220 ON CHINESE HOROLOGY, ETC. 



bells or drums every kill ; but at this period a clock was constructed, 

 consisting of four vessels, with machinery which caused a drum to be 

 struck by day, and a bell by night, to indicate the hours and watches. 

 No description of the works of this interesting invention can be found. 

 It is possible, however, that the Saracens may have anticipated them in 

 this invention of water-clocks. 



In the history of the Tong dynasty (620-907), it is stated that in the 

 Fahlin country, (which in this instance, doubtlessly means Persia, 

 though the best living authority amongst the Chinese makes it Judea), 

 there was a clepsydra on a terrace near the palace, formed oi a balance, 

 which contained twelve metallic or golden balls, one of which fell 

 every hour on a bell, aud thus struck the hours correctly. It is not 

 improbable that this instrument is identical with the celebrated one 

 which the king of Persia sent, in 807, to Charlemagne. 



In 980 an astronomer,., named Tsiang, made an improvement on all 

 former instruments, and which, considering the period, was a remark- 

 able specimen of art. The machine, which was in a sort of miniature 

 teriace, was ten feet high, divided into three stories, the works being in 

 the middle. Twelve images of men, one for every hour, appeared 

 in turn before an opening in the terrace ; another set oi automata 

 struck the twelve hours, and the tih^ or eighths of such hours. These 

 figures occupied the lower storey ; the upper was devoted to astronomy 

 where there was an orrery in motion, which, it is obvious, must have 

 rendered complex machinery necessary. We are only told that it had 

 oblique, perpendicular, and horizontal wheels, and that it was kept 

 in motion by falling water. 



As the Saracens had reached China by sea at the close of the eighth 

 century, aud by land at an earlier period, some assistance may have 

 been derived from them in the construction of this instrument ; but I 

 am disposed to consider it wholly Chinese. Beckman, after much 

 learned research, ascribes the invention of clocks to the Saracens, and 

 the first appearance of these instruments in Europe to the eleventh 

 century. Mention may here be made of other instruments of the same 

 description, also constructed about this period. One (which, like the 

 last, united an orrery and clepsydra) was formed in one part like a water- 

 lily ; whilst in another were images of a dragon, a tiger, a bird, and a 

 tortoise, which struck the kih on a drum, and a dozen gods, which struck 

 the hours on a bell, with various other motions, besides a representation 

 of the revolution of the heavenly bodies. The machinery of another of 

 these was moved by an under-shot water-wheel ; its axis was even with 

 the ground, and consequently the frame containing it was partly below 

 the surface. The motions of the sun and moon, stars and planets, were 

 made to revolve around a figure of the earth, represented as a plain 

 from east to west. Images of men struck the hour, and its parts. In 

 this, however, as in all the aforenamed instruments, the sounds struck 

 were always doubtless the same, as the Chinese do not count their hours. 



