林棟樑 | Don Lin
談「三國演義」漢魏氣數的天象及七曜同宮五星連珠
天象預兆在古代的天道人心, 被認為是上天旨意, 具有非凡力量. 羅貫中寫的三國演義在第十四回, “曹孟德移駕幸許都, 呂奉先乘夜襲徐郡”中,談到曹操有野心自己黃袍加身, 最好能有天象證明這是上天的意旨. 於是有一段有關天象的描述 – “操由是日與眾謀士密議遷都之事。時侍中太史令王立私謂宗正劉艾曰：「吾仰觀天文, 自去春太白犯鎮星於鬥牛, 過天津, 熒惑又逆行, 與太白會於天關, 金火交會, 必有新天子出. 吾觀大漢氣數將終, 晉魏之地, 必有興者」”. (註: 金、木、水、火、土五大行星，在中國古代史籍中分別稱做太白、歲星、辰星、熒惑、鎮星). 羅貫中寫的是章回小說,天象時間的精準度不夠. 恰好張璠寫的後漢紀中,在「獻帝紀」那一章也有類似記載,查證結果是, 太史令王立講吾仰觀天文的時間是在建安元年(公元196). 「去春太白犯鎮星」的去春是195年春天. 然後羅貫中繼續寫的「與太白會於天關, 金火交會」好像也是發生在195年, 但是經筆者的「古今七曜運行赤經計算」查證 (注:赤經就是赤道的經度), 195年沒有「熒惑與太白會於天關」這回事. 底下本文所描述的就是利用「古今七曜運行赤經」的天文計算來查證三國演義談漢魏氣數的天象, 然後驗證在2000年5月的七曜同宮五星連珠天文奇景, 以及下一次的七曜同宮五星連珠天文奇景會在何時發生.
退休以後時間就多了起來. 以前在研究所讀書的時候, 修了幾門天文的課程. 經過這麼多年的擱置, 現在又重新時期往年的興趣, 好好把以前囫圇吞棗的東西仔細地重新補強, 利用家用電腦的超快計算能力, 重新建立起一套嚴格的天文計算程式. 來好好了解日, 月與八大行星過去跟將來幾千年來的運行軌跡. 最近同時又重新看過三國演義的故事, 發現裡面也講了不少天象的事件及歷史的發展. 於是就興起”天象考古”的興趣. 現在先簡單說說我們太陽系的天文.
要看太陽系行星的運行, 最好是跳出太陽系以外才能看得清楚: 站在太陽系外來觀測, 你就能看到這八大行星都是繞著太陽在做近乎圓形的軌道運行, 而月亮是在繞著地球在做近乎圓形的軌道運行. 但是對我們住在地球的人類, 當然不容易跑到太陽系外, 所以最好的觀測點就是在自己地球表面上. 這跟古代人觀測天象是完全一樣的: 宇宙的天體都在天球上運行, 雖然每個季節的夜空天球上的天象各自不同,但是每年的春季夜空天象都幾乎一模一樣, 會變的就是月亮及水星, 金星, 火星, 木星, 土星 (天王星 及海王星是後來才發現). 除了月亮外, 這些行星有時候還會逆行. 事實上, 西元前二世紀的希臘天文學家托勒密就曾經提出一個假說, 說所有的天體, 包括日,月, 行星, 以及更遙遠的星都是繞地球做中心旋轉. 在其後的一千多年, 這個”地心說”就是人類對整個宇宙的認識. 後來有人漸漸看出太陽才是宇宙的中心, 這就是日心說. 當然現在我們也知道太陽只不過是銀河系旋轉臂中的一顆不甚起眼的恆星. 不過話說回來, 我們住在地球的人還是以地球來看整個宇宙. 我們對天文的計算, 第一步當然是以太陽作為各個行星軌道的中心, 然後把所得的數據再平行位移到我們地球上, 就變成我們地球上看天球上的各行星以及看日月運行的數據.
