stems" and associated with the male
principle, is combined with a group of twelve characters, named the
"terrestrial branches" and associated with the female principle. An
unbroken series of sixty-year cycles have thus been formed, in the
seventy-sixth of which the Chinese are now living. According to Biot, the
calendar instituted by Hwang-te was a day-count only, and year-cycles were
not in use until after the Christian era, having been introduced from
India.

There are indications which will be more fully discussed further on,
showing that the primitive day-count consisted of the seven-day period,
each day being consecrated to one of the seven bright stars of Ursa Major,
called the "Seven Regulators."

It is well known that Taouism was founded by Laou-tsze, who was a
contemporary of Confucius and thus "lived in the sixth century before
Christ, a hundred years later than Buddha and a hundred years earlier than
Socrates. A mystery hangs over Laou-tsze's history ... and there is the
possibility that he was a foreigner, or perhaps a member of an aboriginal
frontier tribe" (Legge).

The Shoo-king, the national book of history edited by Confucius, enables
us to follow the development of the state religion and government, the
basis of which was Heaven and its imperial ruler, the pole-star. The
almost mythical emperor Yaou, whose reign began in B.C. 2357, "imitated
Heaven, harmonized the various states of the empire and divided it into
four quarters." His successor, Shun, extended its organization, but it was
Yue, the third ruler, in the thirteenth year of his reign (B.C. 1121), who,
acknowledging his ignorance of them "went to inquire of Ke-tsze" about
"the great plan of the 9 classifications and the arrangement of the
invariable principles." It is also stated in the Shoo-King, that it was
"Heaven [who] gave to Yue the great plan and the 9 classifications, so that
the invariable principles were arranged, consisting of the 5 elements, the
8 regulations, and the 5 arrangers."

In China the day is divided into periods equivalent to 120 minutes=2
hours. "In speaking of these periods, however, the practice which was
originally introduced into China by the Mongols, of substituting for the
twelve stems, the names of the twelve animals which are supposed to be
symbolical of them, is commonly adopted. Thus the 1st period, that between
11 P. M. and 1 A. M., is known as the Rat, period 2 as the Ox, 3 Tiger, 4
Hare, 5 Dragon, 6 Ser