Song I-yeong (, 1619–?) was a Korean court astronomer of the

Joseon Joseon (; ; Middle Korean: 됴ᇢ〯션〮 Dyǒw syéon or 됴ᇢ〯션〯 Dyǒw syěon), officially the Great Joseon (; ), was the last dynastic kingdom of Korea, lasting just over 500 years. It was founded by Yi Seong-gye in July 1392 and re ...

dynasty. He invented a weight-powered

astronomical clock An astronomical clock, horologium, or orloj is a clock with special mechanisms and dials to display astronomical information, such as the relative positions of the Sun, Moon, zodiacal constellations, and sometimes major planets. Definition ...

(possibly the ''

Honcheonsigye The Honcheonsigye (meaning ''armillary clock'') is an astronomical clock designated as South Korean national treasure number 230. The clock has an armillary sphere with a diameter of 40 cm. The sphere is activated by a clockwork mechanism, ...

'') and contributed greatly to the implementation of the

Shixian Calendar The Chongzhen calendar () or Shixian calendar () was the final lunisolar Chinese calendar. It was developed by the Jesuit scholars Johann Schreck and Johann Adam Schall von Bell with Xu Guangqi from 1624 to 1644, and was dedicated to the Chongzhen ...

(from

Qing China The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speaki ...

) in Joseon. He also made systematic observations of two comets.

Armillary clock

In 1659, during the reign of King Hyeonjong, Song I-yeong made an

by combining an

armillary sphere An armillary sphere (variations are known as spherical astrolabe, armilla, or armil) is a model of objects in the sky (on the celestial sphere), consisting of a spherical framework of rings, centered on Earth or the Sun, that represent lines of ...

, long used in East Asia, with the western alarm clock. The result was a device that could both trace the movements of the sun and the moon, as well as display and announce the time. The clock was repaired in 1687–1688, after which it disappeared from historical records. In the 1930s,

Kim Seong-su Kim Seong-su (김성수, 金性洙; October 11, 1891 – February 18, 1955) was a Korean educator, independence activist, journalist, entrepreneur, politician and calligrapher, and the second vice president of South Korea from 1951–1 ...

purchased the ''

honcheonsigye The Honcheonsigye (meaning ''armillary clock'') is an astronomical clock designated as South Korean national treasure number 230. The clock has an armillary sphere with a diameter of 40 cm. The sphere is activated by a clockwork mechanism, ...

'', which is still housed at

Korea University Korea University (KU, ) is a private research university in Seoul, South Korea, established in 1905. The university is included as one of the SKY universities, a popular acronym referring to Korea's three most prestigious universities. Th ...

. The historian of science Jeon Sang-woon (, ), who examined the device in 1962, assumed that it was Song I-yeong's device, and the British historian of science

Joseph Needham Noel Joseph Terence Montgomery Needham (; 9 December 1900 – 24 March 1995) was a British biochemist, historian of science and sinologist known for his scientific research and writing on the history of Chinese science and technology, i ...

adopted this view. However,

Gari Ledyard Gari Keith Ledyard (born 1932 in Syracuse, New York; died 29 October 2021 ) was Sejong Professor of Korean History Emeritus at Columbia University. He is best known for his work on the history of the Hangul alphabet. Biography Ledyard was born w ...

and O Sang-hak () have separately argued that the object dates from much later.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Song, I-yeong 1619 births 17th-century Korean astronomers Korean inventors 17th-century inventors