their respective places in the development which has taken place. 



The character of knowledge in regard to the Chinese contri- 

 butions to astronomy is most unsatisfactory and has frequently 

 given occasion to much discussion and various views, but, after 

 making considerable discount, the most conservative historians 

 seem agreed that very early indeed the Chinese, noted always for 

 their patient and painstaking habit of thought, a disposition, 

 most admirably suited for astronomical observations, had made 

 considerable progress in this science. The first dates, it would 

 seem, go back almost as far as 2952 B.C., shortly after which time 

 Yu-Chi made a sphere to represent the motions of the celestial 

 bodies. In the twenty-fourth century B.C. the Emperor Yao 

 gave orders that the position of the sun at the time of the equinoxes 

 and solstices should be determined. The positions were recorded 

 by giving the names of the stars occupying the respective places 

 at those seasons. From 2296 B.C. on, there are cometary refer- 

 ences and from the year 611 B.C. these are quite trustworthy, while 

 it is reported in a collection of documents called the Shu Chung, a 

 collection already antique in the time of Confucius, that certain 

 royal astronomers, Hi and Ho, failed, in the year 2159 B.C., to 

 predict an eclipse, a failure, the penalty of which they paid with 

 their lives. It is claimed by some that, as far back as the year 

 2357 B.C., the Chinese knew that the year, itself determined, 

 doubtless, by the recurrence of the seasons, had 365J days, and 

 one document even holds that a year of 365 days was adopted with 

 an intercalary day every four years. Whether this be true or not, 

 it is evident that great credit is due to the Chinese people, who, 

 in very early times, carried on such important investigations. 



Egyptian and Chaldean astronomy also lay claim to high anti- 

 quity. Here, and indeed, most probably in China also, astrolatry 

 preceded astronomy The stars, as well as the sun and the moon, 

 impressed the imaginative minds of these early peoples, and fre- 

 quently elicited response from them in the form of worship. There 

 has been much speculation as to the astronomical meaning of the 

 Great Pyramid, but most of it has been unsatisfactory and in- 

 conclusive. What knowledge was obtained by the observations 

 made was closely guarded by the priests, who spent most of their 

 time engaged in the arts of divination and astrology. Similarly 



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