Texts of Confucianism, Part I: The Shû King, the Religious Portions of the Shih King, the Hsiâo King — SBE Vol. 3 (trans. James Legge, 1879)
English·1879–1910·trans. Georg Bühler & James Legge·397 passages
The text · part 11 of 19
Generally, moreover, the moral of the fable is subjoined to it, which is never done in the case of these pieces.
The Hsing have been called Allusive pieces. They are very remarkable, and more numerous than the metaphorical. They often commence with a couple of lines which are repeated without change, or with slight rhythmical changes, in allthe stanzas, In other pieces different stanzas have allusive lines peculiar to themselves. Those lines are descriptive, for the most part, of some object or circumstance in the animal or vegetable world, and aftér them the poet proceeds to his proper subject. Generally, the allusive lines convey a meaning harmonizing with those which follow, where an English poet would begin the verses with Like or As. They are really metaphorical, but the difference between an allusive and a metaphorical piece is this,—that in the former the writer proceeds to state the theme which his mind is occupied with, while no such intimation is given in the latter. Occasionally, it is difficult, not to say impossible, to discover the metaphorical idea in the allusive lines, and then we can only deal with them as a sort of refrain.
In leaving this subject, it is only necessary to say further that the allusive, the metaphorical, and the narrative elements sometimes all occur in the same piece.
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CHAPTER II.
THE SHIH BEFORE CONFUCIUS, AND WHAT, IF ANY, WERE HIS LABOURS UPON IT.
1. Sze-ma Xéhien, in his memoir of Confucius, says :— ‘The old poems amounted to more than 3000, Confucius removed those which were only repetitions of others, and selected those which would be serviceable for the inculca-
Statement of tion of propriety and righteousness. Ascend-
Sze-mi Khien. ing as high as Hsieh and H4au-Ai, and descending through the prosperous eras of Yin and Ku to the times of decadence under kings YQ and Li, he selected in all 305 pieces, which he sang over to his lute, to bring them into accordance with the musical style of the Shao, the Wd, the Y4, and the Fang.’
In the History of the Classical Books in the Records of the Sui Dynasty (A. D. 589 to 618), it is said :—‘ When royal The writer of benign rule ceased, and poems were no more the Records of collected, Kih, the Grand Music-Master of the Sui Dynasty. 7 4 arranged in order those that were existing, and made a copy of them. Then Confucius expurgated them; and going up to the Shang dynasty, and coming down to the state of La, he compiled altogether 300 pieces.’
*‘ Hsi, whose own standard work on the Shih appeared in A.D. 1178, declined to express himself positively on the expurgation of the odes, but summed up his view of what Confucius did for them in the following words :—
Opinion of ‘Royal methods had ceased, and poems were
1178, declined to express himself positively on the expurgation of the odes, but summed up his view of what Confucius did for them in the following words :—
Opinion of ‘Royal methods had ceased, and poems were
Hst- no more collected. Those which were extant were full of errors, and wanting in arrangement. When Confucius returned from Wei to Ld, he brought with him the odes that he had gotten in other states, and digested them, along with those that were to be found in L4, into a collection of 300 pieces.’
I have not been able to find evidence sustaining thesep. 281 representations, and must adopt the view that, before the View of the birth of Confucius, the Book of Poetry existed, author. substantially the same as it was at his death, and that while he may have somewhat altered the arrangement of its Books and pieces, the service which he rendered to it was not that of compilation, but the impulse to study it which he communicated to his disciples.
2. If we place Kkien’s composition of the memoir of Confucius in B.C. 100, nearly four hundred years will have Groundlessness Clapsed between the death of the sage and of Khien’s any statement to the effect that he expurgated statement. . og: :
previously existing poems, or compiled the collection that we now have; and no writer in the interval affirmed or implied any such things. The further statement in the Sui Records about the Music-Master of La _ is also without any earlier confirmation. But independently of these considerations, there is ample evidence to prove, first, that the poems current before Confucius were not by any means so numerous as X‘ien says, and, secondly, that the collection of 300 pieces or thereabouts, digested under the same divisions as in the present classic, existed before the sage’s time.
3. i. It would not be surprising, if, floating about and current among the people of China in the sixth century before our era, there had been more than 3000 pieces of poetry. The marvel is that such was not the case. But in the Narratives of the States, a work of the Kau dynasty, and ascribed by many to 30 Xhid-ming, there occur quotations from thirty-one poems, made by statesmen and others, all anterior to Confucius; and of those poems there are not more than two which are not in the present classic. Even of those two, one is an ode of it quoted under another name. Further, in the 30 Awan, certainly the work of Khid-ming, we have quotations from not fewer than 219 poems, of which only thirteen are not found in the classic. Thus of 250 poems current in China before the supposed compilation of the Shih, 236 are found in it, and only fourteen. are absent. To use the words of K4éo Yi, a scholar of the present dynasty, ‘If the poems existing in
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Thus of 250 poems current in China before the supposed compilation of the Shih, 236 are found in it, and only fourteen. are absent. To use the words of K4éo Yi, a scholar of the present dynasty, ‘If the poems existing in
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Confucius’ time had been more than 3000, the quotations of poems now lost in these two works should have been ten times as numerous as the quotations from the 305 pieces said to have been preserved by him, whereas they are only between a twenty-first and twenty-second part of the existing pieces. This is sufficient to show that Khien’s statement is not worthy of credit.’
ii. Of the existence of the Book of Poetry before Confucius, digested in four Parts, and much in the same order as at present, there may be advanced the following proofs :—
First. There is the passage in the Official Book of Ku, quoted and discussed in the last paragraph of the preceding chapter. We have in it a distinct reference to poems, many centuries before the sage, arranged and classified in the same way as those of the existing Shih. Our Shih, no doubt, was then in the process of formation.
Second. In the ninth piece of the sixth decade of the Shih, Part II, an ode assigned to the time of king Ya, B.C. 781 to 771, we have the words,
‘They sing the Ya and the Nan, Dancing to their flutes without error.’