圖一的圓圈就是天球 (一圓周就是赤經360度), 地球在圓圈的中心, 日月及七個行星都繞著地球在圓圈上運行. 這是這九個天體在天文計算程式上輸入8/21/2024 做為日期所得到的天球位置答案. 圖一還標示12星座的位置以資比對. 輸入漢末三國的任何一個日期, 就會得知這九個天體當天在天球上位置. 天文計算程式還設計一個指定鍵(在鍵盤上), 只要一案, 日子就會自動跳一天, 如此就可以看各天體運行的狀況, 比如哪個行星在”順行”, 哪個在”逆行”, 哪兩個行星重疊(古代稱為”犯”, 例如: 太白犯鎮星)等等. 程式也有一個Do-Loop, 可以像Video一樣看這九個天體整體, 或其中一組天體的, 一禮拜或一個月或一年或十年或100年的運行狀況. 用這個天體計算程式來查證古代對天象的描述的準確性那是最簡單不過的了.
三國演義漢魏氣數的天象 — 利用這個天文計算程式, 應用到西元195年及196年(東漢建安元年為196年), 筆者得到下列的數據: 2/10/195, 太白金星犯鎮星(即土星)在赤經287o. 在3/1/195, 太白金星過天津(即天津4, 在天鵝座, 赤經315o). 從1/6/195 到 3/26/195, 熒惑(即火星)都在逆行, 3/26/195 到赤經137o, 是可以守赤經116o的北河(即Pollux星). 至於”天關”(即Zeta Tauri,在赤經84o,金牛座), 熒惑在195年底才運行到赤經297o, 離天關星的位置赤經84o還有好一段距離. 所以”與太白會於天關, 金火交會”不是發生在195年,而是指196年的天象. 而196年的一年間, 太白與熒惑交會兩次; 一次在4/17/196, 於赤經18o, 當時太白還在逆行, 另一次在8/19/196, 於赤經107o. 這兩個交會點離天關的84o赤經都不是很近. 勉強可以說, 太白與熒惑在7/26/196那天是在天關的附近, 一個 (太白)在赤經78o另一個在赤經90o. 不過話說回來, 太史令王立的用意是要講金星火星交會, 根據這個天象, 兵兇大起, 是革命之象, 漢朝氣數已盡. 至於兩星在什麼地方交會, 可能並不重要.
七曜同宮五星連珠 — 古人所講的七曜，就是日月金木水火土七個天空中閃閃發光的天體．天球一圈360度，共有十二宮，每宮佔據30度．同宮的意思就是這些天體的分佈限縮在30度範圍內．古人所講的五星，就是水星，金星，火星，木星，土星．五星連珠就是這五個星星從地球看去好像連在一起．當五星擠得最緊的時候, 日跟月可能不在附近. 所以七曜同宮的日子跟五星連珠的日子可能會不同. 筆者利用設計的這個天文計算程式， 搜尋從2000到2050的50年間，有沒有發生七曜同宮或五星連珠的現象．結果發現2000年5月出現過一次後, 到2040年才會再出現一次.
圖2的左邊是發生在5/3/2000的七曜同宮現象. 這一天, 日月金木水火土這七個曜擠在牡羊座狹窄的25.7度角距離裡. 經過兩個禮拜, 在5/17/2000, 金木水火土這五顆星更加靠攏 (五星連珠現象), 擠在牡羊座狹窄的20.1度裡 (雖然太陽還是擠在裡面, 但是月球已經繞到赤經221度去了), 如圖2的右圖所標示.
2040年9月的五星連珠及七曜同宮—
圖3是發生在9/9/2040的五星連珠及七曜同宮現象. 這一天, 日月金木水火土這七個曜擠在處女座狹窄的26.9度角距離裡內. 如果去掉太陽, 金木水火土這五顆星更加靠攏 (月亮也happen擠在裡面), 其角距離為非常小的8.3度. 仔細想一想, 五顆星分佈在360度一個圓周的赤經上, 能夠有這麼一天擠在10度內,那是多麼的難得. 這是五百年(2000-2500)難得一遇的天文奇觀!
