SKYFFARTH — ON THE THEORY OF THE MOON's MOTIONS. 493 



1732, vol. ii. p. 140: "Thong-khang venoit de monter sur le 

 throne. Au premier jour de la derniere lune d'Autumne le soleil 

 et la lune dans leur conjunction n'etant pas d'accord" (i.e. they 

 conflicted with each other) "dans Fang; I'Aveucle a frappe le 

 tambour, les Mandarins sont montes a cheval, et le peuple 

 s'accourut," etc. The first day of autumn was the autumnal 

 equinoctial day, as we have seen; for Tchouen-Hio ordei'ed 

 the spring and the year to commence with the vernal equinox, 

 thirty days after the aforesaid planetary configuration. The 

 date of the eclipse under consideration is confirmed by the 

 Chou-king itself, because the latter reports that on that day 

 the sun and the moon stood in "•' Fong," which is, as Gaubil 

 states, the second star south of the bright star in the front of 

 Scorpio, and about the year — 2200 the sun stood, on the day of 

 the autumal equinox, near the first stars of Scorpio. Moreover, 

 the Chinese astronomers themselves, as well as Gaubil, referred 

 that eclipse to the day of the autumnal equinox. It is natural, 

 however, that neither the Chinese, with their imperfect theory of 

 the moon, nor the European astronomers in China, being 'desti- 

 tute of a correct Lunar Table, succeeded in authenticating this 

 very important eclipse, which must have been a total one, because 

 it caused such great excitement in the capital. The Chinese 

 astronomers, from a.d. 620 to 908, who, moreover, were not yet 

 acquainted with the secular acceleration of the moon, nor even 

 with the Anomalia tnedia, came to the conclusion that the eclipse 

 of the Chou-king referred to — 2127, which decision is obviously 

 wrong ; for the year does not agree at all with the Chinese annals, 

 according to which Thong-khang reigned from— 2158 to —2145, 

 or some years earlier. Besides this, on the autumnal equinoctial 

 day of — 2127 the ft lay 13° west of the sun, and hence the obscu- 

 ration was not visible in Pekin. Gaubil insisted upon it, that the 

 same eclipse was that in — 2154, ^^^- 12th, 6h. 57m. a.m. Pekin 

 time; O and 1) in Libra 0° 23' 19", ft, in Virgo 25° 24' 27", i.e. 

 4° 58' 52''' west of the sun, latitude of the moon 26' 10'', obscu- 

 ration in Pekin 51'. Unfortunately, however, this eclipse pre- 

 ceded sunrise in Pekin (114° 7' E. of Paris, 39° 54' N.), and 

 even in Gan-y-hein, where the sun rose 20 minutes earlier ; for 

 Gaubil states that the Tartarian translation of the Chou-king nar- 

 rates that the same eclipse took place in Gan-y-hein at 8 o'clock ; 