So early, therefore, as the eighth century B.C. there was a collection of poems, of which some bore the name of the Nan, which there is much reason to suppose were the K4u Nan and the Sh4o Nan, forming the first two Books of the first Part of the present Shih; and of which others bore the name of the Y4, being, probably, the earlier pieces that now compose a large portion of the second and third Parts.
Third. In the narratives of 30 KAit-ming, under the twenty-ninth year of duke Hsiang, B.C. 544, when Confucius was only seven or eight years old, we have an account of a visit to the court of Li by an envoy from WA, an eminent statesman of the time, and a man of great learning. We are told that as he wished to hear the music of KAu, which he could do better in LQ than in any other state, they sang to him the odes of the Kau Nan and the Sh4o Nan; those of Phei, Yung, and Wei; of the Royal Domain; of Kang; of KAt; of Pin; of Kkin; of Wei; of
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Thang; of KAin; of Kwei; and of 3440. They sang to him also the odes of the Minor YA and the Greater Y4; and they sang finally the pieces of the Sung. We have thus, existing in the boyhood of Confucius, what we may call the present Book of Poetry, with its Fang, its Ya, and its Sung. The only difference discernible is slight,—in the order in which the Books of the Fang followed one another.
We have thus, existing in the boyhood of Confucius, what we may call the present Book of Poetry, with its Fang, its Ya, and its Sung. The only difference discernible is slight,—in the order in which the Books of the Fang followed one another.
Fourth. We may appeal in this matter to the words of Confucius himself. Twice in the Analects he speaks of the Shih as a collection consisting of 300 pieces’, That work not being made on any principle of chronological order, we cannot positively assign those sayings to any particular years of Confucius’ life ; but it is, I may say, the unanimous opinion of Chinese critics that they were spoken before the time to which KAien and K( Hsi refer his special labour on the Book of Poetry.
To my own mind the evidence that has been adduced is decisive on the points which I specified. The Shih, arranged very much as we now have it, was current in China before the time of Confucius, and its pieces were in the mouths of statesmen and scholars, constantly quoted by them on festive and other occasions. Poems not included in it there doubtless were, but they were comparatively few. Confucius may have made a copy for the use of himself and his disciples ; but it does not appear that he rejected any pieces which had been previously received into the collection, or admitted any which had not previously found a place in it.
4. The question now arises of what Confucius did for the Shih, if, indeed, he did anything at all. The only thing What Confucius FO which we can hazard an opinion on the did forthe point we have from himself. In the Analects,
Shib IX, xiv, he tells us: —‘I returned from Wei to La, and then the music was reformed, and the pieces in
' In stating that the odes were 300, Confucius probably preferred to use the round number. There are, as I said in the former chapter, altogether 305 pieces, which is the number given by Sze-ma Khien. There are also the titles of six others. It is contended by Kd Hst and many other scholars that these titles were only the names of funes. More likely is the view that the text of the pieces so styled was lost after Confucius’ death.
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the Y4 and the Sung received their proper places.” The return from Wei to Lf took place only five years before the sage’s death. He ceased from that time to take an active part in political affairs, and solaced himself with music, the study of the ancient literature of his nation, the writing of ‘the Spring and Autumn,’ and familiar intercourse with those of his disciples who still kept around him. He reformed the music,—that to which the pieces of the Shih were sung; but wherein the reformation consisted we cannot tell. And he gave to the pieces of the YA and the Sung their proper places. The present order of the Books in the Fang, slightly differing from what was common in his boyhood, may have now been determined by him. More than this we cannot say.
And he gave to the pieces of the YA and the Sung their proper places. The present order of the Books in the Fang, slightly differing from what was common in his boyhood, may have now been determined by him. More than this we cannot say.
While we cannot discover, therefore, any peculiar and important labours of Confucius on the Shih, and we have it now, as will be shown in the next chapter, substantially as he found it already compiled to his hand, the subsequent preservation of it may reasonably be attributed to the admiration which he expressed for it, and the enthusiasm for it with which he sought to inspire his disciples. It was one of the themes on which he delighted to converse with them'. He taught that it is from the poems that the mind receives its best stimulus?, A man ignorant of them was, in his opinion, like one who stands with his face towards a wall, limited in his view, and unable to advance’. Of the two things that his son could specify as enjoined on him by the sage, the first was that he should learn the odes*. In this way Confucius, probably, contributed largely to the subsequent preservation of the Shih,— the preservation of the tablets on which the odes were inscribed, and the preservation of it in the memory of all who venerated his authority, and looked up to him as their master.
1 Analects, VII, xvii. 2 Analects, VIII, viii, XVII, ix. > Analects, XVII, x. * Analects, XVI, xiii.
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CHAPTER III.
THE SHIH FROM THE TIME OF CONFUCIUS TILL THE GENERAL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE PRESENT TEXT.
1. Of the attention paid to: the study of the Shih from the death of Confucius to the rise of the KAin dynasty, we From Con. ave abundant evidence in the writings of his facius tothe grandson 3ze-sze, of Mencius, and of Hsiin Khin dynasty. Khing. One of the acknowledged distinctions of Mencius is his acquaintance with the odes, his quotations from which are very numerous; and Hsiin Khing survived the extinction of the Kau dynasty, and lived on into the times of KAin.
2. The Shih shared in the calamity which all the other classical works, excepting the Yi, suffered, when the tyrant of Kin issued his edict for their destruction. But I have shown, in the Introduction to the Shi, p. 7, that that edict was in force for less than a quarter of a century. The
. odes were all, or very nearly all', recovered ; pene! and the reason assigned for this is, that their after ihe fires preservation depended on the memory of
‘scholars more than on their inscription on tablets of bamboo and on silk.
3. Three different texts of the Shih made their appearance early in the Han dynasty, known as the Shih of La,
Three different Of Ai, and of Han; that is, the Book of texts, Poetry was recovered from three different quarters. Lift Hin’s Catalogue of the Books in the Imperial Library of Han (B.C. 6 to 1) commences, on the Shih King, with a collection of the three texts, in twentyeight chapters.