結論: 人類雖渺小, 卻有足夠的智慧去探討浩瀚的宇宙天文. 踏向宇宙的第一步, 就是我們的太陽系. 古代的人應該也很聰明, 只是礙於儀器的的缺乏或粗糙, 只能做有限度的天文觀測. 在天空, 日與月, 又大又亮. 觀測最多. 水金火木土這五顆星, 古代人也勤於作筆記, 記載每日每時的軌跡. “天文考古”也變成許多退休人, 包括筆者, 的興趣. 現在Internet又是這麼流通, 能Access的知識又是這麼澔翰, 家用電腦的計算能力又是這麼快速, 現代人來做一些古代天文官的事那真是輕而易舉. 本文簡單介紹自己發展的天文計算程式應用到三國演義記載的天文觀測, 順便介紹天文奇觀的五星連珠及七曜同宮與筆會讀者分享.
（2025-05-30 在 New Jersey）
Astronomy in Three Kingdoms Romance and Conjunction of Solar System Planets
In ancient times, astronomical omens were considered to be the will of heaven and possessed extraordinary power. In the 14th chapter of the Three Kingdoms Romance (三國演義) written by Luo Guanzhong (羅貫中), “Cao Mengde (曹孟德) moved his imperial court to Xudu(許都), and Lü Fengxian (呂奉先) attacked Xujun (徐郡) at night”, it was mentioned that Cao Cao (曹操) had the ambition to wear the imperial robe himself, and it would be best if there was an astronomical phenomenon to prove that this was the will of heaven. So there was a description of astronomical phenomena – “Cao discussed the matter of moving the capital with his advisers on that day. At that time, the Minister of the Court and the Grand Historian Wang Li (王立) privately told the Minister of the Imperial Clan Liu Ai (劉艾): “I looked up at the sky and found that since last spring, Venus has violated Saturn in the region of Sagittarius and Capricorn and passed Deneb (天津星). Mars is also retrograde and will meet Venus in the direction of Zeta Tau star (天關星). When gold (referring to Venus) and fire (referring to Mars) meet, a new emperor will surely appear. I see that the fate of the Han Dynasty will end, and the land of Jin (晉) and Wei (魏) will surely rise. (Note: The five planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, are respectively called Chenxing (辰星), Taibai (太白), Yinghuo (熒惑), Suixing (歲星), and Zhenxing (鎮星) in ancient Chinese historical records). Luo Guanzhong (羅貫中) wrote a chapter novel, so the time of astronomical phenomena is not accurate enough. It just so happens that Zhang Fan’s (張璠) “Chronicle of the Later Han Dynasty” also has a similar record in the chapter “Chronicle of Emperor Xian (獻帝)”. The result of the verification is that the Grand Historian Wang Li (王立) said that the time when I looked up at the sky was the first year of Jian’an (建安) (i.e., AD 196). The last spring described in “Last spring, Venus offended Saturn” was the spring of AD 195. Then Luo Guanzhong (羅貫中) continued to write that “Meeting Venus at Zeta Tau star (天關星), Venus and Mars met” seemed to have happened in AD 195, but after checking with the author’s “Calculation of the Right Ascension of the Seven Planets in Ancient and Modern Times” (Note: Right Ascension is the longitude of the equator), there was no “Mars and Venus met at Zeta Tau ” in AD 195. Here we will describe the use of astronomical calculations of “The Right ascension of the Seven Planets in Ancient and Modern Times” to verify the astronomical phenomenon of the Han and Wei dynasties in the Three Kingdoms Romance (三國演義), and then verify the astronomical wonder of the Seven Luminaries in the Same Palace (七曜同宮) and Five Planets in a Row (五星連珠) in May 2000, and when the next astronomical wonder of same will occur.
