The Battle of Muye and The Problems of its Dating

The article presents a review of research on the dating of the battle of Muye, which became the boundary between the eras of Shang and Zhou dynasties, the most important benchmark in the chronology of the early stages of Chinese history. Over 40 dating options ranging from 1130 to 1018 BC were proposed in total. Starting from the second half of the 20th century the studies of this problem have increasingly applied the interdisciplinary approach, combining criticism of the written sources involving archaeological and epigraphic materials, with paleoastronomic calculations. This method is implemented in the works of D. Pankenier, offering the year 1046 BC as the most probable dating of the battle. The same conclusion was drawn by the authors of the project "Periodization of eras of Xia, Shang, and Zhou". At the moment, the dating of the battle of Muye back to 1046 BC seems quite fully justified.

Keywords: Ancient China, Shang, Zhou, the battle of Muye, historical chronology, interdisciplinary dating methods, paleoastronomy.