】

A CATALOGUE OF METEOR SHOWERS AND STORMS IN KOREAN, JAPANESE, CHINESE HISTORIES

We made a robust catalogue of reliable records of meteor showers and storms recorded in Korean, Japanese, and Chinese chronicles. In our new catalogue, there are 35 Korean records, 29 Japanese records, and 93 Chinese records. The temporal frequency distribution of records shows two broad peaks around the 10th and the 16th centuries. We observed that the peak in the 10th century is mainly contributed by the Perseids, while the peak in the 16th century was mainly contributed by the Leonids. We found that the , the Perseids, the Orionids, and the Leonids have been active during the last two millennia. The oldest record of the is that of BC 687 in China, and the oldest record of the Perseids is that of 36 AD. Contrary to previous investigations, there has been no nodal shift of the and the Orionids, whose mother comet is the Halley`s comet. The oldest record of the Leonids is probably that of 288 AD, instead of 902 AD. We also find some evidence on the existence of a possible shower a-Draconids. We note that our catalogue will be useful to investigate meteor showers.

AT WHAT TIME A DAY BEGINS IN THE KOREAN HISTORY

We have reproduced the records of lunar occultation recorded in the History of Three Kingdoms(삼국사기), the History of the Koryo Dynasty (고려사), the Annals of the Choson Dynasty (朝鮮王朝實錄), the Daily Records of Royal Secretariat of the Choson Dynasty (승정원일기), and obtained the epochs of their realizations. We analysed these results to understand how the system of hours had been kept and when a day began. During most of the periods encompassed by these annals, the 12 double hours(12진각법) and the system of 100 divisions of the day (백각법) had been used when the lunar and the solar eclipses were calculated by royal astronomers. In these systems, the starting point of a day is midnight. On the other hand, the five watch system of hours (경점법), in which a night is divided into five watches, was also used. In this system, a day begins at the sunrise. We found that the traditional twilight, called dusk and dawn (혼명) and used in the east Asian countries, largely corresponds to the nautical twilight in modern concepts. This fact means that the Korean expressions and words for time system in every day life had originated form the five watch system of hours. We pointed out that the sunrise and sunset were convenient boundary lines to ancient astronomers, as well as to farmers in the agricultural society. Our results can be used to determine the exact epoch of each astronomical record in chronicles

COORDINATE VALUES OF THE DETERMINATIVE STARS OF TWENTY EIGHT LUNAR LODGES IN THE ANCIENT CHINESE HISTORICAL ARCHIVES

In this study, we investigate the changes in the equatorial lodge degrees and polar distance degrees of determinative stars in the ancient Chinese archives. Confirmed is the fact that the coordinate values of those determinative stars defined in B.C. 104 had been used until the 8th century but were modified by the observations of Li Chunfeng (李淳風) in the early 7th century and Yixing (一行) in 723 A.D. The results of this study are compared with those in History of Chinese Astronomical Observations of Pan Nai. By applying the results of comtemporary astrodynamical calculations, their reliability is checked, and the corrected catalogues of Shi Shi (石氏) and Yixing are provided. The positional accuracy of those observations is estimated to be one degree.

A Study on the Establishment of Pochonka and Chonmun yucho in the Early Choson Dynasty

