A Brief History of Beiji Beiji (Northern Culmen), with an Excursus on the Origin of the Character di di

Bibliographic Data

ID3966157
AuthorsDavid W Pankenier (0000-0001-6209-5365, corresponding author)
Year2004
Volume124
Issue2
Pages211
Publication date2004-04-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the American Oriental Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-0279 • E-ISSN: 2169-2289
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/4132212
OpenAlexW2325569203
LanguageEN
Citations received8

Chinese preoccupation with astronomical orientation has a very long history. Archaeological evidence from the fifth millennium B.C. Neolithic cultures of North China shows that burials and dwellings were already being oriented with particular attention to the diurnal and seasonal variations in the sun's position. With the beginning of the Bronze Age in the early second millennium B.C. and the inception of early state formation, such concepts had progressed to the point where ritually and politically important structures were uniformly quadrilateral in shape and cardinally oriented, with the longitudinal axis aligned with varying precision in a north-south direction.2 Palatial structures and royal tombs from the earliest dynastic states in the second millennium B.C., that is, Xia, Shang, and Zhou, consistently display such orientation 3 (figs. 1, 2. 3, 4, 5, 6). From the layout of the best preserved of these city walls and palatial foundations, it is clear that the principal access was normally via a main gate in the south facade, with the inner sanctum located far from the entrance towards the rear or north wall. This ritually and cosmologically significant architectural arrangement remained consistent throughout the entire history of China, most especially in edifices connected with the imperial prestige and power, as exemplified by the Forbidden City in Beijing. This much is already well known and has been thoroughly documented by Paul Wheatley. 4 What has been less well explored is the possible astral-terrestrial correspondence between the archaic kingship in the Bronze Age and the north-pole (beiji ?) or Northern Culmen, whose unique characteristics and powerful associations as the pivot of the heavens led to its becoming the celestial archetype of the cosmically empowered Chinese monarch. Already by the late Warring States period, well before the founding of the empire, Confucius famously drew on the metaphorical potency of the pole to exemplify the charismatic virtue (de ?) of the sagely ruler

Art · Character (mathematics) · Geometry · Chinese history and philosophy · Historical and Architectural Studies · History · Mathematics

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