Myths and legends related to the moon, beautiful names and elegant names , couplets, China's ancient fanciful poems about the moon . Urgent!!!

The King Who Wanted to Touch the Moon" Story

A long, long time ago, in the distant Caribbean, there was a kingdom. This kingdom was an island like Taiwan, with lush green forests surrounded by blue waters and a warm climate all year round. The leader of this kingdom is a proud king, his life chores are always served, the people in the country also to him respectfully, do not dare to disobey his request. The king did not lack anything, however, one night, when he stood by the castle window sill to enjoy the cool evening breeze, looking up at the night sky, he was y attracted by the bright moonlight, and suddenly arose the desire to touch the moon.

As soon as the idea grew in his heart, he summoned his minister and issued a message that he wanted to touch the moon, asking him to fulfill his wish. Knowing the king's irritable nature, the minister was so worried that he couldn't sleep, and finally offered a plan early the next morning: to mobilize the whole country to build a tower where the king could climb up and touch the moon. The king accepted this suggestion and immediately asked the whole country to contribute wooden crates from their homes, stacking them one on top of the other like logs. However, when the crates were exhausted and the moon was still far, far away, the king ordered the whole nation to cut down all the wood in the country to build the crates, and those who did not want to obey would be put in jail, because the king said, "In my country, there is no "no". When all the trees in the kingdom had been cut down, the tower reached almost to the sky, and the king gladly began to climb up the tower, floor by floor. However, when the king reached the top of the tower and stretched out his hand to touch the moon, he realized that he was still missing the moon by a little bit, so he shouted to the people on the ground, "Give me another wooden box.

The people replied, "I don't have any more crates". The king, who only wanted to touch the moon, then ordered: "Then pass up the bottom wooden box". The people knew that this was not a good idea and responded, "But...". The king was furious and said: "There is no such word in my kingdom", the people knew that they could not disobey the king's order, and pulled out the bottom wooden box, just at this moment, all the wooden boxes shook and fell all over the place, and the king, who wanted to touch the moon, also fell down from the high place and died.

Taiwan aborigines

The moon in aboriginal oral literature is purely an individual being with a living breath of life; in Amis mythology, the sun and the moon are a couple who often visit the gods and goddesses who were born from the heavens to be the progenitors of mankind.

In another Ami myth, the Moon teaches a brother and sister who survived the Flood how to get close enough to have normal children, because the brother and sister followed the Sun's advice to become a couple and had some strange creatures; the Moon told them, "Because you are brother and sister and should not have gotten married, you have to dig holes in a mat and put it between you, so that you can have a good heir." Later, the sibling couple did produce four children, the ancestors of mankind; another story tells of a girl who was often abused by her stepmother and preferred to ascend to heaven in order to stop the people from seeking justice for her, and five days later, the people did see the girl's figure on the moon.

Many of the myths of the sun shooters see the moon as what the sun becomes when it is shot; for example, a story from the Atayal tribe describes how there were two suns in the sky in the past, and there was no day and night in heaven and earth, so human life was very difficult. The moon, the black shadow is the traces of the arrow wound. The Zou myth is similar but goes further, saying that the red stones seen on the ground are stained by the blood of the sun. The story of some groups has some changes, its content is that in the past, there is only the moon, and the moon does not appear every day, and there is a black shadow on the moon, every night, the earth is dark, grass and trees can not grow, the people also feel very inconvenient, so they sent two young warriors, go to the moon shooting, decades later, one of them hit the moon with an arrow to remove the black shadow, and then the earth will have normal light.

The story of the Pe?an tribe tells of a time when the earth was flooded, and even the sun and moon in the sky sank into the water, and the five surviving siblings floated on the sea, and finally found a land; and since the earth was dark, a man and a woman were sent up to the sky as the new sun and the new moon, to look for the rest of the human race. In the creation myth of the Pe?an, the moon and the sun brought children into the world, the first of which was a human being, followed by monkeys, horses, deer, fish and birds; later, the ancestors of the Pe?an passed down the idea that the cultivation of groundnuts should be based on the changes of the moon, and that one should not plow when the moon is full, but only when the moon is gradually becoming less full, and that if the moon is shaped like a scythe, then one should not plow it either. Another Amis legend mentions that two brothers and their sister, having fulfilled their mother's promise to comfort their father's spirit in heaven, danced in high spirits; as they danced, they gradually plunged into the ground. They say in unison, "We have done all that is necessary; the moon tonight is the elder brother, the sun in the eastern sky tomorrow morning is the younger brother, and the stars shining in the darkness of the sky are the younger sister; we will always be a blessing to mankind, and good-bye, mother." These episodes clearly show that these groups believe that the sun, moon and stars are made by people. The connection between the moon and the aboriginal farming of the year can also be traced in some stories, such as the aforementioned story of the Peinan tribe; as the corn (i.e., millet), which was the staple food of the aboriginal people, was mostly harvested in the fall, the moonlight on the nights of the fall was especially bright, and the harvest ceremonies or songs and dances of various tribes were mostly performed under the bright moonlight. The sharing of new grains and wine allows the members of the tribe to regroup their minds and emotions, so that they can be reconciled and look forward to the same abundance of food and clothing in the year to come. The fullness of the autumn moon therefore symbolizes the ardent hope in the hearts of the tribesmen.

