Astronomy as a Science in the Archive in Imperial China (221 BC–AD 1911)

This article explores the creation and utilization of astronomical records in the dynastic histories, a series of official histories compiled over approximately two millennia, in premodern China. Drawing inspiration from Lorraine Daston’s insights that sciences can rely on historical data in the archive as much as current observations, this article contends that the dynastic histories played a pivotal role in shaping astronomical knowledge and practices in imperial China. Astronomical record-keeping was interwoven with the scholarly, bureaucratic, and scribal practices of dynastic history compilation. Notably, certain astronomers, demonstrating remarkable historical consciousness, employed the genre to safeguard astronomical data and ensure its accessibility for future generations. This commitment to data preservation paralleled astronomers’ reliance on archival data from the past, adapting it with refined mathematical calculations, observation standards, and new astronomical inquiries. Emphasizing the archival context of Chinese astronomy, this study underscores the collaborative and cumulative nature of Chinese astronomy, wherein astronomers consistently built upon the observational and archival contributions of their predecessors. It also scrutinizes the intellectual, material, and cultural processes that shaped the most systematic premodern astronomical archive in history. It potentially brings the rich archival practices of premodern Chinese astronomy into comparison with those of other sciences in the archive in other periods and regions.