Introduction: Empire under the Night Sky: Recording Astral-Cosmography in Qing Dynasty China, 17th – 19th Centuries

thematic dossierAstral science (the study of celestial objects) and cosmography (the study of the dynamic interactions among the Heavens, the Earth, and the human realm), loom large in the global history of science.With the northern hemisphere sharing more or less one night sky, the transregional circulation of astral-cosmographic knowledge was a central vehicle of scientific exchange through the early modern eras among the Western, Islamic, African, and Asian cultural spheres.Whether conveyed by Arab polymaths, South Asian merchants, or Jesuit missionaries, astro-cosmographic knowledge was readily translatable and transmutable. 1It was also politically consequential.Through these centuries of continuous cultural exchange, one aspect of Chinese astralcosmography proved remarkably resilient: the fenye 分野 system.Fenye (translated alternatively as "field allocation" or "allocated fields") is a heaven-earth correspondence system that correlated constellations with discreet geographic regions of the Chinese empire.Theories surrounding fenye correlations emerged between the eighth to third centuries BCE for uses in political 1 Dror Weil, "Chinese-Muslims as Agents of Astral Knowledge in Late Imperial China," in