An eclipse recorded in an ancient Chinese text is a source of some confusion - when did it occur? June 4, 781 B.C.E. is one possibility. Credit: NASA/Gopalswamy
One of the earliest recorded eclipses is found in in the Shijing, a collection of ancient poetry whose compilation is also credited to Confucius. The eclipse in question occurred during the Zhou dynasty. Though the exact date is uncertain, some astronomers have pointed to the total eclipse of June 4, 781 B.C.E. (though this would have only been a partial eclipse in Zhou territory). Another candidate is the eclipse of Nov. 30, 735 B.C.E., which was annular in the Western Zhou capital of Hao, near modern-day Xi’an.
