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 2 of 19
2.
p. 5
to write all charges of the king, and to do so in duplicate.’ Of the duties of the Recorder of the Exterior it is said :— ‘ He has charge of the histories of the states in all parts of the kingdom ;’ ‘ He has charge of the most ancient books ;’ ‘It is his business to publish in all parts of the kingdom the books and the characters in them?)
These entries show that under the Kau dynasty there was provision made for the recording and preservation of royal charges and ordinances, of the operations of the general government, and of the histories of the different states ; and, moreover, for the preservation and interpretation of documents come down from more ancient times. Confucius himself tells us that in his early days a recorder would leave a blank in his text, rather than enter anything . of which he had not sufficient evidence®. Mencius also mentions three works, the Shang of Kin, the Thao-wd of Kha, and the KAun K4Aid of LO, which must have come from the recorders of those states.
Of the existence of a similar class of officers under the previous dynasties of Shang or Yin (B.C. 1766-1123) and Hsia (B.C. 2205-1765), we have not such abundant evidence. Chapter 2 in the roth Book of the 5th Part of our classic, however, seems to speak of them in the time of the former. Wd-ting (B.C. 1324-1264), the twentieth sovereign of it, is described as communicating, in writing, a dream which he had had, to his ministers?; and fully four hundred years earlier, { Yin, the chief minister, remonstrates, in writing, with his young and careless sovereign Thai A ia*. Going back to the dynasty of Hsid, we find the prince of Yin, during the reign of Kung Khang (B.C. 2159-2345), in addressing his troops, quotes the Statutes of Government in a manner which makes us conceive of him as referring to a well-known written compilation®, The grandsons of the great Yii, its founder (B.C. 2205-2196), likewise, make mention, in the Songs of the Five Sons, of his Lessons, in a style that suggests to us the formula that Mencius was wont to employ when referring to the documents acknowledged to be of authority in his day}. ;
* See for all these statements the Ritual or Official Book of Kau, XX XI, 35-42. 2 Analects, XV, xxv. 3 Part IV, viii, section 1.
* Part IV, v, section 1. 5 Part III, iv.
6 THE SHO KING.
2 Analects, XV, xxv. 3 Part IV, viii, section 1. * Part IV, v, section 1. 5 Part III, iv.
p. 6
wont to employ when referring to the documents acknowledged to be of authority in his day}. ;
MA Twan-lin, the encyclopedist, in his General Examination of Records and Scholars, first published A.D. 1321, says that ‘the pencil of the recorders was busy from the time of Hwang Ti (B.C. 2697). The compilers of the records of the Sui dynasty (A.D. 589-617) say that ‘historical documents began immediately with the invention of written characters. That invention I must place myself at an earlier date than the time assigned to Hwang Ti. When once the characters were invented, they would come in time to be employed in the writing of history. The early dates alleged for many of the documents in the Sha are no valid reason for rejecting them without further examination. We may rather be surprised that, when the compilation was made, it did not contain many more than a hundred documents.
5. The dynasty of K4u came to an end in B.C. 256, and after an anarchic interval of thirty-five years, the king of Khin succeeded in uniting all the feudal states under his
Destruction of OWN Sway, and proclaimed himself emperor. the classical Up to this time the Sh had sustained no literature by the emperor Other damage than all human works are of Kkin. —jiable to in the course of time ; but now it narrowly escaped an entire destruction. An edict went forth from the tyrant in B.C. 213, commanding that all the old classical books should be consigned to the flames. excepting those belonging to the great scholars in the service of the court, and the Yi. His rage was hottest against the Sha and the Shih (the Book of Poetry). Death was the doom of scholars who should be known to meet together and speak of these works, and all who should be discovered having copies of them in their possession, when thirty days had elapsed after the publication of the edict, were to be branded, and sent to labour for four years on the Great Wall, which was then building. This is not the place to explain the reasons that led to
' Part IIL, iii.
p. 7
this insane attempt to extinguish, with the exception of one work, the ancient literary monuments of China. The edict was ruthlessly enforced, and hundreds of scholars who refused obedience to the imperial command were buried alive. The Sh@ had nearly perished from off the earth.
6. The tyrant, however, died in B.C. 210, within four years from the issuing of his edict. The dynasty which he had sought to establish passed away in B.C. 206. That of Han dates from the year B.C. 202, and in 191 the edict against the ancient books was formally repealed. They had been
Recovery of Under the ban for less than a quarter of a
The dynasty which he had sought to establish passed away in B.C. 206. That of Han dates from the year B.C. 202, and in 191 the edict against the ancient books was formally repealed. They had been
Recovery of Under the ban for less than a quarter of a the Sha. century. There would probably have been no difficulty in recovering copies of them, but for the sack of the capital in B.C. 206 by the most formidable opponent of the founder of the House of Han. Then the fires blazed, we are told, for three months among the palaces and public buildings, and proved as destructive to the copies that might have been preserved about the court as the edict of AAin had been to those among the people.
