China is among the earliest countries to develop astronomy, and boasts the fastest development. As one of the four advanced natural science subjects in ancient China, astronomy, with the innovative calendars and surprising inventions, played an important role in the world's history of astronomical development.

Like people of other cultures, the ancient Chinese paid close attention to the heavenly bodies and their movements, because the sun, moon, stars and their movements were the most eternal features that the ancient people could observe.

Since the ancient Chinese believed that the perceived movements of the stars were closely related to the destiny of the country and its rulers, for thousands of years they recorded their movements with great attention. From the 16th century BC to the end of the 19th century AD, almost every dynasty appointed officials charged with the sole task of observing and recording the changes in the heavens. Such observations and records have left a rich astronomical legacy.

A long time ago, people noticed that the sun and moon sometimes suddenly lost their brightness. People could not figure out the reason and feared that, once gone, the brightness would not return and would mean the end of the world. Precisely because of this, the ancient Chinese began to observe solar and lunar eclipses, recording the time and size of the coverage, and searching for the reasons for eclipses. The earliest solar eclipse record that can be verified appears in a bone inscription dating back to the Shang Dynasty (about 1600-1100 BC). Studies have proved that the solar eclipse recorded actually took place on May 26, 1217 BC, thus also proving that it was the first reliable record of an eclipse man ever made. Records of lunar eclipses, however, date back to an even earlier time. Bone and tortoise shell inscriptions recorded five lunar eclipses that took place during the 14th and 13th centuries BC.

While Western astronomers of the Renaissance period were still arguing in 1615 who was the first to discover sunspots, Chinese astronomers had already accumulated numerous records on sunspots. Now it is known that the earliest records of sunspots were made in 28 BC by Chinese astronomers during the reign of Emperor Cheng of the Western Han Dynasty. From then until the late Ming Dynasty in the mid-17th century, Chinese history books recorded more than 100 sunspots. Furthermore, they also took note of other phenomena concerning the sun, such as solar prominences and coronas. The first record of a solar prominence has been found in a tortoise shell inscription, which describes "three suddenly bursting fires eating a chunk of the sun". According to statistics, sunspots occur in a cycle every 11.33 years on average, which is in conformity with ancient Chinese documents and once again testifies to the fact that records of sunspots made by ancient Chinese people are a very valuable astronomical legacy.

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