Dear Richard: I haven't given much thought to this topic, but my vague recollection is that the first Chinese reference to ET was much earlier than the Ming dynasty. If I had read your post earlier, I've have checked the proper references when I drove a couple hours this morning to use the U-Mass East Asian Reference Library. I'm sure it's properly documented in Joseph Needham's series on science and inventions from China. I'll look it up next time ... Patrick Draine RPT & almost an MA in Chinese Language & Lit >was published in 1584 by Chu Tsai-Yu, a prince of the Ming dynasty. The >first Western reference to Chu was made by a European mathematician in >620. That was 16 years before Mersenne; and Mersenne didn't mention >Chu at all."
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