A Study on New Song of the Sky Pacers

• Main Author: Sang-Hyeon Ahn
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Korean Space Science Society (KSSS) 2009-12-01
• Series: Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
• Subjects: Song of the Sky Pacers; Yi Jun-yang; the Sequel of I-Hsiang-K’ao-ch’eng
• Online Access: http://ocean.kisti.re.kr/downfile/volume/kosss/OJOOBS/2009/v26n4/OJOOBS_2009_v26n4_589.pdf

We investigated ‘Song of the Sky Pacers, Adopted to the New Methods’, the latest version of Joseon’s ‘Song of the Sky Pacers’. Due to the influence of new knowledge on Chinese asterisms imported from the Ching dynasty, ‘Song of the Sky Pacers with New Star-Charts’ was written in the eighteenth century. However, the disagreement between song and star-charts was causing confusion in practical applications such as Joseon’s national examination for selecting astronomers. In order to improve this situation, Royal Observatory of the Joseon dynasty published ‘Song of the Sky Pacers, Adopted to the New Methods’ based upon star-charts and song in the Sequel of I-Hsiang-K’ao-ch’eng. The New Song was edited by a middle-class professional astronomer Yi Jun-yang, and corrected by a nobleman Nam Byeong-gil. We establish a brief biography of Yi Junyang. The New Song preserves the genuine characteristics of previous Joseon’s Song including the format of title of each lunar mansion and description on the location of the Milky Way in the asterisms. The description of the Milky Way was newly written based on the data in volume 31 and 32 of the Sequel of I-Hsiang-K’ao-ch’eng.