ITINERARY MEASURES. The Chinese table of measures for long distances is :— A degree is also divided into 60 fun or minutes, and each fun into 60 miáu or seconds. At Canton, 10 li make one táng-sun 塘汎 or league, also called yat pú lú 部路, at which intervals guard-houses should be placed. Formerly 6 chih made a pu, 2 pú made a chúng, 144 chúng made a lí, and 192 li made a degree; this makes a li equal to 1894.12 feet English, and 2.787 lí to one mile. Estimating the degree at this rate, it is exactly 1728 chih of 13.18 inches, which is now the common rule used in measuring land, and differs very little from that of 13.118 ins. given by the early missionaries as the measure of the Mathematical Board. When the pú was reduced to 5 chih, 2 pú still made a cháng, but the li contained 180 chang instead of 144, or 1800 chih instead of 1728. Estimating 1894.12 feet to a lí, makes the chih worth 12.626 inches, which is nearly the same as that given by Le Comte as the one used by the Board at Peking. When about to survey the empire in 1700, the missionaries agreed upon the chih used by Kanghí in the palace; and Régis informs us that "according to this chih a degree had been found by Parennin to contain 200 lí, each measuring 180 cháng of 10 chih." This chih was worth 12.1 inches, and the li measured 1821.15 feet. The common foot rule at Amoy has this value of 12.1 inches. Afterwards the present rate of 250 lí to a degree was adopted in order to make it one-tenth of a French league, and of a degree, and this scale is found on the charts of D'Anville. The following table shows the value of the chih and lí in a degree, at the three estimates of 192 lí, 020 lí, and 250 lá :— 192 li to a degree 1 li 1 li = 144 chang, or 1894. 12 ft. or of 180 chang=1894.12 ft. 1 chang = 2 pú = 6 chih, 10 tsun, =180 chang or 1 chib = 10.522 ft. 5 chih = 5.261 ft. 10 tsun 13.153 ft. or of 2 pú or 5 chih or 6.576 ft. or of = 12.626 ins. 180 250 2 pú 200 )1 chang= 2 pu li 1 pú = 1 chih = 10 tsun or 12.1 ins. These tables indicate the confusion existing in the country as to the value of the li in reckoning ordinary distances. The valuations of 192 or 200 li to a degree make it longer than the usual rate, but it is impossible to find anything like a standard at any place. If a native is asked the length of a li, he is very likely to answer, "as far as a man's voice can be heard." M. Rondot is of opinion that the ancient li (about 315 to a degree) measured 353 metres, or 1158.2 ft.; and that the modern li (251 to a degree) measures 442 metres, or 1428.2 feet. The first will equal 1728 chih of the Chau dynasty, and the second 1800 chih of the Hia and Sung. Some authors have endeavored to assign an Assyrian or Egyptian origin to the Chinese chih and li, but when the chih in different parts of the country, and in different ages, has varied from about 8 inches to over 16 inches in length, and the li from 1158 feet to 1894 feet, the evidences for such comparisons rest on very imperfect bases. Section 6. CHINESE LAND MEASURE. THE unit of this table is the mau; estimating the chih at 13,126 inches, the values are annexed : 100 mau 畝 make one mau, or Chinese acre; 頃 king; = 26.73 sq. poles Lands are generally reckoned by the king and mau, below which decimals are used. At Canton, the tsing of 100 square pái-tsien chih, (equal to 149.756 sq. feet) is much employed in measuring small parcels of land; 60 of these, or 6000 square chih, make a mau, at which rate 4.847 man equal an English acre. The district magistrate of Nanhai at Canton furnished a measure to the British Consulate in 1848, which gave 4.871 mau to acre. One of these land measures was also compared at Tsienshan near Macao, and found to contain 16.924 sq. yards which makes 4.766 mau equal to an acre. This rate obtains throughout most parts of the prefecture of Kwangchau, and makes the measurements of the mau larger than they are further north. The following estimates have been collected by M. Rondot :-M. Saigey reckoned 6.586 mau to make an acre; Edward Biot, 7.205 to an acre; M. Pauthier, 6.08, and afterwards 6.79 to an acre; and the Chinese Repository, 6.61 to an acre. The measure of the English Consulate at Shanghai is derived from a pú rule sent in by the prefect, which was found to measure 65.9 inches; by this estimate, the mau is almost exactly one-sixth of an English acre. This last measure, it is not unlikely, may gradually become the standard of land measure. At Changchau fú near Amoy, M. Rondot found that the chih used in land measure was 14.036 ins.