[ 479 3 
The oldeft Eclipfe of the Sun is placed in the firft 
Year of the Reign of Tching-Ckam (d), fuppofed 
to coincide with the Year before Chrift 21 ff: But 
the oldeft Conjun&ion of Jupiter reaches no higher 
than the Year after Chrift 73 ( d ) : And how inaccu- 
rate the Obfervation was, appears from hence, that 
the Chine fe only mark the Day when that Conjunc- 
tion happened. 
But the Queftion naturally arifing here is, How 
it comes to pafs, that the Chineje Accounts afford no 
Example of any planetary Conjunction before this, 
when they produce an Eclipfe of the Sun 2228 Years 
earlier? By what good Fortune came that Eclipfe to 
be preferved, and all Appulfes of the 5 Planets to fixed 
Stars for fo many Years be loft > Let us fuppofe, that 
thefe were Things below the Notice of Chinefe Aftro- 
nomersj or that they did not know what Ufe to 
make of them. But in what manner muft we ac- 
count for this, That we hear nothing of any other 
Eclipfe , till the Year before Chrift 776 ff)? That 
all the Eclipfe s, obferved during fo long an Inter- 
val as 1379 Years, fhould have perifh’d, and this one 
have efcaped, requires a pretty ftrong Faith to be- 
lieve. 
But farther, we are told, that they obferved the 
Winter Solftice in the Year before Chrift mi. 
There is nothing, it is true, impoffible in this > for 
it is not faid how accurate the Obfervation was. The 
Difficulty 
(d) Ibid. p. 18. (e) Ibid. p. 15. 
(f) Not much before the oldeft Babylonian Eclipfe that is pre- 
ferved. See Letter to M. Folkes Eft, p. 21 . 
5 , 
