Folding Screen of Sinbeop cheonmundo (Celestial Charts) at Beopjusa Temple, Boeun

The Sinbeop cheonmundo ("celestial chart of the new method") was drawn at Gwansanggam (the Bureau of Astronomy) in 1742, the eighteenth year of King Yeongjo of Joseon, depicting the constellations north and south of the ecliptic; it measures 183 cm in height and 451 cm in width. This Folding Screen of the Sinbeop Cheonmundo at Beopjusa Temple, Boeun, was made using a great star chart of 300 constellations and 3,083 stars compiled in 1723, the third year of King Gyeongjong, by Ignatius Kögler (I. Koegler), then resident in China; Kim Tae-seo and An Guk-bin travelled to learn the method directly and brought back the star chart from which this screen was made. The chart takes the form of an eight-panel folding screen. The first panel bears the title of the Sinbeop Cheonmundoseol (an explanatory treatise on the new-method celestial chart) and sets out the astronomical knowledge of the time in 510 characters; to its left are depicted the sun and moon, followed by the five planets observed with the telescopes of the day — Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus and Mercury, in that order — each drawn in a different size and colour. On the second, third and fourth panels a great triple circle 165 cm in diameter is drawn, marked with a graduated band divided into 360 degrees. Since the pole of the ecliptic lies at the centre of this great circle, the circle represents the ecliptic itself. The fifth, sixth and seventh panels, in the same style as the three preceding them, record the stars of the southern sky centred on the southern pole of the ecliptic. The eighth panel lists the names of the officials who took part in producing this celestial chart. How and when this chart came to be preserved at Beopjusa Temple is not known. Nevertheless, the Folding Screen of the Sinbeop Cheonmundo at Beopjusa Temple is judged to be the largest and finest surviving copy of Kögler's celestial chart known to date, and a precious relic.

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Where it is

Region

Boeun, Chungbuk

Designation

Treasure · 보물