-a standard that makes 5.31 mau equal to an acre. This estimate corresponds with the still larger area of 4.847 or 4.766 mau to an acre current at Canton, in about the same proportion to the longer chih used at the latter place. The average over the whole country gives from 6 to 6.1 mau to an acre, which makes the chih measure about 13.216 inches, that of the Board of Mathematics. Whether the rate of taxation corresponds to the different areas of the mau at the north and south, has not been ascertained. In the Han dynasty, 6 chik made a pú ; 100 pú made a mau; 100 mau made a fú; and 3 fú made an uh; but their various values, depending as they did, on the length of the chih, are to be estimated by that. Near the capital, the mau is estimated at 240 pú, and an acre contains rather more than 6 mau. The king is not much used, except in books; parts of a mau are represented by decimals. The land tax varies from 100 li up to 2 tsien per mau for cultivated land, but the rate is so small throughout the empire as to be nearly nominal, in comparison to the rates in Europe. An annual tax of 1500 cash per mau is paid at Shanghai and Tientsin to the Chinese government upon lands sold to foreigners. Section 7. CHINESE DIVISIONS OF TIME. THE cycle of sixty years is the foundation of the Chinese chronology, and its application to the years, months, and days has done much to preserve their historical records from confusion. According to the received account, the Celestial Sovereign invented two series of characters, one of 12 branches += shih-rh chí, and the other of 10 stems ++ shih kan. The twelve branches are likewise called tí chi, or terrestial branches, and each one is supposed to be connected with a different animal, which is named upon them as here given; and these same animals again have some mysterious influence upon persons born in the hour over which they rule. The Mongols, Japanese, Siamese, and Annamese apply the same animals to the same sign. The twelve zodiacal signs, which comprise in twelve equal spaces the 28 kung or houses through which the moon travels in her monthly course along the ecliptic, are also named after the branches : The twelve branches are used to designate the twelve hours of the day, which begins at 11 o'clock P.M., and are on this account usually by chủ A a boar; Pisces. 74 wú 8 wi 9 shin уй 10 西 yù 11 siuh 30 by hau by kiuen a dog; 289 known as horary characters; they also indicate the twelve points of the Chinese compass, as follows: 11 to 1 A.M. (三更3d watch) is子 or N. 3 (4th watch) is or N.N.E. E. is (下午 afternoon) (初更1st watch) (2d watch) -isor E.S.E.E. isor S.S.E. E. is 4 or S. 午 To express European hours, it is enough to add kiau and E ching to the characters; thus Eching-tsz' is midnight, kiáu chau is 1 o'clock A.M. and so throughout; but these when mentioned are more usually numbered in imitation of the foreign mode, which has become widely known through the use of watches. A table for the convenience of natives, to show the correspondence of the foreign hours is often inserted in their almanacs. The ten stems are also called tien kan, or heavenly stems; they are sometimes named and described after the five elements, according to the peculiar philosophy of the dual powers current among the Chinese, each element being exhibited in its yin and yang state, corresponding to its passive and active condition. Each of them is regarded as destroying its predecessor, and producing its successor, in a perpetual round. 1 kiáh, is allied to wood, and represented by a growing tree; Chinese records further state that in the 61st year of the reign of Hwangtí, or the Yellow Emperor, Nau the Great was commanded by his sovereign to combine these two series, and form a cycle to denote the years; he did so, by taking kiah, the first of the ten, and joining it to tsz', the first of the twelve, to denote the first year of the cycle kiah-tsz. The second characters of each series were then joined to form yuch chau, and so on; going through the ten stems six times, and the twelve branches five times, as shown in the table. This was in the year B.C. 2637. The corresponding years of the Christian era are given for the 75th and 76th cycles. TABLE OF the sexagENARY CYCLE. The Chinese have never kept up a serial numbering of the cycles, and have no longer chronological period than 60 years. Some native authors begin the reckoning with the first year of Hwangti's reign, B.C. 2697, making 76 cycles at the end of A.D. 1863; De Guignes follows this calculation; but Chinese chronologers mostly take the later date of B.c. 2637, which makes the 75th cycle and the 4500th year of their annals to end with 1863. The year B.c. 2637 is placed by Hales as 518 years after the deluge, and about 80 years before the confusion of tongues. Some again begin their chronology with the first year of the 7th cycle, in the reign of Yau, B.c. 2277; Père Regis adopts this date. |