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Clue from people 1561 BC Chinese (Bamboo Annals, current text) 📍 Xia lands, near Erlitou (where the story is set)

'Three suns rose together' in King Jie's 29th year: 1561 BC by the current text's own year count

Current text, Jie year 29: 商師取顧○三日竝出○費伯昌出奔商 (Shang took Gu; three suns rose together; Fei Chang fled to Shang). The text names each king's first year in the 60-year cycle: Jie 1 = renchen, Tang's year 18 (first as king) = guihai = 1558 BC, the text's date for the Shang founding. So Jie 1 = 1589 BC, year 10 = 1580 BC, year 29 = 1561 BC. Wang Guowei found the line in no older copy of the Annals: it matches the Han omen books ('when the Black Emperor fell, three suns shone together'; 'in Xia times two suns rose together') and the Bowuzhi story of Fei Chang seeing two suns before he went over to Shang, which is why it sits beside Fei Chang's flight.

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