Lingtai yixiang zhi 靈臺儀象志

Lingtai yixiang zhi 靈臺儀象志 is a work from the early Qing period 清 (1644-1911) that introduces the astronomical instruments and their usage methods at the Imperial Observatory (qintianjian 欽天監). It was edited by the Jesuit missionary Ferdinand Verbiest (Chinese name Nan Huairen 南懷仁; 1623-1688) and completed in 1674. A total of 31 people participated in the compilation.

The book includes the design and usage instructions for six large astronomical instruments supervised by Verbiest: the ecliptic meridian instrument (huangdao jingwei yi 黃道經緯儀), the celestial sphere instrument (tianti yi 天體儀), the equatorial meridian instrument (chidao jingwei yi 赤道經緯儀), the horizon meridian instrument (dipingjing yi 地平經儀), the horizon latitude instrument (dipingwei yi 地平緯儀), and the meridian limit instrument (jixian yi 紀限儀).

The book also contains star charts and observation and calculation tables. Among these, the ecliptic star chart uses the year 1672, and the equatorial star chart uses the year 1673 as reference points (epoch, liyuan 曆元). The tables list the ecliptic and equatorial coordinates of 1,876 stars, with precession and stellar magnitude included. The primary source for the star chart was the star chart in the Xiyang xinfa lishu 西洋新法曆書 (i.e., the Chongzhen lishu 崇禎曆書), while stars not included in the latter were supplemented with observations from the late Ming 明 (1368-1644) and early Qing period or inherited data, and recalculated according to the era used in the Lingtai yixiang zhi star chart.

The Lingtai yixiang zhi was hastily compiled, and its sources were inconsistent, with many errors and repetitions throughout the text, especially in the star chart section.