and the' very a d o f placing them fo diftant from the parallel
for which they were conftruded, is in itfelf a fufficient proof
o f the ignorance o f the Chinefe in matters o f this kind.
Mr. Pauw has given the moft probable conjedure refpeding
thofe inftruments. He fuppofes them to have been made at
Balk, in Badriana, by fome o f thofe Greeks who obtained the
government o f that province under the fucceflors o f Alexander,
and that they had paffed into China during the period o f the
Mongul government.
The death o f Kublai Khan was fpeedily followed by the
total expulfion o f the Tartars from China; and moft probably,
at the fame time, o f all thofe learned men they had been the
means o f introducing into the country; for when the empire
was again fubdued by the Mantchoo Tartars, whofe race now
fills the throne, Sun-cbee, the firft Emperor o f the prefent
dynafty, obferves in an edid publiihed by him in 1650, that
fince the expulfion o f the Monguls, the Chinefe had not been
able to make a corred almanack; and that error had been accumulating
on error in their aftronomical obfervations and chronology.
A t this time, fome Mahomedans were again found to
fuperintend the conftrudion o f the calendar; but the office devolving,
at length, upon a Chinefe, the unfortunate almanack-
maker happened to infert a falfe intercalation, affigning thirteen
months to the year 1670, when it fhould have contained no
more than twelve. This miftake was an event too fortunate to
be overlooked by fome catholic miffionaries who, at that time,
happened to be in the capital. T h e y faw the advantages to be
derived from convincing the Tartars o f the ignorance o f the
Chinefe
Chinefe in a matter o f the laft importance to the government,
and they had little doubt o f fuccefs, where prejudice was already
operating in their favour. In ihort, the Europeans fuc-
ceeded; the almanacks o f that year were declared defedive,
were called in’, a new edition printed off, and the poor alma-
nack-maker is faid to have been ftrangled.
Four German Jefuits were then appointed to fill the vacant
places in the tribunal o f mathematics ; and, being men o f learning,
they proved o f no fmall ufe at court. After thefe the Por-
tuguefe fucceeded to the appointments o f regulating the calendar,
three o f whom, as already ohferved, are now entrufted with
this important office. Fortunately for thefe gentlemen, the
Chinefe have no means o f deteding any little inaccuracies that
may happen in their calculations. I faw, and converfed with,
numbers o f their learned men at the palace o f Y'uen-mhi-yuen,
but I can fafely fay, that not a fingle Chinefe, nor a Tartar,
who ihewed themfelves there, were poffeffed o f the ilighteft
knowledge o f aftronomy, nor one who could explain any o f the
various phenomena o f the heavenly bodies. Aftronomy with
them confifts entirely in a certain jargon o f judicial aftrology;
and they remain firmly attached to the belief o f the dodrines o f
their great philofopher, delivered more than two thoufand years
ago, which teach them that fi the heaven is round, the earth a
“ fquare fixed in the middle; the other four elements placed
“ at its four fides : water to the north ; fire to the fouth ; wood
“ to the eaft; and metal to the weft and they believe the
ftars to be ftuck, like fo many nails, at equal diftancesfrom the
earth, in the blue vault o f heaven. | .
p r a As