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NOVEMBER, 1888.)
CONFUCIUS AND HIS MISSION.
317
mean-sign system is still more so. The sasivat- Looking to the present time, if the meansaras mentioned in the four records of the sign system is used in one part of the country, Early Gupta period, which give fall details for the heliacal-rising system is used in another;"$ calculation, are proved to belong to the while, in others, both systems are almost, if not heliacal-rising system. And, while I have quite, unknown. The mean-sign system is been able to quote no less than eleven autho- doubtless the more convenient of the two; rities referring to that system, a distinct re- since the duration of the sauvatsara, ronghly ference to the mean-sign system is to be found three hundred and sixty-one days, approaches in only two; vis. the first Åryabhata and so near to that of the solar year; and the Brahmagupta, as quoted above. If to these omission of a sarivatsara occurs only once i we add an interpolated verse in the Siddhanta- about eighty-five years. And this point of Siromani, and also hold that Garga and Vara- convenience seems to be the reason for which hamihira give the system, even then the the system was invented by the astronomers. number comes to only five." And in about But, as both the systems are given in astronoeight of such works as would be expected to mical works, both of them must certainly refer to the system, of a date later than have been actually used. And such will A.D. 1478, which I have examined, I find always be the case, as long as those works a reference to it in none at all.
exist.
CONFUCIUS AND HIS MISSION
BY DR. EDKINS; PEKING. There is no spot in China held more sacred, resembles a deer in shape but has scales like a than the tomb of Confucius. It lies midway dragon and fleshy horns, and never appears between Peking and Shanghai, and is about but as & portent of some great event. 400 miles distant from each of these cities. At six years of age Confucius shewed The lineal descendant of Confucius resides here, great fondness for imitating ancient cereand attends to the sacrifices and to the careful
monies, and persuaded his companions, instead preservation of the various antiques which of any rougher play, to join him in mimicking are here deposited. The country is flat, but observances connected with worship and with sixteen miles away is a small hill called Ni-shan. funeral rites. He went to school at seven In the year 552 B.C. the wife of a provincial years of age, and his schoolmaster's name is scholar, respectable in station, might have been recorded as Ping-chung, who was a magistrate seen approaching this hill to worship. She
acting at Tung-ngo, a place still in existence, offered a prayer to the spirit of the hill and and its name preserved on the map of the proreturned. She was dressed in a somewhat vince of Shan-tung. In pictures, the master rough-looking grey silk robe. The sleeves sits under a tree, and a few scholars, the school were deep and full, covering her hands. The companions of Confucius, are seated on stools left portion of the robe was made full enough irregularly placed near to the master's table. to cross under the neck over the right portion At the age of seventeen Confucius accepted of the robe and was held in its position by a a post which required him to be in charge of girdle tied in front. The feet were completely the market-bargaining with the people. He in covered. The next year a son was born to this spected articles and prices of goods brought to lady, and his parents gave him the name Kieu, market, and decided upon the correctness of or hillock,' in remembrance of the prayer. weights and measures. He married the daughTwo days before his birth, it is said, a beauti
ter of his superior in office in his nineteenth year. ful unicorn was seen near to the house called Wben his eldest son was born, the ruler of the the chi-lin. This creature being seen is an Loo kingdom, under whose jurisdiction he had omen that a sage is about to be born. He
been acting as an officer of markets, sent him
A verse containing reference to the system is given as belonging to Sripati in Pandit Bapu Dova Shastri's edition of the Siddhanta-siromani, p. i3, note;
but I do not find it in the Ratnamall of Sripati.
" See noto 19 above.
