The Ching Hsing
by
Charles Raspil
An ancient Chinese astrological principle in use during the Former Han
Dynasty (205 B.C.-23 A.D.) suggests that Chinese astronomers then
believed that the planet Venus could deviate from its expected
position in the sky and that it had already done so in earlier
centuries of their ancient history. The principle says:
"When Venus appears, it does not cross the sky. When [it] crosses
the sky, the country changes its government. "
A commentator on this text, Meng K'ang, explains that Venus can cross
the sky either from the eastern to western horizon or from western to
eastern horizon. And, Meng K'ang adds, these crossings are rare,
occurring only every few centuries, and signal the arrival of a new
dynasty.
From the standpoint of present observations this ancient astronomical
belief among the Chinese seems absurd. First, because Venus orbits
closer to the Sun than the Earth, it is not visible in the sky more
than about 47° above the horizon. By the time it has risen to this
height in the East, as Morning Star, its light is overpowered by the
rising Sun. When it becomes visible at twilight in the West, as
Evening Star, it may first appear at this height but is already
setting toward the horizon. It is not possible, visually, for Venus to
pass overhead (cross the sky) during the night. Further, Venus cannot
rise in the West and set in the East.
Yet, despite the astronomical absurdities that the saying implies, an
event recorded as late as the 14th Century A. D. still speaks of the
phenomenon as if it were a reality. In his "History of the
Civilization of China", Joseph Needham discusses a celestial
phenomenon that the Chinese call the Ching Hsing, the "Orb" [Star] of
Splendor". Needham quotes a memorandum written by a member of the
Astronomical Bureau. The year is 1340 A.D.:
[Venus overpassed the Sun on December 12 - Gregorian]
". . . On the first day of the 7th month in the 6th year of the
reign, there came ... one of the Senior observers ... who asked me
to go to the Observatory as quickly as possible. [The Commissioner
then reports that] last night there appeared the Ching Hsing
phenomenon. That is a very auspicious omen [reports Yang Yul] ... I
looked up the files ... of earlier memorials and came to a very
different conclusion. I said [to them], 'although the phenomenon
has occurred on the last day of the month [i.e. New Moon], its
shape was slightly different from what it ought to be. Besides, if
the Ching Hsing appears, there ought to he reports coming in of
wine-sweet springs, phoenixes, purple herbs, and felicitous clouds
in order to corroborate the celestial omen. But on the contrary
there are epidemics and catastrophes in Shensi, brigands and
robbers, and ... rebels. I'm afraid it won't do. Why should the Tao
of Heaven be proclaiming the opposite [to the Tao of Earth]?' But
Mr. Li was obstinate... So I said, 'Up to now only the six
observers here have seen the phenomenon. In the unlikely
possibility of its having been generally seen [because most were
sleeping] by people throughout the country, will they have not
taken it as an omen of evil? Finally he agreed to wait and see if
it appeared again [that night] before we memorialized it. And
indeed only nine days later the planet Venus 'crossed the
meridian.' " [In a footnote, Needham adds that the Chinese
considered Venus' meridian crossing a bad omen.]
Here we seem to have a report of an actual observation. Venus has
crossed the night sky, and we also seem to have a name for this
phenomenon, the Ching Hsing, though the bureaucratic report doesn't
actually identify Venus specifically as the "Orb of Splendor". More
material is forthcoming on the Ching Hsing; but first, using Needham's
narrative, let us see how conventional astronomy explains the
phenomenon.
Needham introduces Ssu Ma Chien, an historian from the Former Han
Dynasty, who has defined the Ching Hsing; "When the sky is serene,
then the Ching Hsing appears. It's also called the Te-Hsing (Orb of
Virtue). It has no constant form, but it appears to countries which
follow the Tao."
