610 MODES OF KEEPING TIME KNOWN AMONG THE CHINESE. 
automata, and timepieces. His chief work was a machine contained 
ina box 7 feet high and 34 wide, with three small temples on top. 
The middle of these temples had fairies holding horary characters, one 
of which made her appearance every hour. Time was struck by a couple 
of gods, and it is said they keptit very accurately. In the side temples 
were representations of the sun and moon respectively, and from these 
places genil issued, crossing a bridge to the middle temple, and after 
ascertaining, as it were, the time of day from the fairies, returning 
again to their quarters. It is thought the motions were in this case 
effected by springs. An instrument somewhat similar is described as 
being in the capital at Corea; it was a clepsydra, with springs repre- 
senting the motions of the celestial orbs, and having automata to strike 
the hour. Since the introduction of European clocks, clepsydras have 
fallen into disuse. The only one perhaps in the empire is that in a 
watchtower in the city of Canton.* It is of the simplest form, having 
*'This clepsydra is found on top of a gateway cailed Shwang-mun ti, standing in 
the street called Hiung chin fang, leading north from the great South Gate to the 
Puching sz’ office. This street, or avenue, is more than 50 feet wide, and this double 
gateway crosses the street in its widest part like Temple Bar in London, each pas- 
sage being about 20 feet across. ‘The structure is very strongly built, and is ascended 
by stone steps on the outside; on the top is a two-storied red loft, called Kung-peh 
lau, the upper story of which serves as a repository for the blocks used in the 
printing office in the lower story From this printing office are issued statistical 
and other official works, under the direction of the Puching sz’. In the middle wall 
is a vault, and the ground sounds hollow underneath. The statistics of Kwang chan 
fu (Canton) gives the following notices of the edifice: ‘‘The Kung-peh lau lies 
south of the Puching sz’ office, and was called the Tsinghai lau in the Tang dynasty ; 
it stood between two hills, which Sin Hien levelled, and there erected a double 
stone gateway. The General Sz’ma Kihin a. b. 1100, re-built it, and called it the 
Doubie Gateway ; it was destroyed about 1550, and re-built as before by Hungwn in 
1380, and again repaired in 1654 by Shunchi, and by Kanghi in 1687. On the top is 
a clepsydra, which the officer Chin Yungho made in 1315, during the reign of 
Jintsung.” 
The clepsydra is called the tung-wu-tih-lan, i. e., copper jar dropper, and is placed 
in a separate room, under the supervision of a man who, besides his stipend and 
perquisites, obtains a livelihood by selling time-sticks. There are four covered 
copper jars standing on a brickwork stairway, the top of each of which is level 
with the bottom of the one above it; the largest measures 23 inches high and broad, 
and contains 70 catties, or 974 pints of water; the second is 22 inches high and 21 
inches broad; the third is 21 inches high, and 20 inches broad; and the lowest 
23 inches high and 19 inches broad. Each is connected with the other by an open 
trough, along which the water trickles. The wooden index in the lowest jar is set 
every morning and afternoon at 5 o’clock, by placing the mark on it for these hours 
even with the cover, through which it rises and indicates the time. The water is 
dipped ont and poured back into the top jar when the index shows the completion 
of the half day; and the water is renewed every quarter. Two large drums stand 
in the room, on which the watchmen strike the watches during the night. Probably 
a ruder contrivance to divide time can hardly be found the world over, and if it 
was not for the clocks and watches everywhere in use, which easily rectify its 
inaccuracies, the Cantonese would soon be greatly behindhand in their reckoning, 
so far as they had to depend on this clepsydra and the time-sticks which are burnt 
to regulate it.—-Hditor Chinese Repository (July, 1851). 
