Show ECLIPSES OF EARLY DATE astronomers hold Differ log opinions opinion as a to when they were officially observed in china Riya rama and have bay published in the proceedings of the boklo society 1 the lie results of their attempts to ix fix the dates of 0 some gome early eclipses recorded in chinese literature the earliest li mentioned in one of the books or of the shu shii ching chang where it Is recorded that in the reign of 0 chung lvang kang the fourth emperor ot of the lesla dynasty there occurred an eclipse of 0 the sun un which had not been predicted by the astronomers who were alleged to have been drunk and to have neglected their dulles hence he be customary cu rites for delivering the sun un which should have been arranged by the he no tron omers were in n the emergency performed by other officials without proper preparation the emperor ac cordingly oddred the army to punish the astronomers astron omera A later document makes it possible to fix the date of this event as B october 13 2127 BC julian calendar the earliest recorded eclipse in the world calculation shows that there actually was wa a solar golar eclipse on that date but probably not in china though the elements ele menta of the motions of the sun and moon aro are not accurate enough to indicate certainly the path of so BO remote an eclipse the authors are inclined to think that the information fixing the date of the eclipse la is due to chinese astronomers of 0 a later age who calculated that an eclipse occurred on that date and erroneously supposed that it was waa visible in china |