Mural guide
Astronomers adjust a bronze armillary sphere beside a gnomon and water clock as sunset gives way to a star-filled sky.
Bi discs for heaven, cong tubes for earth: the cosmos as the ancients shaped it in jade, bronze and silk
Gazing up at the cosmos and observing all creation: the profound resonance between poetic sensibility and celestial movements.
Cosmos
Fitting the starry sky into gears and observing the sun through algorithms: the spatial-temporal grid system of Huaxia ancestors.
Yin-Yang & Five ElementsZhou dynasty to presentFrom Boyang Fu on an earthquake and Zou Yan's cycle of five virtues to Dong Zhongshu's correspondence of heaven and man.
I Ching HexagramsZhou dynasty to presentThe 64 hexagrams of yin and yang lines, with the Zhouyi's line texts and the Ten Wings.
Constellations & TotemsNeolithic to presentSky and sacred beasts: the Xishuipo shell dragon and tiger, Marquis Yi's 28 lodges, Sima Qian's Azure Dragon and Vermilion Bird.
Shadow MeasurementNeolithic to Qing dynastyAn ancient astronomical instrument reading a pole's shadow to fix the solstices and directions.
Armillary SpheresHan dynasty to Qing dynastyAstronomical instruments using rings, gears and water power to model the turning sky.
Solar Terms24 branchesFrom Beginning of Spring to Major Cold, the twenty-four terms named in the Huainanzi and built into the Taichu calendar.
Lunisolar Calendar15 branchesA calendar that reconciles solar and lunar cycles and carries the festivals of the Chinese year.
Water ClocksZhou dynasty to Qing dynastyTelling time by dripping water: the Rites of Zhou's water-clock officer, a Mancheng bronze water clock and Su Song's clock tower.
Meridian MeasurementTang dynastyA Tang survey at many sites from north to south that measured one degree of meridian.
Shoushi CalendarYuan dynasty to end of MingA Yuan calendar whose tropical year matched the Gregorian value some three centuries earlier.