Title: Heavenly Precision and Hidden Machines: Qi Yanhuai and the Clockwork Celestial Globes of Late Imperial China
Abstract: This presentation examines the production and pedagogical utility of clockwork celestial globes in late imperial China, focusing on the work of Qi Yanhuai (1774-1841) to recenter these artifacts from marginal curiosities to scientific instruments. While many histories of Chinese science begin with texts, this presentation employs a material culture approach—analyzing extant objects alongside contemporary accounts—to recover historical practices of those who built and used these globes.
These mechanical globes were significant artifacts for their time: they served as platforms for fashioning scholarly identities for both gentry and artisans, acted as essential tools for disseminating new astronomical theories, and provided conceptual models for self-organization and automation. By investigating the material traces and social and cultural contexts surrounding Qi’s instruments, this talk offers two primary interventions. First, it places Chinese clockwork globes within a global comparative framework of "polite" and "practical" astronomy, challenging their status as a horological oddity. Second, it demonstrates that popular movements were more engaged with imperial astronomy than current historiography would suggest. Ultimately, this presentation asserts that celestial globes in China can inform us about the changing nature of astronomical knowledge and time measurement and the social value of technical and scientific practices.
Short Bio: Christopher DeCou is a sixth year doctoral candidate in the History department. His dissertation "The Stars in Their Eyes: Materials for Making Time in the Qing Empire, 1700–1900" explores the culture of timekeeping and instrument making in late imperial China. He completed his undergraduate training in Chinese as well as Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the University of Michigan and did his masters at the University of Chicago.
