or nest of cities, one packed within the other—like a Chinese puzzle. The shape of the whole collection is that of a square imposed upon a parallelogram. This square figure, in the north, consists of the Tartar or Inner City, while the adjoining parallelogram in the south contains the Chinese or Outer City. In the centre of the Tartar City is the Forbidden City, surrounded by the Imperial Palaces, which are open to the public on payment of a small fee. At one time they held many valuable treasures, most of which have since been removed by the Government. The main city and all its internal cities are each surrounded with separate battlemented walls of earth, concrete and brick.
Among the noted achievements of the Chinese are their great roads, numerous canals, and immense single-arched bridges; but above all the “Ten Thousand Li Rampart”(萬里長城), or Great Wall, which traverses high mountains, crosses deep valleys, spans broad rivers, and extends to a length of 1,500 miles.
In modern times there is a tendency among the Government Officials and the wealthy classes to conform more or less to the styles of western architecture, and factories have now been built which are turning out firebricks, stoneware piping, glazed tiles, flint line tiles, roofing tiles, drain-pipes, foundation bricks, and ordinary building bricks.
Astrology
(星命)
There is an intimate connection between geomancy, horoscopy, astronomy, and astrology, and it is difficult to determine precisely where the one begins and the other ends.
Climatic changes (風水), are said to be produced by the moral conduct of the people through the agency of the sun, moon, and stars.
The YIN and YANG (q. v.), and the FIVE ELEMENTS (q. v.), together with the EIGHT DIAGRAMS (q. v.), enter largely into Chinese astrological calculations.
The planets are classed as: shâoyïn (少陰), or Lesser Negative Influence; the fixed stars as shâoyáng (少陽), or Lesser Positive Influence; the sun, tàiyáng (太陽), Major Positive Influence; and the moon, tàiyïn (太陰), Major Negative Influence; their potency varying according to their positions in the zodiac (
In the computation of a fortunate time to undertake any given enterprise, a favourable combination of the eight horoscopic characters is arrived at. These eight characters are the four pairs of characters representing the year, month, day, and hour. The characters denoting the year are those of the Twelve Branches and Celestial Stems in the Chinese cycle (vide CYCLE OF SIXTY). Those denoting the month are the combinations of Branches and Stems assigned to that month (vide Table of Months under MOON), being the epoch in the annual cycle. Those denoting the day are the combinations of Branches and Stems assigned in the lunar calendar to that day, being the epoch in the lunar monthly cycle. Those denoting the hour are the combinations of Branches and Stems representing that hour (vide TWELVE TERRESTRIAL BRANCHES and TEN CELESTIAL STEMS), being the epoch in the daily solar cycle. By considering the mutual affinities of these eight characters as referred to the Yin and Yang, Five Elements, etc., the good or bad auspices of any undertaking may be determined. The same system applies to birth, death, and marriage, and in fortune-telling. The eighty cyclical characters (八字), pertaining to the time of birth, are communicated between betrothed persons and occasionally between bosom friends or sworn brothers. Chinese calendars are often made up in the style of Old Moore’s Almanac, with full directions as to omens and portents, and what undertakings can best be carried out on each particular day, all worked out by the rules of astrology.
The appearances of comets, and eclipses of the sun and moon, are believed to have a malign influence over the affairs of men.“In an astrological sense Mars symbolises fire, and rules the summer season. It is the author of punishments, and is the producer of sudden confusion. Saturn represents earth, and, when it meets Jupiter in the same ‘house,’ it portends good fortune to the empire. If, however, Saturn, with the four other planets, should appear white and round, mourning and drought are in store for the country; if red, disturbances are to be expected, and troops will take the field; if green, floods are to be looked for; if black, sickness and death will spread over the land; and if yellow, a time for prosperity is at hand. Venus represents gold, and is deemed a complacent planet, but, while in many of its phases it foretells peace and plenty, it at other times presages the movements of troops, and the disruption of the empire. If it at first looms large, and afterwards small, the national forces will be weak, and if contrarywise, they will be strong. If it appears large and extended, trouble will fall upon princes and nobles, and military expeditions, then undertaken, will begin fortunately and end with disaster; but, if it should appear compact and small, campaigns which begin in misfortune will end successfully. Mercury symbolises water, and, when seemingly of a white colour, it forecasts drought; when yellow, the crops will be scorched up; when red, soldiers will arise; and when black, floods are at hand. If it appears large and white in the East, troops beyond the frontier will disperse; if red, the Middle Kingdom will be victorious; in certain conjunctions with Venus, it portends great battles in which strangers will be victorious; and if it approaches Venus, several tens of thousands of men will meet in strife, and the men and ministers of the ruler will die.”14 (Vide also ASTRONOMY, FENG SHUI, MOON, STARS, SUN).
Astronomy
(天文)
Astronomy has from time immemorial been a favourite study with the Chinese, and the literature on the subject is extensive. Their knowledge of this science is considerable though not profound.“It has enabled them to calculate eclipses and to recognise the precession of the equinoxes, but it has left them with confused notions on subjects which are matters of common knowledge among western peoples. The earth, according to their notions, is flat, immovable, and square, measuring about 1,500 miles each way. The sun, the diameter of which is 333 miles, stands at a distance of 4,000 miles above it, but considerably below the sideral heaven, the distance of which from the earth has been found, by ‘the method of right-angled triangles, to be 81,394 li (3 li = 1 mile), 30 paces, 5 feet, 3 inches, and six-tenths of an inch! The months and seasons are determined by the revolution of Ursa Major. The tail of the constellation pointing to the east at nightfall announces the arrival of spring, pointing to the south the arrival of summer, pointing to the west the arrival of autumn, and pointing to the north the arrival of winter.”15
The Imperial Board of Astronomy (欽天監), was founded in the 13th century and joined to the Ministry of Public Instruction in 1913. Its chief function was the preparation, printing, and distribution of the calendar, which was a government monopoly. The Jesuit missionaries have done much in the development of the science of astronomy and regulation of the lunar calendar in China. The old Peking Observatory (觀星台) contains a number of bronze astronomical instruments, many of which date from the 13th century; some of these were removed by the Germans after the Boxer outbreak of 1900, and returned in 1921. (Vide also ASTROLOGY, MOON, SUN).
Axe
(斧)
Sanskrit, Parasu. The character
