A CASE OF RITUALISM 135 



Another great scholar, Dr. Yeh of Shih Lin, * controverts 

 this extraordinary view of Dr. Cheng. Yeh relies on a book 

 called the Ming T'ang Wei, which states that the Duke of 

 Lu offered sacrifice to God during the first moon of spring, 

 i.e. about the time of the present lunar new year. In the 

 celebration Hou Chi was associated with Shang Ti in the 

 worship. There were other sacrifices performed by him in 

 the T'ai Miao and so on. Now the point of controversy 

 between these two hangs on the dates and the calendar. 

 The use of the horary characters and celestial stems, and the 

 different calendars in vogue have created much confusion. 

 These dates and methods of chronology have been a fruitful 

 source of discussion. Writers have revelled in the opportunity 

 for subtilty and sophistry offered by these different diurnal 

 and lunar calculations. It should be remembered that the 

 chronology of the Hsia dynasty ruled for ages : and though 

 Chow introduced a system of its own, yet in all state 

 business of Chow, the calendar invented by the Hsia dynasty- 

 was used as a rule ; of course no human calculations and 

 registration of the seasons can make any real difference in 

 the thing, and as the Hsia method seemed to be nearer to 

 the moons it was preserved even by Chow in its annals. 

 Yet the Chow officials differentiated the months by their own 

 method of chronology, and generally, dates were recorded 

 according to both methods : this gave rise to much confusion. 



The Hsia calendar recorded the first moon under the 

 horary letter Yin ; The Chow calendar recorded the first moon 

 under the horary letter Tzu; The Shang calendar recorded 

 the first moon under the horary letter Ch'ou. 



It may be possible for us to appreciate this point from 

 an example taken from methods in use to-day. A person, 

 a thousand years hence, writing of the dates used now in 

 China might find same difficulty in fixing the absolute date 

 of any event because of the two calendars. One being the 

 lunar moon, that is to say the old style which made a 

 record of events by the use of the horary character: the 

 other method is the use of the solar calendar also indicated 

 by the horary character. And so in reference to the dates of 

 the ancient sacrifices in China voluminous controversy en- 

 sued. It is uncertain whether the matter is satisfactorily 

 and finally settled even to-day. 



Dr. Yeh holds that all the evidence produced by Dr. 

 Cheng is insufficient to confirm his argument, and maintains 

 the other and usual view that the sacrifice of Great Heaven 

 was done at the Round Mound on the winter solstice; the 