Lift Hin’s Catalogue of the Books in the Imperial Library of Han (B.C. 6 to 1) commences, on the Shih King, with a collection of the three texts, in twentyeight chapters.
1 All, in fact, unless we except the six pieces of Part II, of which we have only the titles. It is contended by KQ Hst and others that the text of these had been lost before the time of Confucius, It may have been lost, however, after the sage’s death ; see note on p. 283.
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i. Immediately after the mention of the general collection in the Catalogue come the titles of two works of commentary on the text of LQ. The former of them was by a Shan Phei of whom we have some account in the Literary Biographies of Han. He was a native of Ld, and had received his own knowledge of the odes from a scholar of K4Ai, called Fau KAid-po. He was resorted to by many disciples, whom he taught to repeat the odes. When the first emperor of the Han dynasty was passing through LO, Shan followed him to the capital of that state, and had an interview with him. Subsequently the emperor WO (B.C. 140 to 87), in the beginning of his reign, sent for him to court when he was more than eighty years old; and he appears to have survived a considerable number of years beyond that advanced age. The names of ten of his disciples are given, all of them men of eminence, and among them Khung An-kwo. Rather later, the most noted adherent of the school of LQ was Wei Hsien, who arrived at the dignity of prime minister (from B.C. 71 to 67), and published the Shih of Ld in Stanzas and Lines. Up and down in the Books of Han and Wei are to be found quotations of the odes, that must have been taken from the professors of the La recension; but neither the text nor the writings on it long survived. They are said to have perished during the Kin dynasty (A. D. 265 to 419). When the Catalogue of the Sui Library was made, None of them were existing.
ii. The Han Catalogue mentions five different works on the Shih of Kt. This text was from a Yiian K4, a native of Ki, about whom we learn, from the same collection of Literary Biographies, that he was one of the great scholars of the court in the time of the emperor Xing (B.C. 156 to 141),—a favourite with him, and specially distinguished for his knowledge of the odes and his advocacy of orthodox Confucian doctrine. He died in the succeeding reign of Wd, more than ninety years old; and we are told that. all the scholars of K#i who got a name in those days for their acquaintance with the Shih sprang from his school. Among his disciples was the well-
The text of La.
The text of KAt.
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He died in the succeeding reign of Wd, more than ninety years old; and we are told that. all the scholars of K#i who got a name in those days for their acquaintance with the Shih sprang from his school. Among his disciples was the well-
The text of La.
The text of KAt.
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known name of Hsi4-hau Shih-é4ang, who communicated his acquisitions to Hau 3ang, a native of the present Shan-tung province, and author of two of the works in the Han Catalogue. H4u had three disciples of note, and by them the Shih of K/t was transmitted to others, whose names, with quotations from their writings, are scattered through the Books of Han. Neither text nor commentaries, however, had a better fate than the Shih of LO. There is no mention of them in the Catalogue of Sui. They are said to have perished even before the rise of the Xin dynasty.
iii. The text of Han was somewhat more fortunate. Hin’s Catalogue contains the names of four works, all by
The text of Han Ying, whose surname is thus perpetuated
Han Ying. in the text of the Shih that emanated from him. He was a native, we are told, of Yen, and a great scholar in the time of the emperor Wan (B.C. 179 to 155), and on into the reigns of King and Wa. ‘He laboured,’ it is said, ‘to unfold the meaning of the odes, and published an Explanation of the Text, and Illustrations of the Poems, containing several myriads of characters. His text was somewhat different from the texts of Lf and K4i, but substantially of the same meaning.’ Of course, Han founded a-school; but while almost all the writings of his followers soon perished, both the works just mentioned continued on through the various dynasties to the time of Sung. The Sui Catalogue contains the titles of his Text and two works on it; the Thang, those of his Text and his Illustrations; but when we come to the Catalogue of Sung, published under the Yiian dynasty, we find only the Illustrations, in ten books or chapters; and Au-yang Hsit (A.D. 1017 to 1072) tells us that in his time this was all of Han that remained. It continues entire, or nearly so, to the present day.
4. But while those three different recensions of the Shih all disappeared, with the exception of a single treatise of Han Ying, their unhappy fate was owing not more to the convulsions by which the empire was often rent, and the consequent destruction of literary monuments such as we
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have witnessed in China in our own day, than to the A fourth text; appearance of a fourth text, which displaced that of Méo. them by its superior correctness, and the ability with which it was advocated and commented on. This was what is called the Text of MAo. It came into the field rather later than the others; but the Han Catalogue contains the Shih of Mao, in twenty-nine chapters, and a Commentary on it in thirty-nine. According to Kang Hsiian, the author of this was a native of Ld, known as M4o Hing or ‘the Greater M4o,’ who had been a disciple, we are told by Lii Teh-ming, of Hsiin King. The work is lost. He had communicated his knowledge of the Shih, however, to another M4ao,—M4o Kang, ‘the Lesser Mao,’ who was a great scholar, at the court of king Hsien of - Ho-Aien, a son of the emperor King. King Hsien was one of the most diligent labourers in the recovery of the ancient books, and presented the text and work of Hang at the court of his father,—probably in B.c. 129. M&o Kang published Explanations of the Shih, in twenty-nine chapters, —a work which we still possess; but it was not till the reign of Phing (A.D. 1 to 5) that M4o’s recension was received into the Imperial College, and took its place along with those of La, Ki, and Han Ying.
The Chinese critics have carefully traced the line of scholars who had charge of M4o’s Text and Explanations down to the reign of Phing. The names of the men and their works are all given. By the end of the first quarter of our first century we find the most famous scholars addicting themselves to M4o’s text. The well-known Kia Khwei (A. D. 30 to 101) published a work on the Meaning and Difficulties of M4o’s Shih, having previously compiled a digest of the differences between its text and those of the other three recensions, at the command of the emperor Ming (A.D. 58 to 75). The equally celebrated Ma Yung (A.D. 79 to 166) followed with another commentary ;—and we arrive at King Hsiian or Kang Khang-kAing (A.D. 127 to 200), who wrote a Supplementary Commentary to the Shih of M4o, and a Chronological Introduction to the Shih. The former of these two works complete, and bs
—
In
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portions of the latter, are still extant. After the time of Kang the other three texts were little heard of, while the name of the commentators on M4o’s text speedily becomes legion. It was inscribed, moreover, on the stone tablets of the emperor Ling (A.D. 168 to 189). The grave of M4o Kang is still shown near the village of 3un-ft, in the departmental district of Ho-Aien, Kih-li.
