The Travels of Marco Polo
Chapter 109 : The question having been raised it was very desirable to settle it, and I applied to M

The question having been raised it was very desirable to settle it, and I applied to Mr. Wylie for information, as I had received the photographs from him, and knew that he had been Mr. Thomson's companion and helper in the matter.

"Let me a.s.sure you," he writes (21st August, 1874), "the Jesuits had nothing to do with the manufacture of the so-called Mongol instruments; and whoever made them, they were certainly on the Peking Observatory before Loyola was born. They are not made for the astronomical system introduced by the Jesuits, but are altogether conformable to the system introduced by Kublai's astronomer Ko Show-king.... I will mention one thing which is quite decisive as to the Jesuits. _The circle is divided into 365-1/4 degrees_, each degree into 100 minutes, and each minute into 100 seconds. The Jesuits always used the s.e.xagesimal division. Lecomte speaks of the imperfection of the division on the Jesuit-made instruments; but _those on the Mongol instruments are immeasurably coa.r.s.er_.

"I understand it is not the ornamentation your friend objects to?[4] If it is, I would observe that there is no evidence of progress in the decorative and ornamental arts during the Ming Dynasty; and even in the Jesuit instruments that part of the work is purely Chinese, excepting in one instrument, which I am persuaded must have been made in Europe.

"I have a Chinese work called _Luh-King-t'oo-Kaou_, 'Ill.u.s.trations and Investigations of the Six Cla.s.sics.' This was written in A.D. 1131-1162, and revised and printed in 1165-1174. It contains a representation of an armillary sphere, which appears to me to be much the same as the sphere in question. There is a solid horizon fixed to a graduated outer circle.

Inside the latter is a meridian circle, at right angles to which is a graduated colure; then the equator, apparently a double ring, and the ecliptic; also two diametric bars. The cut is rudely executed, but it certainly shows that some one imagined something more perfect. The instrument stands on a cross frame, with 4 dragon supporters and a prop in the centre.[5]

"It should be remembered that under the Mongol Dynasty the Chinese had much intercourse with Central Asia; and among others Yelewchootsae, as confidential minister and astronomer, followed Chinghiz in his Western campaign, held intercourse with the astronomers of Samarkand, and on his return laid some astronomical inventions before the Emperor.

"I append a notice of the Observatory taken from a popular description of Peking, by which it will be seen that the construction of these instruments is attributed to Ko Show-king, one of the most renowned astronomers of China. He was the chief astronomer under Kublai Kaan" [to whom he was presented in 1262; he was born in 1231.--H. C.]

"It must be remembered that there was a special vitality among the Chinese under the Yuen with regard to the arts and sciences, and the Emperor had the choice of artizans and men of science from all countries. From the age of the Yuen till the arrival of the Jesuits, we hear nothing of any new instruments having been made; and it is well known that astronomy was never in a lower condition than under the Ming."[6]

Mr. Wylie then draws attention to the account given by Trigault of the instruments that Matteo Ricci saw at Nanking, when he went (in the year 1599) to pay a visit to some of the _literati_ of that city. He transcribes the account from the French _Hist. de l'Expedition Chrestienne en la Chine_, 1618. But as I have the Latin, which is the original and is more lucid, by me, I will translate from that.[7]

"Not only at Peking, but in this capital also (Nanking) there is a College of Chinese Mathematicians, and this one certainly is more distinguished by the vastness of its buildings than by the skill of its professors. They have little talent and less learning, and do nothing beyond the preparation of the almanacs on the rules of calculation made by the ancients; and when it chances that events do not agree with their calculation they a.s.sert that what they had calculated was the regular course of things, but that the aberrant conduct of the stars was a prognostic from heaven of something going to happen on the earth. This something they make out according to their fancy, and so spread a veil over their own blunders. These gentlemen did not much trust Father Matteo, fearing, no doubt, lest he should put them to shame; but when at last they were freed from this apprehension they came and amicably visited the Father in hope of learning something from him. And when he went to return their visit he saw something that really was new and beyond his expectation.

"There is a high hill at one side of the city, but still within the walls.

