Marco does not allude to the fact that almanacs were published by the Government, as they were then and still are.  Pauthier (515 seqq.) gives some very curious details on this subject from the Annals of the Yuen.  In the accounts of the year 1328, it appears that no less than 3,123,185 copies were printed in three different sizes at different prices, besides a separate almanac for the Hwei-Hwei or Mahomedans.  Had Polo not omitted to touch on the issue of almanacs by Government he could scarcely have failed to enter on the subject of printing, on which he has kept a silence so singular and unaccountable.

The Chinese Government still “considers the publication of a Calendar of the first importance and utility.  It must do everything in its power, not only to point out to its numerous subjects the distribution of the seasons,... but on account of the general superstition it must mark in the almanac the lucky and unlucky days, the best days for being married, for undertaking a journey, for making their dresses, for buying or building, for presenting petitions to the Emperor, and for many other cases of ordinary life.  By this means the Government keeps the people within the limits of humble obedience; it is for this reason that the Emperors of China established the Academy of Astronomy.” (Timk. I. 358.) The acceptance of the Imperial Almanac by a foreign Prince is considered an acknowledgment of vassalage to the Emperor.

It is a penal offence to issue a pirated or counterfeit edition of the Government Almanac.  No one ventures to be without one, lest he become liable to the greatest misfortunes by undertaking the important measures on black-balled days.

The price varies now, according to Williams, from 1-1/2_d._ to 5_d._ a copy.  The price in 1328 was 1 tsien or cash for the cheapest edition, and 1 liang or tael of silver for the edition de luxe; but as these prices were in paper-money it is extremely difficult to say, in the varying depreciation of that currency, what the price really amounted to.

[Illustration:  Mongol Compendium Instrument seen in the Observatory Garden]

[Illustration:  Mongol Armillary Sphere in the Observatory Garden]

["The Calendars for the use of the people, published by Imperial command, are of two kinds.  The first, Wan-nien-shu, the Calendar of Ten Thousand Years, is an abridgment of the Calendar, comprising 397 years, viz. from 1624 to 2020.  The second and more complete Calendar is the Annual Calendar, which, under the preceding dynasties, was named Li-je, Order of Days, and is now called Shih-hsien-shu, Book of Constant Conformity (with the Heavens).  This name was given by the Emperor Shun-chih, in the first year of his reign (1644), on being presented by Father John Schall (Tang Jo-wang) with a new Calendar, calculated on the principles of European science.  This Annual Calendar gives the