have two appropriate characters, and the
four pairs belonging to the time of any man's birth constitute what the
Chinese call the "Eight Characters" of his age, to which constant
reference is made in some of their systems of fortune-telling, and in the
selection of propitious days for the transaction of business. To this
system the text alludes. A curious account of the principles of
prognostication on such a basis will be found in _Doolittle's Social Life
of the Chinese_ (p. 579 seqq.; on the Calendar, see Schmidt's Preface to
_S. Setzen_; _Pallas, Sammlungen_, II. 228 seqq.; _Prinsep's Essays_,
_Useful Tables_, 146.)

["Kubilai Khan established in Peking two astronomical boards and two
observatories. One of them was a Chinese Observatory (_sze t'ien t'ai_),
the other a Mohammedan Observatory (_hui hui sze t'ien t'ai_), each with
its particular astronomical and chronological systems, its particular
astrology and instruments. The first astronomical and calendar system was
compiled for the Mongols by Ye-liu Ch'u-ts'ai, who was in Chingis Khan's
service, not only as a high counsellor, but also as an astronomer and
astrologer. After having been convinced of the obsoleteness and
incorrectness of the astronomical calculations in the _Ta ming li_ (the
name of the calendar system of the Kin Dynasty), he thought out at the
time he was at Samarcand a new system, valid not only for China, but also
for the countries conquered by the Mongols in Western Asia, and named it
in memory of Chingis Khan's expedition _Si ching keng wu yuean li_, i.e.,
'Astronomical Calendar beginning with the year _Keng wu_, compiled during
the war in the west.' Keng-wu was the year 1210 of our era.
Ye-liu Ch'u-ts'ai chose this year, and the moment of the winter solstice,
for the beginning of his period; because, according to his calculations, it
coincided with the beginning of a new astronomical or planetary period. He
took also into consideration, that since the year 1211 Chingis Khan's glory
had spread over the whole world. Ye-liu Ch'u-ts'ai's calendar was not
adopted in China, but the system of it is explained in the _Yuen-shi_, in
the section on Astronomy and the Calendar.

"In the year 1267, the Mohammedans presented to Kubilai their astronomical
calendar (_wan nien li_, i.e.), the calendar of ten thousand years. By
taking this denomination in its literal sense, we may conclude that the
Mahommedans brought to China the ancient Persian system, founded