Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/493

 CHINA (LANGUAGE AND LITEBATUEE) 481 mers in the 17th century, a great revolution took place in the native theories; the result of which was the compilation of the Sin fa swan shoo, in 100 books, about the year 1634, by an imperial commission consisting of natives and Europeans. It is divided into 11 parts, treating respectively of the elements of the system, standard numbers, calculations, instru- ments, general operations, sun's course, fixed stars, moon's path, nodes and conjunctions of sun and moon, five planets, and nodes and con- junctions of the five planets. The Ptolemaic theory is still adhered to, but Tycho Brahe's discovery of the variation in the obliquity of the ecliptic is stated, and his numbers adopted for that and other elements, as also his solar and lunar tables. The European astronomers were received even more favorably on the establish- ment of the present dynasty than they had been during the Ming, and their influence is apparent in the great thesaurus entitled Leuh leih yuen yuen, compiled under the direct superinten- dence of the emperor in the first half of the 18th century. This is composed of three parts ; the first, entitled Lelh seang Ts?aou ching, on astronomy, has several points of divarication from the great work of the Ming. The ob- liquity of the ecliptic is given from native ob- servation as 23 29' 30", being two minutes less than Tycho Brahe's statement. In the correction for the sun's velocity, the new work takes account of the minute motion of the peri- helion, and the epoch is changed from 1628 to 1683, but the Ptolemaic theory is still retained. In a supplementary portion, however, the ellip- tic orbits of the planets are suggested, and Kepler's law of equal areas in equal times is stated. The sun's parallax is given as 10 seconds, instead of 3 minutes, the old number. The circulation of Mercury, Venus, and Mars about the sun is also named, but the whole are still made to revolve about the earth as a cen- tre. The second part of the great work, enti- tled Soo le tsing yun, is on pure mathematics, treating of the theory and use of numbers, ge- ometry, and mensuration, with a description of the European system of algebra, and tables of the numbers of trigonometry and logarithms. The third part, entitled Leuh leu ching e, is on music, including a description of the European system, by Thomas Pereyra. The TslJi yuen hae Icing is a work on trigonometry by Le Yay, finished in 1248. This is remarkable as being the earliest book containing the Teen yuen, a native system of algebra, about which a great deal has been written during the present dy- nasty. Although nearly all the dynastic his- tories have a portion specially allotted to divi- nation, there are few separate works on the subject extant earlier than the Tang dynasty. From that time on there has been no lack of a constant supply, every age having added to the accumulating mass. Under this head are included works on astrology, geomancy, di- vining by the tortoise, by straws, by diagrams, and in a variety of other ways. The Hee Ice peen fang shoo is the authorized guide to as- trology, published under imperial patronage in 1741. The astrological portion of the almanac is composed according to the principles laid down in this treatise. Cyclopaedias as a class embrace a variety of bulky works, combining to some extent the characteristics of our cyclo- pedia and concordance. So early as the 2d or 3d century we find it was the custom to make digests of the national literature for the emperor's inspection, and thus originated the class under consideration. Methodically ar- ranged according to subjects, under each head- ing extracts from former works on the topic are given. Some of the more important of these thesauri were compiled by imperial com- mission during the Sung dynasty, as'the Sze luy foo, in 30 books, composed in anomalous verse with a running commentary by the au- thor, Woo Shuh ; the T"*ae ping yu Ian, in 1,000 books; and the Ts^hfoo yuen Tcwei, also in 1,000 books. The Yuh hae, in 200 books, was also published under imperial patronage in the 12th century. Even these voluminous collections, however, are but pigmies compared with the work that was carried through by the second emperor of the Ming dynasty. With a printed library of 300,000 books, and more than double that number in manuscript, he conceived the idea of resolving the whole into a monster cyclopaedia. A commission was appointed to dissect the whole of the existing volumes, classical, historical, philosophical, and literary, embracing astronomy, geography, the occult sciences, medicine, Buddhism, Taouism, and the arts. Three presidents of commission were appointed, under whom were 5 chief di- rectors and 20 sub-directors, besides 2,169 sub- ordinates. The work was completed about the end of 1407, numbering in all 22,877 books, besides 60 books of contents, and was entitled Yung 16 ta teen. A copy was made from the original draught, but the government was de- terred from printing by the great outlay that would be necessary. Two other copies were made in the 16th century, but during the trou- bles that ensued at the close of the Ming, or previously, the original draught and two of the copies were consumed by fire. On the restoration of peace only one of the copies was to be found, and that was deficient 2,422 books. By this manuscript collection 385 ancient and rare works have been preserved, which other- wise would have been irrecoverably lost. Many of these have been since reprinted. Under the term "Minor Authors" are included a host of works, chiefly miscellaneous narrations, records of marvels, traditions, and anecdotes. A good specimen of the class is the Yew-yang tsd tsoo, in 20 books, written in the 8th cen- tury. It treats largely of the strange and the supernatural, but it is useful in the investiga- tion of many archaeological questions. The Chiie kang luh, in 30 books, was written at the close of the Yuen dynasty, and contains a number of notices regarding the downfall