Fig. 19—Japanese Striking Clock with Two Balances and Two Escapements; Dial Stationary, Hand Moves
Calendars constitute a most interesting and bewildering part of time measuring. We feel that we have settled the matter by determining the length of the year to within a second of time, and keeping the dates correctly to the nearest day by a leap year every fourth and every fourth century, established by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, and known as the “Gregorian Calendar.” In simple words, our “almanac” is the “Gregorian.” We are in the habit of saying glibly that any year divisible by four is a leap year, but this is far from correct. Any year leaving out the even hundreds, which is divisible by four is a leap year. Even hundreds are leap when divisible by four. This explains why 1900 was a common year, because 19 hundreds is not divisible by four; 2000 will be a leap because 20 hundreds is divisible by four; therefore 2100, 2200 and 2300 will be common years and 2400 a leap, etc., to 4000 which must be made common, to keep things straight, in spite of the fact that it is divisible by four both in its hundreds and thousands. But for practical purposes, during more than two thousand years to come, we may simplify the rule to: Years and even hundreds divisible by four are leaps. But great confusion still exists as a result of several countries holding to their own old methods. The present Chinese year has 384 days, 13 months and 13 full moons. Compared with our 1909 it begins on January 21st and will end on February 8, 1910. Last year the China-Japan calendar had 12 months, or moons, but as that is too short they must put in an extra every thirtieth month. We only allow the error to reach one day and correct it with our leap years, but they are not so particular and let the error grow till they require another “moon.” The Old Testament is full of moons, and even with all our “modernity” our “feasts” and holy days are often “variable” on account of being mixed up with moons. In Japan the present year is the 42nd of Meiji, that is, the 42nd of the present Emperor's reign. The present is the Jewish 5669. These and others of varying lengths overlap our year in different degrees, so that in trade matters great confusion exists. The Chinese and Japanese publish a trade almanac in parallel columns with ours to avoid this. It is easy to say that we ought to have a uniform calendar all over the world, but the same remark applies just as much to money, weights, measures, and even to language itself. Finally, the difficulty consists in the facts that there are not an even number of days in a year—or in a moon—or moons in a year. “These many moons” is a survival in our daily speech of this old method of measuring by moons. Just a little hint as to the amount of superstition still connected with “new moon” will be enough to make clear the fact that we are not yet quite so “enlightened” as we say we are. While our calendar, or almanac, may be considered as final, we must remember that custom and religion are so mixed up with the matter in the older countries of the East that they will change very slowly. Strictly, our “era” is arbitrary and Christian; so we must not expect nations which had some astronomical knowledge and a working calendar, thousands of years before us, to change suddenly to our “upstart” methods.
| [LOI] Fig. 20—Key to “12 Horary Branches” and “10 Celestial Stems” | [LOI] Fig. 21—“12 Horary Branches” and “10 Celestial Stems” as Used in Clocks |
Fig. 22—Dial of Japanese Astronomical Clock
In [Fig. 22] we have the dial of a very complicated astronomical clock. This old engraved brass dial did not photograph well, so I made a copy by hand to get clean lines. Commencing at the centre, there is a small disk, B, numbered from 1 to 30, giving days of the moon's age. The moon rises at A and sets at AA, later each day, of course. Her age is shown by the number she touches on disk B, as this disk advances on the moon one number each day. Her phases are shown by the motion of a black disk over her face; so we have here three motions for the moon, so differentiated as to show phase, ascension and age. Still further, as she is represented on the dial when below the horizon, it can be seen when she will rise, and “moonlight” parties may be planned. Just outside the moon's course is an annulus having Japanese numbers 1 to 12, indicating months. Note the recurring character dividing the months in halves, which means “middle,” and is much used. If you will carefully read these numbers you will find a character where one would come; this means “beginning” or “primary” and is often used instead of one. The clock hand is the heavy arrow and sweeps the dial once in a whole day, same direction as our clocks. This circle of the months moves along with the hand, but a little faster, so as to gain one number in a month. As shown on the figure it is about one week into the sixth month. Next outward is the broad band having twelve curved lines for the hours ending outwardly in a ring divided into 100 parts, marked off in tens by dots. These curved lines are numbered with the Japanese numerals for hours which you must now be able to read easily. These hour lines, and the dotted