Descended from French Protestants who had emigrated to Geneva, Leopold de Saussure (1866 1925) began his career in the French navy. Before retiring with the rank of lieutenant in 1899, he had learned Chinese and how to accurately observe the stars. The study of ancient Chinese astronomy then became the focus of his scholarly energies, and he made a number of significant contributions. Posthumously published in 1930, this work gathers together eleven of the twelve articles that originally appeared in the journal T'oung Pao between 1907 and 1922. In his preface, the French orientalist Gabriel...