When the Earth Was Flat

Whether or not there was an actual relationship between early Chinese thought and

early Greek thought is difficult to determine. But we can really claim that there is

analogical relationship between early Chinese thought and early Greek thought.

Even with regard to the concepts of Yin and Yang which have been regarded by

most scholars for a long time and up to now as very peculiar Chinese ideas, we can

find that there is analogical relationship with the concepts of the hot and the cold and

the dry and the wet in early Greek thought.1 Therefore, I strongly believe that, if we

systematically and profoundly try to do comparative research into early Chinese

thought and early Greek thought, we should meet many surprising discoveries. And

this will help us not only to find many comparable thoughts between the two, but

also to solve the puzzles which have remained for understanding because of the lost

and the lack of documents on either side.

Dirk L. Couprie’s new book, When the Earth Was Flat: Studies in Ancient Greek

and Chinese Cosmology, is a great attempt in this aspect. In this volume, he

continues the research of his earlier work, Heaven and Earth in Ancient Greek

Cosmology, and makes a detailed and deep study of flat earth cosmology. While in

the previous book he paid more attention to how spherical earth cosmology replaced

flat earth cosmology and was accepted in early Greek thought, in the new book he

devotes much more discussion to the question of how flat earth cosmology has

explained all kinds of puzzles of astronomy. It is precisely in this context that he

devotes an independent and special part to the study of Chinese flat earth cosmology,

called the gai tian system, which was contained in an ancient Chinese work, Zhou Bi

Suan Jing. He makes use of his extensive knowledge of ancient astronomy when

studying its thoughts related to flat earth cosmology deeply and professionally, so

that although I am a Chinese person, I become a layman with respect to him

regarding this Chinese ancient work. But, I dare say, it is by his new book that he

illustrates how a comparative research between early Chinese thought and early