(Source: Aboriginal Moon Myths)

Moon Myths of the Bunun People

In ancient times, there were two suns in the sky that took turns shining down on the earth, so that there was no day and night on the earth, and the scorching heat made life very inconvenient for human beings. A couple was working diligently on the land and placed their sleeping baby on a rock pile under the shade of a tree and covered it with palm leaves. Unexpectedly, the baby was still being exposed to the cruel sun and turned into a lizard to hide in the cracks of the rock pile. The father knew this, very angry, vowed to shoot down the sun to avenge the child.

Before embarking on the journey, the father planted an orange tree in front of the house beforehand, and set off to the rising sun, ready to seal it before the sun rises in the sky, the father of the precise shooting skills really shot the sun in one eye, the sun's light suddenly disappeared into the moon, the moon closed its eyes, reaching out to grab people indiscriminately, due to the palms of the hand is too big, the father from the fingers of the cracks to break free to escape. As one sun was wounded and turned into the moon, the other sun was too afraid to rise up to shine on the earth, so the earth was plunged into darkness, and people could not go out to work, nor could they find food, and life was very difficult. If the clan had to go out, they had to throw stones first, by the sound of the stones falling to the ground to determine whether the road ahead or the abyss, a Qiang went out to forage for food, was hit in the head by the stones thrown by the people, and the blood flowed like a stream of blood, the Qiang couldn't stand the pain, and let out an angry roar, and then a strange thing happened, the sun was hidden by the Qiang's roar, and was scared into the air to shine again, and the people returned to their normal lives. The people resumed their normal lives, but a beautiful scar was left on the forehead of the mountain qiang.

Later, the Moon taught his father the rituals and taboos of various ceremonies, such as: not to eat sweets during the hunting and sowing ceremonies, or else there will be a bad year, or you will not be able to hit the target, etc.; and to hold a child sacrifice when the Moon is full, or else the child will get sick and die. When my father returned to the tribe, he began to teach the people about the rituals, and by the time everyone had learned all the ceremonies, the orange tree had grown into a big tree. That is why several communities of the Bunun use the leaves of the orange tree as sacrificial vessels when performing rituals.

Legend of the Gypsies - Children of the Moon

Once upon a time there was a Gypsy woman who had been married to her husband for many years without having any children. One night she prayed to the moon to give her a child. Soon after she got pregnant, but when the child was born, they realized that the child did not have the dark complexion and dark brown eyes of the gypsies, but had gray eyes and silvery-white skin, and the gypsy man was so angry that he thought his wife had betrayed him, and he wanted to kill the child.

The gypsy woman could not bear it, so she took the little child to the mountains and abandoned him. The moon then took care of the child from then on. Whenever the moon is full, the child is well-behaved, and whenever the moon turns into a crescent, the child cries, and the moon makes a cradle for him and coaxes him to stop crying. (Comparing an albino child to a child of the moon)

Goddess of the Moon

Artemis, the goddess of the moon in ancient Greek mythology. She was the sister of Apollo, the god of the sun, and was very beautiful as well as a great archer, in charge of the hunt, often accompanied by her beloved bow and hounds. Every day she drove through the night sky in a silver carriage, representing the night together - the cold, the loneliness, and the roads of the dead. She is also the patron saint of unmarried young girls - she herself has been unmarried all her life, and there's a sad story in that.

