Note 152 — XXIII. MISS LIEN-HSIANG.
Herbert Allen Giles translation
“From time immemorial, the Chinese have employed a combination of two sets of characters, numbering ten and twelve respectively, to form a cycle of sixty terms for the purpose of chronological notation. The period at which this cycle was invented is a subject upon which complete uncertainty prevails, but there is little doubt that it first came into use as a method of reckoning years after the reform of the calendar in B.C. 104.”—Mayers’ Reader’s Manual.
The birthday on which any person completes his cycle is considered a very auspicious occasion. The second emperor of the present dynasty, K‘ang Hsi, completed a cycle in his reign, with one year to spare; and his grandson, Ch‘ien Lung (or Kien Lung) fell short of this only by a single year, dying in the same cyclical period as that in which he had ascended the throne. return to footnote anchor 152 return to Vol. II. footnote anchor 270