The Chinese calendar--Confucius and eclipses--Proclaiming the new moon--Celestial observations in different states--Chinese year is luni-Solar--Difficulty with the exact length of a moon--Ingenious devices for bringing the solar and lunar years, the seasons, solstices, and equinoxes into harmony with agricultural needs--The sixty-year cycle--Various reforms of the calendar, and various changes in the month beginning the year--Effect of calendar changes on Confucius' birthday--All is evidence in favour of accuracy of the Chinese records. CHAPTER XXXIII _NAMES_ The difficulty of proper names--Instances-Clans and detached families--Surnames and personal names--Strange personal appellations--Interchange of names by all states--Eunuchs and priests-Minute rules about "naming" individuals--Confucius conveys praise or censure by "naming" persons--The principles upon which several names are applied to one person--Tabu-Instances, and Roman parallel--The Duke of Chou virtual founder of posthumous name system--Dying king and posthumous choice of name--Incestuous marriages in own clan--Hushing up incest in high places-- Complication of names connected--Bearing of names upon the political events connected therewith. CHAPTER XXXIV _EUNUCHS, HUMAN SACRIFICES, FOOD_ Eunuchs and their origin--criminals with feet chopped off as keepers--Noseless criminals for isolated picket duty--The branded were gate-keepers--Eunuchs for the harem--"Purified men"-- Comparative antiquity of Persia and China--Eunuchs in Tsin--Ts'i eunuchs and Confucius--Eunuchs in Wu--Ts'u's uses for eunuchs-- Eunuch intrigues in connection with the First August Emperor--The First Emperor's putative father--His works--Eunuch witnesses assassination of Second August Emperor--General employ of eunuchs in China--Human sacrifices in Ts'in and Ts'u: also in Ts'i--Doubts as to its existence in orthodox China--Han Emperor's prohibition-- No fruit wine in ancient China--Spirits universal--Vice around ancient China rather than in it--Instances of heavy drinking in Ts'i and Ts'u--Tsin drinking--Confucius and liquor--Drinking in Ts'in--Ancient Chinese were meat-eaters--Horse-flesh and Tartars-- Horse-liver in Prussia--Anecdote of Duke Muh and the hippophagi-- Bears' paws as food--Elephants in Ts'u--Dogs as food. CHAPTER XXXV _KNOWLEDGE OF THE WEST_