Poseidon, the Sea King, had a son named Orion, who was very fond of archery, a good hunter, and loved to run wild over the sea. The goddess of the moon was very fond of Orion, and they met and fell in love with each other, often hunting in the jungle and running wild on the sea together. Apollo, the goddess' brother, hated Oreon and disliked this relationship between her sister and Oreon, and was determined to get rid of Oreon. One day, when Oreon was running on the sea, Apollo covered Oreon with golden light to hide him, so that no one could see Oreon's true nature, and then went to encourage her sister, the Moon Goddess, who loved archery, to use the golden object in the distance as a target. The Moon Goddess, of course, unaware that this was her brother's plot, shot an arrow that hit Oreon squarely in the head. She later realized that it was her beloved Oreon she had shot, and fell into despair, weeping day and night. In order to treasure her love for Oreon forever, she asked Zeus to raise Oreon to the sky, hoping that she could see it at any time when she was running in the sky in her silver carriage. Zeus accepted her request and turned Oreon into Orion, the constellation in the sky. The goddess vowed that she would never marry, and that she would always be there for Oreon in the night sky.

Artemis, the moon goddess, loved oaks and always carried her wooden oak staff when she hunted. She was also worshipped as the goddess of oak trees. In ancient Greece, people worship the moon goddess, we have to light oak torches, and then into the offering of sweet cakes and light candles, and finally evolved into a way to celebrate the child's birthday - the night in the cake inserted candles, blowing out and make a wish, the goddess of the moon will bless the wish can be realized. To this day, people still celebrate birthdays in this way.

v Chang'e Runs to the Moonv

Legend has it that one year in ancient times, ten suns appeared in the sky, baking the earth to smoke, the sea water dried up, and the people could not see the life to go.

This incident alarmed a hero named Hou Yi, he climbed to the top of the Kunlun Mountain, the power of God, pull open the bow, shot down nine excess sun.

Houyi was honored and loved by the people, and a lot of people came to learn from him. The treacherous and evil-minded Peng Meng also came into the picture.

Soon after, Hou Yi married a beautiful and kind wife named Chang'e. In addition to teaching hunting, Hou Yi was also a good teacher. Hou Yi in addition to the art of hunting, and his wife together all day long, people envy this couple of love.

One day, Hou Yi went to the Kunlun Mountains to visit friends and seek Taoism, and coincidentally met the Queen Mother passing by, they asked the Queen Mother for a packet of immortality medicine. It is said that if you take this medicine, you can instantly ascend to heaven and become immortal.

However, Hou Yi could not leave his wife behind, so he temporarily gave the medicine to Chang'e to treasure. Chang'e hid the medicine in the treasure box of the dresser, but unexpectedly Peng Meng saw it.

Three days later, Hou Yi led his disciples to go out hunting, and Peng Meng pretended to be sick and stayed behind.

Soon after Hou Yi led the crowd to leave, Peng Meng broke into the backyard of the inner mansion with a sword in his hand and forced Chang E to hand over the immortality medicine.

Chang'e knows that she is not Peng Meng's opponent, and when she is in a critical situation, she makes an immediate decision, turns around, opens the treasure box, and takes out the immortality medicine and swallows it.

Chang'e swallowed the medicine, her body immediately floated away from the ground, rushed out of the window, and flew to the sky. As Chang'e was attached to her husband, she flew down to the moon, which is the closest to the earth, and became immortal.

In the evening, Hou Yi returned home, and his maids cried about what happened during the day. Hou Yi was so shocked and angry that he drew his sword to kill the villains, but Peng Meng escaped. The first time I saw him, he was so angry that he was screaming at the top of his lungs. Houyi, who was devastated, looked up at the night sky and called out the name of his beloved wife. At this time he was surprised to find that today's moon is exceptionally bright and bright, and there is a swaying figure like Chang'e.

Hou Yi hurriedly sent people to Chang'e's favorite garden, set up incense, put on her usual favorite honey fresh fruits, remote sacrifice in the moon palace in love with their Chang'e.

After hearing the news that Chang'e had run to the moon and become immortal, the people set up incense under the moon and prayed to the kind Chang'e for good luck and peace. From then on, the custom of worshiping the moon on Mid-Autumn Festival was spread in the folklore.

