Editing Constellation (section)

=== Ancient China ===
{{further|Chinese constellations|Chinese astronomy}}
[[File:Su Song Star Map 1.JPG|thumb|right|[[Chinese star map]] with a cylindrical projection ([[Su Song]])]]

[[History of China#Ancient China|Ancient China]] had a long tradition of observing celestial phenomena.<ref>{{cite book|last =Needham|first = Joseph|volume = 3|page = 171|series=Science and Civilisation in China|title = Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth|publisher = Cambridge University Press|date = 1959|isbn =978-0521058018|url =https://books.google.com/books?id=jfQ9E0u4pLAC&pg=PA171}}</ref> Nonspecific [[Chinese star names]], later categorized in the [[twenty-eight mansions]], have been found on [[oracle bones]] from [[Anyang]], dating back to the middle [[Shang dynasty]]. These [[Chinese constellations|constellations]] are some of the most important observations of Chinese sky, attested from the 5th century BC. The Chinese system developed independently from the Greco-Roman system, although there may have been earlier mutual influence, suggested by parallels to ancient [[Babylonian astronomy]].<ref name=sun>{{cite book|author1=Xiaochun Sun|author2=Jacob Kistemaker|title=The Chinese Sky During the Han: Constellating Stars and Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=87lvBoFi8A0C |year=1997|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-10737-3}}</ref>

Three schools of classical [[Chinese astronomy]] in the [[Han period]] are attributed to astronomers of the earlier [[Warring States period]]. The constellations of the three schools were conflated into a single system by [[Chen Zhuo]], an astronomer of the 3rd century ([[Three Kingdoms period]]). Chen Zhuo's work has been lost, but information on his system of constellations survives in [[Tang period]] records, notably by [[Qutan Xida]]. The oldest extant Chinese star chart dates to that period and was preserved as part of the [[Dunhuang Manuscripts]]. Native Chinese astronomy flourished during the [[Song dynasty]], and during the [[Yuan dynasty]] became increasingly influenced by [[medieval Islamic astronomy]] (see [[Treatise on Astrology of the Kaiyuan Era]]).<ref name=sun/> As maps were prepared during this period on more scientific lines, they were considered as more reliable.<ref name="Selin2008">{{cite book|last=Selin|first=Helaine Elise|title=Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kt9DIY1g9HYC&pg=PA2022|date= 2008|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-1-4020-4559-2|page=2022}}</ref>

A well-known map from the Song period is the [[Chinese star maps|Suzhou Astronomical Chart]], which was prepared with carvings of stars on the [[planisphere]] of the Chinese sky on a stone plate; it is done accurately based on observations, and it shows the [[SN 1054|1054 supernova]] in Taurus.<ref name="Selin2008"/>

Influenced by European astronomy during the late [[Ming dynasty]], charts depicted more stars but retained the traditional constellations. Newly observed stars were incorporated as supplementary to old constellations in the southern sky, which did not depict the traditional stars recorded by ancient Chinese astronomers. Further improvements were made during the later part of the Ming dynasty by [[Xu Guangqi]] and [[Johann Adam Schall von Bell]], the German Jesuit and was recorded in [[Chongzhen calendar|Chongzhen Lishu]] (Calendrical Treatise of [[Chongzhen Emperor|Chongzhen period]], 1628).{{clarify|date=September 2018}} Traditional Chinese star maps incorporated 23 new constellations with 125 stars of the southern hemisphere of the sky based on the knowledge of Western star charts; with this improvement, the Chinese Sky was integrated with the World astronomy.<ref name="Selin2008"/><ref>{{cite book | last=Sun | first =Xiaochun | editor=Helaine Selin | editor-link=Helaine Selin | title=Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures | date=1997 | pages=910 | publisher=Kluwer Academic Publishers | isbn=978-0-7923-4066-9}}</ref>