1880.] 



Dr. G. Thibaut — On tlie Surynprajnapti. 



203 



distance. — On the other hand it is true enough that, notwithstanding these 

 similarities of Indian and Greek ideas, books of the nature of the Siiryapra- 

 jnapti serve clearly to show the difference of the mental tendencies of the 

 two nations. Both in an early age conceived plausible theories, in reality 

 devoid of foundation, by which they tried to account for puzzling pheno- 

 mena ; but while the Greeks controlled their theories by means of continued 

 observation of the phenomena themselves and replaced them by new ones, 

 as soon as they perceived that tlie two were not in haiiiiony, tlie Hindus 

 religiousl}' preserved the generalisations hastily formed at an early period, 

 and instead of attempting to rectify them, proceeded to deduce from them 

 all kinds of imaginary consequences. The absurdity of systems of the 

 nature of the Jaina system lies not in the leading conceptions — these can 

 as a rule be accounted for in a more or less satisfactory manner — but in the 

 minute detail into which the followers of the system have without scruple 

 and hesitation worked it out. 



Before this paper is brought to a conclusion, the writer wishes to draw 

 attention to the — in his opinion very striking — resemblance which the 

 cosmological and astronomical conceptions, contained in an old Chinese book, 

 bear to the early Indian ideas on the same subject, more pai'ticularly to the 

 Jaina system as expounded in the Suryaprajiiapti. The Chinese book 

 alluded to is the Tcheou-Pei of which a complete translation was published 

 for the first time by Edward Biot in the Journal Asiatique for 1841, 

 l^p. 592 — 639. It consists of two parts of different ages ; the first part which 

 apparently is of considerable antiquity, has been known since the time of 

 Gaubil, who inserted a translation of it into his history of Chinese astro- 

 nomy, published in the Lettres ed fiantes ; that part, as is well known, shows 

 that the ancient Chinese were acquainted with the theorem about the 

 square of the hjqoothenuse of a right-angled triangle. The second and more 

 recent part, which E. Biot thinks cannot be later than the end of the second 

 century of our era, contains a sort of cosmological and astronomical system, 

 and here the traits of resemblance alluded to above are to be found. As 

 the arrangement of topics in the Tcheou-Pei is by no means systematic, so 

 that it is not easy to form a clear conception of the essential points, a 

 short abstract of the work, as far as it lends itself to a comparison with the 

 Jaina system, is given in the following. 



According to the Tcheou-Pei the sun describes during the course o£ 

 the year a number of concentric circles of varying diameter round the pole 

 of the sky. On the day of the summer solstice the diameter of this circle 

 is smallest ; it then increases during the following months, up to the day of 

 the winter solstice when it reaches its maximum. Beginning from this 

 day the solar circles again decrease, until on the day of the nest summer 



