Han Gonglian was born in the Northern Song Dynasty. Native place, date of birth and death unknown, active in the late 20th century. Astronomical instrument manufacturer.
Chinese name: Han Gonglian
Nationality: China.
Ethnic group: Han nationality
Date of birth: Northern Song Dynasty
Occupation: astronomer
Faith: science
Main achievements: manufacturing astronomical instruments.
Representative works: water transport platform, fake celestial body
all one's life
Little is known about Han Gonglian's life information, and only a few historical books record his instrument manufacturing work. In the first year of Song and Yuan Dynasties (1086), Han Gonglian was appointed as the official minister. At that time, official Su Song was ordered to inspect the soldiers used by Taishi Bureau and wanted to make new documents. Su Song visited and learned that Han Gonglian was proficient in mathematics and astronomy, so he told the previous generation astronomers such as Zhang Heng, Liang Lingzan and Zhang Si Xun the Outline of Instrument Law, hoping that he could get to the bottom of it and copy it. Therefore, Han Gonglian wrote 1 volume "Nine Chapters of Pythagoras Examination" and made a sample of wooden wheels. Su Song thought that the design of waterwheel was unique, although it was not like what the ancients said. In Yuan _ 2 (1087), Han Gonglian became an official and began to make. In Yuan _ 3, he and others made a large wooden sample for inspection and manufacture. In Yuan _ 7 (1092), the instrument was finally completed and named Yuan _ armillary sphere. This is a high-rise building that combines three sets of devices, namely the armillary sphere, the elephant and the time telling device. The whole instrument was driven by water power, which was later called the platform of water transport instrument.
After the completion of the water transport instrument platform, inspired by the proposal of Xu Jiang, a bachelor of Hanlin, and the samples collected by his family, Su Song decided to make an instrument in which one can observe. Han Gonglian is still responsible for the specific calculation and design of the instrument. This instrument has been manufactured for several years. Its celestial sphere is one person high in diameter, and its structure may be made of bamboo and covered with silk paper. Drill holes in the sphere corresponding to the stars in the sky, and people can see that there is almost no light inside, just like the stars in the night sky. When the fulcrum is pulled into the suspended ball to make the ball rotate, you can directly see the appearance and movement of the stars. This is the first recorded false astronomical phenomenon in China history.
Han Gonglian is the main designer of water transport instruments, such as elephant platform and fake planetarium. The two instruments he participated in manufacturing have many groundbreaking design ideas, such as the water elephant in the former is the direct ancestor of the world astronomical clock, and the latter is the pioneer of the starry sky demonstration in the modern planetarium.
original document
(Song): Yu Hai Volume IV, Jiangsu Ancient Books Publishing House, 1987. Research literature
Wang Zhenduo: The earliest fake astronomical relics in China,1962,3, p.1-16.
China Astronomical Literature History Research Group: China Astronomical Literature History, Science Press, 198 1.