Sivin Nathan. Granting the Seasons: The Chinese Astronomical Reform of 1280, With a Study of Its Many Dimensions and an Annotated Translation of Its Records

New York: Springer Media, 2009. — 664 p.This is a translation and study of the Season-granting system. It is arguably the most innovative, and certainly the most sophisticated and influential, of China’s many astronomical treatises. This inquiry looks at it many dimensions, not merely its computational techniques. The astronomical system that it contains was a method for generating annual almanacs. It was also an important component of the imperial charisma, a means of livelihood for officials and others, a bureaucratic project, an expenditure probably unequalled in the history of imperial Chinese astronomy, and a key tool for Mongol rule over a newly vanquished China. Understanding it will be indispensable for any history of astronomy that does not arbitrarily restrict itself to one civilization or another.