1.

Record Nr.

UNISA996418447103316

Autore

Magli Giulio

Titolo

Sacred Landscapes of Imperial China [[electronic resource] ] : Astronomy, Feng Shui, and the Mandate of Heaven / / by Giulio Magli

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cham : , : Springer International Publishing : , : Imprint : Springer, , 2020

ISBN

3-030-49324-5

Edizione

[1st ed. 2020.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (181 pages)

Disciplina

520.9

Soggetti

Astronomy

Astrophysics

History

Cultural heritage

Landscape architecture

Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology

History of Science

Science, Humanities and Social Sciences, multidisciplinary

Cultural Heritage

Landscape Architecture

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di contenuto

Introduction -- 1. A mound and a terracotta army (Qin mausoleum) -- 2. Pyramids on the river (Han dynasty) -- 3. From pyramids to mountains (Tang and Song dynasty) -- 4. Three stones for a king (Ming at Nanjing) -- 5. 13 tombs, one landscape (Ming at Beijing) -- 6. The last dynasty (Qing dynasty).

Sommario/riassunto

This book analyses the magnificent imperial necropolises of ancient China from the perspective of Archaeoastronomy, a science which takes into account the landscape in which ancient monuments are placed, focusing especially but not exclusively on the celestial aspects. The power of the Chinese emperors was based on the so-called Mandate of Heaven: the rulers were believed to act as intermediaries between the sky gods and the Earth, and consequently, the architecture of their tombs, starting from the world-famous mausoleum of the first



emperor, was closely linked to the celestial cycles and to the cosmos. This relationship, however, also had to take into account various other factors and doctrines, first the Zhao-Mu doctrine in the Han period and later the various forms of Feng Shui. As a result, over the centuries, diverse sacred landscapes were constructed. Among the sites analysed in the book are the “pyramids” of Xi’an from the Han dynasty, the mountain tombs of the Tang dynasty, and the Ming and Qing imperial tombs. The book explains how considerations such as astronomical orientation and topographical orientation according to the principles of Feng Shui played a fundamental role at these sites.