On the top of the hill there is an ample terrace, capitally adapted for astronomical observation, and surrounded by magnificent buildings which form the residence of the Professors.... On this terrace are to be seen astronomical instruments of cast-metal, well worthy of inspection whether for size or for beauty; _and we certainly have never seen or read of anything in Europe like them_. For nearly 250 years they have stood thus exposed to the rain, the snow, and all other atmospheric inclemencies, and yet they have lost absolutely nothing of their original l.u.s.tre. And lest I should be accused of raising expectations which I do not justify, I will do my best in a digression, probably not unwelcome, to bring them before the eyes of my readers.

"The larger of these instruments were four in number. First we inspected a great globe [A], graduated with meridians and parallels; we estimated that three men would hardly be able to embrace its girth.... A second instrument was a great sphere [B], not less in diameter than that measure of the outstretched arms which is commonly called a geometric pace. It had a horizon and poles; instead of circles it was provided with certain double hoops (_armillae_), the void s.p.a.ce between the pair serving the purpose of the circles of our spheres. All these were divided into 365 degrees and some odd minutes. There was no globe to represent the earth in the centre, but there was a certain tube, bored like a gun-barrel, which could readily be turned about and fixed to any azimuth or any alt.i.tude so as to observe any particular star through the tube, just as we do with our vane-sights;[8]--not at all a despicable device! The third machine was a gnomon [C], the height of which was twice the diameter of the former instrument, erected on a very large and long slab of marble, on the northern side of the terrace. The stone slab had a channel cut round the margin, to be filled with water in order to determine whether the slab was level or not, and the style was set vertical as in hour-dials.[9] We may suppose this gnomon to have been erected that by its aid the shadow at the solstices and equinoxes might be precisely noted, for in that view both the slab and the style were graduated. The fourth and last instrument, and the largest of all, was one consisting as it were of three or four huge astrolabes in juxtaposition [D]; each of them having a diameter of such a geometrical pace as I have specified. The fiducial line, or _Alhidada_, as it is called, was not lacking, nor yet the _Dioptra_.[10] Of these astrolabes, one having a tilted position in the direction of the south, represented the equator; a second, which stood crosswise on the first, in a north and south plane, the Father took for a meridian; but it could be turned round on its axis; a third stood in the meridian plane with its axis perpendicular, and seemed to stand for a vertical circle; but this also could be turned round so as to show any vertical whatever. Moreover all these were graduated, and the degrees marked by prominent studs of iron, so that in the night the graduation could be read by the touch without a light. All this compound astrolabe instrument was erected on a level marble platform with channels round it for levelling. On each of these instruments explanations of everything were given in Chinese characters; and there were also engraved the 24 zodiacal constellations which answer to our 12 signs, 2 to each.[11] There was, however, one error common to all the instruments, viz. that, in all, the elevation of the Pole was a.s.sumed to be 36. Now there can be no question about the fact that the city of Nanking lies in lat. 32-1/4; whence it would seem probable that these instruments were made for another locality, and had been erected at Nanking, without reference to its position, by some one ill versed in mathematical science.[12]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Observatory Terrace]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Observatory Instruments of the Jesuits.]

"Some years afterwards Father Matteo saw similar instruments at Peking, or rather the same instruments, so exactly alike were they, insomuch that they had unquestionably been made by the same artist. And indeed it is known that they were cast at the period when the Tartars were dominant in China; and we may without rashness conjecture that they were the work of some foreigner acquainted with our studies. But it is time to have done with these instruments."--(_Lib._ IV. _cap._ 5.)

In this interesting description it will be seen that the Armillary Sphere [B] agrees entirely with that represented in ill.u.s.tration facing p. 450.

And the second of his photographs in my possession, but not, I believe, yet published, answers _perfectly_ to the curious description of the 4th instrument [D]. Indeed, I should scarcely have been able to translate that description intelligibly but for the aid of the photograph before me. It shows the three _astrolabes_ or graduated circles with travelling indexes arranged exactly as described, and pivoted on a complex frame of bronze; (1) circle in the plane of the equator for measuring right ascensions; (2) circle with its axis vertical to the plane of the last, for measuring declinations: (3) circle with vertical axis, for zenith distances? The Gnomon [A] was seen by Mr. Wylie in one of the lower rooms of the Observatory (see below). Of the Globe we do not now hear; and that mentioned by Lecomte among the ancient instruments was inferior to what Ricci describes at Peking.

I now transcribe Mr. Wylie's translation of an extract from a Popular Description of Peking:

"The observatory is on an elevated stage on the city wall, in the south-east corner of the (Tartar) city, and was built in the year (A.D.

