A Brief History of Beiji (Northern Culmen)

Abstract

In ancient Chinese astral lore, the imperial nomenclature associated with the circumpolar stars in the Palace of Purple Tenuity points to the crucial importance of the north-pole in astrological, calendrical, and spiritual contexts. But preoccupation with this numinous region has a history far longer than the Chinese empire, founded in 221 BCE. This paper briefly surveys what is known about the pre-imperial history of the region of the ‘Northern Culmen’, with particular reference to spiritual and metaphysical conceptions relating to the Northern Dipper, and to the void at the pivot of the heavens which lacked a pole star throughout much of the formative period of classical Chinese civilization. The discussion concludes with a hypothesis about the astral origins of the ancient form of the character used to denote the High God ‘di’.