5. Returning now to what I said in the second paragraph, it will be granted that the appearance of three different and
168 to 189). The grave of M4o Kang is still shown near the village of 3un-ft, in the departmental district of Ho-Aien, Kih-li.
5. Returning now to what I said in the second paragraph, it will be granted that the appearance of three different and independent texts, soon after the rise of the iene guarantee Han dynasty, affords the most satisfactory the genuineness evidence of the recovery of the Book of of the recovered Poetry as it had continued from the time of Confucius. Unfortunately, only fragments of those texts remain now; but they were, while they were current, diligently compared with one another, and with the fourth text of M4o, which subsequently got the field to itself. When a collection is made of their peculiar readings, so far as it can now be done, it is clear that their variations from one another and from M4o’s text arose from the alleged fact that the preservation of the odes was owing to their being transmitted by recitation. The rhyme helped the memory to retain them, and while wood, bamboo, and silk had all been consumed by the flames of XAin, when the time of repression ceased, scholars would be eager to rehearse their stores. It was inevitable, and more so in China than in a country possessing an alphabet, that the same sounds when taken down by different writers should be represented by different characters.
On the whole, the evidence given above is as full as could be desired in such a case, and leaves no reason for us to hesitate in accepting the present received text of the Shih as a very close approximation to that which was current in the time of Confucius,
(1 U
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CHAPTER IV.
THE FORMATION OF THE, COLLECTION OF THE SHIH; HOW IT CAME TO BE SO SMALL AND INCOMPLETE; THE INTERPRETATION AND AUTHORS OF THE PIECES; - ONE POINT OF TIME CERTAINLY INDICATED IN IT; AND THE CONFUCIAN PREFACE.
How were the odes collected in the first place? In his Account of a Conversation concerning ‘a Right Regulation of Governments for the Common Good of Mankind’ (Edinburgh, 1704), p. 10, Sir Andrew Fletcher, of Saltoun, tells us the opinion of ‘a very wise man, that ‘if a man were permitted to make all the ballads of a nation, he need not care who should make its laws,’ A writer in the Spectator, no. 502, refers to a similar opinion as having been entertained in
10, Sir Andrew Fletcher, of Saltoun, tells us the opinion of ‘a very wise man, that ‘if a man were permitted to make all the ballads of a nation, he need not care who should make its laws,’ A writer in the Spectator, no. 502, refers to a similar opinion as having been entertained in
_ England earlier than the time of Fletcher. ‘I have heard,’ he says, ‘that a minister of state in the reign of Elizabeth had all manner of books and ballads brought to him, of what kind soever, and took great notice how they took with the people; upon which he would, and certainly might, very well judge of their present dispositions, and of the most proper way of applying them according to his own purposes *,’
1 As in the case of the Sh, Confucius generally speaks of ‘the Shih,’ never using the name of ‘ the Shih King.’ In the Analects, IX, xiv, however, he mentions also the Ya and the Sung; and in XVII, x, he specifies the KAu Nan and the Shao Nan, the first two books of the Kwo Fang. Mencius similarly speaks of ‘the Shih;’ and in III, i, ch. 4, he specifies ‘the Sung of La,’ Book ii of Part IV. In VI, ii, ch. 3, he gives his views of the Hsiao Phan, the third ode of decade 5, Part II, and of the Khai Fung, the seventh ode of Book iii of Part I.
* This passage from the Spectator is adduced by Sir John Davis in his treatise on the Poetry of the Chinese, p. 35.
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In harmony with the views thus expressed is the theory of the Chinese scholars, that it was the duty The theory of : : the Chinese Of the ancient kings to make themselves scholars about acquainted with all the poems current in the a collection of ~~ . poemsfor different states, and to judge from them of bonis the rule exercised by the several princes, so that they might minister praise or blame, reward or punishment accordingly.
The rudiments of this theory may be found in the Shd, in the Canon of Shun; but the one classical passage which is appealed to in support of it is in the Record of Rites, III, ii, parr. 13, 14 :—‘ Every fifth year, the Son of Heaven made a progress through the kingdom, when the Grand Music-Master was commanded to lay before him the poems of the different states, as an exhibition of the manners and government of the people.’ Unfortunately, this Book of the Li Ki, the Royal Ordinances, was compiled only in the reign of the emperor W4n of the Han dynasty (B.C. 179 to 155). The scholars entrusted with the work did their best, we may suppose, with the materials at their command. They made much use, it is evident, of Mencius, and of the ft Li. The X4u Li, or the Official Book of KAu, had not then been recovered. But neither in Mencius.nor in the
179 to 155). The scholars entrusted with the work did their best, we may suppose, with the materials at their command. They made much use, it is evident, of Mencius, and of the ft Li. The X4u Li, or the Official Book of KAu, had not then been recovered. But neither in Mencius.nor in the
-f Li do we meet with any authority for the statement before us. The ShQ mentions that Shun every fifth year made a tour of inspection ; but there were then no odes for him to examine, for to him and his. minister K4o-y4o is ' attributed the first rudimentary attempt at the poetic art. Of the progresses of the Hsia and Yin sovereigns we have no information ; and those of the kings of Kau were made, we know, only once in twelve years. The statement in the Royal Ordinances, therefore, was probably based only on tradition. Notwithstanding the difficulties that beset this passage * of the Li Xi, I am not disposed to reject it altogether. It derives a certain amount of confirmation from the passage quoted from the Official Book of K4u on p. 278, showing that in the K4u dynasty there was a collection of poems, under the divisions of the Fang, the Ya, and the Sung, U2
