English
I mentioned the circumstance to a learned Mahomedan, in hopes of getting some information, and his reply was, that neither the Ciiineae borrowed from the Arabs, nor the Arabs from the Chinese; but that they both had borrowed from one and the same source, which was from the people of a country to the north of Persia, and to the west or the north-west of China, called Turkistan. He observed, that before the time of Mahomed, the Arabs had no astronomy ; that they were then de- void of every kind of science; and that what they possessed since on the sul^ect of astronomy was from the Greeks. To which I replied) that I understood die Mansions of the Moon were alluded to in the Koran ; and as the Grefjcs had no Lunar Mansions in their astronomy, they could not come from them. He said that the mansions alluded to in the Koran were uBcertain ; that na Qne knew what particular star or manaioR was meant; and there* fore,, no inf^ence could be drawn that any of those now 'm use were alluded to. Here our conversation ended ; and as no great light was thrown on the subject^ by supposing that the Chinese and Arabs bcurrowed from one and the same source, instead qf one of them from the other, I thought it was best to adopt another course, whidi was* to exAmine into tike meanings of the names of the Chinese mansions, whidi might refer us to soiae eS the oonstel- lations, in the same manner aa the Arabian names of several of their mansions refer to certain parts of the constdlatiima from which they derive their names, by which their antiquity would be, at all events, limited by the period when the eonsteUationsk th^m- sdves were first framed, beyond which they could not be carried^ but might oth^rwisi^ be ai a very n^odem date* With this view I carefidly examined the name of the Chinese eonstellations, and particularly their mansions^ because on the latter only, tfie anti^ quity would rest; for of the former many might have be^ ilre- diiced since the first ajrrivat of the missionari^ in China, andj per-* bap through their assiatanee ; but die latter oould not, aa they etxisted hc^re their times. In tUa search I was not disappointed ; for I found tl^ two mansioas in Scorpio,. Sin, Wei referred ta parts of that constdlatioo : the first, being the name for the Scor- pon'a hearty is called the heart station ; the other, signifying tail Digitized by Google APPENDIX. 235 is called the tail station, thus referring at once to the parts of the Constellation to which they respectirely belong. We cannot, tiierefore, on this ground, admit them to possess a greatet anti* quity than the constellation itself, from certain parts of which they derive their names. Indeed ^ere is strong ground to believe, that ^ey are not older ^an the ^ird century of the christian era : but before we can enter on this discmsion, it is proper to exhibit both the Chinese and the Arabian mansions together, in order to be compared, as in the following Table. TABLE I. I^ Arabian and Chinete Lunar ManiUms, exhibiiinff the firti Skar of each. ArMm Names and first Slat of each Chi$t9S€ Ntmest and first Star of emek\ Mansion, | I Simakool nazal. Spica Virg. 1 Keo, Spica Virginis. 2 Ul Ghufr, 98 Virg. 2 Kang, 96 Do. . S Ux Zabaoft, alabrm. 3TU. a Libne. 4 Ul leleel, 5 Ul Qalb, (Oolojrrub,) irp^/3 Seorp. a Seorp* 4 Fang, 6 Sb, ir p 9 /3 Soorpii. <r Do. 6 Usb Sbowlab, V Scorp. 6 Wei, eDo. 7 UnNwatm, 7 Sajilt. 7 Ke, y Sagittarli. 8 Ul Biilda, ^Do. 8 Tow, ^Do. 9 Sad'oodh Dhabih, JSCapric. 9 New. fi Caprieorai. 10 SadW Bala c Aqaar. 10 Neo, c Aqoarii. 11 Sad*oos soo-fN>d ^Do. 11 Hen, ^Do. 12 Sad'ool ukhbijnh. yDo. 12 Wei, a Do. 13 Ul Fnrgb'ool Moogaddiin ,pPega8. 13 Sbih, aPegaii. 14 Ul Fnrgh'ool Mooakkhir, vDo. /3Aiidromed. 14 Peeh, y Do. 38 AndromedB. 16 Ur Risha, 16 Kwei, 16 Usb Sburatan, yArietif. 16 Low, /3 Arlef is. 17 Ul Botjn, pop Do. f| Pleiad. 17 Wei, 36 Br. C. Do. 18 Uth Tbaryja, 18 Maon, H Pleiadnm. 19 Ud DoboroD, y Tanri. 19 Peek, y Tanri. \ Orionis. 20 Ul Hiqab, X Ononis. 20 Chny, 21 Ul Hinah, y Geminornm. 21 Tsan, ^Do. 22 Udb Dhira, 22 Tiing, u Geniinonui. 23 Un Nttttrab, Pneaepe. 23 Kwei, OCancri. 24 Ut Torfub, c Leoois. 24 Lew, ^Hydne. 