lines for half hours, are really the same as the similar lines on [Fig. 18] which you now understand. As the hand sweeps the dial daily it automatically moves outward a little each day, so it shortens the nights and lengthens the days, just as previously explained for [Fig. 18]. But there is one difference, for you will notice that the last night hour, on which the arrow hand now stands, is longer than the other night hours before it, and that it is divided into three by the dotted lines. The last day hour, on the left of dial, is also long and divided into three. That is, while all the dials previously described have equal hours for any given day, or night, this dial has a last long hour in each case, divided into three instead of the usual half-hours. This is a curious and interesting point having its origin long before clocks. In the early days of the clepsydra in China, a certain time was allowed to dip up the water from the lowest jar, each morning and evening about five o'clock of our time, see [Fig. 8] (Chapter 1). During this operation the clepsydra was not marking time, and the oriental mind evidently considered it in some sense outside of the regular hours, and like many other things was retained till it appeared absurdly on the earlier clocks. This wonderful feat of putting an interval between two consecutive hours has always been impossible to modern science; yet President Roosevelt performed it easily in his “constructive” interregnum! Referring to the Canton clepsydra, [Fig. 8], we find that the float, or “bamboo stick,” was divided into 100 parts. At one season 60 parts for the day and 40 parts for the night, gradually being changed to the opposite for short days. The day hours were beaten on a drum and the night hours blown on a trumpet.
Later the hour numerals were made movable on the “bamboo stick.” This is virtually a vertical dial with movable hour plates, so their idea of time measuring at that date, was of something moving up or down. This was put on the first clocks by the Japanese; so that the dial of [Fig. 16] is substantially the float of the Chinese clepsydra. Further, in this “bamboo stick” of 100 parts, we have our present system of decimal numbers, so we can afford to be a little modest here too. Before leaving [Fig. 22] note the band, or annulus, of stars which moves with the month circle. I cannot make these stars match our twelve signs of the Zodiac, but as I have copied them carefully the reader can try and make order out of them. The extreme outer edge of the dial is divided into 360 parts, the tens being emphasized, as in our decimal scales.
As we are getting a little tired of these complicated descriptions, let us branch off for a few remarks on some curiosities of Eastern time keeping. They evidently think of an hour as a period of time more specifically than we do. When we say “6 o'clock” we mean a point of time marked by the striking of the clock. We have no names for the hour periods. We must say “from 5 to 6” or “between 5 and 6” for an hour period. The “twelfth hour” of the New Testament, I understand to mean a whole hour ending at sunset; so we are dealing with an oriental attitude of mind towards time. I think we get that conception nearly correct when we read of the “middle watch” and understand it to mean during the middle third of the night. Secondly, why do the Japanese use no 1, 2, 3 on their dials? These numbers were sacred in the temples and must not be profaned by use on clocks, and they mentally deducted these from the clock hours, but ultimately became accustomed to 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4. Thirdly, why this reading of the hours backwards? Let us suppose a toiler commencing at sunrise, or six. When he toiled one hour he felt that there was one less to come and he called it five. This looks quite logical, for the diminishing numbers indicated to him how much of his day's toil was to come. Another explanation which is probably the foundation of “secondly” and “thirdly” above, is the fact that mathematics and superstition were closely allied in the old days of Japan. If you take the numbers 1 to 6, [Fig. 23], and multiply them each into the uncanny “yeng number,” or nine, you will find that the last digits, reading downwards, give 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4. Stated in other words: When 1 to 6 are multiplied into “three times three” the last figures are 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, and 1, 2, 3, have disappeared; so the common people were filled with fear and awe. Some of the educated, even now, are mystified by the strange results produced by using three and nine as factors, and scientific journals often give space to the matter. We know that these results are produced by the simple fact that nine is one less than the “radix” of our decimal scale of numbers. Nine is sometimes called the “indestructible number,” since adding the digits of any of its powers gives an even number of nines. But in those days it was a mystery and the common people feared the mathematicians, and I have no doubt the shrewd old fellows took full advantage of their power over the plebeians. In Japan, mathematics was not cleared of this rubbish till about 700 A. D.