CHINESE For chronological purposes, the Chinese people, as else where in the east of Asia, employ cycles of sixty to reckon their days, moons and years. The days are distributed in the calendar into cycles of sixty, in the same manner as ours are distributed into weeks, or cycles of seven. Each day of the cycle has a par ticular name, and as it is usual in mentioning dates, to give the name of the day along with that of the moon and the year, it is easy to verify the epochs of Chinese chronology. The order of the days in the cycle is never interrupted by any intercalation used to adjust the months or years. The moons of the civil year are also distinguished by their place in the cycle of sixty ; and as the intercalary moons are not reckoned, because during one of these lunations the sun enters into no new sign, there are only twelve regular moons in a year, so that the cycle is renewed every five years. The cycle of sixty is formed of two subordinate cycles or series of characters, one of ten and the other of twelve, which are joined together so as to afford sixty different combinations. The names of the characters in the cycle of ten, which are called celestial signs, are: 1. Kia ; 2. I ; 3. Ping ; 4. Ting ; 5. Wu 6. Ki; 7. Keng; 8. Hsin; 9. Jen; 1o. Kuei; and in the series of 12, denominated terrestrial signs, 1. Tzu; 2. Chou; 3. Yin; 4. Mao; 5. Shin; 6. Ssu; 7. Wu ; 8. We; 9. Shin; io. Yu ; 1 1. Hsu; 12. Hai.
The name of the first year, or of the first day, in the sexagenary cycle is formed by combining the first words in each of the above series; the second is formed by combining the second of each series, and so on to the tenth. For the next year the first word of the first series is combined with the eleventh of the second, then the second of the first series with the twelfth of the second, after this the third of the first series with the first of the second, and so on till the sixtieth combination, when the last of the first series concurs with the last of the second.
In the Chinese history translated into the Tatar dialect by order of the emperor K'ang-hi (d. 1721), the characters of the cycle begin to appear at the year 2357 B.C. From this it has been inferred that the Chinese empire was established previous to that epoch ; but as the cycles can be extended backwards indefinitely, the inference can have very little weight. The characters given to that year 2357 B.C., are Kea-shin, which denote the 41st of the cycle. We must, therefore, suppose the cycle to have begun B C., or forty years before the reign of Yao. This is the epoch assumed by the authors of L'art de verifier les dates. The mathe matical tribunal has, however, from time immemorial counted the first year of the first cycle from the eighty-first of Yao, that is to say, from the year 2277 B.C.
Since the year 163 B.C. Chinese writers date the year from the accession of the reigning emperor. An emperor, on succeeding to the throne, gives a name to the years of his reign. The periods thus formed are called by the Chinese Nien-hao (year-name) . According to this method of dating the years a new era commences with every reign ; and the year corresponding to a Chinese date can only be found when we have before us a catalogue of the Nien-hao, with their relation to the years of our era. In modern China the native calendar is used side by side with the western one (Hsi-li or western reckoning). (X.)