Book of Silk

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The Book of Silk is an ancient astronomy book compiled by Chinese astronomers of the Western Han Dynasty (202 BC – 9 AD) and found in the Mawangdui tomb of China in 1973. It lists 29 comets (referred to as 彗星, literally broom stars) that appeared over a period of about 300 years.

[edit] Contents

The Book of Silk contains what archaeologists claim is the first definitive atlas of comets. There are roughly 2 dozen renderings of comets, some in fold out/pop-up format. In some cases the pages of the document roll out to be 5 feet long. Each comet's picture has a caption which describes an event its appearance corresponded to, for example, "the death of the prince," "the coming of the plague," or "the 3 year drought."

[edit] See also

• Chinese astrology
• Chinese astronomy
• Mawangdui Silk Texts

[edit] External links

• Ancient Chinese Astronomy