Editing Armillary sphere (section)

===China===
[[File:Ancient Beijing observatory 10.jpg|upright=1.2|thumb|Armillary sphere at [[Beijing Ancient Observatory]], replica of an original from the [[Ming dynasty]]]]
[[File:性命圭旨 周天璇璣圖.png|thumb|Armillary Sphere 周天璇璣圖, 1615 ''[[Xingming guizhi]]'']]

Throughout [[China|Chinese]] history, [[astronomer]]s have created '''celestial globes''' ({{zh|t=渾象|p=húnxiàng}}) to assist the observation of the stars. The Chinese also used the armillary sphere in aiding [[calendar|calendrical]] computations and calculations.

According to [[Joseph Needham]], the earliest development of the armillary sphere in [[China]] goes back to the astronomers [[Shi Shen]] and [[Gan De]] in the 4th century BC, as they were equipped with a primitive single-ring armillary instrument.<ref name="needham volume 3 343">Needham, Volume 3, 343.</ref> This would have allowed them to measure the north polar distance (declination) a measurement that gave the position in a ''xiu'' (right ascension).<ref name="needham volume 3 343"/> Needham's 4th century BC  dating, however, is rejected by British sinologist [[Christopher Cullen]], who traces the beginnings of these devices to the 1st century BC.<ref>Christopher Cullen, "Joseph Needham on Chinese Astronomy", ''Past and Present'', No. 87 (May, 1980), pp. 39–53 (45)</ref>

During the [[Western Han dynasty]] (202 BC{{snd}}9 AD) additional developments made by the astronomers [[Luoxia Hong]] (落下閎), Xiangyu Wangren, and Geng Shouchang (耿壽昌) advanced the use of the armillary in its early stage of evolution. In 52 BC, it was the astronomer Geng Shouchang who introduced the first permanently fixed equatorial ring of the armillary sphere.<ref name="needham volume 3 343"/> In the subsequent [[Eastern Han dynasty]] (23–220 AD) period, the astronomers Fu An and Jia Kui added the ecliptic ring by 84 AD.<ref name="needham volume 3 343"/> With the famous statesman, astronomer, and inventor [[Zhang Heng]] (張衡, 78–139 AD), the sphere was totally complete in 125 AD, with horizon and meridian rings.<ref name="needham volume 3 343"/> The world's first water-powered celestial globe was created by [[Zhang Heng]], who operated his armillary sphere by use of an inflow [[Water clock|clepsydra]] clock.

Subsequent developments were made after the Han dynasty that improved the use of the armillary sphere. In 323 AD the Chinese astronomer Kong Ting was able to reorganize the arrangement of rings on the armillary sphere so that the ecliptic ring could be pegged on to the equator at any point desired.<ref name="needham volume 3 343"/> The Chinese astronomer and mathematician [[Li Chunfeng]] (李淳風) of the [[Tang dynasty]] created one in 633 AD with three spherical layers to calibrate multiple aspects of astronomical observations, calling them 'nests' (chhung).<ref name="needham volume 3 343"/> He was also responsible for proposing a plan of having a sighting tube mounted ecliptically in order for the better observation of celestial latitudes. However, it was the Tang Chinese astronomer, mathematician, and monk [[Yi Xing]] in the next century who would accomplish this addition to the model of the armillary sphere.<ref name="needham volume 3 350">Needham, Volume 3, 350.</ref> Ecliptical mountings of this sort were found on the armillary instruments of Zhou Cong and Shu Yijian in 1050, as well as Shen Kuo's armillary sphere of the later 11th century, but after that point they were no longer employed on Chinese armillary instruments until the arrival of the [[Europeans in Medieval China|European Jesuits]].

[[Image:ChineseCelestialGlobe.JPG|thumbnail|upright|Celestial globe from the [[Qing dynasty]]]]
In 723 AD, Yi Xing (一行) and government official Liang Ling-zan (梁令瓚) combined Zhang Heng's water powered celestial globe with an [[escapement]] device. With drums hit every quarter-hour and bells rung automatically every full hour, the device was also a [[striking clock]].<ref>Needham (1986), Volume 4, Part 2, 473–475.</ref> The famous [[clock tower]] that the Chinese polymath [[Su Song]] built by 1094 during the [[Song dynasty]] would employ Yi Xing's escapement with waterwheel scoops filled by clepsydra drip, and powered a crowning armillary sphere, a central celestial globe, and mechanically operated manikins that would exit mechanically opened doors of the clock tower at specific times to ring bells and gongs to announce the time, or to hold plaques announcing special times of the day. There was also the scientist and statesman [[Shen Kuo]] (1031–1095). Being the head official for the Bureau of Astronomy, Shen Kuo was an avid scholar of astronomy, and improved the designs of several astronomical instruments: the [[gnomon]], armillary sphere, clepsydra clock, and sighting tube fixed to observe the [[pole star]] indefinitely.<ref name="sivin III 17">Sivin, III, 17</ref> When Jamal al-Din of Bukhara was asked to set up an 'Islamic Astronomical Institution' in Khubilai Khan's new capital during the [[Yuan dynasty]], he commissioned a number of astronomical instruments, including an armillary sphere. It was noted that "Chinese astronomers had been building [them] since at least 1092".<ref>S. Frederick Starr, ''Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia's Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane''. Princeton University Press, 2013, p. 452.</ref>