After retirement, I have more time. When I was studying in graduate school, I took several astronomy courses. After so many years of putting them aside, I am now revisiting my old interest and carefully revisiting what I learned in the past. Using the super-fast computing power of my home computer, I have re-established a set of strict astronomical calculation programs to understand the orbits of the sun, moon and eight planets in the past and in the future. Recently, I also re-read the story of the Three Kingdoms Romance (三國演義) and found that it also talked about many astronomical events and historical developments. So I became interested in “astronomical archaeology”. Now let me briefly talk about the astronomy of our solar system.
To observe the movement of the planets in the solar system, it is best to jump out of the solar system to see clearly: standing outside the solar system to observe, you can see that the eight planets are all orbiting the sun in a nearly circular orbit, and the moon is orbiting the earth in a nearly circular orbit. But for us humans living on Earth, it is certainly not easy to go outside the solar system, so the best observation point is on the surface of our own Earth. This is exactly the same as the ancient people’s observation of celestial phenomena: the celestial bodies in the universe are all moving on the celestial sphere. Although the celestial phenomena on the celestial sphere in the night sky of each season are different, the celestial phenomena in the spring night sky every year are almost exactly the same. The only things that change are the Moon and Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn (Uranus and Neptune were discovered later). In addition to the Moon, these planets sometimes go retrograde. In fact, the Greek astronomer Ptolemy in the second century BC once proposed a hypothesis that all celestial bodies, including the Sun, Moon, planets, and more distant stars, revolve around the earth as the center. In the following thousand years, This “geocentric theory” is the human understanding of the entire universe. Later, some people gradually realized that the Sun is the center of the universe, which is the heliocentric theory. Of course, we now know that the sun is just an inconspicuous star in the rotating arm of the Milky Way. But then again, we who live on Earth still view the entire universe from the perspective of the Earth. The first step in our astronomical calculations is of course to use the Sun as the center of the orbits of each planet, and then parallel-shift the obtained data to our Earth, which becomes the data of the planets on the celestial sphere and the movement of the Sun and the Moon from our Earth.
The circle in Figure 1 is the celestial sphere (one circle is 360 degrees of Right Ascension), the Earth is at the center of the circle, and the Sun, the Moon and the seven planets all revolve around the earth on the circle. This figure is the results of the calculation for the positions on the celestial sphere of these nine celestial bodies when 8/21/2024 is entered as the date in the astronomical calculation program. Figure 1 also marks the positions of the 12 constellations for comparison. Enter any date in the late Han Dynasty and the date of the Three Kingdoms Romance (三國演義) period to find out the positions of these nine celestial bodies on the celestial sphere on that day. The astronomical calculation program also has a designated key (on the keyboard), and once you press it, the date will automatically jump one day, In this way, you can see the movement of each celestial body, such as which planet is moving in the normal direction, which is in “retrograde”, and which two planets overlap (called “violation” in ancient times, for example: Venus violates Saturn), etc. The program also has a Do-Loop, which can be used to watch the movement of the nine celestial bodies as a whole, or a group of celestial bodies, for a week, a month, a year, a decade, or a hundred years, just like a movie. It is the easiest to use this celestial body calculation program to verify the accuracy of the ancient description of celestial phenomena.
The astronomical phenomena on the fate of Han (漢) and Wei (魏) in the Three Kingdoms Romance (三國演義): Using this astronomical calculation program, and applying it to AD 195 and AD 196 (the first year of Jian’an (建安) in the Eastern Han Dynasty (東漢) was AD 196), the author obtained the following data: On 2/10/195, Venus violated Saturn at Right Ascension 287o. On 3/1/195, Venus passed Deneb. From 1/6/195 to 3/26/195, Mars was in retrograde motion. On 3/26/195, it reached Right Ascension 137o, and was able to stay at Pollux at Right Ascension 116o. As for “Tianguan (天關)” (i.e. Zeta Tauri, at right ascension 84o, Taurus), Mars only moved to Right Ascension 297o at the end of AD 195, which was still a long way from the position of Tianguan (天關) star at Right Ascension 84o. Therefore, “Meeting with Venus at Tianguan; the conjunction of Venus and Mars” did not happen in AD 195, but was the astronomical phenomenon in AD 196. In AD 196, Venus and Mars conjuncted twice; once on 4/17/196, at Right Ascension 18o, when Venus was still in retrograde, and the other time on 8/19/196, at Right Ascension 107o. These two conjunct points were not very close to the Right Ascension of 84o in Tianguan. It can be said that Venus and Mars were near Tianguan on 7/26/196, one (Venus) at Right Ascension 78o and the other at Right Ascension 90o. But then again, the intention of the historian Wang Li (王立) was to talk about the conjunction of Venus and Mars. According to this astronomical phenomenon, war broke out, which was a sign of revolution, and the Han Dynasty was doomed. As for where the two planets conjuncted, it may not be important.
