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THE HAN COSMIC BOARD (SHIH
DONALD J. HARPER (University of California, Berkeley) The Warring States and Ch'in-Han periods witnessed not only an efflorescence of cosmological speculation but along with it the growth of intricate systems of divination, astrology, geomancy, and magic. The internal structure of the cosmos, elaborated in terms of Yin-Yang and Five Phase theories, was treated as something which could be manipulated to the advantage of a person who was initiated into the secret operations of the universe. Thus the Yin-Yang and Five Phase cycles, the trigrams of the Book of Changes, the sexagenary cycle of Celestial Stems and Earthly Branches, as well as various calendrical and astronomical observations, all served as the raw material for a diverse array of esoteric arts. In the present study I plan to concentrate on one of these esoteric arts which flourished during the Han period; the use of a special kind of divinthe heaven plate to various positions on the earth plate. Because the board is so obviously a mechanistic model of the cosmos itself, I have decided to render the word shih as cosmic board. In volume IV.1 of Science and Civilization in China, Joseph Needham has devoted considerable attention to the ancient cosmic board, in particular to its ancestral role in the historical evolution of the magnetic compass in China. Following the hypothesis first put forward by Wang Chen-to, Needham argues that the representation of the Big Dipper on the heaven plate inspired the first true compass — a Latter Han device, alluded to in the Lun Heng, in which a ladle carved from naturally magnetic lodestone (a facsimile of the celestial Dipper) was mounted on a pin in the center of a board inscribed with compass directions. When spun, the handle of the ladle would come to rest facing towards the south.4 As Needham himself indicates, the stars in the handle of the Big Dipper functioned as a celestial pointer in ancient Chinese astronomical observations.5 Hence its prominent position on the cosmic board. And in his analysis of the cosmic board, Needham emphasizes the technological significance of the Big Dipper on the heaven plate. He states that the Big Dipper "may be unhesitatingly denominated the most ancient of all pointer-readings, and in its transference to the heaven plate of the diviner's board [shih], we are witnessing the first step on the road to all dials and self-registering meters."6 At the time when Needham wrote on the cosmic board the only example of the device in Han times was a reconstruction based on fragments excavated from Latter Han tombs in Korea.7 A cosmic board from the Six Dynasties period had also been found but the Big Dipper is not represented on its heaven plate.8 However in the last decade archeologists in China have discovered at least three Han cosmic boards in near-perfect condition. In March of 1972 a cosmic board made of lacquer was discovered in a tomb in Kansu which archeologists date to the Wang Mang interregnum.9 Another cosmic board, this one made of bronze, is presently on display in the Kansu Provincial Museum and is said to date to the Latter Han.10 The most ancient of the cosmic boards

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