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ſtruction and reproduction of worlds was very current, not only in the ſect of Ju or of the learned, but also among the Bonzes, Ho-chang or the religious of Fo, and among the Tao-ſſe or followers of Lao Kiune, that it to ſay, among the three great ſects, who have the moſt influence in the empire. Tchao-cang-tſie eſtabliſhed then a great period of 129,000 years, called Yuene, compoſed of twelve equal parts, called hoei, or conjunctions, which were each of 10,800 years. In the firſt conjunction, ſaid he, heaven was formed by little and little, by the motion which the Tai-ki, or the Supreme Being, impreſſed upon matter which was formerly at perfect reſt. During the ſecond conjunction, the earth was produced in the ſame manner. At the middle of the third conjunction, man and all other beings began to ſpring up, in the manner that plants and trees are produced in the iſlands, which afterwards preſerve their ſeveral kinds by their ſeeds. At the middle of the eleventh conjunction, all things ſhall be deſtroyed, and the world ſhall fall back again into its primitive chaos, from whence it ſhall not ariſe till after the twelfth conjunction is expired.
It is not difficult at preſent to conceive, that the Tao-ſſe had invented that prodigious number of reigns before Fou-hi, for no other reaſon, but to fill up that interval, which, according to them, had elapſed from the production of man, to the beginning of the Chineſe monarchy, that is to ſay, to the reign of Fou-hi. The ſame calculator determined the half of Yuene, or of his great period of 129,000 years, at the reign of Yao.
Theſe Tao-ſſe, as was ſaid already, laid down theſe ten ages or ten Ki as an indiſputable principle; each Ki comprehended ſeveral dynaſties, whoſe duration they determined as they thought fit, and as their calculation require: but if they were at liberty to increaſe or diminiſh the duration of the ten Ki, it was not the ſame as to their number, which was in ſome ſort a fundamental principle of their ſect, from which they were not allowed to depart.
Some miſſionaries, to whom this doctrine of Tao-ſſe was not unknown, imagined, that they diſcerned in theſe ten Ki, the ten generations before Noah; and as the writers cited by Lopi, and by Cong-ing-ta, ſay, that of theſe ten Ki, ſix were before Fou-he, and four after him; theſe ſame miſſionaries have imagined, that Fou-hi was Enoch. It muſt be owned, in the mean time, that Tchine-huene and ſeveral others do not obſerve the ſame order; that they place Chine-nong in the ninth Ki, Ho-ang-ti in the tenth, &c. By this computation Hoang ti would be Noah, and Fou-hi Methuſelah, which contradicts their hypotheſis.
The opinion which conſiders the ten Ki of the Chineſe as the ten generations which preceded Noah, is very ingenious, and not improbable. Towards the end of the reign of Tcheou, about 300 years before the Chriſtian era, ſome Jews travelled into China, who might have made the writings of Moſes known there, and, of conſequence, the ten generations which preceded the deluge: beſides, this knowledge was common to the Chaldeans, who might have penetrated into China before the Jews.
CHINEY, a city of the Auſtrian Netherlands on the confines of the biſhopric of Liege, about twelve miles ſouth-eaſt of Namur: E. long. 5°, N. lat. 50° 20′.
CHINON, a town of France in the province of the Orleanois, about twenty three miles ſouth-weſt of Tours; E. long. 20′, and N. lat. 47° 15′.
CHIO, Chios, Xio, or Scio, an Aſiatic iſland, lying near the coaſt of Ionia, in Natolia or Leſſer Aſia, about one hundred miles weſt of Smyrna. It is called by the Turks Sakiſaduci, and is about one hundred miles in circumference; being chiefly inhabited by Chriſtians of the Greek church, who are ſaid to have three hundred churches in the iſland.
Chio is alſo the capital of the above iſland, ſituated on the eaſt coaſt: E. long. 27°, and N. lat. 38°.
CHIONANTHUS, or snow-drop-tree, in botany, a genus of the diandria-monogynia claſs. The calix divided into four oval ſegments; and the drupa contains but one ſeed. There are two ſpecies, viz. the virginica and zeylonica, both natives of the Indies.
CHIOZZO, or Chioggio, a town on an iſland of the ſame name, in the gulph of Venice, by which there is a paſſage into the Lagunes, ſituated about twelve miles ſouth of the city of Venice.
CHIPPENHAM, a borough-town in Wiltshire, about twenty two miles north-weſt of Saliſbury: W. long. 2° 12′, and N. lat. 51° 25′. It ſends two members to parliament.
CHIPPING, or Much-Wiccomb, a borough-town of Buckinghamſhire, about ten miles ſouth of Aileſbury: W. long. 42′, and N. lat. 51° 35′. It ſends two members to parliament.
CHIROGRAPHY, a writing under one's own hand.
CHIROMANCY, a ſpecies of divination, drawn from the different lines and lineaments of a perſon's hand; by which means, it is pretended, the inclinations may be diſcovered.
CHIRONIA, in botany, a genus of the pentandria monogynia claſs. The corolla is rotated; the piſtillum declines; the ſlaminæ are inſerted into the tube of the corolla; the antheræ are ſpiral: and the pericarpium is bilocular. There are eight ſpecies, none of them natives of Britain.
CHIRONOMY, in antiquity, the art of repreſenting any paſt tranſaction by the geſtures of the body, more eſpecially by the motions of the hands: this made a part of liberal education; it had the approbation of Socrates, and was ranked by Plato among the political virtues.
CHIROTONY, among eccleſiaſtical writers, denotes the impoſition of hands uſed in conferring prieſtly orders.
However, it is proper to remark, that chirotony originally was a method of electing magiſtrates, by holding up the hands.
CHIRVAN, a province of Perſia, lying on the western coaſt of the Caſpian ſea.
CHIRURGERY. See Surgery.
CHISLEY-LAND, in agriculture, a ſoil of a middle nature between ſandy and clayey land, with a large admixture of pebbles.
