While the landscape of the Silk Road changed dramatically, the
stars in the sky were the same for travellers on the shores of
the Mediterranean to those in Dunhuang. The main trade routes lie
mainly between 30º and 40º latitude in the northern hemisphere
and thus knowledge and myths associated with the heavenly bodies
were largely portable from one culture to another. So Babylonian
ideas had probably been integrated into Chinese knowledge by the
6th century BC, and Greek ideas merged with India ones, both also
moving on to China. Knowledge of the stars continued to move along
the Silk Road, especially from the Arabs towards the end of the
first millennium AD.
Court astronomers of ancient China were just as concerned with
astrology as with astronomy; the two were not distinguished at
the time. This did not mean that their astronomical knowledge was
not accurate. A manuscript star chart from Dunhuang probably dating
from the early seventh century accurately portrays 1345 stars.
By the sixth and seventh century China the stars were part of
a complex group of beliefs which ranged from lucky and unlucky
days, fengshui, the power of talismans, the predicative power of
heavenly signs, to the zodiacal animals. Privately produced almanacs
of the time included all these elements and were enormously popular,
despite the fact that the making of calendars was strictly reserved
for the imperial astronomers.
The five planets visible to the naked eye were known to Chinese
astronomers and were each associated with one of the five elements
of Chinese tradition (water, metal, fire, wood, earth). Each also
took a specific anthropoid form when it revealed itself in the
human world. The Indian Buddhist pantheon included seven planetary
divinities (including the sun and the moon) corresponding to the
seven-day week and, in addition, the two dragons of the eclipses,
Ketu and Rahu, making the 'Nine Luminaries' (Navagrabha). Each
was associated with a region of the sky and a bodhisattva. These
traditions are seen in Buddhist paintings along the Silk Road.
By the eighth century in China each year was associated with one
of the 12 animals (rat, ox, tiger, hare, dragon, serpent, horse,
goat/sheep, monkey, cock, dog, boar/pig) and five elements so forming
a 60-year cycle. The animal cycle was not a traditional Chinese
belief but travelled along the Silk Road and had taken root in
China by the Tang period. The monkey, an animal which features
prominently in pre- and post-Buddhist Indian myths, became popular
in China and particularly associated with the Silk Road following
his inclusion in the fictionalised tale of Xuanzang's journey to
India. The same animal cycle was well established in Central Asia.
It was used in Khotanese, Sogdian, Buddhist Sanskrit, Tocharian,
Gandhari and Turkic as well as Chinese.
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