The ancients in China not only recorded the phenomena of solar eclipse and lunar eclipse at the earliest, but also predicted the lunar eclipse as early as 1500 years ago. Dunhuang document "Eleven-year Calendar to Twelve-year Calendar of the Northern Wei Dynasty Taiping Zhenjun" is the earliest known data for predicting solar eclipse in China, and its calculation is quite accurate. * * * mentioned two eclipses of Taiping Zhenjun in the twelfth year, which were April 2, 45 1 year and September 27, 45 1 year respectively. According to the research and calculation of relevant scientists, these two eclipses in ancient China were solar eclipse forecasts rather than solar eclipse records. Because there is no such early solar eclipse forecast in the unearthed calendar days, it is inferred that the two solar eclipses forecast of Taiping Zhenjun on the twelfth calendar day should be the earliest known solar eclipse forecast data in China.
China has a fine tradition of recording astronomical observation results in detail in past dynasties. From Han Dynasty to Yuan Dynasty, 596 eclipses were recorded, including 2000 eclipses in ancient times and 400 total eclipses in the moon. The earliest record of solar eclipse abroad was in the ruins of buildings in Babylon, Cuba, and the earliest record of six solar eclipses was in 9 1 1 year BC. However, the earliest record of solar eclipse in China was recorded in Oracle Bone Inscriptions of Yin Ruins. "If you are kind, you will have food at night. What if it is good? " ? Hey, you have food every day. What if you don't? "That was in BC 1200. In Spring and Autumn Annals, there were 37 eclipses in 242 years, of which 33 times were proved to be reliable! The solar eclipse records in China are particularly detailed, including the initial loss, the largest solar eclipse and the last contact. Astronomers in ancient times also calculated the cycle of solar eclipse skillfully. The cycle of solar eclipse is 777 intersecting months (solar calendar months) and 7 16 lunar months. This is exactly twice the so-called newcomb period of 388.5 months. Astronomers in China predicted the solar eclipse with amazing accuracy. When predicting the solar eclipse every day, they teach people to put a basin of water in order to observe the whole process of the solar eclipse in the reflection in the basin. Western scientists have carefully studied solar eclipses and other astronomical phenomena observed by astronomers in China, and established a new discipline-historical astronomy.
Ancient astronomers also observed solar eclipses carefully and recorded them in detail. The earliest record of the eclipse was a poem in the Book of Songs: "Eating every other month is normal." It means eclipse of the moon, which is a normal astronomical phenomenon. This poem refers to an eclipse in August 776 BC, which is the earliest record of an eclipse in the world. The record of solar eclipse in ancient Egypt was in February 72 BC1year. Ancient astronomers in China also discussed the laws and causes of lunar eclipses. The book of changes, an ancient philosophical work, said that "when the moon is full, it will be eaten", which means that lunar eclipses often occur around the 15th lunar month. Zhang Heng (78 ~ 139), a great scientist in the Eastern Han Dynasty, explained the eclipse more clearly, saying that the moon shines because of the sun and the eclipse is because the earth blocks the sunlight.
Eclipses always occur in sight (full moon), but not every time, which is the same as not every new moon has an eclipse.
A solar eclipse is called a lunar eclipse. From the principle of solar eclipse, we can see that the appearance of solar eclipse is closely related to the rendezvous of the sun, the earth and the moon, and it is periodic, so the solar eclipse should naturally be periodic. The cycle of copulation was discovered by the Babylonians in Cuba, and it is called "Sharo cycle", which is 18 years, 1 1 day. That is 6585.32 days.
There are also abundant records of lunar eclipses in ancient China. There have been records of lunar eclipse on the Oracle bones of Yin Ruins unearthed in Anyang, Henan Province, such as "Gengshen, there is food in the moon" and "Shen Xi, there is food in the moon". It is easy to record an eclipse that occurred in 65438 BC+065438 BC+037 BC+10/October 29th. A more reliable record of solar eclipse can be found in The Book of Songs Xiaoya ... If you eat it every other month, it will be normal; ..... "It happened in September of the sixth year of Zhou Youwang, that is, in August of 2/kloc-0,776 BC, which was half a month earlier than the solar eclipse in China in the same year. Some people think that the earliest record of an eclipse in the world may be an eclipse recorded in Mesopotamia in 2283 BC.
The exploration of solar eclipse has also promoted the development of human understanding.
Zhang Heng (A.D. 78 ~ 139) was an astronomer in the Eastern Han Dynasty in China. He wrote a lot in his life, among which Ling Xian was his masterpiece of contribution to astronomy. In this book, Zhang Heng explained the cause of the eclipse more accurately: "Moonlight is born in the sun, and the soul is born in the sun." . On the same day, the light is full, on the same day, the light is exhausted ... The light is often inappropriate and it is hidden underground. This is called darkness. Among the stars, the stars are very small, and they eat when they meet the moon. "In this passage, Zhang Heng not only correctly realized that the moon produces light by reflecting sunlight, but also pointed out the scientific principle of the phenomenon of eclipse: during the full moon, you should be able to see the full moon, but sometimes you can't, because the sunlight is blocked by the earth. Zhang Heng also measured that the angular diameter of the sun and the moon is about 29 ′ .5, which is not much different from the modern measured value of 31′ .5.