154 CHINESE PUZZLEDOM 



numbers five times, when they revert to their original 

 position of al, b2, etc. The permutations thus obtained are 

 exactly sixty in number, and each separate one, in its 

 proper order, is taken to denote each of the sixty years in a 

 Cycle, thus each permutation recurs once in sixty years, 

 ten times in six hundred years, and a hundred times in six 

 thousand years. That is what the Chinese do with their 

 "Stems" and "Branches" to obtain their "Cyclical Terms." 

 The "Cyclical Term" for 1918 is ft^ Wu-wu, or e7. Just 

 fancy talking about the Boxer rising as occurring in the year 

 gl, or 1789 as the year flO, or that Nelson died in the year 

 b2, and Herbert Spencer was born in the year g5. Can 

 anyone imagine anything more puzzling, more befuddling, 

 or more undistinguishable than years recorded for centuries 

 in this cabalistic way? 



Unless a foreigner has been told, he will not understand 

 why every Chinese is a year older than every foreigner. The 

 Chinese have an ancient custom of reckoning age by birth- 

 days, not by anniversaries. When a child comes into the 

 world, the day of its birth is its first birthday; nobody can 

 deny that. When the first anniversary comes round, the 

 child has seen two birthdays, which is also an indisputable 

 fact; and so it goes on. 



Among the many mystifying things in China, the degrees 

 of family relationship are about as puzzling as they can well 

 be. Most of us have heard of the houseboy who obtained 

 leaves of absence in eighteen months to bury three mothers 

 and two fathers, till finally his employer dispensed with his 

 services for piling on the agony. For the sake of con- 

 venience, a man calls all his cousins, german and otherwise, 

 brothers and sisters, and all his uncles and aunts, some 

 younger than himself, fathers and mothers, so that when the 

 relations by marriage are taken into account, he often finds 

 that he possesses more brothers and sisters, and fathers and 

 mothers than he can sum up. When an old man takes unto 

 himself a very young wife, his mother-in-law who becomes 

 one of his mothers, may happen to be about his own age; 

 and his mother-in-law's mother, who becomes his grand- 

 mother, may be younger than his uncle. Needless to say, 

 when three or more generations are living, the condition of 

 affairs becomes so frightfully mixed up that it takes a level 

 headed fellow to keep a proper tally of his kith and kin, 

 though everybody has a number. When step-mothers, and 

 foster mothers, and adopted mothers come into play, to say 

 nothing of the father having several wives, the hapless son, 

 from whom so much filial piety is exacted, has need to be 



