Page:Leaves from my Chinese Scrapbook - Balfour, 1887.djvu/170

 CHAPTER XVI.

PORTENTS.

The prevalent belief in China respecting the connection between physical phenomena and political events has been productive of at any rate one good result. It has induced the Chinese to keep rigid and, in a measure, accurate records of all events of a striking nature in both astronomy and meteorology, and these cannot but be of value to historians and scientific men alike. If a comet is said to have appeared on a certain day in a certain portion of the heavens, a simple astronomical calculation will at once guide the student of Chinese history to the discovery of some important date which may give the required clue to many a disputed point in the science of chronology. Similarly the record of geological upheavals, overflowings of the Yellow River or the Yangtzŭ, and such-like disturbances, places a valuable key in the hands of those who study the land of China from a physical or scientific standpoint. It may be left to curious and speculative minds to range through the dim corridors of Chinese history and try to find the corresponding political event of which the physical occurrence was supposed to be the portent. Such a compilation would be more interesting, perhaps, than useful; in any case, the task does not come within our province. Let