How Reliable are Archaic Records of Large Solar Eclipses?

For a detailed discussion, see Stephenson F. R. , Historical eclipses and Earth's rotation (Cambridge, 1997).

Williams J. G. Dickey J. O. , “Lunar geophysics, geodesy and dynamics”, in Proceedings of the 13th International Workshop on Laser Ranging (Washington, DC, 2003); Chapront J. Chapront-Touzé M. Francou G. , “A new determination of lunar orbital parameters, precession constant, and tidal acceleration from LLR measurements”, Astronomy and astrophysics, ccclxxxvii (2002), 2002–9.

See, for example, Stephenson F. R. Morrison L. V. , “Long-term changes in the rotation of the Earth: 700 B.C. to A.D. 1980”, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London, A cccxiii (1984), 47–70.

Stephenson F. R. Morrison L. V. , “Long-term fluctuations in the Earth's rotation: 700 B.C. to A.D. 1990”, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London, A cccli (1995), 165–202.

Morrison L. V. Stephenson F. R. , “Historical values of the Earth's clock error ΔT and the calculation of eclipses”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xxxv (2004), 327–36; and idem, “Historical values of the Earth's clock error”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xxxvi (2005), 339.

Stephenson , op. cit. (ref. 1).

Newton R. R. , Ancient astronomical observations and the accelerations of the Earth and Moon (Baltimore, 1970).

Barnard N. , “Astronomical data from ancient Chinese records: The requirements of historical research methodology”, East Asian history, vi (1993), 47–74.

A discussion of these records was published by Stephenson F. R. Yau K. K. C. , “Astronomical records in the Ch'un-ch'iu chronicle”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xxiii (1992), 31–51.

Stephenson , op. cit. (ref. 1).

Keightley D. N. , “The Bamboo annals and Shang-Chou chronology”, Harvard journal of Asiatic studies, xxxviii (1978), 423–38; Nivison D. S. , Chu shu chu nien, in Loewe M. (ed.), Early Chinese texts: A bibliographical guide (Berkeley, 1993), 39–47; and Shaughnessy E. L. , “On the authenticity of the Bamboo annals“, Harvard journal of Asiatic studies, xlvii (1986), 1986–80.

Legge J. , The Chinese classics, iii (London, 1865).

Wilkinson E. , Chinese history: A manual (Cambridge, MA, 2000).

Keightley , op. cit. (ref. 11).

Barnard , op. cit. (ref. 8).

Nivison , op. cit. (ref. 11);.

Shaughnessy , op. cit. (ref. 11).

Keenan D. J. , “Astro-historiographic chronologies of early China are unfounded”, East Asian history, xxiii (2002), 61–68.

Observatory Beijing , Zhongguo gudai tianxiang jilu zongji (A union table of ancient Chinese records of celestial phenomena) (Kiangxu, 1988).

See, for example, Pang K. D. Yau K. K. C. Hung-Hsiang Chou Wolff R. , “Computer analysis of some ancient Chinese sunrise eclipse records to determine the Earth's past rotation rate”, Vistas in astronomy, xxxi (1988), 833–47.

Ciyuan Liu Jianke Li Xiaolu Zhou , “Study on ‘double dawn’”, Science in China, xlii (1999), 1224–32.

See, for example, Shaughnessy E. L. , “Calendar and chronology”, in Loewe M. Shaughnessy E. L. , The Cambridge history of ancient China: From the origins of civilisation to 211 B.C. (Cambridge, 1999).

Shaughnessy , op. cit. (ref. 22).

Nivison , op. cit. (ref. 11).

Barnard , op. cit. (ref. 10).

Chaoyang Liu , “Examination of solar and lunar eclipses during the last years of Yin and the early years of Zhou”, Proceedings of Chinese culture, iv (1944), 85–119.

Pang Yau Chou Wolff , op. cit. (ref. 20); Pang K. D. Yau K. K. C. Hung-Hsiang Chou , “The Earth's palaeorotation, postglacial rebound and lower mantle viscosity from analysis of ancient Chinese eclipse records”, Pure and applied geophysics , cxlv (1995), 459–85; and Pang K. D. Yau K. K. C. , and Hung-Hsiang Chou , “Astronomical dating and statistical analysis of ancient eclipse data”, in Ansari S. M. R. (ed.), History of Oriental astronomy (Dordrecht, 2002), 95–119.

Liu Li Zhou , op. cit. (ref. 21); Ciyuan Liu , “Astronomy in the Xia-Shang-Zhou chronology project”, Journal of astronomical history and heritage , v (2002), 1–8; and Ciyuan Liu Xueshun Liu Liping Ma , “Examination of early Chinese records of solar eclipses”, Journal of astronomical history and heritage, vi (2003), 2003–63.

Pang Yau Chou Wolff , op. cit. (ref. 20).

Liu Li Zhou , op. cit. (ref. 21).

Pang Yau Chou Wolff , op. cit. (ref. 20).

Pang Yau Chou Wolff , op. cit. (ref. 20); Pang Yau Chou , op. cit. (ref. 27); and Pang Yau Hung-Hsiang , op. cit. (ref. 27)).

Liu Li Zhou , op. cit. (ref. 21); Liu , op. cit. (ref. 28); and Liu Liu Ma , op. cit. (ref. 28).

Stephenson F. R. , “A re-investigation of the ‘double dawn’ event recorded in the Bamboo annals”, Quarterly journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, xxxiii (1992), 91–98; and Keenan , op. cit. (ref. 18).

Stephenson , op. cit. (ref. 1).

Pang Yau Chou Wolff , op. cit. (ref. 20).

Pang Yau Chou , opera cit. (ref. 27).

Liu Li Zhou , op. cit. (ref. 22).

Levy D. H. , “Star trails”, Sky and telescope, June 1992, 694–5.

