Paper:	Locating True North in Ancient China
Volume:	409, Cosmology Across Cultures
Page:	128
Authors:	Pankenier, D.W.
Abstract:	Archaeological discoveries from the Chinese Bronze Age have demonstrated a dominant concern with achieving cardinal orientation that persisted throughout the Xiá, Shang, and Zhodu dynasties (ca. 2000 – 300 BCE). It has long been understood that cardinality is an index of the paradigmatic roles of “the center” and “the four quarters”, both core organizing principles of early Chinese cosmological thinking. Here, however, I focus on a very early practical technique used to identify the location of the pole in the absence of a pole star. This method takes advantage of the unique orientation of the Great Square of Pegasus (known as Ding in early China) and offers insight into a fundamental mindset that figured importantly in the formation of early Chinese Civilization.

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