Among the scholars of A4in, however, there had been one, of the surname Fd, who, when the edict was issued, hid his tablets of the Shi in a wall. Returning for them, after the rule of Han was established, he found that many were perished or gone. He recovered only twenty-nine of the documents, containing, according to the division of them that has long been followed, thirty-five books in all. About one of them there is some difficulty, on the discussion of which I need not enter. Fa commenced teaching them, and from all parts scholars resorted to him, and sat at his feet. The emperor Wan (B.C. 179-155) heard of him, and sent one of the recorders of the court to visit him, and bring the recovered tablets themselves, or a copy of them, to the capital. They were in the form of the character that was prevalent at that time, different from that which had been used in previous centuries, and are known as ‘the Shd of the modern text.’ The Catalogue of the Imperial Library, prepared by Lid Hin for the emperor Ai (B.C. 6-1), contains an entry of ‘the text of the Shad in twenty-nine portions,—the same, no doubt, which wasp. 8 received from Fd. Fd himself commented on his Sha. The text was engraved on the stone tablets of the emperor Ling (A.D. 168-189). Very many scholars of the Han times laboured on this text, taught it to their disciples, and published their views on it. Not one of their writings, however, survived, in a complete form, the troubles which desolated the empire during the reign of the emperor Hwai (A. D. 307-312) of the western dynasty of Kin.
Not one of their writings, however, survived, in a complete form, the troubles which desolated the empire during the reign of the emperor Hwai (A. D. 307-312) of the western dynasty of Kin.
In the reign of the Han emperor Wd (B.C. 140-85) a discovery was made in the wall of the house of the Khung or Confucian family of the tablets of the Sha, the Spring and Autumn, the classic of Filial Piety, and the Lun-yii or Confucian Analects. How long they had lain there we do not know. It is commonly said that they had been hidden by some one of the Khung family to save them from the fires of KAin. But they were in a form of the character that had long gone into disuse, and which hardly any one could decipher, and must have been deposited towards the beginning of the fifth century B.c. They were committed to the care of Khung An-kwo, who was then one of the ‘ great scholars’ of the empire, and the chief of the Khung family. By means of the current text of Fa and other resources he made out all the tablets of the Sha that were in good preservation, and in addition to Fi’s twenty-nine documents several others. He found also that Fd had in three cases incorporated two different documents under one name, and taken no note of the division of one other into three books or sections. Altogether there were now forty-six documents or different portions of the old Sha brought anew to light. They appear in Lid’ Hin’s Catalogue as ‘the text of the Sha in old characters in forty-six portions.’
When An-kwo had made out the tablets, he presented them to the emperor in B.C. 97, with a transcript of them in the current characters of the time, keeping a second transcript of them for himself; and he received an order to make a commentary on the whole. He did so, but when he was about to lay the result of his labours before the court, troubles had arisen which prevented for several yeafs the paying attention to literary matters. It wasp. 9 owing to these that his commentary was neglected for a time, and the enlarged text which he had deciphered was not officially put in charge of the Board of ‘Great Scholars,’ to which the care of the five King, so far as they had been recovered, had been committed in B.C. 136.
p. 9
owing to these that his commentary was neglected for a time, and the enlarged text which he had deciphered was not officially put in charge of the Board of ‘Great Scholars,’ to which the care of the five King, so far as they had been recovered, had been committed in B.C. 136.
An-kwo’s commentary, however, was not lost; but before speaking of it, I must refer to a third recovery of a large. portion of the Shd early in our first century. A scholar and officer, named Td Lin, had been a fugitive, having many wonderful escapes, during the usurpation of Mang (A.D. 9-22). During his wanderings he discovered a portion of the Sha on ‘lacquered’ tablets, or perhaps on lacquered cloth, which he thenceforth guarded as his richest treasure, and kept near his person. When the empire was again settled by the first emperor of the eastern Han, he communicated his text to other scholars. Wei Hung published a commentary on it, and subsequently Xia Khwei, Ma Yung, and Kang Khang-é/ang (all, great names in Chinese literature) did the same. Td Lin’s ‘ lacquered’ books were the same in number as An-kwo’s, but they contained five documents in thirteen books, which were not in the text of the other, and wanted nine documents, also in thirteen books, which An-kwo’s text had. The commentary of Kang Khang-&/ang continued till the Sui dynasty, after which we lose sight of it.
