Thus Every
Year, Month, Day, And Hour Will Have Two Appropriate Characters, And The
Four Pairs Belonging To The Time
Of any man's birth constitute what the
Chinese call the "Eight Characters" of his age, to which constant
reference is
Made in some of their systems of fortune-telling, and in the
selection of propitious days for the transaction of business. To this
system the text alludes. A curious account of the principles of
prognostication on such a basis will be found in Doolittle's Social Life
of the Chinese (p. 579 seqq.; on the Calendar, see Schmidt's Preface to
S. Setzen; Pallas, Sammlungen, II. 228 seqq.; Prinsep's Essays,
Useful Tables, 146.)
["Kubilai Khan established in Peking two astronomical boards and two
observatories. One of them was a Chinese Observatory (sze t'ien t'ai),
the other a Mohammedan Observatory (hui hui sze t'ien t'ai), each with
its particular astronomical and chronological systems, its particular
astrology and instruments. The first astronomical and calendar system was
compiled for the Mongols by Ye-liu Ch'u-ts'ai, who was in Chingis Khan's
service, not only as a high counsellor, but also as an astronomer and
astrologer. After having been convinced of the obsoleteness and
incorrectness of the astronomical calculations in the Ta ming li (the
name of the calendar system of the Kin Dynasty), he thought out at the
time he was at Samarcand a new system, valid not only for China, but also
for the countries conquered by the Mongols in Western Asia, and named it
in memory of Chingis Khan's expedition Si ching keng wu yuean li, i.e.,
'Astronomical Calendar beginning with the year Keng wu, compiled during
the war in the west.' Keng-wu was the year 1210 of our era.
Ye-liu Ch'u-ts'ai chose this year, and the moment of the winter solstice,
for the beginning of his period; because, according to his calculations, it
coincided with the beginning of a new astronomical or planetary period. He
took also into consideration, that since the year 1211 Chingis Khan's glory
had spread over the whole world. Ye-liu Ch'u-ts'ai's calendar was not
adopted in China, but the system of it is explained in the Yuen-shi, in
the section on Astronomy and the Calendar.
"In the year 1267, the Mohammedans presented to Kubilai their astronomical
calendar (wan nien li, i.e.), the calendar of ten thousand years. By
taking this denomination in its literal sense, we may conclude that the
Mahommedans brought to China the ancient Persian system, founded on the
period of 10,000 years. The compilers of the Yuen-shi seem not to have
had access to documents relating to this system, for they give no details
about it. Finally by order of Kubilai the astronomers Hui-Heng and Ko
Show-King composed a new calculation under the name of Shou-shi-li
which came into use from the year 1280. It is thoroughly explained in the
Yuen-shi. Notwithstanding the fame this system generally enjoyed, its
blemishes came soon to light.
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