In October 1995, a Chinese-Japanese academic expedition discovered a Han Shu Dynasty brocade armlet at Niya site in Mingfeng County, Hotan Prefecture, Xinjiang. It was written in eight Han characters: "Five stars come from east." and benefit China." This cultural relic has become a national first-class cultural relic, one of first shipments of cultural relics banned from being exported abroad (border) in China, and is known as one of greatest discoveries of Chinese archeology in 20th century.

So what does phrase "five stars from East benefit China" mean? The "Historical Record of Tianguanshu" states: "Five stars are divided in sky, and if they are collected in east, China will benefit; if they are collected in west, those who use (soldiers) in other countries will benefit. All five stars are assembled from stars and country they are in. The five stars here are Sui Xing (Jupiter), Ying Ho Xing (Mars), Filling Xing (Saturn), Taibai Xing (Venus), and Chen Xing (Mercury). ).

“Five stars from east” is an astronomical phenomenon in ancient China, that is, five stars converge on one side of sun. Of course, five-star fees may appear in East or in West. Han Dynasty astrologers believed that if five stars converged in east, it would benefit China, and if they converged in west, it would benefit foreign countries.

According to astronomers, phenomenon of a five-star cluster here can occur 26 times in about 1000 years, on average once every 38 years. Therefore, we can say that this is a relatively common astronomical phenomenon. However, ancient Chinese astrologers associated these phenomena with rise and fall of dynasties in order to realize theory of "the interaction of heaven and man." When five stars gather in a scoop, all weak become strong; In wells, Chu defeats Han and prospers; when five stars gather in tail, Anshi rises; when five stars gather in Kuyi, Great Song Dynasty begins.

The earliest records in Chinese literature appeared at beginning of Xia Dynasty. The Jue of Filial Piety contains: “In Yu's time, five stars were as numerous as pearls, and they were as bright as a pair of jade. " Two astronomers, Xu Zhengtao of Purple Mountain Observatory of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Jiang Yaoyao of Department of Astronomy at Nanjing University, have discovered through astronomical calculations that this cluster of five stars occurred in February 1953 BC.

However, according to calculations in article "Inspection of Yingho Shou Li Su, Four Star Ju and Five Star Ju in Past Dynasties in China", error rate of Yingho Shou Li Su, Four Star Ju, and Five Star Ju in ancient China is as high as 50%. Because ancient Chinese often changed time of occurrence of corresponding astronomical phenomena in order to prove "interaction between heaven and man." Therefore, it is not recommended to use astronomical phenomena to calculate timing of historical events, which is also a serious problem in "Project of Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties".

The last five-star rally took place in 2002. According to calculations, next five-star rally will occur in 2040.