Records on Astronomical Phenomena in Đại Việt Sử ký Toàn thư (Complete Annals of Dai Viet)

Abstract

Complete Annals of Dai Viet is an important official historical work to study the socio-political, military, and diplomatic history of Vietnam from the beginning to the seventeenth century in the Le Trung hung period. Besides, Toan thu contains many records related to solar eclipses, lunar eclipses, comets, meteorites, and stars as well as mentions about droughts, floods, earthquakes, famines, and epidemic diseases. These records are of utmost valuable historical sources to study meteorological issues, natural disasters as well as astronomical phenomena that occurred in Vietnamese history. In the scope of this study, the article seeks the records on astronomical phenomena in Toan thu. These records significantly contribute to the approach in researching Vietnamese astronomy in the early modern time, furthermore also indicate the conception of the universe and astrology of the Vietnamese imperial official historians and the interaction relationship between the human and the surrounding universe at that time.