ASTRONOMICAL SCIENCE IN THE ANCIENT ORIENT 203 



Pei-tou ;lt,4'; or the seven stars of Ursa Major, were configurated 

 as a dipper (a vessel with a liandle), and the direction of tlie handle 

 just after sunset was taken as an indicator of the seasons. In particular, 

 the vertical hanging of the handle seems to have been taken as 

 indicating the beginning of the new year. Very probably this device 

 had been mainly used by the people flourishing in the northern 

 districts, — perhaps the forefathers of the people of the Chou dynasty, 

 down to the 12th century B.C. 



The sequence of the standard asterisms, from Pei-iou ^S\- to the 

 28 hsiu system HrYAJ^'i^, seems to be confirmed by the existence of 

 many traces of interrelation remaining in the 28 hsiu system. 



It may be noticed here that the 12 symbols, tzu ch^ou yin mao 

 ch'tn ssu luu ivei shen yu lisu hai -J-3i:||^I]MEj4^:^^MjS^> 

 usually known as the '•' Twelve branches " -pZl^, seem to have been 

 originally devised for the designation of the 12 months of a year, and 

 probablly came into general use in the course of the Yin dynasty. 

 Having then at hand 10 ordinals for counting days and 12 ordinals 

 for designating 12 months, it is quite natural that these two series of 

 ordinals came to be combined to form the convenient system of the 

 sexagesimal cycle. Evidences from several sources, including that of 

 recent excavation at the site of an ancient capital of the Yin dynasty, 

 convince us that the counting of days by the sexagesimal cycle had 

 begun at least before the end of the Yin dynasty. 



The row of 12 animals, standing usually in place of the 12 sym- 

 bols, seems to have been first attached to the latter somewhat about 

 the Ghan kuo age lic^0#i^ ('^ Struggle age," 480-250 B.C.). 



4. The 28 hsm system and the gnomon. 



About the beginning of the Chou dynasty (in the 12th century 

 B.C.), the ingenious idea of utilizing the lunar positions for the deter- 

 mination of the seasons seems to have been introduced If we observe 

 the daily march of the moon through the starry heavens, beginning 

 f. om the first appearance of tlie crescent (i.e., the new moon in its 

 verbal sense), and then in imagination follow the moon's course for 

 two days backward from this position, we should then arrive at the 

 conjunction point of the sun and moon. The determination of the 

 conjunction point in the starry heavens (i.e., on the ecliptic), gives us, 

 of course, the true seasonal position of the epoch at once. 