I return to the commentary of An-kwo, which, of course, contained his text. Its transmission from hand to hand down to the close of the western Han dynasty is clearly traced. Less distinctly, but surely, we can discover evidence of its preservation, till we come to the commencement of the eastern dynasty of Kin, when Mei 3eh, a recorder of the Interior, having come into possession of a copy, presented it to the emperor Yiian (A. D. 317-322). The Canon of Shun was wanting in it, and was supplied from the commentary of Ma Yung, based on the text of Td Lin. From this time the text and commentary of An-kwo had their place assigned them in the Imperial College. They are mentioned in the Catalogue of the Imperial Library of Sui. The second emperor of the Thang dynasty gave ordersp. 10 for a grand edition of the Sha, under the superintendence of Khung Ying-t4, assisted by others. They adopted the commentary of An-kwo, and enriched it with profuse annotations. In A.D. 654 their work was ordered to be printed, and happily remains to the present day. The text of the Sha, that is, of all of it that had been recovered by Ankwo, was still further secured, being engraved with that of all the other classics on the Thang tablets of stone which were completed in the year 837, and are still preserved at Khang-an, in Shen-hsi.
The text of the Sha, that is, of all of it that had been recovered by Ankwo, was still further secured, being engraved with that of all the other classics on the Thang tablets of stone which were completed in the year 837, and are still preserved at Khang-an, in Shen-hsi.
It is not necessary to trace the history of the Sh further on. The titles of more than 500 works, on the whole of it or on portions, from the dynasty of Thang to the present day, could easily be adduced. Under the Sung dynasty, indeed, there began the sceptical criticism, which, setting comparatively little store on external evidence, decides on the genuineness of documents principally from their style. The results of such criticism always vary according to the knowledge and the subjective character of the mind of its author. Many maintain that the commentary said to be that of An-kwo was not really from him, but was made by Mei 3eh, and palmed on the world under the name of the great Han scholar. Even if it were so, the work would remain, produced nearly 1600 years ago. And to the annotations of the Thang scholars upon it we are indebted for most of what we know of the earlier views of M4 Yung, Kang Khang-&Aang, and other writers of the Han period. Whether its author were the true Khung or a false Khung, its value cannot be over-estimated. But I do not believe that it was aforgery. That An-kwodid write a commentary on his ‘Sha in the ancient characters’ is admitted by all. When did it perish? There is no evidence that it ever did so. On the contrary, its existence rises as a fact, here and there, at no great intervals of time, on the surface of the literary history of the empire, till we arrive at Mei 3eh, who received it, as Khung Ying-ta proves, from a scholar named 3ang Zhao.
Then as to the text of the Sha, there is no controversy about the documents which were recovered in the first
INTRODUCTION. II
Then as to the text of the Sha, there is no controversy about the documents which were recovered in the first
INTRODUCTION. II
place by Fd; but the additional ones found by Khung Ankwo are so much more easily understood, that I do not wonder that the charge of not being genuine has been raised against them. But even they are not easy. They only appear to be so, when we come to one of them, after toiling through some of the more contorted portions common to both texts. And, moreover, the style of the different books differs according to their subjects. The ‘Announcements’ are the hardest to understand of all. The ‘Charges,’ ‘Speeches, and ‘Instructions’ are much simpler in their construction; and the portions which we owe to An-kwo consist principally of these. In making out his obsolete characters he had, in the first place, to make use of the Books of FQ. That he did not servilely follow his text we conclude from the readings of Fi’s followers, different from his in many passages which the industry of critics has gathered up. When he came, however, to new books, which were not in Fd’s copy, he had to make out his tablets as he best could. Tis most valuable aid had ceased. We can conceive that, when he had managed to read the greater portion of a paragraph, and yet there were some stubborn characters that defied him, he completed it according to his understanding of the sense with characters of his own. That he was faithful and successful in the main we find by the many passages of his peculiar books that are found quoted in writings of the Kau dynasty. This is a fact worthy of the most attentive consideration. I do not think there is an important statement in his chapters that is not thus vouched for. The characteristics of his books which. have exposed them to suspicion are not sufficient to overthrow their claims to be regarded as genuine transcripts of the tablets discovered in the wall of the house of the Khung family.
The conclusion to which I come, at the close of this chapter, is, that there is nothing seriously to shake our confidence in the portions of the Sha that we now possess, as being substantially the same as those which were in the collection of the Kau dynasty both before and after Confucius.
p. 12
CHAPTER II.
THE CREDIBILITY OF THE RECORDS IN THE SHO.
1, Accepting the conclusion which I have stated immediately above, I now go on to enquire whether the docu-
Whether the Ments in the Shd can be relied on as genuine records in narratives of the transactions which they prothe Sha . :
are reliable fess to relate. And it may be said at once,
1, Accepting the conclusion which I have stated immediately above, I now go on to enquire whether the docu-
Whether the Ments in the Shd can be relied on as genuine records in narratives of the transactions which they prothe Sha . :
are reliable fess to relate. And it may be said at once, or not. —_in reference to the greater number of them, that there is no reasonable ground to call their credibility in question. Allowance must be made, indeed, for the colouring with which the founders of one dynasty set forth the misdeeds of the closing reigns of that which they were superseding, and for the way in which the failures of a favourite hero may be glossed over. But the documents of the Sha are quite as much entitled to credit as the memorials and edicts which are published at the present day in the Peking Gazette.
