Shi Shen (,
fl.
''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...
4th century BC) was a Chinese
astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...
and astrologer. He was a contemporary of
Gan De born in the
State of Wei
Wei (; ) was one of the seven major State (Ancient China), states during the Warring States period of ancient China. It was created from the three-way Partition of Jin, together with Han (Warring States), Han and Zhao (state), Zhao. Its territo ...
, also known as the Shi Shenfu.
Observations
Shi is credited with positioning the 121 stars found in the preserved texts. Shen also made the earliest surviving deliberate sunspot observation, sometimes erroneously credited to Gan De. He assumed that these spots were
eclipses that began at the center of the Sun and spread outward. Although he was wrong, he recognised the spots for what they were – solar phenomena.
His works included the 8-volume ''The rocks of Space'', the one-volume ''Celestial Map'' and the one-volume ''Star Catalogue of Shi''. The latter two are now believed to be written by his school followers. Most of his works did not survive intact, but a few of his crucial writings were preserved in the ''
Treatise on Astrology of the Kaiyuan Era''.
Books
Shi Shen wrote the ''Astronomy'' (石氏天文, ''Shishi Tianwen''), later known as ''Shi's Classic of Stars'' (石氏星經, ''Shishi Xingjing'').
Influence
Gan De and Shi Shen are widely quoted across a number of astronomical texts after their time, though they should not be confused with other books sharing similar names that were not written by them. One example is the ''Star Manual of the Masters Gan and Shi'' (甘石星經, Gan Shi Xingjing), which was actually compiled by
Ma Xian (馬顯) circa 579 AD as an appendix to a calendar treatise.
[Kistemaker, Jacob. Sun, Xiaochun. 997(1997). ''The Chinese Sky During the Han: Constellating Stars and Society''. BRILL publishing. .]
The crater
Shi Shen on the
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...
is named after him.
See also
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Chinese star maps
Chinese star maps ( zh, s=星图, t=星圖, p=xīngtú) are usually directional or graphical representations of Chinese astronomy, Chinese astronomical alignments. Throughout the history of China, numerous star maps have been recorded. This page ...
*
Galileo Galilei
Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei ( , , ) or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a poly ...
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Hipparchus
Hipparchus (; , ; BC) was a Ancient Greek astronomy, Greek astronomer, geographer, and mathematician. He is considered the founder of trigonometry, but is most famous for his incidental discovery of the precession of the equinoxes. Hippar ...
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Nicolaus Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus (19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543) was a Renaissance polymath who formulated a mathematical model, model of Celestial spheres#Renaissance, the universe that placed heliocentrism, the Sun rather than Earth at its cen ...
Notes
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Shi, Shen
4th-century BC Chinese people
Ancient astrologers
Ancient Chinese astronomers
4th-century BC astronomers
Chinese astrologers
People of Wei (state)