. astrology and the worship of the planets 231
bodies and it included the establishment of calendars, i.e., temporal
devices. Astrology, simply stated, is the calculation and prediction of
heavenly bodies in regard to their imagined influence on the human
world.^2
The view that astrological practices in ancient China were ulti-
mately derived from Mesopotamia is now historically unsustainable,
and belongs to a period in Western scholarship when everything
related to scientific development in human history was thought to
have originated in the Mediterranean region or the Middle East.^3 It
is not unlikely that astrological and astronomical ideas and concepts
originating in the Euphrates and Tigris valley may have influenced
the Indus cultures at some point, and perhaps help lay the founda-
tion for later astrological systems of belief on the Indian Subcontinent.
However, there is no reason why the ancient Chinese should not have
been able to develop their own astrological systems based on their
own astronomical observations. Certainly, there is very little in terms
of concrete evidence to connect the Western Zhou (1111–760 B.C.E.)
with contemporary ideas and intellectual currents in Babylon, includ-
ing its astrology.
When Buddhism arrived in China during the first to second centu-
ries C.E., bringing with it Indian astrology and astronomical observa-
tions (hora, huoluo ), the Chinese already had a well-functioning
and complex astrological system of their own in place.^4 This native sys-
tem not only encompassed extensive parts of China’s traditional sci-
ences but also included significant aspects of its philosophical systems,
including the tradition of yin-yang and the five elements (wuxing
). From the very beginning of this cultural meeting, Buddhism
(^2) A highly useful and perceptive study is Deng and Liu 2003. Most of the data is
based on new research on relevant manuscripts from Dunhuang. For the impact of
Indian astronomy on that of China, see Yabūti 1979.
(^3) Cf. Schaefer 1977. A similar attitude may also be seen to have prevailed when the
bronze culture of the Shang was first taken up in earnest in Western scholarship dur-
ing the early part of the twentieth century. At that time it was simply inconceivable to
the majority of researchers in Europe and the U.S. that the ancient Chinese had been
able to develop such a sophisticated and high-level casting technique on their own.
According to their Eurocentric and culturally inward-looking perspective, the Chinese
must obviously have learned it from the West! Since then, Western scholarship has
fortunately become more openminded and mature, and is now able to accept that
cultural and scientific advances in human history have also happened, and continues
to happen, outside the sphere of Western culture.
(^4) For a survey of traditional Chinese astrology, see Needham 1959.