式)
in China as the Northern Dipper, pei tou 北斗 ) are arranged across the center of the disc. The stars are shown as large dots connected by lines, a method of drawing constellations which became standard in Chinese astronomy no later than the second century B.C.1 In later textual sources this is known as the heaven plate (t'ien p'an 天盘 ). The heaven plate is mounted on a larger square board, the earth plate ).2 The earth plate is marked with (ti p'an the Stem and Branch symbols for the compass directions and sometimes with additional trigrams at the corners of the board. These are enumerated in a clockwise direction around the four sides of the square. The lunar mansions ring the outer edge of the earth plate, in a counterclockwise sequence as on the heaven plate, and are distributed along the four sides in conformity with the Chinese astronomical theories associating the lunar mansions with the four cardinal directions.3 A pin attaching the heaven plate to the earth plate runs through the center of both pieces, making it possible to rotate
ing board known as the shih 式 . On the basis of specimens recovered from Han tombs we know that the board itself consists of two pieces (see Fig. 1). The top piece is a round disc engraved around the circumference with the names of the twenty-eight lunar mansions and the twelve months, both of which are enumerated in a counterclockwise direction on the disc. The seven stars of the Big Dipper (known
地盘
1
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