MDDM 64 Captain Zhang part 1

[Samuel Moyer]

I'm having trouble getting this message onto the list... perhaps length, formating... I don't know... but I am breaking it into two peices and trying again... I apologize if you get this message multiple times.  Sam


622 -17 Captain Zhang, using the astronomers possible guilt (neglect - fixing)  regarding the Man versus Beaverman race ending prematuraly with an eclipse as a segue for the story of Hsi and Ho, a pair of Chinese Astronomers who nearly had their heads chopped off for failure to predict an eclipse, tells us the ancient story in Chapter 64.

623-2 Hia Emperors

The Xia Dynasty, established by Yu, ran from ca. 2205-1766 BC. This is said to be the empire that introduced slavery to China. The emperor was Chung K'ang, said to have ruled from 2159-2147 BC.  http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/mason-dixon/alpha/h.html  

This link: http://www.ihns.ac.cn/members/xufengx/EvolutionEffects.htm  demonstrates the importance of predicting celestial phenomena in ancient China, but my poor background in Chinese History and lack of explanations makes it difficult to apply here.

Here is an online version of Captain Zhang's tale:

One Chinese legend reports that the total solar eclipse in China on 22 October 2134 BC took everybody by surprise. Therefore there was no time to prepare the archers and the drummers in order to fight and frighten the dragons which devour the Sun during the eclipse. In fact, the official imperial astronomers His and Ho, missed the prediction of the eclipse. Not only did they lose their work and the respect of their colleagues - they also lost their heads.    http://sci.esa.int/content/doc/2f/13871_.htm

and
According to the legend, two royal astronomers named Hi and Ho in China were too drunk on the day of the eclipse. They could not perform their rites of chanting, beating drums and shooting arrows at the dragon that was devouring the Sun. Despite the fact that the dragon disgorged its meal without their assistance, the two were beheaded.  http://members.aol.com/kcstarguy/blacksun/myths10.htm

Sam

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20020718/572bcdda/attachment.html>