Then, reminding us that our 14th Century bureaucrat had linked the
Ching Hsing with the New Moon, Needham cites F. Kuhnert, a German
sinologist (a specialist in Chinese), who identifies the Ching Hsing
with a lunar phenomenon, Earthshine, the illumination of the darkened
lunar orb at New Moon by reflected Earthlight. Though Kuhnert's
explanation satisfies most sinologists, questions remain. Earthshine
solves only one problem; the association of the phenomenon with the
New Moon. But Venus' night-crossing with its accompanying oddities,
wine-sweet springs, phoenixes, etc. - links this Chinese account to
those of other ancient peoples which associate similar phenomena with
the planet Venus, and not with the Moon. This remains unexplained.
Another sinologist, Edward Schaeffer, in his Pacing the Void, a survey
of astronomy during the T'ang Dynasty (618-910 A. D.), has researched
the Ching Hsing more thoroughly. He finds that it has these
characteristics: 1. it is large; 2. its form resembles a half-Moon; 3.
it appears during the New Moon; 4.it "assists" the Moon's brightness;
5. it is rare, though many descriptions of it appear in Chinese
literature; 6. it is favorable; the Chinese considered it similar to
such positive omens and phoenixes, certain dragons, perfectly calm
seas, and miraculous clearings of waters as muddy as the Yellow River.
Conceivably, one can interpret characteristics 1 through 5 as support
for Kuhnert's idea that the Ching Hsing is caused by Earthshine on the
face of the New Moon. Yet Schaeffer himself has doubts. He wonders why
the word ching, meaning a bright celestial object, especially a star,
would define a barely visible celestial phenomenon like Earthshine on
the New Moon. And again, there is the reference to Venus which the
sixth characteristic further complicates: The Ching Hsing is an
auspicious omen, a good omen; Venus' meridian crossing is not.
To add to our confusion, Schaeffer finds another source that describes
for us the process that creates the Ching Hsing: Two yellow stars
congeal from a red substance or pneuma and merge with another yellow
star formed from a blue pneuma. The merging itself creates the Ching
Hsing.
Fortunately, Schaeffer removes some confusion by presenting examples
of the Ching Hsing within historical contexts. One occurred in 110 B.
C. Ssu Ma Chien writes that a comet appeared in the Chinese
constellation "Eastern Well" and 10 to 12 days later appeared in the
constellation "Three T'ai". The object then seemed to swell like a
melon and afterward slowly faded away. At about the same time, the
"Star of Longevity" (identified by sinologists as the bright star,
Canopus) appeared "deep and glowing. " Ssu Ma Chien emphasizes that
astronomers identified the comet as a Ching Hsing.
Clearly, this has nothing to do with Earthshine. The significance of
the subtle change in the appearance of Canopus could result, naturally
enough, from some alteration of its light by the tail of the comet.
But the most curious aspect of the story is the equation in the
ancient Chinese mind of a Ching Hsing, here described as the
appearance of a comet in the sky, with the planet Venus and its
characteristics. In this context, it is fascinating that, half a world
away and more than a millennium later, Grassi, in his "Astronomical
Disputation on the Three Comets of the Year 1618", [an astronomical
disputation presented publicly in the Collegio Romano of the Society
of Jesus by one of the Fathers of that Society, Rome, 1619] notes that
"the ignorant mass of the people had considered Venus as a comet. . .
" i.e., that when the average individual referred to Venus, he called
it a comet rather than a planet.
Schaeffer records that another Ching Hsing occurred before the reign
of the second T'ang emperor Li Shih Min, i.e., some time between 618
and 626 A. D. Though Schaeffer does not give us the particulars of
this event, he has noted (in another context) that on June 24, 618,
Venus was said to have been visible in the sky during the day.
Schaeffer's final example is the most interesting. During the reign of
Wang Mang, usurper of the Han dynasty's throne (9-23 A. D.) a Wang
Ch'ung reports a Ching Hsing. He adds that "Venus then crossed the sky
and its essence resembled a half-Moon."