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It derives a certain amount of confirmation from the passage quoted from the Official Book of K4u on p. 278, showing that in the K4u dynasty there was a collection of poems, under the divisions of the Fang, the Ya, and the Sung, U2p. 292 which it was the business of the Grand Music-Master to teach the musicians of the court. It may be accepted then, that the duke of Ku, in legislating for his dynasty, enacted that the poems produced in the different feudal states should be collected on occasion of the royal progresses, and lodged thereafter among the archives of the bureau of music at the royal court. The same thing, we may presume a fortiori, would be done, at certain other stated times, with those produced within the royal domain itself. - But the feudal states were modelled after the pattern of the royal state. They also had their music-masters, their The music. MUSicians, and their historiographers. The master of the kings in their progresses did not visit each King would get particular state, so that the Grand Musicstate from its Master could have the opportunity to collect musiomaster. the odes in it for himself, They met; at wellknown points, the marquises, earls, barons, &c., of the different quarters of the kingdom; there gave audience to them ; adjudicated on their merits, and issued to them their orders. We are obliged to suppose that the princes were attended to the places of rendezvous by their musicmasters, carrying with them the poetical compositions gathered in their several regions, to present them to their superior of the royal court. We can understand how, by‘ means of the above arrangement, the poems of the whole kingdom were accumulated and arranged among the archives of the capital. Was there any provision for dis- How the col. Seminating thence the poems of one state lected poems among all the others? There is sufficient nated through- evidence that such dissemination was effected out the states. in some way. Throughout the Narratives of | the States, and the details of 30 KAid-ming on the history of the Spring and Autumn, the officers of the states generally are presented to us as familiar not only with the odes of their particular states, but with those of other states as well. They appear equally well acquainted with all the Parts and Books of our present Shih; and we saw how the whole of it was sung over to Kt KA of Wa, when he visited the court of La in the boyhood of Confucius. There was,p. 293 probably, a regular communication from the royal court to the courts of the various states of the poetical pieces that for one reason or another were thought worthy of preservation. This is nowhere expressly stated, but it may be contended for by analogy from the accounts which I have given, in the Introduction to the Sha, pp. 4, 5, of the duties of the royal historiographers or recorders,
This is nowhere expressly stated, but it may be contended for by analogy from the accounts which I have given, in the Introduction to the Sha, pp. 4, 5, of the duties of the royal historiographers or recorders,
2. But if the poems produced in the different states were thus collected in the capital, and thence again disseminated throughout the kingdom, we might conclude that the collection would have been far more extensive and complete than
How the Shih We have it now. The smallness of it is to be is so small and accounted for by the disorder into which the incomplete. kingdom fell after the lapse of a few reigns from king Wd. Royal progresses ceased when royal government fell into decay, and then the odes were no more collected’. We have no account of any progress of the kings during the Khun KAid period. But before that period there is a long gap of nearly 150 years between kings Khang and f, covering the reigns of Khang, K4o, Ma, and Kung, if we except two doubtful pieces among the Sacrificial Odes of Kau. The reign of Hsiao, who succeeded to I, is similarly uncommemorated ; and the latest odes are of the time of Ting, when 100 years of the Khun K/hid period had still to run their course. Many odes must have been made and collected during the 140 and more years after king K/ang. The probability is that they perished during the feeble reigns of f and the three monarchs who followed him. Then came the long and vigorous reign of Hsiian (B.C. 827 to 782), when we may suppose that the ancient custom of collecting the poems was revived. After him all was in the main decadence and confusion. -It was probably in the latter part of his reign that Aang-khdo, an ancestor of Confucius, obtained from the Grand Music- Master at the court of K4u twelve of the sacrificial odes of the previous dynasty, as will be related under the Sacri- | ficial Odes of Shang, with which he returned to Sung,p. 204 which was held by representatives of the line of Shang. They were used there in sacrificing to the old Shang kings; yet seven of the twelve were lost before the time of the sage.
4 See Mencius, IV, ii, ch. 21.
The general conclusion to which we come is, that the existing Shih is the fragment of various collections made during the early reigns of the kings of Kau, and added to at intervals, especially on the occurrence of a prosperous rule, in accordance with the regulation that has been preserved in the Li Xi. How it is that we have in Part I odes of comparatively few of the states into which the kingdom was divided, and that the odes of those states extend only over a short period of their history :—for these things we cannot account further’ than by saying that such were the ravages of time and the results of disorder. We can only accept the collection as it is, and be thankful for it. How long before Confucius the collection was closed we cannot tell.
We can only accept the collection as it is, and be thankful for it. How long before Confucius the collection was closed we cannot tell.
3. The conclusions which I have thus sought to establish concerning the formation of the Shih as a collection have an important bearing on the interpretation of many of the pieces. The remark of Sze-m4 K4ien that ‘Confucius Bearing of these Selected those pieces which would be service- _ views onthe able for the inculcation of propriety and interpretation of , .
particular Yighteousness’ is as erroneous as the other,
Pieces. that he selected 305 pieces out of more than 3000. The sage merely studied and taught the pieces which he found existing, and the collection necessarily contained odes illustrative of bad government as well as of good, of licentiousness as well as of a pure morality. Nothing -has been such a stumbling-block in the way of the reception of Kd Hsi’s interpretation of the pieces as the readiness with which he attributes a licentious meaning to many of those. in the seventh Book of Part I. But the reason why the kings had the odes of the different states collected and presented to them was, ‘that they might judge from them of the manners of the people, and so come to a decision regarding the government and morals of their rulers, A student and translator of the odes has simply to allow themp. 295 to speak for themselves, and has no more reason to be surprised by references to vice in some of them than by the language of virtue in many others. Confucius said, indeed, in his own enigmatical way, that the single sentence, ‘ Thought without depravity,’ covered the whole 300 pieces'; and it may very well be allowed that they were collected and preserved for the promotion of good government and virtuous manners. The merit attaching to them is that they give us faithful pictures of what was good and what was bad in the political state of the country, and in the social, moral, and religious habits of the people.
