XXIV INTEODL'CTION. 



and merchants. ( l ) //In high antiquity," says Davis (China and the Chinese), //knowledge and 

 wisdom were the chief claim for distinction and consideration. The society progressing, and the 

 nomadic hordes settling at fixed places, they directed their attention to agricultural pursuits. 

 With the gradual increase of the raw production, the origin of cities and the beginning of ex- 

 change bet ween town and country, the handicraft folio ws and, lastly, the in land and foreign 

 trade appears with the increase of capital and the augmentation of manufactures." 



The old Chinese counted four seas ( 2 ) which were supposed to surround the Earth, whilst 

 four rivers, called the four canals ( 3 ), discharged their waters in these 4 seas, after having wa- 

 tered and fertilized the whole empire. //The four seas," or //within the four seas," denotes 

 till the present day the empire or the world. 



From the remotest antiqnity the year was divided into 12 lunations. The old Chinese counted 

 the lunations by the number of days elapsing from the conjunction of the snn with the moon 

 until the next conjnnction, and as there could not always be an equal number of days, they 

 counted, alternatively, 29 and 30 days to complete their lunations. Thus 12 of their lunations 

 formed their common year; whilst the enibolismic year was divided into 13 lunations. 



These 12 lunations were divided again into four seasons, ( 4 ) which were divided, each, into 3 

 parts, beginning, middle and end, viz: one lunation for each of these parts. Besides, they di- 

 vided the year into 24 equal parts, which are the points where the sun is when passing through 

 the different signs of the zodiac. These points were called the 21 terms. ( 5 ) The day was di- 

 vided into 12 hours, each hour being the doublé of our hours, and it was reckoned, under the 

 first dynasties, from midday to midday. Only during the third dynasty Wu wang (B. C. 1122) 

 ordered the day to begin at midnight. 



The hours were divided again into 2 equal parts, each composed of 4 quarters. ( fi ) Hence the 



names for month and moon are, in Chinese, as in most languages the same, viz: Yueli, ( J=J ) a charac- 

 ter derived from the old hieroglyph TO f moon. It is scarcely necessary to mention the 4 car- 



dinal points: N. S. E. W. or, according to the Chinese order which takes, firstly, the point whence 



the light came: E. W. S. N. ( 7 ) 



To these were added the Zenith and Nadir ( 8 ) and they, together, were called, the 6 points. ( 9 ) 

 The fields and lands were divided into 4 parts which division is still retained in the charac- 



ter for field, tian ( 10 ). Equally the Chinese provinces were subdivided into four classes, the Fu, Ting, 



Chau and Hien, ( n ) which division exists also in Siam for the cities. ( 12 ) Fourfold, ioo, are the 



called the four classes ( VH Jü^ J 



( 6 ) Memoires c. 1. Ckinois, II, 159 k/f. 



( 8 ) ±. T 



s ( n ) m, m, jh, * 



( 12 ) Pallegoix, Description du Royaume de Thai ou Siam, I, p. 293. 



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