COVID-19, Plague, Planets, Conjunctions, Comets and the Chinese New Year

Abstract

This paper opens with the first reporting of the COVID-19 pandemic in China in late 2019/early2020 and closes with the importance of the Chinese language for access to Chinese knowledge and culture; it reviews the scale of the pandemic after 12 months compared to earlier pandemics at the advent of the Chinese New Year on12/2/221; it comments on recent very close Great Conjunction of planets that had in the past been thought to be a source of human illness, on the impact of medical science (and vaccination) in control or elimination of disease and human suffering, on the "explosion" of scientific method in the Enlightenment and on Halley's observation of "his" comet and the calculation of its periodicity using Newton's maths, on the interest of the Greeks, Romans and Norsemen in the night sky, on human endurance and isolation in the face of illness and in pandemic and in literature (modern and much older, touching on the Great Plague 1665 and Daniel Defoe); it moves to the use of Greek literature by Schliemann in discovering Troy and then Mycenae, and on his inspiration of Arthur Evans in the discovery of Knossos, on the use of tree rings (and ice cores) by Professor Bailee to discover historical catastrophe coinciding with the collapse of Troy (1159BC) (and possible coincidence with Biblical Exodus (1628BC), the dawn of the Dark Ages in Europe (540AD) and the collapse of Chinese dynasties), and on his use of Chinese literature (and Irish mythology) to seek to correlate historical tales with facts, and likewise with the possible link of catastrophe in 540AD with Beowulf (effectively a method akin to Schliemann's use historical literature, the Iliad to discover Troy); it addresses Professor Bailee's initial theory of the correlation of severe volcanic eruption (notably Santorini) but moreover close cometary pass (or impact) with catastrophe (and perhaps consequent social and economic collapse and illness); it touches on notable observations of Halley's comet (at the collapse of Troy, at the time of the Great Plague in London 1664 (incidentally at the Battle of Hastings 1066)), on the huge, important catalogue of observations by the Chinese of the night sky going back 2,000 years or more (including 30 observations of Halley's comet); it touches lightly on other possible real effects of conjunctions (tidal effect at the time of Titanic), and throughout on the importance of language and books in the storing and transmission of knowledge and culture; it then looks at the spread of English as the global lingua franca (from 1945), on events and change in the English language at the time key literature (540AD Beowulf, 1175AD in Malory's Morte d/Artur (at the time of murder to Thomas A Beckett at Canterbury), in the Pardoner's Tale in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (and Chaucer's experience of pandemic in the Black Death (14th Century)), overall on books to read and knowledge to absorb whilst in COVID-19 lock down (inc references to the City of London where Chaucer lived for a time (in the Aldgate), where Pepys lived (Seething lane), where Pepys had observed the Great Plague and cometary pass, where Daniel Defoe describes the Great Plague and refers to comet, and close by where Dickens had observed the great maritime and business world (Dombey & Sons in 1846). Throughout the paper there are references to books to read in pandemic and lockdown for the power of the language (Moby Dick), for the extraordinary skill of brevity (the Old Man and the Sea), for the seminal description of modern plague (Camus, La Peste), for the magical quality of the tale (le Petit Prince, with its curious solar theme and 50 translation into Chinese), for the remarkable tale of Longitude (Dava Sobel), the link to the planets and the stars and the impact of Harrisons' clock's. It concludes with a light observation on the importance and durability of knowledge and ideas and the importance of learning Chinese, with a small comparison of the huge impact of ideas from the Greek classical world and its accessibility in the Greek language. A full set of references is provided.