The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1894-12-04
QUEER ASTRONOMY.
THAT or THE CHINESE, FOR lT is
AS YET MERELY ASTRoLoGY.

There Is No Telescope In IN Peking oh
servatory, bet Many Elaborate Instru~
ments OF No Apparent Use-wOnderfuI
Bell In the Observatory Tower.
Astronomy in China is in q very
primitive condition. The observatory
at Picking is the only one belonging to
China which is Of any Importance. It
is situated upon q terrace, Which runs
along the Notifications Of tho city and
could, if necessary, be used az 4 for
tress. ~a %E.
Tho Instruments which it contains are
remarkable lor their historical interest
and artistic beauty rather than for their
scientific value. Perhaps the most in
teresting of these, is the huge bronze
quadrant sent by Louis XIV To the Chi
Rese Emperor Kang Hi in the, seven.
teonth century. IL is probably sass most
modern and consequently the mosttac-
fcurate instrument i'm the sehole aeollec-
tion. The chief piece of the Observable
~ is an extremely ornate bronze instru-
ment which was constructed by the
chief astronomer Of the Emperor Kublai-
Khan in the thirteenth century. The
ferm- Of, the instrument somewhat re-
sembles o modern equatorial, but its
use is p~roblematical. This astronomer,
whose name wasrK oni 6irou King, may
be called the Napoleon OF Chinese as
tronomy, for he was the first to con.
struct instruments Of any practical val
ne, and the observatory owes to him
nearly oil its astronomical appliances.
The gigantic celestial sphere is another
object Of interest. Though 9 feet in di-
ameter and weighing more than q ton,
yet it can be easily rotated by a child,
SO. carefully is it balanced.
9F' The Instruments are all of very orna.
mental construction. Utility was q Sec
ondary consideration To appearance, and
the native worknfen who constructed
them were far more, concerned about the
dragons with flares issuing from their
mouths ard tho hideous figures adorn-
ing the Instruments than they were
about the accuracy Of the divisions
The number of men EMPLOYED BY the
Celestial gtter1tnent to manage the OBJ
seryatory Is very large. Inc1uding ali
the officials aud salaried students. there
are 400. There is a chancellor nc the
head, and after him arc directors. sub
direct6rsanf assistant subdirectorswith.
out number. "A post III tile Peking Oh.
~servatory, though honorary, is cunsid-
cred tobe a very Important position, and
the present chancellor is an uncle of
the emperor. ~ #t&f@s~ tefh %s&
His ~snbordinates are also men of
rank, the two directors having d right
to the button Of precious stones and a
jeweled image of the sea raven, which
is worn ON the heart. Their offices are
hereditary (about the only ones In CHI
ma which arel, because they alone have
the calculation tables which the Jesuits
introduced in the seventeenth century,
and they keep them carefully hidden
away.
One of the principal features in a
modern observatory is a telescope. In
the Picking observatory there is not a
single telescope, and there never has been
one, or at least there is no record oft.
This is not astonishing in view Of the
use which the Chinese make Of astrono-
my. The only real value 1T has for
them is to determine their numerous
fast days and the dates of idolatrous
feasts which the emperor periodically
holds at the various temples when he
executes the sacrifices ana performs the
rites laid down IN the sacred books. 4
The astronomy of the Chinese was ia
fact and is yet merely ~asttology. The
duty OF fixing these dates falls upon the
officials OF the Observatory, and the
council OF the board Aso meets on the