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THE TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE ON JUNE 16, 2011: A KEY TO DATING THE YIN LUNAR ECLIPSE IN YINGCANG 885/886

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2014

Xueshun Liu
Xueshun Liu*
Affiliation:
Xueshun Liu, 劉學順, University of British Columbia; Email: xueshun.liu@ubc.ca.
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Abstract

Based upon current knowledge of the Yin Oracle-Bone Inscriptions, this article argues that potential inscriptional records of the total lunar eclipse on June 16, 2011, which was observable in Beijing, could only be the same as those of the lunar eclipse recorded in Yingcang 885/886 and that lunar eclipse inscriptions on those two rubbings of Yingcang were records of an eclipse like the one on June 16, 2011. Both eclipses began sometime after midnight and ended shortly after sunrise. Between 1400 b.c.e. and 1148 b.c.e., only the lunar eclipse on August 14, 1166 b.c.e. could match the time and ganzhi dates of the eclipse in Yingcang 885/886. In 1998, Chang Yuzhi and I independently put forward this view. In this article, I reach the same conclusion by means of an innovative method.

摘要

根據當前關於殷代甲骨文的知識，本文論述的是，對於2011年6月16日發生的、北京可見的月全食，其可能的甲骨文記錄的格式只能和《英藏》885及886上所刻月食記錄的格式一樣。另外，那兩片《英藏》拓片記錄的月食也是像2011年6月16日發生的那樣的月全食。兩次月食都始於夜間，終於日出後。公元前1400年到公元前1148年之間，只有公元前1166年8月14日的月食滿足《英藏》885和886所記月食的時間和干支日期。本文作者和常玉芝先生在1998年已經分別提出了這個觀點，本文采用不同的方法又得出了相同的結論。

Keywords

lunar eclipseabsolute dateYin Oracle-Bone Inscriptions月食絕對年代殷墟卜辭
Type
Articles
Information
Early China , Volume 37 , 2014 , pp. 15 - 38

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References

1. Bin diviner group inscriptions are part of the Period I inscriptions. For a general introduction to the periodization of the Yin Oracle-Bone inscriptions, see Keightley, David N., Sources of Shang History: The Oracle-Bone Inscriptions of Bronze Age China (ca. 1200–1045 B.C.) (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978), 92–94Google Scholar. In the original periodization, Period I ended with King Wuding 武丁. Now it is generally agreed on among specialists that some Bin diviner group inscriptions are from the reign of King Zugeng 祖庚. See Tianshu, Huang 黃天樹, Huang Tianshu guwenzi lunji 黃天樹古文字論集 (Beijing: Xueyuan, 2006), 16–30Google Scholar.

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40. As cited in note 21, Zhang Bingquan collected thirty-one inscriptions in which the formula ganzhi (xi) + dou + ganzhi appears. The interpretation summarized here makes sense in all those examples.

41. See note 33 above.

42. http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/JLEX/JLEX-AS.html.

43. Software SkyMap Pro 9, released by Chris Marriot in 2006.

44. See Liu Xueshun, “The First Known Chinese Calendar,” 84–87.

45. Chang Yuzhi, Yin-Shang lifa yanjiu, 116–24.

46. Some scholars think that Eclipse V occurred around midnight. For example, in his article “Riyueshi buci de zhengren yu Yin-Shang niandai,” Zhang Peiyu proposes that Eclipse V happened on December 27–28, 1192 b.c.e., starting at 20:54 and ending at 00:47 (see Peiyu, Zhang, Sanqian wubai nian liri tianxiang 三千五百年曆日天象 [Zhengzhou: Daxiang publisher, 1997], 1096Google Scholar). This is difficult to accept for three reasons: first, the time of a lunar eclipse that passed midnight is recorded as the night of a ganzhi date in the language of the Oracle-Bone inscriptions. For instance, in the same article, Zhang Peiyu accepts that Eclipse II took place on July 11–12, 1201 b.c.e., starting at 22:49 and ending at 01:19 (see Zhang Peiyu, Sanqian wubai nian liri tianxiang, 1095). In the inscriptions, its time is recorded as zhixi, “this night,” (i.e. the night of guiwei); its time is not guiwei xi dou jiashen, “the time when guiwei night cleaved to jiashen.” This is because in the Yin Oracle-Bone inscriptions the word xi refers to the entire night. Therefore, when a lunar eclipse occurred before midnight and ended shortly after midnight, its time clearly could be recorded as the night of a ganzhi date; second, rejecting the opinion that Eclipse V occurred around midnight avoids the above-mentioned discrepancy among inscriptional records of lunar eclipses that ended shortly after midnight. In other words, there is no need to use the word dou to record eclipses around midnight; third, midnight is not one attested time division in the inscriptions. There is still no inscriptional evidence to show that this unattested time division ever affected the method of recording a lunar eclipse in the language of the Yin Oracle-Bone inscriptions.

47. See Beijing Shifan Daxue Guoxue Yanjiusuo 北京師范大學國學研究所, Wuwang ke Shang zhinian yanjiu 武王克商之年研究 (Beijing: Beijing shifan daxue, 1997), 686Google Scholar.

48. Keightley, Sources of Shang History, 203.

49. All time specifications were calculated with SkyMap Pro 9.