![Chinese text from an astronomical treatise contained in the Houhanshu …[Credits : F. Richard Stephenson]](http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/20/99020-004-98B4D34B.jpg)
Chinese text from an astronomical treatise contained in the Houhanshu (“History of the Later Han Dynasty”), in which two solar eclipses, in ad 118 and 120, are recorded. The second account, of the eclipse of Jan. 18, ad 120, notes (in the large characters) that the eclipse “was almost complete. On the Earth it became like evening.” The account adds that the empress dowager was upset by it, and two years and three months later she died.
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