Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 June 1884 — Oddities of Chinese Chronology. [ARTICLE]

Oddities of Chinese Chronology.

The ancient belief of Chinese writers was, that there had been before the time of Confucius a period of 2,267,000 and some odd years, when the powers of Heaven and Earth first united to produce man as the possessor of the soil of China. However, from the time of the Emperor Yaou, upward of 2,000 years before Christ, the Chinese had two different years—a civil year, which was regulated by the moon, and an astronomical year, which was solar. The civil year consisted in general of twelve months or lunations, but occasionally a thirteenth was added, in order to preserve its correspondence with the solar year. Even at that early period the solar or astronomical year consisted of 365 J days, like our Julian year, and it was arranged in the same manner, a day being intercalated every fourth year. At the instance of the Jesuit Scholl, the Chinese in the seventeenth century adopted the European method of dividing the day into twenty-four hours, each hour into sixty minutes, each minute into sixty seconds. The civil day begins at midnight and ends at the midnight following. Since the year 163 before Christ the Chinese writers have adopted the practice of dating the year from the accession of the reigning emperor. An emperor on succeeding to the throne gives his name to the years of his reign. He ordains, for example, that they shall be called Ta-te. In consequence of this imperial mandate the following year is called the first Ta-te. and the years suceeding the second, third, and so on to the end of the chapter, until it suits the “Great Pure” or “Great Bright” to ordain that the years 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 years a new era begins with every reign, and the years corresponding to a Chinese date, can only be discovered wheu the inquirer has before liim a catalogue of the'Nien-hao, with their relation to the years of the Christian era. -—lnter Ocean.