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Jing Fang (Chinese: 京房; pinyin: Jīng Fáng; Wade-Giles: Ching Fang, 78-37 BC), born Li Fang (李房), courtesy name Junming (君明), was a Chinese music theorist, mathematician and astrologer born in present-day Puyang, Henan during the Han Dynasty. Pinyin, more formally Hanyu pinyin, is the most common Standard Mandarin Romanization system in use Wade-Giles (ˌweɪdˈʤaɪlz) sometimes abbreviated Wade, is a Romanization system (phonetic notation and Transcription) for the Mandarin Year 78 BC was a year of the pre-Julian calendar. Events By place Rome In Rome, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus Year 37 BC was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Julian calendar. A Chinese style name, sometimes also known as a courtesy name ( zì) is a given name to be used later in life China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National Music theory is the field of study that deals with the Mechanics of music and how Music works A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and research is the field of Mathematics. An astrologer practices one or more forms of Astrology. Typically an astrologer draws a Horoscope for the time of an event such as a person's birth and interprets Puyang ( is a Prefecture-level city in northeastern Henan province China. The Han Dynasty ( 206 BC–220 AD followed the Qin Dynasty and preceded the Three Kingdoms in China. He is most known for being the first to notice how closely a succession of 53 just fifths approximates 31 octaves. The perfect fifth ( is the Musical interval between a note and the note seven Semitones above it on the musical scale In Music, an octave ( is the the use of which is "common in most musical systems This observation would much later lead to the discovery of 53 equal temperament. In music 53 equal temperament, called 53-TET 53- EDO, or 53-ET is the tempered scale derived by dividing the octave into fifty-three equally large steps

Contents

Music theory

He came upon this observation after learning to calculate the pythagorean comma between 12 fifths and 7 octaves (this had been published ca. In Music, when ascending from an initial (low pitch by a cycle of justly tuned perfect fifths (ratio 32 ( leapfrogging twelve times one eventually reaches a 122 BC in the Huainanzi, a book written for the prince of Huainan), and extended this method fivefold to a scale composed of 60 fifths, finding that after 53 new values became incredibly close to tones already calculated. The Huainanzi (淮南子 Pinyin Huáinánzǐ, Wade-Giles Huai-nan Tzu; literally "The Masters/Philosophers of Huainan" is a 2nd century Líu Ān ( 179 - 122 BC was a Chinese Prince and advisor to his nephew Emperor Wu of Han (武帝 of Han Dynasty in China and the Administration The Prefecture-level city of Huainan administers six county-level divisions, including five districts and one county

He accomplished this calculation by beginning with a suitable large starting value (311 = 177147) that could be divided by three easily, and proceeded to calculate the relative values of successive tones by the following method:

  1. Divide the value by three. 177147 / 3 = 59049
  2. Add this value to the original. 177147 + 59049 = 226196
  3. The new value is now equal to 4 / 3 of the original, or a perfect fourth, which is equivalent to a perfect fifth inverted at the octave. The perfect fourth () is a Musical interval which spans four scale degrees (Alternatively he would subtract 1 / 3 from the interval, equivalent to a perfect fifth down, in order to keep all of the values greater than 177147, or less than 354294, its double, effectively transposing them all into the range of a single octave. )
  4. Proceed now from this new value to generate the next tone; repeat until all tones have been generated.

To produce an exact calculation, some 26 digits of accuracy would have been required. Instead, by rounding to about 6 digits, his calculations are within 0. 0145 cents of exactness, which is a difference much finer than is usually perceptible. The cent is a logarithmic unit of measure used for musical intervals. The final value he gave for the ratio between this 53rd fifth and the original was 177147 / 176776.

This value would later be calculated precisely by Nicholas Mercator in the seventeenth century (see: history of 53 equal temperament). Nicholas ( Nikolaus) Mercator (c 1620 Eutin -1687 Versailles) also known by his Germanic name Kauffmann, was a 17th-century mathematician In music 53 equal temperament, called 53-TET 53- EDO, or 53-ET is the tempered scale derived by dividing the octave into fifty-three equally large steps

Astronomy

Jing Fang was a proponent of the 'radiating influence' theory in ancient China, which stated that the light of the moon was merely the light reflected from the sun, and that the celestial bodies were spherical. This accurate theory was dismissed by the philosopher Wang Chong (27–97 AD), yet embraced by the mathematician, inventor, and scientist Zhang Heng (78–139 AD). Wang Chong ( 27&ndashc 100 AD Wang also accurately described the process of the Water cycle. Zhang Heng ( (CE 78–139 was an astronomer, mathematician, inventor, geographer, cartographer, artist, poet Jing Fang stated:

“The moon and the planets are Yin; they have shape but no light. This they receive only when the sun illuminates them. The former masters regarded the sun as round like a crossbow bullet, and they thought the moon had the nature of a mirror. Some of them recognized the moon as a ball too. Those parts of the moon which the sun illuminates look bright, those parts which it does not, remain dark. [1]”

Notes

  1. ^ Needham, Volume 3, 227.

References

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