Seven Luminaries in the Same Palace (七曜同宮) and Five Planets in a Row (五星連珠) — The seven luminaries mentioned by the ancients are the seven shining celestial bodies in the sky, namely the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The celestial sphere has a circle of 360 degrees, with a total of twelve palaces (宮), each occupying 30 degrees. When we say “staying at the same palace”, we mean that the distribution of these celestial bodies is limited to a range of 30 degrees. The five planets mentioned by the ancients are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The five planets in a row means that these five planets seem to be connected together (i.e., in conjuction) when viewed from the Earth. When the five planets are squeezed the tightest, the sun and the moon may not be nearby. Therefore, the days when the seven luminaries are in the same palace and the days when the five planets are in a row may be different. The author used this astronomical calculation program which was designed to search for whether the seven luminaries in the same palace or the five planets in a row occurred in the 50 years from 2000 to 2050. The result found that after these phenomena appeared once in May 2000, it will not appear again until 2040.
Figure 2a shows the phenomenon of the seven celestial bodies in the same palace on 5/3/2000. On that day, the seven celestial bodies — the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, were squeezed into a narrow 25.7-degree angle in Aries. Two weeks later, on 5/17/2000, the five planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupite and Saturn, were even closer (the phenomenon of the five planets in a row), squeezed into a narrow 20.1-degree area in Aries (although the Sun was still squeezed in, the Moon had already moved to 221o of Right Ascension), as shown in Figure 2b.
Seven Luminaries in the Same Palace (七曜同宮) and Five Planets in a Row (五星連珠) of September 2040: Figure 3 shows the phenomenon of the five planets in conjunction and the seven celestial bodies in the same palace on 9/9/2040. On this day, the seven celestial bodies, the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, squeezed into the narrow 26.9-degree angular distance of Virgo. If the Sun is removed, the five planets are even closer (the Moon also happens to be squeezed in), and their angular distance is a very small 8.3 degrees. Think about it carefully, the five planets are usually broadly distributed on the Right Ascension of a circle of 360 degrees, and it is so rare to have such a day to squeeze within 10 degrees. This is a rare astronomical wonder that only happens once in 500 years (2000-2500)!
Conclusion: Although human beings are small, they have enough wisdom to explore the vast universe and astronomy. The first step into the universe is our solar system. Ancient people must also be very smart, but due to the lack of instruments or the use of crude instruments, they can only do limited astronomical observations. In the sky, the Sun and the Moon are big and bright. They are the most observed. For the five planets of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, ancient people were also diligent in taking notes when they were observed, recording the trajectory of each day and each hour. “Astronomical archaeology” has also become a hobby for many retired people, including the author. Now the Internet is so popular, the knowledge that can be accessed is so abundant, and the computing power of home computers is so fast, it is really easy for modern people to do some of the work of ancient astronomers. This article briefly introduces the astronomical calculation program I developed and applied it to the astronomical observations recorded in the Three Kingdoms Romance (三國演義), and introduces the astronomical wonders of the Five Planets in a Row (五星連珠) and the Seven Luminaries in the Same Palace (七曜同宮) to share with the readers of the Pen Clu
（2025-05-30 at New Jersey）