File:The book of Ser Marco Polo - the Venetian concerning the kingdoms and marvels of the East (1903) (14582933880).jpg

Identifier: bookofsermarcopo00polo (find matches)
Title: The book of Ser Marco Polo : the Venetian concerning the kingdoms and marvels of the East
Year: 1903 (1900s)
Authors: Polo, Marco, 1254-1323? Cordier, Henri, 1849-1925 Yule, Amy Frances Yule, Henry, Sir, 1820-1889
Subjects: Polo, Marco, 1254-1323? Yule, Henry, Sir, 1820-1889 Genghis Khan, 1162-1227 Polo family Inscriptions, Chinese Early maps Mongols Voyages and travels
Publisher: London : John Murray
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
mperors ofChina established the Academy of Astronomy. (Timk. I. 358-) The acceptance ofthe Imperial Almanac by a foreign Prince is considered an acknowledgment ofvassalage to the Emperor. It is a penal offence to issue a pirated or counterfeit edition of the GovernmentAlmanac. No one ventures to be without one, lest he become liable to the greatestmisfortunes by undertaking the important measures on black-balled days. The price varies now, according to Williams, from i\d. to $d. a copy. The pricein 1328 was I tsien or cash for the cheapest edition, and 1 Hang or tael of silver forthe Edition de luxe ; but as these prices were in paper-money it is extremely difficultto say, in the varying depreciation of that currency, what the price really amounted to. ( The Calendars for the use of the people, published by Imperial command, are oftwo kinds. The first, Wan-7iien-shu, the Calendar- of Ten Thousand Years, is anabridgment of the Calendar, comprising 397 years, viz, from 1624 to 2020. The
Text Appearing After Image:
c u Chap. XXXIII. THE ASTROLOGERS OF CAMBALUC 449 second and more complete Calendar is the Annual Calendar, which, under the pre-ceding dynasties, was named Life, Order of Days, and is now called Shih-hsieu-shu,Book of Constant Conformity (with the Heavens). This name was given by theEmperor Shun-chih, in the first year of his reign (1644), on being presented by FatherJohn Schall (Tang Jo-zvang) with a new Calendar, calculated on the principles ofEuropean science. This Annual Calendar gives the following indications : (i°) Thecyclical signs of the current year, of the months, and of all the days ; (20) the long andshort months, as well as the intercalary month, as the case may be ; (30) the designa-tion of each day by the 5 elements, the 28 constellations, and the 12 happypresages ; (4°)the day and hour of the new moon, of the full moon, and of the twodichotomies, Shang-hsien and Hsia-hsien ; (50) the day and hour for the positions of thesun in the 24 zodiacal signs, calculated for

Note About Images