the first moon of the year 1873
being the first of a new cycle, the first moon of every sixth year,
reckoned backwards or forwards from that date, as 1868, 1863, &c., or
1877, 1882, &c., also begins a new lunar cycle of sixty moons. In
regard to the years, the arrangement is exactly the same. Each has a
distinct number or name which marks its place in the cycle, and as
this is generally given in referring to dates, along with the other
chronological characters of the year, the ambiguity which arises from
following a fluctuating or uncertain epoch is entirely obviated.

The cycle of sixty is formed of two subordinate cycles or series of
characters, one of ten and the other of twelve, which are joined
together so as to afford sixty different combinations. The names of
the characters in the cycle of ten, which are called _celestial_
signs, are--

1. Ke[)a]; 2. Y[)i]h; 3. Ping; 4. Ting; 5. Woo;
6. Ke; 7. K[)a]ng; 8. Sin; 9. Jin; 10. Kwei;

and in the series of 12, denominated _terrestrial_ signs,

1. Tsze; 2. Chow; 3. Yin; 4. Maou; 5. Shin; 6. Sze;
7. Woo; 8. We; 9. Shin; 10. Yew; 11. Se[)u]h; 12. Hae.

The name of the first year, or of the first day, in the sexagenary
cycle is formed by combining the first words in each of the above
series; the second is formed by combining the second of each series,
and so on to the tenth. For the next year the first word of the first
series is combined with the eleventh of the second, then the second of
the first series with the twelfth of the second, after this the third
of the first series with the first of the second, and so on till the
sixtieth combination, when the last of the first series concurs with
the last of the second. Thus Ke[)a]-tsze is the name of the first
year, Y[)i]h-Chow that of the second, Ke[)a]-se[)u]h that of the
eleventh, Y[)i]h-hae that of the twelfth, Ping-tsze that of the
thirteenth, and so on. The order of proceeding is obvious.

In the Chinese history translated into the Tatar dialect by order of
the emperor K'ang-hi, who died in 1721, the characters of the cycle
begin to appear at the year 2357 B.C. From this it has been inferred
that the Chinese empire was established previous to that epoch; but
it is obviously so easy to extend the cycles backwards indefinitely,
that the inference can have very little weight. The characters given
to that year 2357 B.C. are Ke[)a]-shin,