Qian Yong, Complete Celestial Chart, Qing dynasty, Daoguang period, dated to the 6th year, corresponding to 1826 | 清道光六年（1826）錢泳 《渾天壹統星象全圖》
Auction Closed
November 1, 04:48 PM GMT
Estimate
60,000 - 80,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Qian Yong, Complete Celestial Chart
Qing dynasty, Daoguang period, dated to the 6th year, corresponding to 1826
清道光六年（1826）錢泳 《渾天壹統星象全圖》
woodblock print, mounted on 9 separate hanging scrolls
(9)
124.3 by 225.6 cm, 48⅞ by 88⅞ in.
Star maps appear to have been produced in China from around the Han dynasty (206 BC – AD 220), and the oldest preserved map of the stars, believed to date from the 7th century, has been discovered in the caves of Dunhuang in Qinghai. The present chart is based on one of the most famous early Chinese planispheres, the Tianwen tu (Celestial Chart) that was created during the Southern Song dynasty by the geographer and imperial tutor Huang Shang (1146 – 1194) for the instruction of the son of Emperor Guangzong (r. 1190 – 94), the later Emperor Ningzong (r. 1195 – 1224). The work was in 1247 engraved on stone by Wang Zhiyuan (1193-1257) and set up in the Confucian Temple in Suzhou, Jiangsu, where it still stands today; see a rubbing of this engraved map in Joseph Needham with Wang Ling, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 3: Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth, Cambridge, 1959, p. 280, fig. 106.
The present version stands as one of the largest star maps published during the Qing dynasty. There are three known editions of this map: the earliest edition was marked with the inscription '2nd year of Daoguang (1822)', signed Yunyou sanren; the subsequent editions were modelled after the first, both being printed in the 6th year of Daoguang (1826), one, produced in the spring of the year and signed by Songtao; and the other, produced in the summer and signed by Qianyong, which matches the details of the present piece.
The accompanying text features traditional Chinese celestial concepts followed by detailed explanations. Although the astronomical concepts inscribed closely resemble those found in the original Tianwen tu, the chart has undergone revisions and updates, as evidenced by the inclusion of new constellations.
Compare a closely related map housed in Jissō-in Temple, Kyoto, accession no. 2021.07.04; and another, in Ōmura City History Museum, Ōmura, illustrated in Kazuhiko Miyajima and Ryuji Hiraoka, Osaka shiritsu kagakukan kenkyū hōkoku [Osaka Science Museum research report], Osaka, 2016, pls 1 and 4, p. 81 and 84. See also a related star map, sold at Christie's New York, 15th October 2021, lot 80. Compare also a related world map printed on a similar blue ground and in eight panels, dated 1811, sold at Christie's New York, 15th October 2021, lot 94; and one dated 1803, sold in these rooms, 9th May 2017, lot 119.
The present version stands as one of the largest star maps published during the Qing dynasty. There are three known editions of this map: the earliest edition was marked with the inscription '2nd year of Daoguang (1822)', signed Yunyou sanren; the subsequent editions were modelled after the first, both being printed in the 6th year of Daoguang (1826), one, produced in the spring of the year and signed by Songtao; and the other, produced in the summer and signed by Qianyong, which matches the details of the present piece.
The accompanying text features traditional Chinese celestial concepts followed by detailed explanations. Although the astronomical concepts inscribed closely resemble those found in the original Tianwen tu, the chart has undergone revisions and updates, as evidenced by the inclusion of new constellations.
Compare a closely related map housed in Jissō-in Temple, Kyoto, accession no. 2021.07.04; and another, in Ōmura City History Museum, Ōmura, illustrated in Kazuhiko Miyajima and Ryuji Hiraoka, Osaka shiritsu kagakukan kenkyū hōkoku [Osaka Science Museum research report], Osaka, 2016, pls 1 and 4, p. 81 and 84. See also a related star map, sold at Christie's New York, 15th October 2021, lot 80. Compare also a related world map printed on a similar blue ground and in eight panels, dated 1811, sold at Christie's New York, 15th October 2021, lot 94; and one dated 1803, sold in these rooms, 9th May 2017, lot 119.