조선 초기의 보천가(步天歌)와 천문류초(天文類抄)에 대해 연구하였다. 이 연구에서는, 다음과 같은 근거로부터 이 보천가(步天歌)의 가결(歌訣)이 A.D. 1161년에 중국에서 출간된 통지(通志)에 실려 있는 보천가(步天歌)에 큰 영향을 받았음을 알았다. 두 보천가(步天歌)의 별자리들은 서술 순서가 같고, 태미원(太微垣)의 가결(歌訣)의 첫 구철이 일곱 글자가 아니라 다섯 글자로 되어 있으며, 특히 별자리들에 대한 은하수의 위치를 기술한 천하기몰(天河起沒)은 통지(通志)의 저자인 정초(鄭樵)가 특별히 작성하여 보충한 것인데 그것이 조선 보천가(步天歌)에 들어 있다는 점이 그 근거들이다. 통지(通志)는 A.D. 1364년에 고려에 들어왔으므로, 조선 초기의 보천가(步天歌)는 그 후에야 성립 될 수 있다. 조선 초기의 보천가(步天歌)는, 중국의 보천가(步天歌)들과 비교할 때, 그 가결(歌訣)에 별자리들의 색깔이 유난히 강조되어 있다. 이것은 석신(石申), 감덕(甘德), 무함(巫咸)으로부터 기원한 별자리를 색깔로 구분하려는 의도이다. 조선 초기에 출간된 보천가(步天歌)와 천상열차분야지도(天象列次分野之圖)의 성도(星圖)들은 별자리들의 이름, 별개수, 모양 등이 일치한다. 이 사설은 조선 보천가(步天歌)의 성도(星圖)가 천상열차분야지도(天象列次分野之圖)의 모본(母本)이나 천상열차분야지도(天象列次分野之圖) 자체에서 기원했음을 뜻한다. 천상열차분야지도(天象列次分野之圖)의 모본(母本)은 A.D. 1392년에 발견되어 A.D. 1396년에 비석에 새겨졌기 때문에, 보천가(步天歌)의 성립시기의 상한은 1392년이 된다. 천문류초(天文類抄)는 보천가(步天歌)에 중국의 점성술 문헌의 내용을 덧붙인 책이다. 이 책의 성립 시기는 그 저자인 이순지(李純之)의 생애 등을 근거로 A.D. 1440-1450년으로 추론되었다. 더군다나, 보천가(步天歌)는 A.D. 1430년에 관상감의 천문학자를 뽑는 취재(取才) 시험의 과목으로 선정되었다. 이러한 사설들로부터, 이 연구에서는 조선의 보천가(步天歌)가, 송(宋)의 선진 체제를 받아들임으로써 조선 왕조의 문화적 정치적 기초를 다지기 위해, A.D. 1392년에서 A.D. 1430 사이에 출간되었을 것으로 추론하였다. 【We investigated the formation of Pochonka (Song of the Sky Pacers) and Chonmun yucho (Selected and classified writings on astrology) of the early Choson dynasty. We recognized that the songs in these books were deeply influenced by those in a Chinese book Tong-zhi published in 1161 A.D., based on the following facts; the contnts of both treatises are described in the same order; the first phrase of the song for Thai-wei-yuan has composed of five words rather than seven words; in particular, Chosons Pochonka has the song that describes the position of the Milky Way relative to asterisms, which was supplemented by the author Zheng Qiao. Since Tong-zhi were brought into Koryo in 1364 A.D., Chosons Pochonka must be formed after that time. In particular, compared with Chinese Pu-tien-ko, Chosons Pochonka stresses the colors of asterisms in order to represent the origin of each asterism with respect to the astronomers, Shih-shen, Kan-te, and Wu-Hsien. We also find that the star-charts in Pochonka and Chonsang-yolcha-punyajido (Chart of the asterisms and the regions they govern) published in the early Choson dynasty are significantly similar in names, number of stars, and shapes of asterisms in them. This fact means that the star-charts in Pochonka originated from either the parent chart of Chonsang-yolcha-punyajido or Chonsang-yolcha-punyajido itself. The parent rubbing was reappeared in 1392 A.D. and carved on stele in 1396 A.D., and so the publication of Pochonka can be dated back to A.D. 1392. Chonmun yucho is a book that was formed by footnoting Pochonka with astrological descriptions in Chinese treatises. The formation period of Chonmun yucho is estimated to be 1440-1450 A.D. from the facts such as the biographical survey of the author Yi Sunji. Furthermore, Pochonka was adopted as a textbook of the government service examination for the astronomy division in Soungwan or the Royal Bureau of Astronomy in 1430 A.D.. We inferred from these facts that Chosons Pochonka was formed between 1392 A.D. and 1430 A.D. as a part of establishment of the cultural and political foundation of the Choson dynasty by adopting the advanced system of the Song dynasty.】

Astronomical Characteristics of Cheonsang-yeolcha-bunyajido from the Perspective of Manufacturing Methods

I investigated a method for drawing the star chart in the planisphere Cheonsang-yeolcha-bunyajido. The outline of the star chart can be constructed by considering the astronomical information given in the planisphere alone and the drawing method described in Xin-Tangshu; further the chart can be completed by using additional information on the shape and linking method of asterisms out of an inherited star chart. The circles of perpetual visibility, the equator, and the circle of perpetual invisibility are concentric, and their common center locates the Tianshu-xing, which was defined to be a pole star in the Han dynasty. The radius of the circle of perpetual visibility was modified in accordance with the latitude of Seoul, whereas the other circles were drawn for the latitude of 35°, which had been the reference latitude in ancient Chinese astronomy. The ecliptic was drawn as an exact circle by parallel transference of the equator circle to fix the location of the equinoxes at the positions recorded in the epitaph of the planisphere. The positions of equinoxes originated from the Han dynasty. The 365 ticks around the boundary of the circle of perpetual invisibility were possibly drawn by segmenting the circumference with an arc length instead of a chord length with the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter as accurate as 3.14 presumed. The 12 equatorial sectors were drawn on the boundary of the star-chart in accordance with the beginning and ending lodge angles given in the epitaph that originated from the Han dynasty. The determinative lines for the 28 lunar lodges were drawn to intersect their determinative stars, but seven determinative stars are deviated. According to the treatises of the Tang dynasty, these anomalies were inherited from charts of the period earlier than the Tang dynasty. Thus, the star chart in Cheonsang-yeolcha-bunyajido preserves the old tradition that had existed before the present Chinese tradition reformed in approximately 700 CE. In conclusion, the star chart in Cheonsang-yeolcha-bunyajido shows the sky of the former Han dynasty with the equator modified to the latitude of Seoul.