The pieces were of course made by individuals who possessed the gift, or thought that they possessed the gift, The writers of Of poetical composition. Who they were we the odes. could tell only on the authority of the pieces themselves, or of credible historical accounts, contemporaneous with them or nearly so. It is not worth our while to question the opinion of the Chinese critics who attribute very many of them to the duke of K4u, to whom we owe so much of the fifth Part of the Shd. There is, however, independent testimony only to his composition of a single ode,—the second of the fifteenth Book in Part I. Some of the other pieces in that Part, of which the historical interpretation may be considered as sufficiently fixed, are written in the first person; but the author may be personating his subject.
Some of the other pieces in that Part, of which the historical interpretation may be considered as sufficiently fixed, are written in the first person; but the author may be personating his subject.
In Part II, the seventh ode of decade 2 was made by a Kia-fO, a noble of the royal court, but we know nothing more about him; the sixth of decade 6, by a eunuch styled Mang-jze; and the sixth of decade 7, from a concurrence of external testimonies, should be ascribed to duke Wa of Wei, B.c. 812 to 758.
In the third decade of Part III, the second piece was composed by the same duke W2Q; the third by an earl of Zui in the royal domain; the fourth must have been made by one of king Hsiian’s ministers, to express the king’s
) Analects, IT, fi. 2 See the Sh, V, vi, par. 2.
p. 296
feelings under the drought that was exhausting the kingdom ; and the fifth and sixth claim to be the work of Yin Ki-fQ, one of Hsiian’s principal officers.
_ 4 The ninth ode of the fourth Book, Part II, gives us a note of time that enables us to fix the year of its composition in a manner entirely satisfactory, and proves also the correctness, back to that date, of the ordinary Chinese chronology. The piece is one of a group which their contents lead us to refer to the reign of king Yd, the son of Hsiian, B.C. 781 to 771. When we examine the chronology of his period, it is said that in his sixth year, B.C. 776, there was an eclipse of the sun. Now the ode commences :—
‘At the conjunction (of the sun and moon) in the tenth month, on the first day of the moon, which was Hsin-méAo, the sun was eclipsed.’
This eclipse is verified by calculation as having taken place in B.C. 776, on August 29th, the very day and month assigned to it in the poem.
5. In the Preface which appeared along with MAo’s text of the Shih, the occasion and authorship of many of the odes are given; but I do not allow much weight to its The Prefaceto testimony. It is now divided into the Great the Shih. = Preface and the Little Preface; but Md4o himself made no such distinction between its parts. It will be sufficient for me to give a condensed account of the views of A Hsi on the subject :—
‘Opinions of scholars are much divided as to the authorship of the Preface. Some ascribe it to Confucius; some to (his disciple) 3ze-hsid; and some to the historiographers of the states. In the absence of clear testimony it is impossible to decide the point, but the notice about Wei Hung (first century) in the Literary Biographies of Han! would seem to make it clear that the Preface was
1 The account is this: ‘ Hung became the disciple of Hsieh Man-zhing, who was famous for his knowledge of M4o’s Shih; and he afterwards made the P eface to it, remarkable for the accuracy with which it gives the meaning of the pieces in the Fang and the YA, and which is now current in the world.’
p. 297
p. 297
his work. We must take into account, however, on the other hand, the statement of Kang Khang - &Aang, that the Preface existed as a separate document when M4o appeared with his text, and that he broke it up, prefixing to each ode the portion belonging to it. The natural conclusion is, that the Preface had come down from a remote period, and that Hung merely added to it, and rounded it off. In accordance with this, scholars generally hold that the first sentences in the introductory notices formed the original Preface, which M4o distributed, and that the following portions were subsequently added.
‘ This view may appear reasonable; but when we examine those first sentences themselves, we find that some of them do not agree with the obvious meaning of the odes to which they are prefixed, and give only rash and baseless expositions. Evidently, from the first, the Preface was made up of private speculations and conjectures on the subject-matter of the odes, and constituted a document by itself, separately appended to the text. Then on its first appearance there were current the explanations of the odes that were given in connexion with the texts of Ld, K/i, and Han Ying, so that readers could know that it was the work of later hands, and not give entire credit to it. But when Mo no longer published the Preface as a separate document, but each ode appeared with the introductory notice as a portion of the text, this seemed to give it the authority of the text itself. Then after the other texts disappeared and Mao’s had the field to itself, this means of testing the accuracy of its prefatory notices no longer existed. They appeared as if they were the production of the poets themselves, and the odes seemed to be made from them as so many themes. Scholars handed down a faith in them from one to another, and no one ventured to express a doubt of their authority. The text was twisted and chiseled to bring it into accordance with them, and no one would undertake to say plainly that they were the work of the scholars of the Han dynasty.’
There is no western sinologist, I apprehend, who willp. 298 not cordially concur with me in the principle of AQ Hsi that we must find the meaning of the poems in the poems themselves, instead of accepting the interpretation of them given by we know not whom, and to follow which would reduce many of them to absurd enigmas.
THE SHIH KING.
ODES OF THE TEMPLE AND THE ALTAR.
Ir was stated in the Introduction, p. 278, that the poems in the fourth Part of the Shih are the only ones that are professedly religious; and there are some even of them, it will be seen, which have little claim on internal grounds to be so considered. I commence with them my selections from the Shih for the Sacred Books of the Religions of the East. I will give them all, excepting the first two of the Praise Odes of Lf, the reason for omitting which will be found, when I come to that division of the Part.
I commence with them my selections from the Shih for the Sacred Books of the Religions of the East. I will give them all, excepting the first two of the Praise Odes of Lf, the reason for omitting which will be found, when I come to that division of the Part.
