Wake Forest University

Traditional:

地有絕處。唐太宗收至骨利幹，置堅昆都督府。其地夜易 曉，夜亦不甚暗，蓋當地絕處，日影所射也。其人髮皆赤 。
揚。

Simplified:

地有绝处。唐太宗收至骨利干，置坚昆都督府。其地夜易 晓，夜亦不甚暗，盖当地绝处，日影所射也。其人发皆赤 。
扬。

Big5:

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GB:

���о�������̫�����������ɣ��ü��������������ҹ�� ����ҹ�಻�������ǵ��ؾ�������Ӱ����Ҳ�����˷��Գ� ���

Translation:

There is a place where the earth comes to an end. The Tai-zong emperor of the Tang dynasty annexed territory as far as the Gu-li-gan tribe (located north of the Gobi desert) where he established a military governor for the Jian-kun nation (in Siberia, in the area called the Kirghiz Steppe). In that place, dawn came rapidly, and the night was not very dark. That must be because this area is located at the terminus of the earth where the "shadows" of the sun are cast upon it. The people of that area all have (red =) auburn hair.

Commentary:

Zhu Xi may have observed that the sky gets ligher before the sun appears over the horizon. High clouds can act as light reflectors in much the same way that one can use a mirror to flash sunlight down into a well. Light is also scattered by the atmosphere and so makes its way to the earth from beyond the horizon. The dictionary definition of "ri4 ying3" is "shadows cast by the sun," but I think it may mean the reflected rays of the sun in this case. Areas in the far north can be fairly light at midnight because even though the sun is beyond the northern horizon its light is still bounced through the atmosphere to give us light. If Zhu Xi understood that the earth is a sphere, then it is strange that he did not include that information in his explanation. As it is, the fact that the areas of the midnight sun are close to the earth's "end" (i.e., pole) is indeed a very salient point, but Zhu Xi gives us no explanation for why this region is lighted in a way that is different from more southerly regions.

--PEM