1279). In the centre was the _Tze-wei_[13] Palace, inside of which were a pair of scrolls, and a cross inscription, by the imperial hand. Formerly it contained the _Hwan-t'ien-e_ [B] 'Armillary Sphere'; the _Keen-e_ [D?]

'Transit Instrument' (?); the _Tung-kew_ [A] 'Bra.s.s Globe'; and the _Leang-t'ien-ch'ih_, 'Sector,' which were constructed by Ko Show-king under the Yuen Dynasty.

"In (1673) the old instruments having stood the wear of long past years, had become almost useless, and six new instruments were made by imperial authority. These were the _T'ien-t'ee_ 'Celestial Globe' (6); _Chih-taoue_ 'Equinoctial Sphere' (2); _Hw.a.n.g-taoue_ 'Zodiacal Sphere' (1); _Te-p'ing kinge_ 'Azim.u.t.h.al Horizon' (3); _Te-p'ing weie_ 'Alt.i.tude Instrument' (4); _Ke-yene_ 's.e.xtant' (5). These were placed in the Observatory, and to the present day are respectfully used. The old instruments were at the same time removed, and deposited at the foot of the stage. In (1715) the _Te-ping King-wei-e_ 'Azimuth and Alt.i.tude Instrument' was made;[14] and in 1744 the _Ke-hang-foo-chin-e_ (literally 'Sphere and Tube instrument for sweeping the heavens'). All these were placed on the Observatory stage.

"There is a wind-index-pole called the 'Fair-wind-pennon,' on which is an iron disk marked out in 28 points, corresponding in number to the 28 constellations."[15]

+ Mr. Wylie justly observes that the evidence is all in accord, and it leaves, I think, no reasonable room for doubt that the instruments now in the Observatory garden at Peking are those which were cast aside by Father Verbiest[16] in 1673 (or 1668); which Father Ricci saw at Peking at the beginning of the century, and of which he has described the duplicates at Nanking; and which had come down from the time of the Mongols, or, more precisely, of Kublai Khan.

Ricci speaks of their age as nearly 250 years in 1599; Verbiest as nearly 300 years in 1668. But these estimates evidently point to the _termination_ of the Mongol Dynasty (1368), to which the Chinese would naturally refer their oral chronology. We have seen that Kublai's reign was the era of flouris.h.i.+ng astronomy, and that the instruments are referred to his astronomer Ko Sheu-king; nor does there seem any ground for questioning this. In fact, it being once established that the instruments existed when the Jesuits entered China, all the objections fall to the ground.

We may observe that the number of the ancient instruments mentioned in the popular Chinese account agrees with the number of important instruments described by Ricci, and the t.i.tles of three at least out of the four seem to indicate the same instruments. The catalogue of the new instruments of 1673 (or 1668) given in the native work also agrees _exactly_ with that given by Lecomte.[17] And in reference to my question as to the _possibility_ that one of Verbiest's instruments might have been removed from the terrace to the garden, it is now hardly worth while to repeat Mr.

Wylie's a.s.surance that there is no ground whatever for such a supposition.

The instruments represented by Lecomte are all still on the terrace, only their positions have been somewhat altered to make room for the two added in last century.

Probably, says Mr. Wylie, more might have been added from Chinese works, especially the biography of Ko Sheu-king. But my kind correspondent was unable to travel beyond the books on his own shelves. Nor was it needful.

It will have been seen that, beautiful as the art and casting of these instruments is, it would be a mistake to suppose that they are ent.i.tled to equally high rank in scientific accuracy. Mr. Wylie mentioned the question that had been started to Freiherr von Gumpach, who was for some years Professor of Astronomy in the Peking College. Whilst entirely rejecting the doubts that had been raised as to the age of the Mongol instruments, he said that he had seen those of Tycho Brahe, and the former are quite unworthy to be compared with Tycho's in scientific accuracy.

The doubts expressed have been useful in drawing attention to these remarkable reliques of the era of Kublai's reign, and of Marco Polo's residence in Cathay, though I fear they are answerable for having added some pages to a work that required no enlargement!

[Mr. Wylie sent a most valuable paper on _The Mongol Astronomical Instruments at Peking_ to the Congress of Orientalists held at St.

