472 M. Harrington—Chinese Official Almanac. 
Art. LVI.—The Chinese Official Almanac ; by Professor MARK 
ARRINGTON. 
prepared the Board of Astronomy, an important body, 
imperially appointed, presided over by a prince of the royal 
; in dignity to any other government body in 
representative of the highest state of astronomical science 
reached by them, and it is therefore worth our while to ex- 
amine it carefully. ; 
n examining one of these books we find it to consist of 
two distinct parts, the astronomical and the astrological, the 
latter being much more fully represented than the former. 
Taking up first the astronomical part, we find that eclipses of 
the sun and moon are not mentioned. These are not printe 
in the Almanac, but, as the writer was informed by an 
nce. 
foreigners resident in China that the predictions are never 
rising and setting that is repeated, and as the Chinese month 
is the lunar one, the dates are changed each year. Were it 
not for typographical errors the arrangement would appear 
+ ra eat. m 
e eccurate an y examining the Almanacs for 
seve ears we are able to eliminate the blunders in the 
plates, and we then make out that the figures are the semi- 
diurnal ares of a star having a declination equal to that of the 
sun on the given date. This is easily seen from the accom- 
panying table (A). The third year of Kuang Hsii began with 
e 
ear. 
t will be observed that in the rising and setting of the sun 
as given in this table the corrections are altogether absent. 
