Question: Observation and world view

What was the most widespread viewpoint (if any) about the earth and astronomical objects, especially moon and sun in the area  (Say, China, Korea, Japan and some others)?Did somebody, perhaps some of their "intellectuals" get some "protoscientific" ideas - ideas based on observations? One excample: When moon or sun are observed from distant places, thousands of miles apart and You realise their apparent size remains the same, You can deduce they must be very big  and far away copared to terrestrial objects like mountains. At least the chinese were for thousands of years spread out on such a vast territory, and some of them could have observed - and made the right conclusions. Did they? In the same way one may get an idea the earth may not be "flat", simply by approaching ships or mountains, especially by sea.