The earliest Chinese historical text that contains systematic records of solar eclipses is the <italic>Spring and Autumn Annals.</italic> In historical periods before the Spring and Autumn period (i.e. the Xia, Shang and Western Zhou Dynasties), solar eclipse records are vague and sporadic. Although numerous scholars have investigated these records in the past two thousand years, it has been rather difficult for them to reach final conclusions. With recent advancements both in astronomical computation and in historic chronology, there has been significant progress in the study of the alleged early Chinese records of solar eclipses. These records include the reference to the solar eclipse of the Three Miao and of Zhongkang in the legends of the Xia dynasty, the expressions such as "three flames ate the Sun", "the Sun and the Moon were eclipsed" and "the Sun was zhi" in the oracle-bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty, and the passages of "the sky became extremely dark", "the day dawned twice" and "the Sun was eclipsed" in the literature of the Zhou Dynasty.