File:Peking Observatory 2.jpg

English: John Thomson: PEKING consists of two cities: one the Tartar or Manchu city, with the Imperial palace in its centre; the other, the Chinese, containing the altars of heaven and earth, where the State worship is carried on.

The Tartar city is enclosed by massive walls, nearly in the form of a square, each side measuring about three miles and a-half. These walls are pierced with nine gates; three on the south side and two on each of the others. The Tartar city is supposed to contain nothing except the Imperial palace, the abodes of the nobles, and the barracks for the accommodation of the bannermen, already described, who form the body-guard of the Emperor. Several causes, however, have contributed to alter this the original state of things; the most prominent of which are, the long residence of these bannermen in the capital; their familiar intercourse with the less warlike Chinese; their proud disdain for trades or handicrafts of every sort; and the inadequate support which the government allowances can supply. Many of the old families of the Manchu bannermen have thus become impoverished, and the lands allotted to them at the time of the conquest have been sold, and have passed to Chinese proprietors; so that now there is a considerable Chinese population to be found within the Tartar city.

The Chinese city adjoins the southern wall of the Tartar city. It is also walled, in the form of a parallelogram, and covers an area five miles long by three broad. Access to this division of the metropolis is gained through seven gateways; two on the north, one eastward, one westward, and three others on the southern side.

The Chinese town is thinly populated, and a great portion of the enclosed area is under cultivation. MrEdkins estimates the entire census of Peking at something over a million, whereas, he says, the Chinese set it down at two millions and a-half.

Having ascended one of the well-built slopes of stone which conduct to the summit of the city walls, I found myself traversing a paved surface thirty feet in width, and commanding a view of the capital from an elevation of about fifty-five feet.

The prospect from the walls is by no means a striking one; the eye ranges over a multitude of low roofs, and brick walls enclosing the pleasure grounds of the rich, with shrubs and trees overhanging them; or over the mud hovels of a multitude of poor, proud, bannermen, divided by broad thoroughfares in well defined lines, and cut across also by narrow lanes of communication to the walled-in dwellings.

When one gazes upon a Chinese city, such as Peking, one cannot help being struck by its labyrinth of walls. You must first mount the ramparts to see them, and, this done, you may descry beneath your feet countless lanes hedged in with high brick walls, where every dwelling of any pretensions is shut in round about by brick enclosures all its own. Thus each family seems fortified against vulgar or offensive intrusion.

The houses are so arranged that the inner family dwelling is isolated in a sort of sacred seclusion. The only approach is by a small outer doorway, through a dead wall, leading into a court and outer chamber, beyond which a stranger may not intrude. Next to this succeeds a reception room for guests, and further in are the apartments devoted solely to the family circle.

I cannot help holding it to be a defect in the national character, which renders such formidable barriers necessary. Moreover, when I looked towards the centre of the city, my eyes caught the light reflected by the yellow roofs of the Imperial palace, and I found the idea of family isolation carried out in the strong walls and moat which encompass the grounds of the "sacred purple capitol," within which the Emperor and his family reside, and his eunuchized retainers are condemned to dwell in splendid misery. In addition to the palace of the Emperor and the abodes of the Princes, a few stately temples rear their heads close by, and break the monotony of the prospect.

Near to the palace, and on the east side of the Tartar city, rising a considerable height above the battlements, the Observatory is to be seen. This Observatory was erected during the Yuen or Mongol dynasty, towards the end of the thirteenth century, Ko-show-king, one of the most renowned astronomers in Chinese history, being chief of the astronomical board at the time. The instrument shown at No. i [, constructed under his directions, now stands below the wall at the east end of the court. It is of huge dimensions, cast in solid bronze, and is of the most beautiful workmanship. The stand of this piece of mechanism has a mythological significance, and its design is of remarkable artistic excellence. Four of the dragons, which play such an important part in Chinese geomancy, are there seen chained to the earth, and upholding the spheres. The perfect modelling and solidity of the metal proves that the art of casting was well understood in those days.

A substantial metal horizon, crossed at right angles by a double ring for an azimuth circle, forms the outer framework. The upper surface of this horizon is divided into twelve equal parts, marked respectively by the cyclical characters, " tsze, chow, yin, maou, chin, szi, woo, wei, shin, yu, seih, hae," being the names applied to the twelve hours into which the Chinese divide their day and night.

Round the outside of the ring these twelve characters appear again, paired with eight characters of the denary cycle, and four of the "book of changes,'" designating the points of the compass, thus, "jin-tsze, kwei-chow, kan-yin, kea-maou, yih-chin, seuen-szc, ping-woo, ting-wei, kwan-shin, kang-yu, sin-seih, keen-hae."

The inside of the ring bears the names of the twelve states into which China was anciently divided : every part of the empire being supposed to be under the influence of a particular quarter of the heavens.

An equatorial circle is fixed inside this frame, within which a movable series of rings turns on two pivots at the poles of the azimuth circle. The latter consists of an equatorial circle, and a double ring ecliptic, an equinoctial colure, and a double ring solstitial colure. The equator is divided into twenty-eight unequal portions, marked by the names of so many constellations of unknown antiquity. These are, " keo, kang, te, fang," &c. &c.

The determinant points of each of these constellations are used for so many meridian lines, from which all distances are measured, just as we use the vernal equinox for right ascension.

The ecliptic is divided into twenty-four equal parts, into which the year is portioned out. Inside this, again, there is a double revolving meridian, with a double axis; and in it a tube is fixed, turning on a centre, for taking sights.

All these circles are also divided into 365^° corresponding to the days of the year, and each degree is subdivided into a hundred equal parts; for at that time the centenary division prevailed for everything less than degrees, and was only abandoned on the arrival of the Jesuit missionaries in the seventeenth century.

At the corners of the base, and outside the dragons, are four miniature rocks in bronze, with the respective inscriptions, "keen shan, north-west or celestial mountain; kwan shan, south-west or terrestrial mountain; seuen shan, or south-east mountain; kan shan, north-east mountain."

These are probably symbolical in reference to an old tradition.