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system, and two formidable adversaries, Chronology and Astronomy, united their forces to subvert it *.

In the first place, to speak of Chronology. It was observed, that the succession of emperors, up to the period at which we presume the chinese history to be authentic, has several considerable breaks; that most of these potentates are known only by their names, whether true or fictitious; that there is a great barrenness of historical facts, and of those which occur some are manifestly absurd; that there are numerous contradictions in the order of the dates; and lastly, that the chinese history does not acquire connexion, or any character of certainty, till the time of Confucius, that is to say, about the year 460 before Christ.

With regard to astronomy, the defenders of the great antiquity of the chinese in the sciences have imagined, that in the Shoo-king, a fragment of the ancient annals of China collected by Confucius, they find the -mention of an observation of the solstices made in the time of the emperor Yao, and of an eclipse of the Sun almost as ancient. But this account is so obscure, and so brief, that european astronomers, having attempted to calculate the appearance of these phenomena, have not agreed in their conclusions. -The observation of the solstices has no precise date, or mark of truth: and the eclipse is placed by some in the year 2154 before Christ, by others in 2007. A very uncertain observation of the solstices between the years 1098 and 1104 before Christ is likewise

* See the Memoirs of the Academy of Belles Lettres, vol. xxxvi, p. 164.

quoted.

quoted. But the most ancient chinese observation, to which any authority can be allowed, would be that of a solar eclipse, supposed to have been made in the year 776 before the christian era, could we be certain, that it was not given from a subsequent calculation.

The annals collected by Se-Ma Quang, a chinese historian of the eleventh century, mention, in the reign of the emperor Tshwen-Yo, which began a hundred and fifty years before that of Yao, a conjunction of five of the planets, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury, in the constellation called by the chinese Sha; and to characterise this conjunction, the year of the cycle in which it occurred, the day of the syzygy, and the position of this syzygy with respect to the constellation Sha are added*. From these. indications, Mr. Kirch of Berlin, and after him father Mailla, the jesuit, having calculated by astronomical tables the conjunctions of the planets, which might have taken place in ancient times, found a conjunction of the four planets Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, and Mercury, in a space of some degrees in the neighbourhood of the constellation Sha, in the year 2449 before Christ. But, beside that this pretended conjunction is incomplete, since Venus is wanting, it does not accord with the year of the cycle, the syzygy, or the position of the syzygy. Cassini places the same conjunction in the year 2012; and his calculation gives with more accuracy than the others the position of the four planets in the constellation Sha,

Memoirs of the Academy of Belles Lettres, vol. x, p. 392, and vol. xviii, p. 284.

G 2

but

but it equally fails of fulfilling the other conditions of the problem. Some other fruitless attempts have been made to reconcile the whole; but all these un'certainties give rise to a strong probability, that the chinese never observed a conjunction of these five planets. It is very possible, that it was the invention of flattery; for the chinese, considering conjunctions of the planets as very fortunate presages for the reigns of their emperors, make no scruple to forge them sometimes, or to be very accommodating on the subject. For this we may appeal to what occurred in the year 1725, the second of the reign of YongTshing, when the approximation of Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter, was given out as a conjunction, and inscribed as one in the public registers. It is the opinion of father Gaubil, a jesuit missionary and learned astronomer, that the pretended conjunction in the time of the emperor Tshwen-Yo has no other foundation, than a calendar published under the dynasty of Han, who ascended the throne in the year 207 before Christ, and considered by the most learned of the chinese as a forgery, which did not even contain the conjunction in question in the text, but in a comment that has slipped into it. Finally it has been demonstrated by Freret, that this calendar was the work of some blundering forger, who was even ignorant of the art of making calculations *.

It appears unquestionable, that we cannot affix to the astronomy of the chinese any real and positive date earlier than the year 722 before Christ, or twenty

* Memoirs of the Academy of Belles Lettres, Vol. xvi, p. 289.

five years after the era of Nabonassar. In the work entitled Tshu-Tseu, Confucius notes a succession of thirty six eclipses, from that period to the year before. Christ 480, of which thirty one have been verified by modern astronomers. From that time the chinese astronomy was continually enriching itself with new observations, the fruits of patient industry, not of genius; for we have every reason to believe, that the chinese were never very expert in astronomical calculations, and that they have frequently had recourse to foreign astronomers, to enlarge or correct their theoretical knowledge. Thus, for instance, in the time of the khalifs, several mohammedan astronomers went into China, and were placed at the head of the mathematical tribunal; an honour, which our astronomical missionaries likewise have frequently received.

I must not conceal, that a powerful objection to the antiquity of the claims, which the chinese have to the sciences, is drawn from the period when their astronomical observations begin to acquire certainty. This era being posteriour to that of Nabonassar, which serves as a base to the computations of the chaldean and grecian astronomy, it has been concluded with some probability, that the astronomers of Babylon, or those of Greece, carried their knowledge into China; particularly as we are certain, that some intercourse between those nations subsisted about that period.

To conclude, we have before our eyes a striking proof of the mediocrity of the chinese in the science of astronomy. Notwithstanding the concurrence of

so many favourable circumstances, a serene sky, and the encouragement of the emperors; which should naturally have accelerated it's progress in China, it has always remained there nearly in the same state: it abounds in observations, but to any new theory it is a stranger. Superstitiously attached to it's ancient customs, to the barren imitation of it's forefathers, and to the opinion that they knew every thing necessary to be known, the chinese nation appears destitute of that restless activity, which endeavours to extend it's acquirements, and gives birth to discoveries.

Some of the learned consider Hindostan as the cradle of all the sciences, and particularly of astronomy, which they date from the remotest antiquity. As a proof of this they quote the celebrated hindoo periods, which would leave no doubt, were they perfectly clear and exact, that the hindoos were formerly well. versed in the knowledge of the celestial motions. But all that relates to this origin is enveloped in thick darkness: every thing in it is the work of system: it proceeds only by the help of conjectures and bold suppo sitions, is frequently contradictory, and always questionable.

Others, perhaps erring in the opposite extreme, assert that the astronomy of the Hindoos, far from having had such an ancient origin, is the work of the arabs, who carried it into Hindostan about the middle of the ninth century.

A third and more probable opinion refers the origin of astronomy in Hindostan to the time, when Pythagoras travelled into that country, and there diffused the philosophical attainments of every kind, with which his mind was enriched. A. C. 540.

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