A query on the year of King Wu's conquest over King Zhou determined by the Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project - Materials finding and astronomical methods for chronological studies of China

摘要

This paper reviews the studies on the event that King Wu of the Western Zhou Dynasty defeated King Zhou of the late Shang Dynasty, an important historical event in Chinese history, and questions on the year in which this event took place determined by researchers of the Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project of China in 2000. This paper also discusses on how to obtain primordial materials and how to use astronomical methods in the chronological studies of Chinese history. With both the new astronomical methods (the Moon Age Calendar Method and the Direct Solving Method) and the calculation based on the confirmed real-time materials, especially scriptures on oracle bones and bronze vessels, this paper obtains a more accurate and reliable result, putting the event at BC 1040 to BC 1030.