Though Wang Ch'ung's report is astounding Schaeffer, in effect tries
to trivialize it, wondering if Chinese visual acuity was sharper 2000
years ago than it is now. He also avoids the contradiction of
Kuhnert's Earthshine thesis by failing to note that this particular
Ching Hsing's half-Moon appearance is specifically attributed to
Venus, not the Moon.
Material from H. H. Dubs' translation of Pan Ku's History of the
Former Han Dynasty may be added here. After inscribing the events of
the 6th month (June 8-July 6) of the year 23 A.D. the annalist, Pan
Ku, begins his entries for the 7th month (July 7-August 5) by relating
how Wang Mang's government uncovered a conspiracy to assassinate the
emperor. For us, the salient point is that the conspirators had foiled
themselves by waiting too long for the reappearance (following its
inferior conjunction) of the martially propitious planet Venus. [See
also, Charles Bowen's "Venus: A Battlestar?", this issue.] But as Dubs
demonstrates in a footnote, Venus' astronomically retrocalculated
position does not agree with the position that Pan Ku's text implies.
By astronomical retrocalculation, Venus disappeared from view before
inferior conjunction on August 2, 2 3 A. D. that is, 3 days before the
end of the 7th month, and then reappeared 19 days later on August 21.
Nevertheless, from Pan Ku's text, one must conclude that Venus had
disappeared sometime during the 6th month (June 8-July 6) and by the
beginning of the 7th month (July 7), when the still tarrying plotters
were arrested, had still not reappeared. Where was Venus? Had its
inferior conjunction occurred one month earlier?
But that's not all. In the Autumn of 23 A. D. Pan Ku reports that, ".
. . Venus moved into the constellation T'ai Wei, and lighted the Earth
like the light of the Full Moon." Though retrocalculation (as Dubs
reports) shows that Venus in Autumn of 23 A. D. was brighter than
usual, it could never attain the brightness of the Full Moon. But for
observers without telescopes to see that Venus resembled a half-Moon,
then the planet must have been relatively closer to the Earth. And
then its brightness could certainly rival the Full Moon.
Since the era of Wang Mang and the origin of Christianity roughly
coincide, it is also interesting to note Edouard Chavannes' comment in
his translation of Ssu Ma Chien's definition of the Ching Hsing. It is
truly this text (Ssu Ma Chien's) that has suggested the name of Ching
Chiou, "Resplendent Religion", that was applied to Christianity, the
birth of Christ having been announced by the star, Ching. " Did the
Chinese so readily accept the missionaries' story of the Star of
Bethlehem because it resembled a phenomenon already known in their
history and for which they had a name -- Ching? Does the Chinese
association of the a name Ching with some unusual appearance of Venus
as well as the appearance of comets, imply that the same or similar
association can be found in the story of the Three Wise Men from the
East? We shall leave a thorough examination of this question for
another time though, for now, we may assure the reader that such
association abound in the literature regarding the Star of Bethlehem.
To conclude our survey of ancient Chinese traditions regarding Venus
and the Ching Hsing phenomenon, let us give a second thought to the
other strange things that were expected to accompany a Ching Hsing -
wine-sweet springs, purple herbs, phoenixes or dragons in the heavens,
and so on. These seem at first glance to be so unrelated to anything
natural that we tend to dismiss them as Chinese whimsy. But, again,
when compared with the ancient tales of other cultures regarding
Venus, we find the same basic ideas - that Venus at one time somehow
had caused remarkable, though temporary, changes in the Earth's water,
visible changes in vegetation, and extraordinary visual displays in
the sky. The agreement found in ancient records regarding these and
other strange characteristics of Venus is astounding when one
considers the vast span of time, diversity of languages and range of
cultures around the globe that have maintained these traditions as
historical facts. In future issues we shall continue our exploration
of this common set of beliefs that have so dominated humanity's
historical conception of Venus and its nature.
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