Hanli 19 November 2018

Résumé En

This is an Excel spreadsheet workbook, made with Excel for Mac 2011, with additional VBA functions created by myself. It may function on other systems, but I can make no guarantee of this. The workbook is designed to automate the operation of an ancient Chinese astronomical system, the Han li 漢曆 'Han astronomical system' which was created c. 85 CE by Bian Xin 遍訢 and Li Fan 李梵, for use in producing the imperial luni-solar calendar. This text of this system is fully translated and explicated in Cullen, Christopher (2017). The Foundations of Celestial Reckoning: Three Ancient Chinese Astronomical Systems. London, Routledge, pages 138-234. The principles underlying a workbook of this kind are discussed in Cullen, Christopher (2005). "Translating Ancient Chinese Astronomical Systems with Excel: How not to stew the strawberries?" Journal for the History of Astronomy xxxvi: 336-338.To operate the system, go to the worksheet 'Front page' and type the year of interest in the cell indicated near the top left of the sheet, cell D1. This is the only cell in the workbook that you can modify: all others are locked. Years CE may be entered as plain numbers; years BCE should be entered preceded by a minus sign. Press 'Enter,' and the workbook will recalculate automatically. Basic calendrical data are shown on 'Front page'; the main calculation engines for these are the worksheet 'Main Sequence' and 'Month Table'. The sheet 'Planets Conjunctions' shows how the dates of conjunctions of all five planets with the sun are calculated, and other sheets show their daily positions.The worksheet is too complicated for a full explanation here: much of its function will become evident on exploration in the light of the explanations given in Cullen (2017) cited above. This is a work in progress; although the core functions of the system are reliable, some parts of the worksheet are of an experimental or provisional nature.