Note 1 — II.—BIRTH, MARRIAGE AND DEATH.

The superstitions of the Chinese concerning lucky and unlucky days are so numerous that, though they scarcely exceed, they certainly equal those which, some 300 years ago, existed amongst our own ancestors. To commence with those referring to periods rather than dates, we may note that the seventh day is reputed to possess much the same mystic properties by the Chinese as it was by the Western ancients. This may arise from its being an astronomical period—the moon’s phases being always spoken of as changing every seven days. But whatever the reason, both the seventh day and the period it begins or terminates is constantly observed in Chinese ceremonies. Thus, for example, the seventh, fourteenth, twenty-eighth and thirty-fifth days after a person’s death are specially set aside for mourning observances. The seventh day is critical in fevers; and the seventh evening of the seventh month is the great worshipping time for women. But, more than this, we find that the Chinchew edition of the Imperial Almanack invariably marks the Christian Sabbath with a character, signifying “rest or quiet,” though simply taken by the natives to mean unauspicious for work. Dr. Carstairs Douglas thus wrote on this subject in Vol. 4 p. 38 of Notes and Queries on China and Japan: “In the edition of the Imperial Almanack published at Chinchew (Tsʻuên-cheu-foo) and at Amoy and all the country round, the Christian Sabbath is invariably marked by the character mih (pronounced in Amoy bit), which means ‘secret,’ ‘quiet’ or ‘silent.’… I have not met with any heathen who can throw any light on the meaning or history of this remarkable character as it stands in the Almanack, though I have made enquiries both among the literati and at the office in Chinchew where it is published. The only trace of its meaning (excepting of course the plain and unmistakable sense of the word itself) as used by the Chinese at present, is that it is always placed in that part of the page which contains the inauspicious elements of each day, which make it unlucky for doing work. This seems clearly to prove that the original use of the phrase was to indicate ‘a day of rest.’ ” Dr. Douglas then goes on to shew that the assumption of its having been introduced by the Jesuits is scarcely tenable, inasmuch as it is not found in the almanacks published at Peking, where Jesuit influence was greatest; while if its introduction were so recent it would not probably have found its way into the category of the criteria of lucky and unlucky days, which are always supposed to rest on the highest antiquity. The discussion was finally set at rest by Mr. Wylie, who explained “mih” as being a transcript of the Persian “mitra” for Sunday introduced into the Chinese Calendar through Indian astronomers.1 It is noteworthy that the day always coincides with the Christian, and not the Jewish Sabbath.