As a result of these fruitful ideas from the Chinese early signs for 'female' and 'mother' I decided to read Joseph Needham's monumental 'Science and Civilisation in China' (in 7 volumes). I also borrowed the important book 'The Dawn of Astronomy' by Lockyer. Reading the first volume of Needham in parallel with Lockyer gave some new insights. Lockyer makes clear that the horizon was most important in connection with observations of stars and other celestial bodies. The horizon gives stability to such observations by establishing a frame of reference. Celestial bodies up in the sky have usually no clear locations, unless we use some kind of instrument.

Depending on where we are standing the movements of the observed stars look different, at the equator it looks as if the sky with the stars revolve around a horizontal axle, whereas at the poles the revolution has a vertical axle.