Petersburg, which was reprinted at Shanghai in 1897 in _Chinese Researches_. Some of the astronomical instruments have been removed to Potsdam by the Germans since the siege of the foreign Legations at Peking in 1900.--H. C.]

On these auguries, and on diviners and fortune-tellers, see _Semedo_, p.

118 seqq.; _Kidd_, p. 313 (also for preceding references, _Mid. Kingdom_, II. 152; _Gaubil_, 136).

NOTE 2.-- + The real cycle of the Mongols, which was also that of the Chinese, runs: 1. Rat; 2. Ox; 3. Tiger; 4. Hare; 5. Dragon; 6. Serpent; 7.

Horse; 8. Sheep; 9. Ape; 10. c.o.c.k; 11. Dog; 12. Swine. But as such a cycle [12 earthly branches, _Ti-chih_] is too short to avoid confusion, it is combined with a co-efficient cycle of _ten_ epithets [celestial Stems, _T'ien-kan_] in such wise as to produce a 60-year cycle of compound names before the same shall recur. These co-efficient epithets are found in four different forms: (1) From the Elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, attaching to each a masculine and feminine attribute so as to make ten epithets. (2) From the Colours: Blue, Red, Yellow, White, Black, similarly treated. (3) By terms without meaning in Mongol, directly adopted or imitated from the Chinese, _Ga_, Yi, Bing, Ting, etc. (4) By the five Cardinal Points: East, South, Middle, West, North. Thus 1864 was the first year of a 60-year cycle:--

1864 = (Masc.) _Wood-Rat_ Year = (Masc.) _Blue-Rat_ Year.

1865 = (Fem.) _Wood-Ox_ Year = (Fem.) _Blue-Ox_ Year.

1866 = (Masc.) _Fire-Tiger_ Year = (Masc.) _Red-Tiger_ Year.

1867 = (Fem.) _Fire-Hare_ Year = (Fem.) _Red-Hare_ Year.

1923 = (Fem.) _Water-Swine_ Year = (Fem.) _Black-Swine_ Year.

And then a new cycle commences just as before.

This Calendar was carried by the Mongols into all their dominions, and it would appear to have long survived them in Persia. Thus a doc.u.ment issued in favour of Sir John Chardin by the _Shaikh-ul-Islam_ of Ispahan, bears the strange date for a Mahomedan luminary of "The year of the Swine." The Hindus also had a 60-year cycle, but with them each year had an independent name.

The Mongols borrowed their system from the Chinese, who attribute its invention to the Emperor Hw.a.n.g-ti, and its initiation to the 61st year of his reign, corresponding to B.C. 2637. ["It was Ta-nao, Minister to the Emperor Hw.a.n.g-ti, who, by command of his Sovereign, devised the s.e.xagenary cycle. Hw.a.n.g-ti began to reign 2697 B.C., and the 61st year of his reign was taken for the first cyclical sign." _P. Hoang_, _Chinese Calendar_; p.

11.--H. C.] The characters representing what we have called the ten coefficient epithets are called by the Chinese the "Heavenly Stems"; those equivalent to the twelve animal symbols are the "Earthly Branches," and they are applied in their combinations not to years only, but to cycles of months, days, and hours, such hours being equal to two of ours. Thus every year, month, day, and hour will have two appropriate characters, and the four pairs belonging to the time of any man's birth const.i.tute what the Chinese call the "Eight Characters" of his age, to which constant reference is made in some of their systems of fortune-telling, and in the selection of propitious days for the transaction of business. To this system the text alludes. A curious account of the principles of prognostication on such a basis will be found in _Doolittle's Social Life of the Chinese_ (p. 579 seqq.; on the Calendar, see Schmidt's Preface to _S. Setzen_; _Pallas, Sammlungen_, II. 228 seqq.; _Prinsep's Essays_, _Useful Tables_, 146.)

["Kubilai Khan established in Peking two astronomical boards and two observatories. One of them was a Chinese Observatory (_sze t'ien t'ai_), the other a Mohammedan Observatory (_hui hui sze t'ien t'ai_), each with its particular astronomical and chronological systems, its particular astrology and instruments. The first astronomical and calendar system was compiled for the Mongols by Ye-liu Ch'u-ts'ai, who was in Chingis Khan's service, not only as a high counsellor, but also as an astronomer and astrologer. After having been convinced of the obsoleteness and incorrectness of the astronomical calculations in the _Ta ming li_ (the name of the calendar system of the Kin Dynasty), he thought out at the time he was at Samarcand a new system, valid not only for China, but also for the countries conquered by the Mongols in Western Asia, and named it in memory of Chingis Khan's expedition _Si ching keng wu yuan li_, i.e., 'Astronomical Calendar beginning with the year _Keng wu_, compiled during the war in the west.' Keng-wu was the year 1210 of our era.

