ON CHINESE HOROLOGY, ETC. 223 



The Chinese divide the day into twelve parts, which are not num- 

 bered, but designated by characters termed, rather inaptly, horary. 

 These terms were originally employed in forming the nomenclature of 

 the sexagenary cycle (2657 B a), which is still in use. It was not until 

 a much later period that the duodecimal division of the civil day came 

 into use, when terms to express them were borrowed from the ancient 

 calendar. The same characters are also applied to the months. The 

 first in the list (meaning son) is employed at the commencement of every 

 cycle, and to the first of every period of twelve years, and also to the 

 commencement of the civil day at 11 p.m., comprising the period 

 between this and 1 a m. The month which is designated by this term, 

 is not the first of the Chinese year, but, singularly enough, it coincides 

 with January. Each of the twelve hours is divided into eight kih, 

 corresponding to quarter hours. This diurnal division of time does not 

 appear to have been in use in the time of Confucius, as mention is made 

 in the spring and autumn annals of the ten hours of the day, which 

 accords with the decimal divisions so long employed in the clepsydras, 

 the indices of which were uniformly divided into one hundred parts. 

 A commentator of the third century of our era, in explaining the 

 passage relating to the ten hours, adds a couple more ; but even at 

 that time the present horary characters were not employed. 



The form I would recommend as suitable for the dial-plates of clocks 

 manufactured for the Chinese market would be as follows : — The small 

 characters on the outer circle are numerals, exactly corresponding to 

 the Roman figures on Western clocks. The inner circle contains the 

 twelve horary characters, and within these are the signs for noon, 

 evening, midnight, and dawn. In the horary circle, the large single 

 characters represent whole hours, and the small double ones half hours, 

 equal to a whole European hour. 



Let the minute hand extend to the inner part of the outer circle, 

 and make twelve revolutions in a diurnal period. The hour hand should 

 reach to the inner edge of the horary characters, and make one revolu- 

 tion in the same period of time. Let the pendulum vibrate seconds as 

 now, and the minute hand, at the expiration of sixty seconds, make half 

 a revolution. It should strike from 1 to 12 a.m. and p.m., and corres- 

 pond in this respect to European clocks. It will be understood, then, 

 that at our even hours the short hand will point to a large horary 

 character — the middle of a Chinese hour— and the long hand will be 

 directly upward ; and at our odd hours the former will be opposite the 

 small characters, which point the commencement of their hour, and 

 the latter will point directly downward, or at the 12 p.m. of our clocks. 

 Or to repeat the same in another manner ; at 1 o'clock p.m., our 

 reckoning, the hour hand will be half way b-tween the large characters 

 on the top and the next one to the right, and the minute hand having 

 made a half revolution, will point perpendicularly downwards, and the 

 clock strike one. At the expiration of another of our hours, a whole 



