The First, Wan-Nien-Shu, The Calendar Of Ten Thousand
Years, Is An Abridgment Of The Calendar, Comprising 397 Years, Viz.
From
1624 to 2020.
The second and more complete Calendar is the Annual
Calendar, which, under the preceding dynasties, was named Li-je, Order
of Days, and is now called Shih-hsien-shu, Book of Constant Conformity
(with the Heavens). This name was given by the Emperor Shun-chih, in
the first year of his reign (1644), on being presented by Father John
Schall (Tang Jo-wang) with a new Calendar, calculated on the principles
of European science. This Annual Calendar gives the following
indications: (1 deg.) The cyclical signs of the current year, of the months,
and of all the days; (2 deg.) the long and short months, as well as the
intercalary month, as the case maybe; (3 deg.) the designation of each day
by the 5 elements, the 28 constellations, and the 12 happy presages;
(4 deg.) the day and hour of the new moon, of the full moon, and of the two
dichotomies, Shang-hsien and Hsia-hsien; (5 deg.) the day and hour for the
positions of the sun in the 24 zodiacal signs, calculated for the
various capitals of China as well as for Manchuria, Mongolia, and the
tributary Kingdoms; (6 deg.) the hour of sunrise and sunset and the length of
day and night for the principal days of the month in the several capitals;
(7 deg.) various superstitious indications purporting to point out what days
and hours are auspicious or not for such or such affairs in different
places. Those superstitious indications are stated to have been introduced
into the Calendar under the Yuean dynasty." (P. Hoang, Chinese
Calendar, pp. 2-3.) - H. C.]
We may note that in Polo's time one of the principal officers of the
Mathematical Board was Gaisue, a native of Folin or the Byzantine
Empire, who was also in charge of the medical department of the Court.
Regarding the Observatory, see note at p. 378, supra.
And I am indebted yet again to the generous zeal of Mr. Wylie of Shanghai,
for the principal notes and extracts which will, I trust, satisfy others
as well as myself that the instruments in the garden of the Observatory
belong to the period of Marco Polo's residence in China.[1]
The objections to the alleged age of these instruments were entirely based
on an inspection of photographs. The opinion was given very strongly that
no instrument of the kind, so perfect in theory and in execution, could
have been even imagined in those days, and that nothing of such scientific
quality could have been made except by the Jesuits. In fact it was
asserted or implied that these instruments must have been made about the
year 1700, and were therefore not earlier in age than those which stand on
the terraced roof of the Observatory, and are well known to most of us
from the representation in Duhalde and in many popular works.
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