[Mr. Wylie Sent A Most Valuable Paper On The Mongol Astronomical
Instruments At Peking To The Congress Of Orientalists Held At St.
Petersburg, Which Was Reprinted At Shanghai In 1897 In Chinese
Researches.
Some of the astronomical instruments have been removed to
Potsdam by the Germans since the siege of the foreign Legations at Peking
in 1900.
- H. C.]
On these auguries, and on diviners and fortune-tellers, see Semedo, p.
118 seqq.; Kidd, p. 313 (also for preceding references, Mid. Kingdom,
II. 152; Gaubil, 136).
NOTE 2. - + The real cycle of the Mongols, which was also that of the
Chinese, runs: 1. Rat; 2. Ox; 3. Tiger; 4. Hare; 5. Dragon; 6. Serpent; 7.
Horse; 8. Sheep; 9. Ape; 10. Cock; 11. Dog; 12. Swine. But as such a cycle
[12 earthly branches, Ti-chih] is too short to avoid confusion, it is
combined with a co-efficient cycle of ten epithets [celestial Stems,
T'ien-kan] in such wise as to produce a 60-year cycle of compound names
before the same shall recur. These co-efficient epithets are found in four
different forms: (1) From the Elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water,
attaching to each a masculine and feminine attribute so as to make ten
epithets. (2) From the Colours: Blue, Red, Yellow, White, Black, similarly
treated. (3) By terms without meaning in Mongol, directly adopted or
imitated from the Chinese, Ga, Yi, Bing, Ting, etc. (4) By the five
Cardinal Points: East, South, Middle, West, North. Thus 1864 was the first
year of a 60-year cycle: -
1864 = (Masc.) Wood-Rat Year = (Masc.) Blue-Rat Year.
1865 = (Fem.) Wood-Ox Year = (Fem.) Blue-Ox Year.
1866 = (Masc.) Fire-Tiger Year = (Masc.) Red-Tiger Year.
1867 = (Fem.) Fire-Hare Year = (Fem.) Red-Hare Year.
1923 = (Fem.) Water-Swine Year = (Fem.) Black-Swine Year.
And then a new cycle commences just as before.
This Calendar was carried by the Mongols into all their dominions, and it
would appear to have long survived them in Persia. Thus a document issued
in favour of Sir John Chardin by the Shaikh-ul-Islam of Ispahan, bears
the strange date for a Mahomedan luminary of "The year of the Swine." The
Hindus also had a 60-year cycle, but with them each year had an
independent name.
The Mongols borrowed their system from the Chinese, who attribute its
invention to the Emperor Hwang-ti, and its initiation to the 61st year of
his reign, corresponding to B.C. 2637. ["It was Ta-nao, Minister to the
Emperor Hwang-ti, who, by command of his Sovereign, devised the sexagenary
cycle. Hwang-ti began to reign 2697 B.C., and the 61st year of his reign
was taken for the first cyclical sign." P. Hoang, Chinese Calendar; p.
11. - H. C.] The characters representing what we have called the ten
coefficient epithets are called by the Chinese the "Heavenly Stems"; those
equivalent to the twelve animal symbols are the "Earthly Branches," and
they are applied in their combinations not to years only, but to cycles of
months, days, and hours, such hours being equal to two of ours.
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