1880.] 



Dr. G. Thibaut — On the Suri/aprajnapti. 



205 



stands to the space not reached by big rays in the relation of three to nine ; 

 this proportion is to be reversed for the day of the summer solstice. The 

 day of the winter solstice is the shortest during the year ; the day of the 

 summer solstice the longest. On tlie day of the winter solstice the shadow 

 of the gnomon is 13 '5 feet long ; beginning from this day it goes on 

 diminishing by equal quantities during equal spaces of time up to the day 

 of the summer solstice when its length is reduced to 1'6 feet. It then 

 increases again in the same uniform manner up to the day of the next 

 winter solstice. 



The circumference of the sky is divided into twenty-eight stellar 

 divisions of unequal extent, through the circle of which sun and moon are 

 performing their revolutions. Kien-nieou is the asterism in which the sun 

 stands at the winter solstice ; Leou the asterism of the vernal equinox etc. 

 A procedure is taught how to find the place of the sun at any time. The 

 whole circle of the asterisms is divided into 365^ degrees corresponding 

 to the number of the days of the year. A year is the period which the sun 

 requires for returning to the same star from which he had set out. The 

 meeting of sun and moon constitutes a month. A period of nineteen years 

 of 365|- days each contains 235 lunations. Arithmetical rules are given 

 how to find the place of the moon at the beginning of each year etc. 



The Tcheou-pei contains some additional matter about observations of 

 the polar star etc., but by far the greater part of the topics it treats have 

 been touched in the above summary. The similarity of this system and the 

 old Indian sj^stems particularly, as far as some details are concerned^ 

 the Jaina system is obvious. The same supposition is made use of in 

 both to account for the alternating progress of the sun towards the north 

 and the south. In the Jaina system the sun revolves round Mount Meru, 

 in the Chinese system, to which the idea of a central mountain seems to be 

 foreign, round the pole of the sky ; Mount Meru finds, however, a curious 

 counterpart in the Chinese polar circle, the projection of the circle described 

 by the polar star. Both systems state the dimensions of the circles de- 

 scribed by the sun ; both state in figures the extent to which the rays of 

 the sun reach. Both hold the same opinion about the alternation of day 

 and night in the different parts of the earth. Both are interested in find- 

 ing out what places sun and moon occupy in the circle of the nabshatras. 

 Both teach the increase of the shadow by an equal quantity in each month. 

 On the other hand there are important points in which the two systems 

 differ, The Chinese appear from comparatively ancient times to have had 

 a knowledge of the fact that the approximate duration of the solar year 

 amounts to 365^ years and that a period of nineteen years comprises 325 

 lunations. This of course makes the system of the Tcheou-pei to differ 

 from the Jaina system in all those details which depend on the fundaraen- 

 c c 



