which denote the 41st of the
cycle. We must, therefore, suppose the cycle to have begun 2397 B.C.,
or forty years before the reign of Yao. This is the epoch assumed by
the authors of _L'Art de verifier les dates_. The mathematical
tribunal has, however, from time immemorial counted the first year of
the first cycle from the eighty-first of Yao, that is to say, from the
year 2277 B.C.

Since the year 163 B.C. the Chinese writers have adopted the practice
of dating the year from the accession of the reigning emperor. An
emperor, on succeeding to the throne, gives a name to the years of his
reign. He ordains, for example, that they shall be called Ta-te. In
consequence of this edict, the following year is called the first of
Ta-te, and the succeeding years the second, third, fourth, &c, of
Ta-te, and so on, till it pleases the same emperor or his successor to
ordain that the years shall be called by some other appellation. The
periods thus formed are called by the Chinese Nien-hao. According to
this method of dating the years a new era commences with every reign;
and the year corresponding to a Chinese date can only be found when we
have before us a catalogue of the Nien-hao, with their relation to the
years of our era.

For _Hindu Chronology_, see the article under that heading.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--In addition to the early Greek writings already named,
there are the forty books (some fifteen only extant in their entirety)
of universal history compiled (about 8 B.C.) by Diodorus Siculus, and
arranged in the form of annals; the _Pentabiblos_ of Julius Africanus
(about 220-230 A.D.); the treatise of Censorinus entitled _De die
natali_, written 238 A.D.; the _Chronicon_, in two books, of Eusebius
Pamphili, bishop of Caesarea (about 325 A.D.), distinguished as the
first book of a purely chronological character which has come down to
us; and three important works forming parts of the _Corpus Scriptorum
Historiae Byzantinae_, namely, the _Chronographia_ of Georgius
Syncellus (800 A.D.), the _Chronographia_ of Johannes Malalas (9th
century), and the _Chronicon Paschale_.

Among works on Chronology, the following, which are arranged in the
order of their publication, have an historical interest, as leading up
to the epoch of modern research:--

1583. _De Emendatione Temporum_, by Joseph Scaliger, in which were
laid the foundations of chronological science.