he fact that years of the same name only return about every
two centuries. They combine 15 signs: five masculine, five feminine and
five neuter, with twelve signs of the zodiac" (Monuments des peuples de
l'Amerique I, p. 386).

With regard to the ancient connection between China and India it is well
to recall the well-known fact that Buddhism did not enter China from India
until the first century of the Christian era and had a prolonged struggle
for existence and influence in the country during several centuries.

The Buddhist missionaries introduced the mode of calculating cycles of
years into China, according to Biot, who states that the primitive
calendar of the Chinese, instituted by Hwang-te, the first king of the
"Flowery land," was a day-count only.

Let us briefly enumerate some bare facts bearing upon the age and
development of the state, religion and government of ancient China. In
2697 B.C. Hwang-te (the Babylonian?) erected a temple to the honor of
Shang-te, the deity associated with the earliest traditions of the Chinese
race. Upon the authority of a Chinaman of the present day it is stated
that "the word Shang-te means supreme ruler; but, as it is not lawful to
use this name lightly, Chinamen usually name the supreme ruler by his
residence, which is Tien=heaven" (Edkins, _op. cit._ p. 71).

An extremely instructive light is thrown upon the Taouist conception of a
supreme being or ruler, by the following episode related by Mr. Edkins in
his "Religion in China" (p. 109). "I met [in 1872] on one occasion a
schoolmaster from the neighborhood of Chapoo.... The inquiry was put to
him, Who is the Lord of heaven and earth? He replied that he knew none but
the pole-star, called in the Chinese language Teen-hwang-ta-te, the great
imperial ruler of heaven. It was stated to him that it was a matter very
much to be regretted that he should hold such views as this of the Supreme
Being."

In this connection and with special reference to the title Tien=heaven,
employed by the Chinese in addressing the supreme ruler, I must quote T.
de Lacouperie's opinion that the Akkadian name=Din-gira and symbol for
God, the eight-pointed star, was the origin of Ti, a Chinese character
with the same meaning and sound. Mr. C. J. Ball (The New Akkadian
Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology) explains the Akkadian
Din-gira as composed of di=to shine and gira=heaven and that thus the
Accadian name for God is "the shining one