Celestial instruments help launch visitors on a cosmic quest

HEFEI — China's museums are often defined by their porcelain, calligraphy and ritual vessels. But a new exhibition in Anhui province is turning the spotlight away from traditional treasures and toward scientific endeavors of the past, showcasing jade cosmological diagrams, celestial star charts and bronze globes crafted by astronomers centuries ago.

The exhibition, Heavenly Questions: The Cosmological Vision of Chinese Civilization, at the Anhui Museum brings together nearly 300 artifacts from 48 institutions nationwide. It is a rare exhibition in China that focuses specifically on presenting the country's "understanding of the universe" through cultural relics.

Since launching in July, the show has drawn some 350,000 visitors, who are fascinated by the instruments ancient Chinese used to observe, measure, and pay homage to the universe.

One of the star attractions is a jade slab roughly the size of a smartphone dating back 5,800 to 5,300 years. The eight arrows at the center of the slab map out the eight directions of space, and the arrows at the four corners appear to align with the positions of the sunrise and sunset during the winter and summer solstices. The Chinese cosmological diagram is possibly older than Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England.

Other highlights include China's oldest equatorial instrument, a disk with 28-star mansions from a 165 BC marquis' tomb, a bronze water clock from the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24), the earliest-dated water clock ever found, and a rubbing of a stone-carved astronomical chart from the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) engraved with over 1,400 stars, which remains the oldest all-sky map based on actual observation.

"These 'hardcore creations' in ancient astronomy laid the technological foundation for studying the laws of celestial motion," says Meng Qian, director of the museum's research department.

The exhibition saves its best for last. In the final section, ancient instruments such as globes and sundials sit face-to-face with models of modern Chinese spacecraft, including the lunar rover Yutu (or Jade Rabbit), and the lunar soil sample collected by the Chang'e-6 mission in 2024.

Interestingly, many of China's major space missions are named after ancient myths. Its moon mission is called "Chang'e", the goddess who is said to live there; the Mars rover "Zhurong" is named after a fire god; and the sky-surveying telescope "Mozi" is the name of a philosopher who was credited with conducting the earliest optical experiments.

The exhibition itself takes its title from ancient poet Qu Yuan's (339-278 BC) epic poem Tianwen, or Heavenly Questions, written more than 2,000 years ago. China's Mars exploration mission also shares the same name.

"This exhibition allows ancient astronomy and modern space exploration to illuminate and interpret each other," says Shi Yunli, a professor at the University of Science and Technology of China and adviser to the exhibition.

"When visitors stand between the folded bronze sundial and the Yutu rover, they see not just two objects on display but a 5,000-year chain of quest," Shi adds.

The exhibition runs through mid-October. "We hope this exhibition allows visitors to look back at the early lights of our culture, and also see the way forward," Meng says.

XINHUA