Case file · Cosmic event
'The day dawned twice' at Zheng
The Bamboo Annals say that in the first year of King Yi of Zhou 'the day dawned twice at Zheng', often read as an eclipse at sunrise.
899 BCE · 34.51, 109.77 · status: disputed
The account
If the line describes a solar eclipse just after sunrise, it fixes the date at 899 BCE, a key point in the Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project.
The sceptical view
The Bamboo Annals survive in disputed recensions, and other readings of the phrase are possible.