一切經音義 12.72

12.72

日蝕 Pronounced shí [shí]. Li Chunfeng's Yisi zhan says: "As for solar eclipses following regular celestial motions, it is the moon coming to obscure [the sun]. The sun moves slowly, travelling one degree in one day, and twenty-nine degrees and more in one month. The moon moves swiftly, completing one circuit of the heavens in twenty-seven and a half days. When it catches up with the sun in twenty-nine days, it shares the same path with the sun; the moon is on the inside and obscures the sun, hence an eclipse is seen."