THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA 2
Copyright © 2002 by Andis Kaulins

The Astronomy of the Great Wall of China Evidence for the Great Wall of China being the Dragon of the Milky Way [Note: Orthography of Chinese names differs from source to source and era to era, which makes it very difficult to match up sources or stick to one orthography.] The Head of the Dragon - The Azure Dragon The East End of the Great Wall of China at Shan-hai-kuan (Shanhaikuan), just north of Ch'in-huang-tao (Qinhuangdao) on the Gulf of the Liaotung (Liaodung Wan) viz. the lower larger Gulf of Chihli or Po Hai (Bo Hai) is known as "the Head of the Dragon". Our Graphic THE DRAGON uses the Historical Planisphere Copyright Milton D. Heifetz obtainable from Learning Technologies, Somerville, MA, USA at www.starlab.com According to Richard Hinckley Allen (in his Dover book, Star Names, ISBN 0-486-21079-0, LOC 63-21808), hereafter cited as "RHA", the constellations of Sagittarius, Scorpio, Libra and Virgo (but apparently also Cygnus, Andromeda and Lacerta, the early Chinese "Tang Shay") were known as the Azure Dragon (or "East Dragon") in the ancient Chinese solar zodiac - and later were even incorporated into Capricorn by the Chinese astrologers in the Sing Ki. Hence, since the Eastern end of the Great Wall is known by the people as the "head" of the dragon, then we have here a first possible confirmation of the astronomical connection of the Great Wall to the Milky Way of stars. The Tomb at Zhangye The "size" and location of the heavenly dragon became clearer through a discovery made in a tomb at Zhangye in April 2000 and described as follows at www.chinese-art.com/newsletters "Tang Dynasty (618-907) Pictorial Brick Tomb in Zhangye, Gansu. In April 2000, a tomb with pictures impressed on its brick walls was discovered in Shandan County in Gansu. Oriented north-to-south, the rectangular tomb consists of its doors, a forecourt, a passageway, a front chamber, two side chambers, and a rear chamber, all lined with bricks. The front and rear chambers are 3.3 meters high from foor to ceiling and measure 3.6 and 3.7 meters long, respectively. Rectangular floor bricks bear impressed patterns of lotus flowers. In the upper walls, bricks simulate recessed arched wooden beams. Below, all four walls bear four registers of rectangular bricks impressed with continuous painting compositions. The top register contains twelve figures, three on each wall. On the east and west walls, a green dragon occupies the second register, with the Dark Warrior on the north wall and a red bird on the south wall. The third and bottom registers show a procession of mounted soldiers and foreign grooms leading camels. Mineral green, blue, red, and black pigments dominate the color scheme and lively composition, akin to popular folk art. According to a stone epitaph carved in regular script, the deceased was a Tang military figure surnamed Han who died the first year of the Xianheng reign (670). His wife, surnamed Yang, died in the first year of the Tianshou reign of the Wu Zetian Interregnum (690). This tomb offers important evidence towards the study of early Tang historical, economic, and cultural development in the Hexi area." [From Shi Aimin and Wang Yanzhang, Zhongguo wenwu bao (26 July, 2000)]." At Zhangye the Heavenly Dragon is both East AND West, the Dark Warrior is North and the Red Bird is South. If this eastward and westward stretching Dragon is the Milky Way, then the heavenly location of the Red Bird and Black Warrior - as made by David B. Kelley - can be confirmed. As David B. Kelley had already previously discovered, the Red Bird extended from Procyon and Cancer to Spica and Virgo. See http://hawk.hama-med.ac.jp/dbk/kelley.html RHA mentions a red bird only twice in his book Star Names and places a red bird at both the constellations Corvus and Virgo stating at p. 181 that "The Hebrews knew it as 'Orebh, or Orev, the Raven,: and the Chinese, as a portion of their great stellar division the Red Bird...." and at p. 464 "The Turcomans knew the constellation [Virgo] as Dufhiza Pakhiza, the Pure Virgin; and the Chinese, as She Sang Nue...but Williams [translates] "the Qual's Tail, a part of the early stellar figure otherwise known as the Red Bird...." As David B. Kelley had previously discovered, the Dark Warrior (also called the Black Tortoise) extended from Pisces and Pegasus to Sagittarius. See http://hawk.hama-med.ac.jp/dbk/kelley.html As RHA notes (p. 337), "In earliest Chinese astronomy, with Aquarius, Capricornus, and a part of Sagittarius, [Pisces] was the northern of the four quarters of the zodiac, the Dark Warrior, or the residence of the Dark, or Northern, Emperor; but later, in their zodiac of twelve figures, it was the Pig, Tseu Tsze; and, after the Jesuits, Shwang Yu, the Two Fishes." If these identifications of the Red Bird and Dark Warrior in the sky as North and South were correct by David B. Kelley, then the East and West Dragon could only be the Milky Way. Go to Chronology of the Chinese Dynasties