The earliest star chart in China goes back to at least 2000 BC to a carving discovered on a cliff at Jiangjunya in Jiangsu province. It has symbolic material but it also includes Sun images in seasonal positions, a number of bright stars, the Milky Way, and the Moon.
Some feudal states had their own court astronomers, which helped the development of celestial observation. The solar constellations are attributed to three quasi-legendary astronomers Wu Xian of the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC), and Gane De and Shi Shen of the Warring States period (481-221 BC). Chen Zhuo of the Three Kingdoms period (220-280) recorded 283 constellations and over 1400 stars. In 310 Qian Luozhi built a bronze celestial globe with the stars colour-coded to indicate their source. The first complete star chart (lost in late Han) in China seems to have been produced by Zhang Heng (78-139) of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220).
The oldest surviving Chinese star chart on paper comes from Dunhuang in Gansu province, dated to AD 700 and containing 1350 stars in thirteen sections. A star map carved in stone during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) shows the Milky Way, the ecliptic, the equator and 28 constellations.
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