26 Uj Jebbah, 72 Br. C. Do. 26 Swg, a Do. 26 Uz Zoobnib, 26 Chang, vDo. 27 UsSmrfah, /3Do. 27 Yih, a Grateris. 28 Ul Awa, ^Yirgiais. 28 CUn, yCorri. The first four mansions appear the same with the Chinese and Arabians ; the 5th differs m the Chinese beginning the mansions with a instead of a Scorp. but as including a, they call it the man- sion of the heart ; in the sixth they sdso differ, but the 7th, 8th, Digitized by Google 256 APPENDIX. 9ik, 10th, and lltb, are the same ; in the 12th and 13th they differ a little, and in the 14th they again agree, but disagree in the 15th, 16th and 17th ; in the 18th, 10th, and 20th they also agree, but disagree in all the^rest. Here then we see, that out of the whole no less than 13 agree, and these all within the first twenty. This regular i^eement and commencement of both from the same point is so particularly striking, that no one can doubt but that they must have been ob- tained originally from the same fountain head. That they are not of Chinese origin is certain, because the point of commencement does not agree in any manner with that of the Chinese year, which cither begins at the autumnal or vernal equinox ; and there is not the slightest doubt but that the year, in the country where the man- sions were framed, must have begun either at the vernal or autum- nal equinox, but most probably the vernal, as the star in the Lu- nar Asterism would then be on the meridian at midnight, and the longitude of the star six signs from Aries. If we wish to know when this was the case, we must determine the time from the pre- sent longitude of Spica. In A. D. 1750, the longitude of Spica Virginis was 6' 20° 21' 18*, so that it has advanced 20° 21' 18". Now if we assume the annual precession at 50" we ^hall get 1466 years, which, subtracted from 1750, leaves A. D. 284, the time when the autumnal equinox coincided with the star, which we conclude was also the time when the lunar Mansions were framed. Consequently, if this assumption be correct, the Chinese must have received their man- sions from some quarter, since the Tear A. D. 284, and, in order to prevent detection, gave them names of their own. To this it may be objected, that they have tables of Lunar Mansions oi a date many years anterior to A. D. 284 ; that they are mentioned in their old books ; and that celestial observations of very great antiquity are referred to them. To which it may be observed, that all this is fine declamation, full of plausibility, but without the slightest proof. A nation like the Chinese, who are proud and jealous of all others, would naturally use every possible means to conceal the adoption of a set of Lunar Mansions received from another state, to which they would not confess themselves to be under an obligation. They would therefore not only disguise them by new names of their own, but would likjewise compute tables of them for different periods of time, long anterior to the time of their reception; and to make the matter still more com- plete, they would make mention of them in their pretended an- Digitized by Google APPENDIX. 237 cient books, fabricated then, and ref(n' rarious fictitious celestial observations to them, settled by computation backward, or per- haps by no computation at all, as in ^e supposed obsenrations on comets, in which they knew they could not be detected. Many of these pretended observations have been found to be false, and the others that were supposed to come near the truth, were no other than the effect of mere computation in modern times. But that which destroys all these supposed ancient references most completely, is the time of ^e formatipn of the c^nstellaticms, which I Imve placed between the years 756 and 746 B. C, and others carry back as far as 1100 or 1200 years before Christ If they have imposed on us in this respect, by going beyond the limit here assigned, what security have we that they have not imposed on us in the first instance, in assuming to themselves the invention and formation of the Lunar Asterbms above exhibited, which most certainly never were Chinese, nor were invented before the time I mentioned above, viz. A. D. 284?