Directory_and_Chronicle_1845 — Page 759

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ECLIPSES OF THE SUN AND MOON IN 1851.

I. A partial eclipse of the moon, Jan. 17th, invisible at Canton. II. There will be an annular eclipse of the Sun, Jan. 31, central at Hobart town, and invisible at Canton; it commences in long. 36° E., and lat. 32° 57′ S.

III. A partial eclipse of the moon, July 12th, invisible at Canton, but seen in the South Pacific.

IV. There will be a total eclipse of the sun, July 28, invisible at Canton, but seen throughout North America and Europe. It com- mences in long. 137° 48′ W., and lat. 53° 43′ N.

CHRONOLOGICAL CHARACTERS.

Or these the Chinese have several classes: the following are the most ancient and most generally used. They consist of two sets of characters, the one of

which, called † † Shik kin, the ten stems, or F Tien kán, the

• celestial stems,' includes ten characters, viz :—

1 Œ Kiáh, 2 °C Yih, 3

天干

Ẽ

Ping, 4T Ting, 5Wú, 6 Kí.

Kwei.

Shik-`rk chí, 'the twelve branches,' and consist of the following twelve characters :—

Z

7庚

7 Kang, 8 Sin,

9

Jin, 10

The other set, called

chi, terrestial branches,

Yin, 4

1

Mau, 5Shin, 6 ♬ Sz`,

74 wo,

午

8

未 Wi, 9

Shin, 10

亥

1 -f Tez, 2 ✈ Chau, 3

e

Ya, 11 Siuh, 12 Hái.

These characters are applied to years, months, days, and hours, as well as to the points of the compass For chronological purposes they have been combined so as to form a cycle of sixty, as represented on page 3. Kisk, the first of the ten, is joined to fsz', the first of the twelve, and rend kiák-tsz', which denotes the first year, month, &c. of the cycle. In the same manner yik and chau, the second of the two sets are united, and so on through the 'ten stems. Then kiák, the first of the ten, is joined to sink, the 11th of the twelve, and in this manner the conjunction is continued up to sixty, when the tenth of the * stews,' and the twelfth of the 'branches,' come together, and the cycle recom- niences. The 1st year of Hienfung, which coinmences on the 1st of February 1851, is the 48th of the cycle of years, and is called Sin-h ́i; the first moon of that year is the 27th of the cycle of moons, and is called Kang-yin; and the 1st day of the 1st moon is the 35th of the cycle, and is called Wü-tsz.

For hours (and also for the points of the compass) the 'twelve branches' are used singly. The çivil day of twenty-four hours is divided into twelve periods, of two hours, each called skí shin, which are designated by the characters of the twelve brunches, in the following manner :—