Experts say that an oft-circulated anecdote about two royal astronomers drunkenly failing to foresee an eclipse thousands of years ago contains hints of truth

October 21, 2026 7:45 a.m.

A total solar eclipse, as seen from the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory in Chile in 2019 ESO via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY 4.0

Astronomy used to be a rather dramatic field of work. To many ancient civilizations, astronomical events signaled big changes in the human world. Eclipses in particular were linked to military defeats and the deaths of kings . If astronomers didn’t pay proper attention to the night sky, they could face political punishment.

One such story out of ancient China allegedly traces back to October 22, in the year 2134 B.C.E. (Other versions of the tale offer different timelines.) On this fateful day, two royal astronomers often identified in modern sources as Hsi and Ho are said to have neglected their duties to grab a drink.…