[Type98G]

The government of Henan Province in central China has begun renovating an observatory believed to be the oldest in China and one of the oldest in the world.

With a history of approximately 730 years, the observatory was built by Guo Shoujing, a prestigious ancient Chinese astronomer, in 1276. There, Guo first observed the revolving regularity of the sun, the moon and the stars. On this basis, he calculated, correctly, that there are 365.24 days in a year.

The observatory was listed as a site under the central government protection in 1961. Currently, Dengfeng County, where the observatory is located, is preparing to submit it to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as part of humanity's cultural heritage.

The 20-m-tall observatory, in a temple southeast of Dengfeng County, is dilapidated. The provincial development and reform commission has allocated one million yuan (about US$120,480) to repair the body, walls and ground surface of the observatory.

http://www.china.org...ture/107957.htm

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believed to be the oldest in China and one of the oldest in the world

The Song Dynasty must be quite advance

[General_Zhaoyun]

The Song has the most advanced science and technology in the world at that time.

[Yun]

Actually, Guo Shoujing worked for the Yuan dynasty, which conquered the Southern Song in 1276. By that time, Henan was already under Yuan rule. The observatory instruments used by the Ming and early Qing dynasties were all based on original designs made by Guo Shoujing, until the arrival of the Jesuits. The Jesuit Ferdinand Verbiest then designed a new set of instruments that can still be seen in the old Beijing observatory.

Picture of the Dengfeng observatory:



So don't believe for a second that the Yuan dynasty saw a decline in Chinese science and culture! Gavin Menzies makes one of his most preposterous mistakes in "1421: The Year China Discovered the World" when he writes on p. 28 (hardcover edition) that the Mongol rulers had "neglected" the "priceless inheritance" of Chinese astronomy. He obviously had never heard of the achievements of Guo Shoujing.