Books
As the earliest attempt to document the sky during the Warring States Period, Gan De's work possesses high scientific value. He wrote two books, the Treatise on Jupiter and the 8-volumes Treatise on Astronomical Astrology, both of which have been lost. Gan De also wrote the Astronomic star observation (天文星占, Tianwen xingzhan).
It can be seen on the quotations under Shiji (volume 27) and Hanshu (volume 26), but was preserved mostly in the Treatise on Astrology of the Kaiyuan Era.
In 1973, a similar catalogue by him and Shi Shen was uncovered in Mawangdui. It was arranged under the name of Divination of Five Planets. It records the motion of Jupiter, Saturn, Venus and other planets in their orbits between 246 BC and 177 BC.
Read more about this topic: Gan De
Famous quotes containing the word books:
“Old books that have ceased to be of service should no more be abandoned than should old friends who have ceased to give pleasure.”
—Peregrine, Sir Worsthorne (b. 1923)
“The art of writing books is not yet invented. But it is at the point of being invented. Fragments of this nature are literary seeds. There may be many an infertile grain among them: nevertheless, if only some come up!”
—Novalis [Friedrich Von Hardenberg] (1772–1801)
“No common-place is ever effectually got rid of, except by essentially emptying one’s self of it into a book; for once trapped in a book, then the book can be put into the fire, and all will be well. But they are not always put into the fire; and this accounts for the vast majority of miserable books over those of positive merit.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)