The Odes of the Temple and the Altar are, most of them, connected with the ancestral worship of the sovereigns of the Shang and Xu dynasties, and of the marquises of LO. Of the ancestral
The ancestral worship of the common people we have almost no worship of information in the Shih. It was binding, however, the common pn all, and two utterances of Confucius may be
People. given in illustration of this. In the eighteenth chapter of the Doctrine of the Mean, telling how the duke of Au, the legislator of the dynasty so called, had ‘ completed the virtuous course of Wan and W4, carrying up the title of king to W&n’s father and grandfather, and sacrificing to the dukes before them with the royal ceremonies,’ he adds, ‘ And this rule he extended to the feudal princes, the great officers, the other officers, and the common people. In the mourning and other duties rendered to a deceased father or mother, he allowed no difference between the noble and the mean.’ Again, his summary in the tenth chapter of the Hsiao King, of the dutiesp. 300 of filial piety, is the following :—‘A filial son, in serving his parents, in his ordinary intercourse with them, should show the utmost respect; in supplying them with food, the greatest delight ; when they are ill, the utmost solicitude ; when mourning for their death, the deepest grief; and when sacrificing to them, the profoundest solemnity. When these things are all complete, he is able to serve his parents.’
Of the ceremonies in the royal worship of ancestors, and perhaps on some other occasions, we have much information in the pieces of this Part, and in many others in the second and third Parts. They were preceded by fasting and various purifications
The royal On the part of the king and the parties who worship of were to assist in the performance of them. There
They were preceded by fasting and various purifications
The royal On the part of the king and the parties who worship of were to assist in the performance of them. There ancestors. — was a great concourse of the feudal princes, and much importance was attached to the presence among them of the representatives of former dynasties; but the duties of the occasion devolved mainly on the princes of the same surname as the royal House. Libations of fragrant spirits were made, especially in the Kau period, to attract the Spirits, and their presence was invoked by a functionary who took his place inside the principal gate. The principal victim, a red bull in the temple of A’au, was killed by the king himself, using for the purpose a knife to the handle of which small bells were attached. With this he laid bare the hair, to show that the animal was of the required colour, inflicted the wound of death, and cut away the fat, which was burned along with southernwood to increase the incense and fragrance. Other victims were numerous, and the fifth ode of the second decade, Part II, describes all engaged in the service as greatly exhausted with what they had to do, flaying the carcases, boiling the flesh, roasting it, broiling it, arranging it on trays and stands, and setting it forth. Ladies from the palace are present to give their assistance; music peals; the cup goes round. The description is that of a feast as much as of a sacrifice ; and in fact, those great seasonal occasions were what we might call grand family reunions, where the dead and the living met, eating and drinking together, where the living worshipped the dead, and the dead blessed the living. :
This characteristic of these ceremonies appeared most strikingly in the custom which required that the departed ancestors should be represented by living relatives of the same surname, chosen according to certain rules that are not mentioned in the Shih. These took for the time the place of the dead, received the
ODES OF THE TEMPLE AND THE ALTAR. 30F
honours which were due to them, and were supposed to be possessed by their spirits. They ate and drank as those whom they personated would have done; accepted for them the homage rendered by their descendants; communicated their will to the principal in the service, and pronounced on him and on his line their benediction, being assisted in this point by a mediating priest, as we may call him for want of a more exact term. On the next day, after a summary repetition of the ceremonies of the sacrifice, those personators of the dead were specially feasted, and, as it is expressed in the second decade of Part III, ode 4, ‘their happiness and dignity were made complete.’ We have an allusion to this strange custom in Mencius (VI, i, ch. 5), showing how a junior member of a family, when chosen to represent one of his ancestors, was for the time exalted above his elders, and received the demonstrations of reverence due to the ancestor.
5), showing how a junior member of a family, when chosen to represent one of his ancestors, was for the time exalted above his elders, and received the demonstrations of reverence due to the ancestor.
When the sacrifice to ancestors was finished, the king feasted his uncles and younger brothers or cousins, that is, all the princes and nobles of the same surname with himself, in another apartment. The musicians who had discoursed with instrument and voice during the worship and entertainment of the ancestors, followed the convivial party ‘to give their soothing aid at the second blessing.’ The viands that had been provided, we have seen, in great abundance, were brought in from the temple, and set forth anew. The guests ate to the full and drank to the full, and at the conclusion they all did obeisance, while one of them declared the satisfaction of the Spirits, and assured the king of their favour to him and his posterity, so long as they did not neglect those observances. During the feast the king showed particular respect to those among his relatives who were aged, filled their cups again and again, and desired ‘that their old age might be blessed, and their bright happiness ever increased.’
The above sketch of the seasonal sacrifices to ancestors shows that they were intimately related to the duty of filial piety, and were designed mainly to maintain the unity of the family connexion. There was implied in them a belief in the continued existence of the spirits of the departed; and by means of them the ancestors of the kings were raised to the position of the Tutelary spirits of the dynasty; and the ancestors of each family became its Tutelary spirits. Several of the pieces in Part IV are appropriate, it will be observed, to sacrifices offered to some
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Several of the pieces in Part IV are appropriate, it will be observed, to sacrifices offered to somep. 302 one monarch. They would be used on particular occasions connected with his achievements in the past, or when it was supposed that his help would be valuable in contemplated enterprises. With regard to all the ceremonies of the ancestral temple, Confucius gives the following account of the purposes which they were intended to serve, hardly adverting to their _Yeligious significance, in the nineteenth chapter of the Doctrine of the Mean :—‘ By means of them they distmguished the royal kindred according to their order of descent. By arranging those present according to their rank, they distinguished the more noble and the less. By the apportioning of duties at them, they made a distinction of talents and worth. In the ceremony of general pledging, the inferiors presented the cup to their superiors, and thus something was given to the lowest to do. At the (concluding) feast places were given according to the hair, and thus was marked the distinction of years.’ The Shih does not speak of the worship which was paid to God, unless it be incidentally. There were two grand Paid to Gr etiP occasions on which it was rendered by the sovereign,—the summer and winter solstices. These two sacrifices were offered on different altars, that in winter being often described as offered to Heaven, and that in summer to Earth; but we have the testimony of Confucius, in the nineteenth chapter of the Doctrine of the Mean, that the object of them both was to serve Shang-Tf. Of the ceremonies on these two occasions, however, I do not speak here, as there is nothing said about them in the Shih. But there were other sacrifices to God, at stated periods in the course of the year, of at least two of which we have some intimation in the pieces of this fourth Part. The last in the first decade of the Sacrificial Odes of Kau is addressed to H&éu Ai as having proved himself the correlate of Heaven, in teaching men to cultivate the grain which God had appointed for the nourishment of all. This was appropriate to a sacrifice in spring, offered to God to seek His blessing on the agricultural labours of the year, H4u A‘, as the ancestor of the House of X4u, being associated with Him in it. The seventh piece of the same decade again was appropriate to a sacrifice to God in autumn, in the Hall of Light, at a great audience to the feudal princes, when king Wan was associated with Him as being the founder of the dynasty of Au. With these preliminary observations to assist the reader in understanding the pieces in this Part, I proceed to give—
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I, Tue SacririctaL Opes oF SHANG.
