Guo Shoujing (郭守敬)

Overview

Guo Shoujing was an Astronomer and Official.

PeriodYuan

IdentityHistorical · Male

Roles

Found in

Other names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Alternate name	Guo Jing	郭敬	Guo Jing

Life and dates

Attested activity

王恂卒後，郭守敬比類編次，整齊分秒，裁爲二卷（本章未記編成之年。王卒年有元世祖至元十八、十九年兩說；《元史》卷164郭傳及《元名臣事略》卷9記立成二卷，至元二十三年遂上表奏進。）
Western Bounds On Or After: AD 1281 · On Or Before: AD 1287 · Event Guo Shoujing's arrangement of the ready reckoners into two fascicles follows Wang's death and was completed by their presentation in Zhiyuan 23. The lower bound accommodates both death-year witnesses (18/19); the upper bound allows the undated year-23 presentation to fall in early Western AD 1287. These are bounds on one compilation event, not continuous activity and not a circa completion year.
Dated from the passage context · History of Ming 34, passages 11-13
AD 1264 to AD 1294 至元
Dated from the passage context · History of Ming 32, passages 7, 112, 115
AD 1271 to AD 1368 元
Directly stated · Draft History of Qing 272, passage 30
AD 1271 to AD 1368 元郭守敬
Directly stated · Draft History of Qing 28, passage 47
AD 1298 大德二年
Dated from the passage context · History of Yuan 66, passages 220-221
AD 1293 通惠河
Strongly inferred · History of Yuan 66, passage 231

Key source chapters

Career and standing

astronomer 天文學者
Directly stated · Draft History of Qing 50, passage 7
Grand Astrologer 太史
Held
Directly stated · History of Yuan 66, passage 221

Places and affiliations

Polity Yuan 元 · Relation Served
Directly stated · Draft History of Qing 272, passage 30
Polity Id yuan · Relation Served
Dated from the passage context · History of Ming 32, passages 7-8, 115
Polity Id yuan · Relation Served
Directly stated · Draft History of Qing 28, passage 47; History of Yuan 66, passage 221

Works and attributed material

Season Granting Calendar 授時曆
Relation Associated with
Strongly inferred · History of Ming 34, passages 11-13
Season Granting Calendar 授時曆
Relation Author
Strongly inferred · History of Ming 32, passages 5, 7, 114
ready reckoners 立成
Relation Editor
Directly stated · History of Ming 34, passages 13, 15

Events and relationships

Arranged and reduced to two fascicles
王恂卒後，郭守敬比類編次，整齊分秒，裁爲二卷（本章未記編成之年。王卒年有元世祖至元十八、十九年兩說；《元史》卷164郭傳及《元名臣事略》卷9記立成二卷，至元二十三年遂上表奏進。） · Scholarly · Compiler
Directly stated · History of Ming 34, passages 12-13
Brought to completion
Scholarly · Completer · With Wang Xun (王恂) · Mode historian-judgment
Uncertain · History of Ming 34, passage 15
Built tonghui canal
Engineering · Builder
Directly stated · History of Yuan 66, passage 231
Determined precession rate
Scholarly · Astronomer · Outcome precession number close to Tycho's 所定歲差之數亦為近之
Directly stated · Draft History of Qing 28, passage 47
established five calendar methods, including ecliptic difference 創法五端，內一曰黃道差
Scholarly · Creator · Established five methods
Directly stated · History of Ming 32, passage 112
Sealed jinkou channel
Engineering · Advisor
Directly stated · History of Yuan 66, passage 221

Show 1 more source-backed claim

Supplied tropical year baseline
Scientific · Authority · With Tycho Brahe (第谷)
Directly stated · Draft History of Qing 50, passage 7

Assessments and attributes

Assessment famed for calendrical precision yet still inexact · Mode historian-judgment
Directly stated · Draft History of Qing 272, passage 30
Assessment harmonized fen and miao and reduced the ready reckoners to two fascicles · Mode historian-judgment
Directly stated · History of Ming 34, passage 13
Assessment methods founded on right-triangle and arc-versine geometry, finer than antiquity · Mode historian-judgment
Directly stated · History of Ming 32, passage 114

Source notes

Historicity historical
Directly stated · History of Ming 32, passage 7; History of Ming 34, passage 13
Titles of his calendar works can be traced in his biography. 傳中，有書名可考。
Directly stated · History of Ming 32, passage 7

References in the histories

Search passages

History

10 passages

History of Ming, Chapter 32Volume 32 Treatises 8: Calendar 2 · 2 passages

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郭守敬、齊履謙傳中，有書名可考。 Titles of those works can still be traced in the biographies of Guo Shoujing and Qi Lüqian.

按郭敬創法五端，內一曰黃道差，此其根率也。 Commentary: Guo Shoujing established five methods; ecliptic difference is one of them, and these are its fundamental rates.

History of Ming, Chapter 34Volume 34 Treatises 10: Calendar 4 · 2 passages

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郭守敬比類編次，整齊分秒，裁爲二卷。 Guo Shoujing drew analogies among the drafts, harmonized the minutes and seconds, and reduced the work to two fascicles.

意者王先有藁，而郭卒成之歟？ Perhaps Wang prepared the drafts and Guo brought them to completion?

Draft History of Qing, Chapter 28Volume 28 Treatises 3: Astronomy 3, Sun, Moon, and the Five Planets, Fixed Stars, Yellow and Red Paths, the Twelve Stations, and Lunar Lodges, Hun Dan Zhong Xing · 1 passage

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迨至第谷，方定恆星每歲東行五十一秒，約七十年有餘而行一度，而元郭守敬所定歲差之數亦為近之。 Tycho fixed annual eastward motion at 51 seconds—about one degree in seventy years—close to Guo Shoujing's Yuan rate.

Draft History of Qing, Chapter 50Volume 50 Treatises 25: Calendar 6 · 1 passage

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西人第谷所定，減郭守敬萬分之三。 Tycho Brahe set a value three parts in ten thousand below Guo Shoujing's.

Draft History of Qing, Chapter 272Volume 272 Biographies 59: Tang Ruowang, Yang Guangxian, Nan Huai Ren · 2 passages

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崇禎初，日食失驗，光啟上言：「台官用郭守敬法，歷久必差，宜及時修正。」 Early in the Chongzhen reign, when a predicted solar eclipse missed, Xu Guangqi submitted a memorial: "The Astronomical Bureau still uses Guo Shoujing's methods; given enough years, error is inevitable—the calendar ought to be corrected now."

元郭守敬號為精密，然經緯之度，尚不能符合天行，其後晷度遂以積差。 Yuan's Guo Shoujing was called exacting, yet even his longitudes and latitudes never fully matched heaven's motion; gnomon readings drifted ever farther off.

History of Yuan, Chapter 66Volume 66 Treatises 19: Rivers and Canals 3 · 2 passages

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五年間，渾河水勢浩大，郭太史恐沖沒田薛二村、南北二城，又將金口已上河身，用砂石雜土盡行堵閉。 Within five years the Hun grew so powerful that Guo Shoujing feared it would wash away the Tian and Xue villages and both city walls; the channel above Jinkou was then entirely sealed with sand, stone, and earth.

且郭太史初作通惠河時，何不用此水，而遠取白浮之水，引入都城，以供閘壩之用？ When Guo Shoujing built the Tonghui Canal, why did he draw clear Baiteng water from afar rather than this turbid source?