Ye-liu Ch'u-ts'ai chose this year, and the moment of the winter solstice, for the beginning of his period; because, according to his calculations, it coincided with the beginning of a new astronomical or planetary period. He took also into consideration, that since the year 1211 Chingis Khan's glory had spread over the whole world. Ye-liu Ch'u-ts'ai's calendar was not adopted in China, but the system of it is explained in the _Yuen-s.h.i.+_, in the section on Astronomy and the Calendar.

"In the year 1267, the Mohammedans presented to Kubilai their astronomical calendar (_wan nien li_, i.e.), the calendar of ten thousand years. By taking this denomination in its literal sense, we may conclude that the Mahommedans brought to China the ancient Persian system, founded on the period of 10,000 years. The compilers of the _Yuen-s.h.i.+_ seem not to have had access to doc.u.ments relating to this system, for they give no details about it. Finally by order of Kubilai the astronomers _Hui-Heng_ and _Ko Show-King_ composed a new calculation under the name of _Shou-s.h.i.+-li_ which came into use from the year 1280. It is thoroughly explained in the _Yuen-s.h.i.+_. Notwithstanding the fame this system generally enjoyed, its blemishes came soon to light. In the sixth month of 1302 an eclipse of the sun happened, and the calculation of the astronomer proved to be erroneous (it seems the calculation had antic.i.p.ated the real time). The astronomers of the Ming Dynasty explained the errors in the _Shou-s.h.i.+-li_ by the circ.u.mstance, that in that calculation the period for one degree of precession of the equinox was taken too long (eighty-one years). But they were themselves hardly able to overcome these difficulties." (_Palladius_, pp. 51-53.)--H. C.]

[1] Besides the works quoted in the text I have only been able to consult Gaubil's notices, as abstracted in Lalande; and the Introductory Remarks to Mr. J. Williams's _Observations of Comets ... extracted from the Chinese Annals_, London, 1871.

[2] _Pinnula_. The French _pinnule_ is properly a sight-vane at the end of a traversing bar. The _transverse lines_ imply that minutes were read by the system of our _diagonal scales_; and these I understand to have been subdivided still further by aid of a divided edge attached to the sight-vane; qu. a Vernier?

[3] Verbiest himself speaks of the displaced instruments thus ... "ut nova instrumenta astronomica facienda mihi imponeret, quae scilicet more Europaeo affabre facta, et in specula Astroptica Pekinensi collocata, aeternam Imperii Tartarici memoriam apud posteritatem servarent, _prioribus instrumentis Sinicis rudioris Minervae, quae jam a_ trecentis _proxime_ annis _speculam occupabant, inde amotis_.

Imperator statim annuit illorum postulatis. et totius rei curam, publico diplomate mihi imposuit. Ego itaque intra quadriennis spatium s.e.x diversi generis instrumenta confeci." This is from an account of the Observatory written by Verbiest himself, and printed at Peking in 1668 (_Liber Organicus Astronomiae Europaeae apud Sinas Rest.i.tutae_, etc.). My friend Mr. D. Hanbury made the extract from a copy of this rare book in the London Inst.i.tution Library. An enlarged edition was published in Europe. (Dillingen, 1687.)

[4] On the contrary, he considered the photographs interesting, as showing to how late a period the art of fine casting had endured.

[5] This ancient instrument is probably the same that is engraved in Pauthier's _Chine Ancienne_ under the t.i.tle of "The Sphere of the Emperor Shun" (B.C. 2255!).

[6] After the death of Kublai astronomy fell into neglect, and when Hongwu, the first Ming sovereign, took the throne (1368) the subject was almost forgotten. Nor was there any revival till the time of Ching. The latter was a prince who in 1573 a.s.sociated himself with the astronomer Hing-yun-lu to reform the state of astronomy. (_Gaubil_.)

What Ricci has recorded (in Trigautius) of the dense ignorance of the Chinese _literati_ in astronomical matters is entirely consistent with the preceding statements.