古历“金水二星日行一度”考证

A VERIFICATION ON "VENUS' AND MERCURY'SPROGRESSING ONE DEGREE PER DAY

该文对中国古代历法中关于“金水二星日行一度”的说法进行了详细的讨论，同时对西方古代天文学关于金水二星运动的描述也加以比较分析。指出：“金水二星日行一度”是古代中外天文学家的一种普遍现点，这是与当时认识水平相适应的必然结果，我们并不能将其简单地归结为一种错误。

The concept of 'Venus' and Mercury's Progressing One Degree Per Day',which is preserved as a common sense in ancient Chinese mathematical astronomy,is discussed in this paper. A similar idea that the mean motions of Venus and Mercury are identical with the Sun's is also found in ancient Western astronomy. After calculating the variations of mean longitudes of Venus and Mercury the paper concludes that the concept of 'Venus's and Mercury's Progressing One Degree Per Day' cannot be treated simply as a mistaken idea, for it is an inevitable result in the geocentric system, which was held by astronomers both in ancient China and foreign countries.