Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/732

718 name of the chung-ki or sign at which the arrives during that. As the tsëĕ is longer than a synodic revolution of the, the cannot arrive twice at a chung-ki during the same ; and as there are only twelve tsëĕ, the  can contain only twelve s having different names. It must happen sometimes that in the course of a the  enters into no new sign; in this case the  is, and is called by the same name as the preceding. For chronological purposes, the, in common with some other s of the east of , employ cycles of sixty, by means of which they reckon their s, s, and s. The s are distributed in the into cycles of sixty, in the same manner as ours are distributed into s, 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 along with that of the  and the, this arrangement affords great facilities in verifying the epochs of  chronology. The order of the s in the cycle is never interrupted by any that may be necessary for adjusting the s or s. The  of the civil year are also distinguished by their place in the cycle of sixty; and as the   are not reckoned, for the reason before stated, namely, that during one of these s the  enters into no new sign, there are only twelve regular  in a, so that the cycle is renewed every five s. Thus the first  of the   being the first of a new cycle, the first  of every sixth , reckoned backwards or forwards from that date, as , , &c., or , , &c., will also commence a new  cycle of sixty. In regard to the s, 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, the ambiguity which arises from following a fluctuating or uncertain is entirely obviated. The present cycle began in the  of our era; the year  is consequently the 13th of the current cycle. The cycle of sixty is formed of two subordinate cycles or series of, one of ten and the other of twelve, which are joined together so as to afford sixty different combinations. The names of the in the cycle of ten, which are called celestial signs, are—

and in the series of 12, denominated terrestrial signs,

The name of the first, or of the first , 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 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, 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 by order of the , who died in , the  of the cycle begin to appear at the year  From this it has been inferred that the  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 given to that year  are Keă-shin, which denote the 41st of the cycle. We must, therefore, suppose the cycle to have begun, or forty s before the reign of. This is the epoch assumed by the authors of L'Art de Vérifier les Dates. The has, however, from time immemorial counted the first  of the first cycle from the eighty-first of, that is to say, from the Since the year the  have adopted the practice of dating the  from the accession of the reigning. An, on succeeding to the , gives a name to the s of his reign. He ordains, for example, that they shall be called Ta-te. In consequence of this edict, the following 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  or his successor to ordain that the s 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 s a new era commences with every reign; and the corresponding to a  date can only be found when we have before us a catalogue of the Nien-hao, with their relation to the s of. The 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 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, 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 Bengal, the civil mouth commences with the day after the 