The story of Chang'e running to the moon glorifies and praises Chang'e with distinctive attitude and splendid color, and comparing with the ancient documents about Chang'e, it is visible that people have done a lot of processing and modification to the story of Chang'e running to the moon, so that the image of Chang'e is the same as the moon, so that it conforms to the pursuit of people's beauty. Contrary to the widely circulated "Chang'e Runs to the Moon" in modern times, "All the Ancient Writings", a collection of "Spirit Constitution", recorded the story of "Chang'e turning into a toad": "Chang'e, Yi's wife also stole the Queen Mother's Immortality Pill and took it to run to the moon. When she was about to go to the moon, she took the medicine and occupied it with Yau Wong. There is yellow occupation: said: 'auspicious, fluttering return sister, alone will be traveling west, meet the sky obscure mang, do not be alarmed and fear, after and great prosperity.' Chang'e then took refuge in the moon and became a toad." After Chang'e turned into a toad, she was punished for pounding immortality pills in the Moon Palace all day long and lived a lonely and miserable life. Li Shangyin once wrote a poem lamenting Chang'e: "Chang'e should regret stealing the elixir, and the blue sea and the blue sky and the night are all in one mind."

v Houyi shoots the sun v

Legend has it that Houyi and Chang'e were both people at the time of Yao. Myths say that at the time of Yao, there were ten suns in the sky at the same time, which scorched the land, withered crops, and made people so hot that they couldn't breathe, and fell to the ground in a coma. Because of the heat, some strange birds and beasts came out from the dry rivers and lakes and the flame-like forests, and they brutalized the people in all parts of the world.

The disasters on earth alarmed the gods in the sky, and Chang Jun, the emperor of heaven, ordered Hou Yi, who was good at sealing arrows, to come down to earth to help Yao get rid of the people's sufferings. Hou Yi came down to earth with a red bow and a bag of white arrows given to him by the emperor, and also brought his beautiful wife Chang'e with him.

Hou Yi immediately began the battle to shoot the sun. He removed the red bow from his shoulder, took out the white arrows, and shot one by one at the arrogant sun, and in a moment nine of the ten suns were shot away, only because Yao thought that leaving one sun would be useful to the people, he stopped Hou Yi from continuing to shoot. This is the famous story of Hou Yi shooting the sun.

But Hou Yi's great achievements were envied by the other heavenly deities, who went to the Emperor of Heaven to slander him, so that the Emperor of Heaven finally alienated Hou Yi, and finally banished him to the earth forever. Houyi and his wife Chang'e, who suffered from the commission, had to live in seclusion on earth, relying on Houyi to hunt for a living.

How did Chang'e run to the moon? In the ancient books there are all kinds of different sayings. According to the record of "Huainanzi", Hou Yi felt sorry for his wife who was banished to the mortal world, and then went to the Queen Mother of the West to ask for the medicine of immortality, so as to let the husband and wife live harmoniously in the world forever. Chang'e, however, was not accustomed to a life of misery, and when Hou Yi was not at home, she stole all the immortality pills and fled to the moon. Another theory is the account of Qu Yuan (about 340椩78) in "Heavenly Questions", which said that Hou Yi was unfaithful to Chang E and had an affair with He Bo's wife, thus causing Chang E to be extremely dissatisfied, so she left Hou Yi and ran away to the sky. After Chang'e ran to the moon, soon regretted, she remembered her husband's usual benefits to her and the warmth of the human world, compared to the loneliness in the moon, doubly bleak.

Regarding Hou Yi's death, both Mencius, a thinker of the Warring States period (about 372椩?89 BC), and Huainanzi, a book compiled by Liu An (179椙?22 BC) in the early Western Han Dynasty, said that he was assassinated by Feng Meng, a disciple of Hou Yi, who had a vengeful attitude towards him. The means of assassination were recorded differently, some said he was killed with a mahogany stick, some said he was shot with a hidden arrow. In short, the world's hero died in the hands of the conspirators.

Some legends also say that Houyi's spirit was not dispersed after his death, and he became Zhong Kui, a god who fights ghosts. This claim is China's famous historian Gu Jiegang (1893-1980) based on the "Huainanzi" and other ancient books to test out. This claim, in fact, reflects the infinite nostalgia of our ancient people for this unfortunate dead hero.

v Zhu Yuanzhang Uprising v

Space The traditional food for the Mid-Autumn Festival is mooncakes, which are round and symbolize reunion, reflecting people's good wishes for family reunion. Eating mooncakes at the Mid-Autumn Festival is said to have begun in the Yuan Dynasty, when Zhu Yuanzhang, who led the Han Chinese people in their revolt against the tyranny of the Yuan Dynasty, agreed to rise up on the 15th day of the 8th month, and to pass on the news by exchanging mooncakes with a note sandwiched between the mooncakes. The custom of eating mooncakes on the Mid-Autumn Festival then spread among the people.

