Catching up with the tail of 2019, we have watched the last and penultimate solar eclipse of the year and most of the country in the past decade on the 26th of this month, I wonder if you have enjoyed this spectacle?
Everyone must have heard of "tengu eats the moon" or "tengu eats the sun", which is the ancient Chinese folk saying about lunar eclipse or solar eclipse. The ancients attach great importance to the eclipse of the sun and moon, that these special celestial phenomena are the warning of the heavens to the world, so they have made a large number of records, the ancient Chinese records of solar eclipses began in ancient times, according to the "Ancient Chinese Astronomical Records Collection" statistics, ancient documents recorded in a total of about 1000 eclipses, although the account is relatively brief, but still has great value, leaving a rare data and scientific heritage for future generations.
If the Yin Dynasty is also a document, then the ancient Chinese record of solar eclipses can be traced back to the late Yin period. Unearthed in Anyang, Henan Province, a 12-centimeter-long animal bone is inscribed with a question about a solar eclipse: "Yu Yu Zhen eats again on the day and night, Jia Ruo?" If you eat day and night, why not?" "癸酉" is the date of divination, "Zhen" means divination, "夕" refers to dusk, the general meaning of this phrase is: "Decorum day divination, eclipse at dusk, is it an auspicious omen or a bad omen?" "Researchers have judged that this is a cultural relic from the Yin Shang Wu Yi period (that is, around 1100 BC).
Some people like to mention an earlier record of a solar eclipse. That is the so-called Shang Shu Zhongkang eclipse. According to the "Shangshu Xia Shu Yin Zheng", during the reign of Zhongkang, the fourth monarch of Xia, the astronomical official Xi He was drunk and misbehaved, and the time was chaotic, and Yin Went to Zhengzhi to write "Yin Zheng". It mentions: "But Zhongkang is in the world... However, Shi Xihe, subverting The Virtue, Sinking chaos in wine, Leaving the Officials of the Bank, Disturbing the Heavenly Discipline, and Abandoning the Imperial Household. Nai Ji Qiu Yue Shuo, Chen Fu gathered in the room, playing drums, Shi Fu Chi, Shu Ren go, Xi he corpse officials ignored it, comatose in the heavens, in order to dry the curse of the first king, the "Political Code" said: "Those who kill in the first time have no forgiveness, and those who do not kill in time have no forgiveness." 'Now there are many in them, and they will be punished by heaven. Erzhu Shi joined forces with the royal family, and Shang Bi gave Qin Chengtian the mandate of the Heavenly Son. ”
"It is the autumn moon shuo, and the chenfu is gathered in the room" is generally considered to be a total solar eclipse that occurred in fangsu (part of the western constellation Scorpio) on the first day of the ninth lunar month of the first lunar month of the first lunar year of Zhongkang ("season autumn moon shuo"), and may be the earliest eclipse chronicle in the world. The content of the "Yin Zheng" is simply the story of Xi He who was drunk, did not report the occurrence of the eclipse in time, directed the beating of the gong and drum, made people's hearts rush, and finally Xi He was tragically beheaded. Because it involves the authenticity of the Book of Shang, it is still controversial whether this account is reliable. For example, the "early time" and "untimely" of the eclipse forecast - the "first time" and "untimely" here seem to be interpreted only in terms of the pre-arrival or untimely prediction of the eclipse can only be smoothed in the semantics - generally speaking, it is impossible to talk about in the Xia Dynasty. However, after quoting the "Book of Xia" from the "Spring and Autumn Left Biography" in the seventeenth year of the Zhao Gong "Eclipse of the Sun" and interpreting it as a solar eclipse, most scholars in ancient and modern times believe that this is a solar eclipse. If this is indeed a real record of the eclipse, the exact time of the eclipse has been calculated by many astronomical almanacs since ancient times, and no consensus has been reached (here are two examples: Tang Dynasty astronomers and their party believe that this eclipse occurred on October 13, 2128 BC, and Chen Zunfei, a modern astronomer in China and the first director of the Beijing Planetarium, believes that this is an eclipse on October 22, 2137 BC).
Most of the records of food exchange preserved in China's historical documents are reliable. For example, the Solar Eclipse of the Book of Poetry and the Eclipse of spring and Autumn. The Book of Verses? The "Turn of October" in Xiao Ya records both a solar eclipse and a lunar eclipse: "At the turn of October, the New Year's Day is hard. There is an eclipse of the sun, and it is also the ugliness of the hole. The other month is faint, and the day is faint. Now the people are also mourning. "The Spring and Autumn Period records 37 solar eclipses, 7 of which occurred on Shuo Day 15 times before Lu Xuangong; 22 times after Lu Chenggong, all of which occurred on Shuo Day. Using modern astronomical methods, 33 of these 37 eclipses actually occurred. These results show that Lu Chenggong's later calendars have reached a fairly accurate level of deduction for Shuo.
Some friends may wonder, what is the significance of these eclipse records? Is there any difference between an ancient partial solar eclipse, annular or total solar eclipse and a modern one?
Of course not. First of all, the so-called "calendar is dense, test in the eclipse", the accuracy of the eclipse record and the mastery of the movement of the sun and moon are closely related, and the systematic record can show that there were special people responsible for this matter in ancient times, and thus test whether the calendar is accurate. This is enough to show that China's astronomical undertakings started very early, and the achievements are extremely prominent, and it is precisely the accurate recording of these special celestial phenomena that gradually understands the operation law of the sun, moon, and five stars, and thus gives birth to an accurate calendar. To have a precise calendar is to master certain laws of nature, which has promoted the rapid development of all walks of life, which makes ancient China an outstanding representative of human civilization.
Finally, since the periodicity of the movement of the sun and moon can be measured, celestial phenomena such as solar and lunar eclipses are extremely easy to push back. If the ancient record of the solar and lunar eclipse coincides with the modern retrograde, it is easy to infer the real occurrence of that period of history, which can be said to be a disguised means of confirming the authenticity and accuracy of history, an example is the use of the "Bamboo Book Chronicle" in the Xia Shang Zhou Dynasty Project carried out in the 1990s, "Yi Wang's first year of the first year of the Ying Yin Spring, the king is on the throne, the heavens are dan in Zheng" The record of the annular eclipse on April 21, 899 BC, inferred that the first year of the Zhou Yi King was 899 BC. This kind of learning that uses celestial records to infer historical dating is called "astronomical historical chronology".