TRANSACTIONS OP THE SECTIONS. 35 



the ordinary table, in reference to the Ecliptic ; the other, that to which he wished 

 to draw attention, having reference to the plane of the Sun's equator. In the latter 

 it was st'en, as a general law, that the inclinations of the planetary orbits increased 

 as the distances of the several planets from the sun increased. Thus, the inclina- 

 tion of the orbit of Mercury to the plane of the Sun's equator was but 0° 19' 51", 

 while that of Neptune was 9° 6' 51", — the only considerable deviation from regular 

 progression being found, as might be expected, among the asteroids ; of which if 

 we take Victoria as a type, her inclination is no less than 15° 42' 15". The author 

 considered that the fact that the orbits of the larger planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, 

 and Neptune, are not more inclined, would seem to confirm a surmise of La Place, 

 who, in his ' Exposition du Systeme du Monde,' speculates on the order in which 

 the planets were thrown off from the Sun, and supposes that Jupiter, Saturn, &c. 

 were thus formed long before Mercury, Venus, the Earth, and Mars. If so, the oblate- 

 ness of the Sun would, in its condition at that time, have tended more powerfully 

 than in its subsequent or present state to keep the planets near the plane of its 

 equator. The discovery of this law regulating the inclinations of the planetary 

 orbits appeared to him another addition to the class of facts which establish the 

 analogy between the Solar system and that of Jupiter and his satellites, it being well 

 known to astronomers that the inclination of the orbits of the latter to the plane of 

 Jupiter's equator was a function of their distances and masses. 



On Chinese Astronomy. By J. B. Lindsay. 

 The object of the present paper is to draw the attention of this Section to the fact, 

 that much information may be derived from Chinese literature in order to perfect 

 our astronomy. The ' Chun-tsiu,' written by Confucius, contains an account of 

 thirty-six eclipses (several of them total), and several comets, falling stars, and 

 meteorites. The first eclipse here recorded was in the year before our era 719, the 

 last was in b.c. 494, thus comprising 225 years. Confucius was born in b.c. 550, 

 and died at the age of seventy-three in b.c. 477. In a book lately published I have 

 given an extract of the thirty-six eclipses ; but the whole of the ' Chun-tsiu ' deserves 

 to be translated and published. I have myself made a translation of the whole ver- 

 batim, but should prefer seeing it published by another better acquainted with the 

 Chinese. The ' Chun-tsiu ' is a short chronicle of events ; but there is an extended 

 commentary on it entitled the ' Tso-chuen,' by Tso-kiu-ming, who was a contem- 

 porary and an intimate friend of Confucius. This work should, I think, be also 

 translated, as it gives a detailed account of astronomical observations, and comes 

 thirteen years further down than the work of Confucius. Another work, entitled 

 the ' Kwo-yu,' supposed to have been by the same author, contains an Appendix by 

 another person, bringing down the history to b.c 453. The succeeding history was 

 principally written, and the celestial phenomena recorded, by Szi-ma-tsien, who 

 lived a century before our era. His work is entitled ' Shi-ki,' or Historic Memoirs. 

 He was Imperial Historian, as was also his father; and his work is extremely 

 interesting, as giving an account not only of Chinese affairs, but also of the Scythians 

 and Turks who were then on the north-west borders of China. The 123rd chapter, 

 recording foreign events, has been translated into French by Brosset, and is found in 

 the Journal Asiatique for 1828. This chapter comprises the history of forty-three 

 years, or from b.c. 140 to b.c 97, shortly before the author's death. Small portions 

 of the ' Shi-ki ' have been translated into English, but the whole deserves to be so'. 

 A translation of the whole Chinese history and literature before our era would not 

 be voluminous; but the 'Chun-tsiu,' the 'Tso-chuen,' and the 'Shi-ki' should, I 

 think, be translated first. Extended notes would be necessary to render the whole 

 intelligible, and the Astronomer Royal might append notes on the various eclipses. 

 The ancient Chinese classics are nine in number, — five of the first class, and four of 

 the second. The five of the first class are the 'Shu-king,' the 'Shi-king,' the 

 ' I-king,' the ' Li-ki,' and the 'Chun-t:iiu.' The 'Shu-king' has been translated 

 into French by Desguignes, ; the ' Shi-king ' into Latin by Lacharme ; the ' I-king * 

 into Latin by Regis, and others ; the ' Li-ki ' into French by Callery ; but the ' Chun- 

 tsiu' has not yet been translated into any European language. The four books of 

 the second class have been often translated into Latin and French. Their names 

 are, the ' Ta-hio,' the ' Chung-yung,' the ' Lun-yu,' and ' Mang-tszi,' or Mencius,— 

 scarcely any of which have been translated into English. 



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