Space later, Zhu Yuanzhang finally overthrew the Yuan Dynasty and became the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and although the Manchus later came to dominate China, the people still celebrated this festival to symbolize the overthrow of foreign rule.

v Wu Gang Loves Laurel v

Legend has it that there is a laurel tree in the moon that is five hundred feet tall. During the Han Dynasty, there was a man named Wu Gang, who was drunk on the Tao of Immortality instead of concentrating on his studies, and was relegated to the moon to cut down the laurel. However, the laurel in the moon was cut down as it merged, and could not be cut down endlessly, so people in later generations were able to see the image of Wu Gang endlessly cutting down the laurel in the moon.

When do lunar eclipses usually occur?

On the fifteenth or sixteenth day of the lunar calendar, the moon orbits in the direction opposite to the sun.

Where do moon cakes come from?

Space mooncakes, also known as hu-cakes, Gong-cakes, Xiao-cakes, moon dumplings, reunion cakes, etc., were the offerings for worshipping the moon god in the Mid-Autumn Festival in ancient times, and along the way, the custom of eating mooncakes in the Mid-Autumn Festival has been formed.

Do you know the poems and songs of the ancients describing the moon? Please recite one.

Chang'e (Li Shangyin)

The candle shadow of the mica screen is deep, and the stars are sinking in the long river. Chang'e should regret stealing the elixir, and the blue sea and the blue sky are in the heart of the night.

Lantern Riddle Wonderful

. "Two rows of distant trees reflecting on the mountains, a light boat with one leaf of water flowing across the river" (playing a word - Hui).

"A white mast with two sails, three cold stars reflecting a lonely boat" (playing a word - sorrow).

Do you know the story of Chang'e running to the moon?

Chang E ran to the moon: Chang E ate up her husband Hou Yi's immortality elixir on the spur of the moment under the threat of Peng Meng, and flew to the Moon Palace to live a lonely and miserable life.

Who gave the name "crater" to the moon?

Galileo.

Overview of the Moon

The Moon is the only natural satellite of the Earth, and is the closest celestial body to us, with an average distance from the Earth of about 384,401 kilometers. Its average diameter is about 3,476 kilometers, which is slightly larger than the Earth's diameter of ? slightly larger than the diameter of the Earth. The surface area of the Moon is 38 million square kilometers, which is not as large as the area of Asia. The Moon's mass is about 735 billion billion tons, equivalent to 1/81 of the Earth's mass, and the gravity on the Moon's surface is almost 1/6 of the Earth's gravity.

The Moon itself does not emit light, but only reflects sunlight. Its brightness varies with the angular distance between the Sun and the Moon and the distance between the Earth and the Moon. When the Moon is full, the average brightness is -12.7, etc.

The Moon itself does not emit light, but reflects sunlight.

The surface of the Moon is a desert of plains, mountains, and valleys. There are also many craters formed by space objects hitting the surface of the Moon at high speeds. There is no air on the Moon for humans to breathe, but there may be water for drinking. Recently, ice was found at the bottom of a deep crater on the dark side of the Moon. Scientists think the ice may have been brought by a comet that collided with the Moon. The comet's ice didn't melt because the moon's dark side has very low temperatures.

Orbital Motion of the Moon

The Moon orbits the Earth in an elliptical orbit. This orbital plane intercepts a large park on the celestial sphere called the "white way". The plane of the White Way does not coincide with the celestial equator, nor is it parallel to the plane of the ecliptic, and its position in space is constantly changing. It has a period of 173 days. The average inclination of the Moon's orbit (the White Way) to the Earth's orbit (the ecliptic) is 5°09′.

The Moon rotates around the Earth at the same time as it revolves, with a period of 27.32166 days, which is exactly one sidereal month, so we can't see the back of the Moon. This phenomenon, which we call "synchronized rotation", is almost universal in the world of satellites. It's thought to be the result of long-term tidal action of the planets on the satellites. The libration is an amazing phenomenon that allows us to see 59% of the Moon's surface. The main reasons for this are as follows: 1. Mismatch between the rotational velocity and the angular velocity of rotation in different parts of the elliptic orbit. 2. 2. the angle of intersection of the White Way and the Equator. The period of the Moon's rotation around the Earth is 29.53059 days for the solstice month; 27.32166 days for the sidereal month.

