Yi
Yi East AsiaThe William Tell of China. In remote times there appeared in the sky no less than ten suns, so that the earth was scorched and oppressed through the excessive heat. A hero, Yi ‘the excellent archer’, shot down nine of them with a magic bow. The significance of this episode is obscure. Clearly the appearance of several suns was a sign of disorder, just as two suns were visible before the fall of tyrant Chou Hsin, the last Shang monarch, but in Chinese thought arose an early awareness of space.
The Hsuan Yeh, or ‘infinite empty space school’, argued sometime before 200 that ‘the heavens were empty and void of substance. When we look up at it we can see that it is immensely high and far away, having no bounds. … The sun, the moon, and the company of stars float in the empty space, moving or standing still. All are condensed vapour.’ Because of the fundamental role of Nature in Chinese civilization—that ancient intimacy of man...
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