A Study on New Pochonka Published in A.D. 1792

New Pochonka published in the eighteenth century of the Choson dynasty was composed of star-charts based on the new observations made by Jesuits in China and songs corrected a little bit from previous version of Pochonka. The asterisms in the previous Pochonka are listed in the same order to that in the Song dynasty`s literature; while the asterisms in the new Pochonka are listed in accordance with Pu-tien-ko published in China after the Ming dynasty. The Chinese-style twelve-equatorial-section system is adopted in the new Pochonka, while in its song is adopted the zodiac system, which can be seen in the star-charts of previous version of Pochonka. The asterisms belonging to three or four neighboring lunar-mansions are drawn in one chart. Each chart covers asterisms not belonging to a certain range of right ascension, but to a certain lunar mansion. We estimate the forming era of the new Pochonka from the following facts; that the Ling-Tai-I-Hsiang-Chih was used to make charts and footnotes whose archetype can be found in the Chinese literature around A.D. 1700, that these Chinese books were imported into Choson in A.D. 1709, that the naming taboo to the emperor Khang-Hsi was used, that the order of Shen-Hsiu (參宿) was transposed with Tshui-Hsiu (자宿), and that the new Pochonka was substituted for the old version when the rules of Royal Astronomical Bureau was reformed in A.D. 1791. In conclusion, the parent sources of the charts and footnotes of the new Pochonka might be imported from the Ching dynasty around 1709 A.D. to form the new Pochonka between A.D. 1709 and A.D. 1791, and finally to be published in A.D. 1792. We discuss the possible future works to make a firm conclusion.

The First Telescope in the Korean History I. Translation of Jeong`s Report

In 1631 A.D. Jeong Duwon, an ambassador of the Joseon dynasty was sent to the Ming dynasty. There he met Rodrigues, a Jesuit missionary, in Dengzhou of Shandong peninsula. The missionary gave the ambassador a number of results of latest European innovations. A detailed description on this event was written in `Jeong`s official report regarding a message from an European country`(西洋國奇別狀啓), which is an important literature work to understand the event. Since the document was written in classical Chinese, we make a comprehensive translation to Korean with detailed notes. According to the report, the items that Rodrigues presented include four books written in Chinese that describe European discoveries about the world, a report on the tribute of new cannons manufactured by Portuguese in Macao, a telescope, a flintlock, a Foliot-type mechanical clock, a world atlas drawn by Matteo Ricci, an astronomical planisphere, and a sun-dial. We discuss the meaning of each item in the Korean history of science and technology. In particular, Jeong`s introduction is an important event in the history of Korean astronomy, because the telescope he brought was the first one to be introduced in Korean history. Even though king Injo and his associates of the Joseon dynasty were well aware of the value as military armaments of new technologies such as telescopes, cannons, and flintlocks, they were not able to quickly adopt such technologies to defend against the military threat of Jurchen. We revisit the reason in view of the general history of science and technology of east-Asian countries in the 17th century.

MEANING OF `EXHAUSTED ECLIPSES` IN ANCIENT EPHEMERIDES

It has been considered that `exhausted eclipses` (日食旣) were total eclipses. However, modern precise calculations show that a significant fraction of such records are not realized to be total. Thus we doubt that the two concepts are equivalent. Here we investigate the meaning of `exhausted eclipses` in the east-Asian history. We first find that eclipses of magnitude greater than 0.8 were regarded as `exhausted eclipses` by a Korean astronomer of the 18th-century Choson dynasty. His notion was based upon the definition of `exhausted eclipses` in the ephemerides of pre-modern Chinese dynasties. According to those ephemerides, the `exhausted eclipses`, whose magnitude is greater than 0.8, have the first contact at the western part of the solar disk and the fourth contact at the eastern part of the solar disk. A simple geometrical calculation shows that such cases really occur when the magnitude of eclipse is greater than 0.7. We pointed out that such an ancient definition might not be impractical for ancient astronomers, because the uncertainty of eclipse magnitude estimated by ancient Chinese ephemerides was 10% and the human sight has a spatial resolution of 1.2 arcmin, which is approximately one twentieth of the Sun`s angular diameter.

A REVISED CATALOGUE OF METEOR OUTBURSTS IN KOREAN, JAPANESE, CHINESE HISTORIES

We made a revised catalogue for reliable records of meteor outbursts that were recorded in Korean, Japanese, and Chinese chronicles. In order to avoid the effects of both Earth`s precession and perihelion shift, we introduced a new time-coordinate of records, or the number of days elapsed within the sidereal year of the record for a given origin of time or the perihelion passage time of the you 2000. We added nineteen new records of meteor showers that are wrongly classified i, individual meteors in a Chinese archive. We found that the the Perseids, the Orionids, and the Leonids have been active during the last two millennia. Due to the change of time-coordinate, the oldest record of each long-lasting meteor shower has been slightly corrected. We discuss that these long-lasting meteor showers belong to the Halley-type comets.