Topography of the Moon

The Moon's surface has rolling hills and mountains, and a variety of specialized names such as oceans, seas, bays, and lakes. There is actually no water on the lunar surface. Craters are bowl-shaped crater structures. There are more than 33,000 craters larger than 1 kilometer in diameter. Many craters have central peaks or clusters of peaks in the center. The dull black spots on the surface of the moon seen with the naked eye are called lunar seas, which are vast plains. There are 22 lunar seas. The largest is the Storm Ocean, which covers 5 million square kilometers. Because there is no atmosphere on the moon, in addition to the heat capacity and thermal conductivity of the lunar surface material and very low, and thus the temperature difference between day and night on the surface of the moon is very large.

The topography of the Moon's surface consists of craters, lunar seas, lunar lands and mountains, lunar radiation patterns, and lunar valleys (lunar gaps).

There are three hypotheses for the genesis of the Moon: the capture theory, the splitting theory, and the homology theory.

Lunar Eclipse

The principle of lunar eclipse. On the fifteenth and sixteenth days of the lunar calendar, the Moon orbits in the direction opposite to the Sun. At this time, if the centers of the Earth and the Moon are roughly in the same straight line, the Moon enters the Earth's umbra and a total lunar eclipse is produced. If only part of the Moon enters the Earth's umbra, a partial lunar eclipse is produced. When the Moon enters the Earth's penumbra, it is supposed to be a penumbral eclipse, but because it diminishes so little that it is not easy to notice, it is not called a lunar eclipse, so there are only two kinds of lunar eclipses: total and partial.

Lunar eclipses all occur at the waning (full) moon, but not every waning moon has a lunar eclipse, which is the same reason why solar eclipses don't occur at every solstice. In general, the Moon either passes above or below the Earth's umbra, and rarely passes through or partially through the Earth's umbra, so that lunar eclipses do not normally occur. Lunar eclipses occur up to three times a year, sometimes none at all.

The Process of Lunar Eclipse

The process of lunar eclipse is divided into five stages: first loss, eclipse, eclipse of the moon, birth of light, and resumption of the circle.

First Loss: The Moon just touches the Earth's umbra, marking the beginning of the lunar eclipse.

Eclipse: The western edge of the Moon is tangent to the western edge of the Earth's umbra, and the Moon just enters the Earth's umbra.

Eclipsed: The center of the Moon is closest to the center of the Earth's umbra.

Brightness: The eastern edge of the Moon is tangent to the eastern edge of the Earth's umbra, and this is the end of the total eclipse phase.

Completion: The western edge of the Moon is tangent to the eastern edge of the Earth's umbra, which is the end of the total lunar eclipse.

The degree to which the Moon is eclipsed is called the "eclipse fraction", which is equal to the ratio of the farthest distance between the edge of the Moon's wheel into the Earth's umbra and the Moon's apparent longitude at the time of the eclipse.

In ancient times, people did not understand the scientific reasoning behind the occurrence of lunar eclipses, and were as afraid of solar eclipses as they were of lunar eclipses. Some foreign people legend, the early 16th century, Columbus sailed to Jamaica, South America, and the local natives had a conflict. Columbus and his sailors were trapped in a corner, cut off food and water, the situation is very critical. Knowing a bit of astronomy, Columbus knew that a total lunar eclipse was going to happen that night, so he shouted to the natives, "If you don't bring food, you won't get the moonlight!" At night, Columbus' words came true, and there was no moonlight. The natives were terrified, and they quickly changed their differences with Columbus.

The Mesopotamian lunar eclipse of 2283 BC is the world's earliest record of a lunar eclipse, followed by the Chinese lunar eclipse of 1136 BC. The phenomenon of lunar eclipses has always driven the development of human understanding. As early as 1,881 years ago, Zhang Heng, an astronomer of the Han Dynasty in China, figured out the principle of lunar eclipse. In the 4th century BC, Aristotle deduced that the Earth was spherical from the fact that the shadow of the Earth seen during a lunar eclipse was round. The ancient Greek astronomers Aristarchus in the 3rd century B.C. and Hipparchus in the 2nd century B.C. both proposed to determine the relative size of the Sun-Earth-Moon system by means of lunar eclipses. Hipparchus also proposed observing lunar eclipses at two distant locations simultaneously to measure geographic longitude, and in the 2nd century, Ptolemy used ancient eclipse records to study the motion of the Moon, a method that continues to be used today. Before the advent of rockets and artificial Earth satellites, scientists had been exploring the Earth's atmospheric structure by observing lunar eclipses.