Astronomy was a part of everyday life in those ancient times, for city lights did not exist and anyone could see a multitude of stars just by looking up. The late-Ming scholar Gu Yanwu once wrote, "In the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, everyone was an astronomer. Every tiller of the fields was familiar with Antares.
而在沒有燈火、抬頭繁星點點的古代，人與天文很自然發生關係，明末顧炎武說的夏商周「三代以上，人人皆知天文。