In this interesting description it will be seen that the Armillary Sphere [B] agrees entirely with that represented in illustration facing p. 450.  And the second of his photographs in my possession, but not, I believe, yet published, answers perfectly to the curious description of the 4th instrument [D].  Indeed, I should scarcely have been able to translate that description intelligibly but for the aid of the photograph before me.  It shows the three astrolabes or graduated circles with travelling indexes arranged exactly as described, and pivoted on a complex frame of bronze; (1) circle in the plane of the equator for measuring right ascensions; (2) circle with its axis vertical to the plane of the last, for measuring declinations:  (3) circle with vertical axis, for zenith distances?  The Gnomon [A] was seen by Mr. Wylie in one of the lower rooms of the Observatory (see below).  Of the Globe we do not now hear; and that mentioned by Lecomte among the ancient instruments was inferior to what Ricci describes at Peking.

I now transcribe Mr. Wylie’s translation of an extract from a Popular Description of Peking: 

“The observatory is on an elevated stage on the city wall, in the south-east corner of the (Tartar) city, and was built in the year (A.D. 1279).  In the centre was the Tze-wei[13] Palace, inside of which were a pair of scrolls, and a cross inscription, by the imperial hand.  Formerly it contained the Hwan-t’ien-e [B] ‘Armillary Sphere’; the Keen-e [D?] ‘Transit Instrument’ (?); the Tung-kew [A] ‘Brass Globe’; and the Leang-t’ien-ch’ih, ‘Sector,’ which were constructed by Ko Show-king under the Yuen Dynasty.

“In (1673) the old instruments having stood the wear of long past years, had become almost useless, and six new instruments were made by imperial authority.  These were the T’ien-t’ee ‘Celestial Globe’ (6); Chih-taoue ‘Equinoctial Sphere’ (2); Hwang-taoue ‘Zodiacal Sphere’ (1); Te-p’ing kinge ‘Azimuthal Horizon’ (3); Te-p’ing weie ‘Altitude Instrument’ (4); Ke-yene ‘Sextant’ (5).  These were placed in the Observatory, and to the present day are respectfully used.  The old instruments were at the same time removed, and deposited at the foot of the stage.  In (1715) the Te-ping King-wei-e ‘Azimuth and Altitude Instrument’ was made;[14] and in 1744 the Ke-hang-foo-chin-e (literally ’Sphere and Tube instrument for sweeping the heavens’).  All these were placed on the Observatory stage.

“There is a wind-index-pole called the ‘Fair-wind-pennon,’ on which is an iron disk marked out in 28 points, corresponding in number to the 28 constellations."[15]

+ Mr. Wylie justly observes that the evidence is all in accord, and it leaves, I think, no reasonable room for doubt that the instruments now in the Observatory garden at Peking are those which were cast aside by Father Verbiest[16] in 1673 (or 1668); which Father Ricci saw at Peking at the beginning of the century, and of which he has described the duplicates at Nanking; and which had come down from the time of the Mongols, or, more precisely, of Kublai Khan.