name of the chung-ki or sign at which the sun arrives during that month. As the tsëĕ is longer than a synodic revolution of the moon, the sun cannot arrive twice at a chung-ki during the same lunation; and as there are only twelve tsëĕ, the year can contain only twelve months having different names. It must happen sometimes that in the course of a lunation the sun enters into no new sign; in this case the month is intercalary, and is called by the same name as the preceding month.
For chronological purposes, the Chinese, in common with some other nations of the east of Asia, employ cycles of sixty, by means of which they reckon their days, moons, and years. The days are distributed in the calendar into cycles of sixty, in the same manner as ours are distributed into weeks, or cycles of seven. Each day of the cycle has a particular name, and as it is a usual practice, in mentioning dates, to give the name of the day along with that of the moon and the year, this arrangement affords great facilities in verifying the epochs of Chinese chronology. The order of the days in the cycle is never interrupted by any intercalation that may be necessary for adjusting the months or years. The moons of the civil year are also distinguished by their place in the cycle of sixty; and as the intercalary moons are not reckoned, for the reason before stated, namely, that during one of these lunations the sun enters into no new sign, there are only twelve regular moons in a year, so that the cycle is renewed every five years. Thus the first moon of the year 1873 being the first of a new cycle, the first moon of every sixth year, reckoned backwards or forwards from that date, as 1868, 1863, &c., or 1877, 1882, &c., will also commence a new lunar cycle of sixty moons. In regard to the years, the arrangement is exactly the same. Each has a distinct number or name which marks its place in the cycle, and as this is generally given in referring to dates, along with the other chronological characters of the year, the ambiguity which arises from following a fluctuating or uncertain epoch is entirely obviated. The present cycle began in the year 1864 of our era; the year 1876 is consequently the 13th of the current cycle.
The cycle of sixty is formed of two subordinate cycles or series of characters, one of ten and the other of twelve, which are joined together so as to afford sixty different combinations. The names of the characters in the cycle of ten, which are called celestial signs, are—
| 1. Keă; 2. Yĭh; 3. Ping; 4. Ting; 5. Woo; |
| 6. Ke; 7. Kăng; 8. Sin; 9. Jin; 10. Kwei; |
and in the series of 12, denominated terrestrial signs,
| 1. Tsze; 2. Chow; 3. Yin; 4. Maou; 5. Shin; 6. Sze; |
| 7. Woo; 8. We; 9. Shin; 10. Yew; 11. Seŭh; 12. Hae. |
The name of the first year, or of the first day, in the sexagenary cycle is formed by combining the first words in each of the above series; the second is formed by combining the second of each series, and so on to the tenth. For the next year the first word of the first series is combined with the eleventh of the second, then the second of the first series with the twelfth of the second, after this the third of the first series with the first of the second, and so on till the sixtieth combination, when the last of the first series concurs with the last of the second. Thus Keă-tsze is the name of the first year, Yĭh-chow that of the second, Keă-seuh that of the eleventh, Yĭh-hae that of the twelfth, Ping-tsze that of the thirteenth, and so on. The order of proceeding is obvious.
In the Chinese history translated into the Tatar dialect by order of the emperor Kang-he, who died in 1721, the characters of the cycle begin to appear at the year 2357 B.C. From this it has been inferred that the Chinese empire was established previous to that epoch; but it is obviously so easy to extend the cycles backwards indefinitely, that the inference can have very little weight. The characters given to that year 2357 B.C. are Keă-shin, which denote the 41st of the cycle. We must, therefore, suppose the cycle to have begun 2397 B.C., or forty years before the reign of Yaou. This is the epoch assumed by the authors of L'Art de Vérifier les Dates. The mathematical tribunal has, however, from time immemorial counted the first year of the first cycle from the eighty-first of Yaou, that is to say, from the year 2277 B.C.
Since the year 163 B.C. the Chinese writers have adopted the practice of dating the year from the accession of the reigning emperor. An emperor, on succeeding to the throne, gives a name to the years of his reign. He ordains, for example, that they shall be called Ta-te. In consequence of this edict, the following year is called the first of Ta-te, and the succeeding years the second, third, fourth, &c., of Ta-te, and so on, till it pleases the same emperor or his successor to ordain that the years shall be called by some other appellation. The periods thus formed are called by the Chinese Nien-hao. According to this method of dating the years a new era commences with every reign; and the year corresponding to a Chinese date can only be found when we have before us a catalogue of the Nien-hao, with their relation to the years of our era.
The Chinese chronology is discussed with ample detail by Freret, in the Memoirs of the Academy of Inscriptions, tom. xviii.; and an abridgment of his memoir is given in L'Art de Vérifier les Dates (tom. ii. p. 284, et seq.; ed. in 4to, 1818), from which the preceding account is principally taken.
Indian Chronology.
The method of dividing and reckoning time followed by
the various nations of India resembles in its general
features that of the Chinese, but is rendered still more
complex by the intermixture of Mahometan with Hindu
customs. Like the Chinese, the Hindus have a solar year,
which is generally followed in the transaction of public
business, especially since the introduction of European
power; and they have also a lunar year, which regulates
their religious festivals, and which they follow in their
domestic arrangements. Their solar year, or rather sidereal
year, is measured by the time in which the sun returns to
the same star, and is consequently longer than our astronomical year, by the whole quantity of the precession of
the equinoxes. It is reckoned by the Hindus at 365 days,
6 hours, 12 minutes, 30 seconds, and consequently exceeds
a Gregorian year by one day in sixty years. The Indian
zodiac is divided into twelve solar and twenty-eight lunar
signs; and the year begins with the sun's arrival at the
first degree of the first sign. The month is the time the sun
takes to pass through one sign; and as each sign contains
the same number of degrees, the months vary somewhat in
length, according as the sun is nearer the apogee or the
perigee. The longest month may contain 31 days, 14 hours,
39 minutes, and the shortest only 29 days, 8 hours, 21
minutes. The civil months, however, depend solely on
the moon; though, with the same perversion of ingenuity
which we have already remarked with regard to the
Chinese, and of which it would be difficult to find an
example except in the east of Asia, they derive their names
from the solar signs of the zodiac. The first civil month
commences with the day after the full moon of that lunation in the course of which the sun enters the first Hindu
sign, and so on with the others. When the sun enters
into no new sign during the course of a lunation, the month
is intercalary, and is called by the name of that which precedes or follows it, which some prefix to distinguish it from
the regular month. In some provinces of India, as in
