The Date of the Shang Period-a Postscript

In a previous article, The Date of the Shang Period 1), it was asserted that the astronomical evidence provided by certain inscribed oracle bones published by Mr. Dung Dzo-bin of Academia Sinica makes definite an eleventh-century date for the Jou conquest and places King Wu-ding's reign about I2oo B.C. Now Mr. Dung has independently published his own interpretation, in which he continues to support a date earlier by a century 2). A report and discussion of his paper may consequently be of interest. Mr. Dung offers substantially the same account of the seven eclipse records as I did 3). He adds two more eclipse records, which I did not consider, because they mention neither a day nor a month, so that their dates are indeterminate. In dating these eclipses, he employs my Canon of Lunar Eclipses for Anyang and China, -I400 to -IOOO 4). For the most important eclipse, that mentioned in Eclipse Record IV, Mr. Dung still accepts the eclipse of I3Ii B.C., Nov.