Pang Yau Chou , opera cit. (ref. 27); and Liu Li Zhou , op. cit. (ref. 22).

Stephenson , op. cit. (ref. 34).

Pang Yau Chou , op. cit. (ref. 27, 2002).

Ciyuan Liu Xiaolu Zhou , “The sky brightness when the Sun is rising in eclipse”, Chinese astronomy and astrophysics, xxiii (1999), 249–57.

Liu Li Zhou , op. cit. (ref. 21).

See, for example, Stephenson Morrison , op. cit. (ref. 4); and Stephenson, op. cit. (ref. 1).

Pang Yau Chou , opera cit. (ref. 27).

Liu Li Zhou , op. cit. (ref. 21); Liu, op. cit. (ref. 28); and Liu Liu Ma , op. cit. (ref. 28).

Stephenson F. R. , “Babylonian timings of eclipse contacts and the study of Earth's past rotation”, Journal of astronomical history and heritage, ix (2006), 145–50.

Pang Yau Chou Wolff , op. cit. (ref. 20).

Liu Li Zhou , op. cit. (ref. 21); Liu , op. cit. (ref. 22); and Liu Liu Ma , op. cit. (ref. 28).

Yau K. K. C. Stephenson F. R. Willis D. M. , A catalogue of auroral observations from China, Korea and Japan (193 B.C. — A.D. 1770), Rutherford Appleton Laboratory Technical Report, RAL-TR-95-073 (1995).

Liu Liu Ma , op. cit. (ref. 28).

Zhentao Xu Pankenier D. W. Yaotiao Jiang , East Asian archaeoastronomy (Amsterdam, 2000).

Zhentao Xu Yau Kevin K. C. Stephenson F. R. , “Astronomical records on the Shang dynasty oracle bones”, Archaeoastronomy (supplement to Journal for the history of astronomy), no. 14 (1989), S61–72.

Xu Yau Stephenson , op. cit. (ref. 54); Zhentao Xu Stephenson F. R. Yaotiao Jiang , “Astronomy on oracle bone inscriptions”, Quarterly journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, xxxvi (1995), 397–406.

Xu Pankenier Jiang , op. cit. (ref. 53).

Shaughnessy , op. cit. (ref. 22); and Nivison D. S. , “The dates of Western Chou”, Harvard journal of Asiatic studies, xliii (1983), 482–580.

Chaoyang Liu , “The solar prominence record in the oracle inscription”, Cosmos, xv (1945), 15–17.

Pang Yau Chou , opera cit. (ref. 27).

Xu Yau Stephenson , op. cit. (ref. 54); and Xu Stephenson Jiang , op. cit. (ref. 55).

Pang Yau Chou , opera cit. (ref. 27).

Xu Yau Stephenson , op. cit. (ref. 54).

Pang Yau Chou , opera cit. (ref. 27).

Liu Liu Ma , op. cit. (ref. 28).

Xueqin Li , Theses on Xia-Shang-Zhou chronology (Shenyang, 1999).

Yiping Yan , “The meaning of Shiri”, in Yiping Yan (ed.), Research of characters on oracle bones (Taipei, 1989).

Xu Yau Stephenson , op. cit. (ref. 54).

Shaughnessy , op. cit. (ref. 12). See also Keightley D. N. , “The Shang: China's first historical dynasty”, in Loewe M. Shaughnessy E. L. (eds), The Cambridge history of ancient China: From the origins of civilisation to 211 B.C. (Cambridge, 1999).

Stephenson , op. cit. (ref. 1).

Xu Pankenier Jiang , op. cit. (ref. 46).

Stephenson , op. cit. (ref. 1).

Pang Yau Chou , opera cit. (ref. 27).

Stephenson , op. cit. (ref. 1).

Pang Yau Chou , op. cit. (ref. 27, 1995).

Pang Yau Chou , op. cit. (ref. 27, 1995).

Pang Yau Chou , opera cit. (ref. 27).

Keightley D. N. , Sources of Shang history: The oracle-bone inscriptions of Bronze Age China (Berkeley, 1978); and Keightley D. N. , “Shang China is coming of age”, Journal of Asian studies, xli (1982), 1982–57.

Pang Yau Chou , opera cit. (ref. 27).

Keightley , op. cit. (ref. 68).

Liu Liu Ma , op. cit. (ref. 28).

Pang Yau Chou , opera cit. (ref. 27).

Millard A. R. , The eponyms of the Assyrian empire (Helsinki, 1992).

Translated by Millard , op. cit. (ref. 82).

Toomer G. J. , Ptolemy's Almagest: A translation and annotation (London, 1984).

Parker R. A. Dubberstein W. H. Babylonian chronology: 626 B.C. — A.D. 75 (Providence, 1956).

Fotheringham J. K. , “A solution of ancient eclipses of the Sun”, Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, lxxxi (1920), 104–26.

See, for example, Munk W. H. MacDonald G. J. F. , The rotation of the Earth (Cambridge, 1960).

Sawyer J. F. A. Stephenson F. R. , “Literary and astronomical evidence for a total eclipse of the Sun observed in ancient Ugarit on 3 May 1375 B.C.”, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, xxxiii (1970), 467–89.

de Jong T. van Soldt W. H. , “The earliest known solar eclipse redated”, Nature, cccxxxviii (1989), 238–40.

Walker C. B. F. , “Eclipse seen at ancient Ugarit”, Nature, cccxxxviii (1989), 204–5.

Pardee D. Swerdlow N. , “Not the earliest solar eclipse”, Nature, ccclxiii (1993), 406.

Walker , op. cit. (ref. 90).

Steele J. M. , “The use and abuse of astronomy in establishing absolute chronologies”, La physique au Canada, lix (2003), 243–8.