SIDE BY SIDE
Compare mantic systems
Read systems against shared questions to identify common language, procedural differences and distinct limits.
| Dimension | 分野占 ↗ | 国家星占与天象占候 ↗ |
|---|---|---|
| Family | Celestial omens and signs | Celestial omens and signs |
| Inputs | Celestial region, place names, administrative period and table | Chronology, observation, textual locator and omen commentary |
| Procedural structure | An event was located by star office or celestial station and then assigned to its terrestrial field. Mappings changed with administrative geography, state genealogies, terrain and inherited schemes. | Observers recorded time, direction, color, duration and motion, then linked the event through star offices, terrestrial fields, phases and inherited omen statements to rulers, war, disaster or harvest. |
| Formation | Gradual systematization from pre-imperial through Han | Early records in Shang-Zhou; systematized in Warring States-Han and long institutionalized |
| Evidence labels | Textually documented · Contested lineage or date | Excavated evidence · Textually documented |
| Texts | Shiji, Treatise on Celestial Offices / Book of Han, Treatise on Astronomy / Astronomical treatises in dynastic histories | Records of the Grand Historian, Treatise on Celestial Offices / Book of Han, Treatise on Astronomy / Yisi Zhan / Kaiyuan Zhanjing / Mawangdui Wuxing Zhan |
| Limits | Historical field tables conflict; they are not fixed astronomical-geographic coordinates, and modern maps cannot recover a single original scheme. | Historical observations have value for the history of science, but their political prognostications are not thereby validated by modern astronomy. Observation and interpretation must be separated. |
| Research question | Does one place name identify the same territory in different periods? | Where does observable description end and political interpretation begin? |