Tuese odes of Shang constitute the last Book in the ordinary editions of the Shih. I put them here in the first place, because they are the oldest pieces in the collection. There are only five of them.
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I, Tue SacririctaL Opes oF SHANG.
Tuese odes of Shang constitute the last Book in the ordinary editions of the Shih. I put them here in the first place, because they are the oldest pieces in the collection. There are only five of them.
The sovereigns of the dynasty of Shang occupied the throne from B.C. 1766 to 1123. They traced their lineage to Hsieh, who appears in the Shi as Minister of Instruction to Shun. By Y4o or by Shun, Hsieh was invested with the principality of Shang, corresponding to the small department which is so named in Shen-hsf. Fourteenth in descent from him came Thien-yi, better known as King Thang, or Thang the Successful, who dethroned the last descendant of the line of Hsia, and became the founder of a new dynasty. We meet with him first at a considerable distance from the ancestral fief (which, however, gave name to the dynasty), having as his capital the southern Po, which seems correctly referred to the present district of Shang- ‘hid, in the department of Kwei-teh, Ho-nan. Among the twenty-seven sovereigns who followed Thang, there were three especially distinguished :—Thai Xia, his grandson and successor (B.c. 1753 to 1721), who received the title of Thai Sung; Thai Miu (8.c. 1637 to 1563), canonized as Aung 3ung; and Wating (B.c. 1324 to 1266), known as K4o Sung. The shrines of these three sovereigns and that of Thang retained their places in the ancestral temple ever after they were first set up, and if all the sacrificial odes of the dynasty had been preserved, most of them would have been in praise of one or other of the four. But it so happened that at least all the odes of which Thai 3ung was the subject were lost; and of the others we have only the small portion that has been mentioned above. .
Of how it is that we have even these, we have the following account in the Narratives of the States, compiled, probably, by a contemporary of Confucius. The count of Wei was made duke of Sung by king WQ of X4u, as related in the Shf, V, viii, there to continue the sacrifices of the House of Shang; but the government of Sung fell subsequently into disorder, and the memorials of the dynasty were lost. In the time of duke T4i (B.c. 799 to 766), one of his ministers, Xing-kh4o, an ancestor of Confucius, received from the Grand Music-Master at the court of Xau twelvep. 304 of the sacrificial odes of Shang with which he returned to Sung, where they were used in sacrificing to the old Shang kings. It is supposed that seven of these were lost subsequently, before the collection of the Shih was formed.
Ove 1. Tue NA}
APPROPRIATE TO A SACRIFICE TO THANG, THE FOUNDER OF THE SHANG DYNASTY, DWELLING ESPECIALLY ON THE MUSIC AND THE REVERENCE WITH WHICH THE SACRIFICE WAS PERFORMED.
It is supposed that seven of these were lost subsequently, before the collection of the Shih was formed.
Ove 1. Tue NA}
APPROPRIATE TO A SACRIFICE TO THANG, THE FOUNDER OF THE SHANG DYNASTY, DWELLING ESPECIALLY ON THE MUSIC AND THE REVERENCE WITH WHICH THE SACRIFICE WAS PERFORMED.
We cannot tell by which of the kings of Shang the sacrifice here referred to was first performed. He is simply spoken of as ‘a descendant of Thang.’ The ode seems to have been composed by some one, probably a member of the royal House, who had taken part in the service.
How admirable! how complete! Here are set our hand-drums and drums. The drums resound harmonious and loud, To delight our meritorious ancestor ?.
The descendant of Thang invites him with this music, That he may soothe us with the realization of our thoughts*. Deep is the sound of our hand-
1 The piece is called the N&, because a character so named is an important part of the first line. So generally the pieces in the Shih receive their names from a character or phrase occurring in them. This point will not be again touched on.
* The ‘meritorious ancestor’ is Thang. The sacrifices of the Shang dynasty commenced with music; those of the A4au with libations of fragrant spirits ;—in both cases with the same object, to attract the spirit, or spirits, sacrificed to, and secure their presence at the service. hin H&o (Ming dynasty) says, ‘The departed spirits hover between heaven and earth, and sound goes forth, filling the region of the air. Hence in sacrificing, the people of Yin began with a performance of music.’
’ The Lf Ai, XXIV, i, parr. 2, 3, tells us, that the sacrificer, as preliminary to the service, had to fast for some days, and to think of the person of his ancestor,—where he had stood and sat, how he had smiled and spoken, what had been his cherished aims,p. 505 drums and drums; Shrilly sound the flutes; All harmonious and blending together, According to the notes of the sonorous gem. Oh! majestic is the descendant of Thang; Very admirable is his music.
The large bells and drums fill the ear; The various dances are grandly performed!. We have the admirable visitors?, Who are pleased and delighted.
From of old, before our time, The former men set us the example ;—How to be mild and humble from morning to night, And to be reverent in discharging the service.
May he regard our sacrifices of winter and autumn’, (Thus) offered by the descendant of Thang!
Ope 2. Tue Lieu 36.
PROBABLY LIKE THE LAST ODE, APPROPRIATE TO A SACRIFICE TO THANG, DWELLING ON THE SPIRITS, THE SOUP, AND THE GRAVITY OF THE SERVICE, AND ON THE ASSISTING PRINCES.
Neither can we tell by which of the kings of Shang this ode was first used. A( Hsi says that the object of the sacrifice was Thang. The Preface assigns it to Thai M4u, the Xung 3ung, or second of the three ‘honoured ones.’ But there is not a