The more recent the documents are, the more, of course, are they to be relied on. And provision was made, we have seen, by the statutes of Ku, for the preservation of the records of previous dynasties. But it was not to be expected that many of those should not perish in the lapse of time, and others suffer mutilations and corruptions. And this, we find, was the case. Of the eighty-one documents that the Sha at one time contained, only one belonged to the period of Y4o; seven to the period of Shun ; four to the dynasty of Hsia, much the larger one of which narrates what was done in the time of Yao; thirty-one to the dynasty of Shang; and thirty-eight to the first 500 years of that of Kau. All this seems to bear on the surface of it the stamp of verisimilitude.
2. The Books of K4u were contemporaneous with the
The Books events which they describe, and became public of Kau. property not long after their composition. They are to be received without hesitation.
p. 13
All this seems to bear on the surface of it the stamp of verisimilitude.
2. The Books of K4u were contemporaneous with the
The Books events which they describe, and became public of Kau. property not long after their composition. They are to be received without hesitation.
p. 13
Nor are those of the previous dynasty of Shang open The Books to suspicion. We ascend by means of them of Shang. to Thang the Successful, its founder, with a confident step. The beginning of his rule is placed chronologically in B.C. 1766. Of the still earlier dynasty of Hsia, there are only four The Books documents, and we have no evidence that of Hsia. there were any more when the collection of the Shi was made in the times of K4u. The first and longest of the four, though occupied with the great achievement of Yii, the founder of Hsi4, whose chronological place is B.C, 2205-2196, really belongs to the reign of Y4o, and is out of place among the records of Hsia. The other three documents bring us down only to the reign of Kung Khang (B.C. 2159-2145), and I see no grounds for doubting their genuineness. In the last of them a celestial phenomenon is mentioned, which has always been understood to have been an eclipse of the sun in Fang, a space of about 54° from = to o of Scorpio, on the first day of the last month of autumn. P. Gaubil thought he had determined by calculation that such an eclipse really took place in the fifth year of Kung Khang, B.C. 2155. Doubts, however, have been cast, as will be seen in the next chapter, on the accuracy of his calculation, and therefore I do not avail myself of it here as a confirmation of the truth of the document. 3. We come to the earlier records,—those of the reigns The Books Of Y4o and Shun, with which must be classed of Thang the Tribute of Yii, the first of the documents and Ya. of Hsia; and it must be admitted that there is not the same evidence that they existed originally in their present form. i. The Canon of Yao and three of the four still exist- They are ing books of the time of Yii, all commence professedly with the words, ‘Examining into antiquity, Tater compi- we find.’ They are therefore, on their own tions, . . . showing, the compilations of a later age. The ' writer separates himself from the date of the events which he narrates, and while professing to draw from the recordsp. 14 of ‘antiquity, yet writes himself from a modem standpoint. The Yi and Xi, the last of the documents of the Shun period, formed one book with the preceding in the Sha of Fa, and came under the opening words of that, as being a result of ‘the examination of antiquity.’ I will draw separate attention farther on to the Tribute of Yii.
ii, Much of what is related in the Canons of Y4o and Shun, as well as in the other documents, has more the air
They are Of legend than of history. When Y4o has
ii, Much of what is related in the Canons of Y4o and Shun, as well as in the other documents, has more the air
They are Of legend than of history. When Y4o has legendary. been on the throne for seventy years, he proposes to resign in favour of his principal minister, who is styled the Four Mountains. That worthy declares himself unequal to the office. Yao then asks him whom he can recommend for it; be the worthiest individual a noble or a poor man, he will appoint him to the dignity. This brings Shun upon the stage. All the officers about the court can recommend him,—Shun of Yii', an unmarried man among the lower people. His father, a blind man, was obstinately unprincipled; his mother, or stepmother, was insincere; his brother was arrogant; and yet Shun had been able by his filial piety to live harmoniously with them, and to bring them to a considerable measure of selfgovernment and good conduct. Y4o is delighted. He had himself heard somcthing of Shun. He resolved to give him a preliminary trial. And a strange trial it was. He gave him his own two daughters in marriage, and declared that he would test his fitness for the throne by seeing his behaviour with his two wives.
Shun must have stood the test. Y4o continued to employ him as General Regulator for three years, and then called him to ascend the throne. Shun refused to do so, but discharged the royal duties till the death of Y4o in 2257, becoming himself sole ruler in B.C. 2255. These
‘FB mm guished from Yii (FE). the name of Shun’s successor, the founder of the dynasty of Hsia. Bunsen confounded the two appellations (Egypt's Place in Universal History, IIT, p. 399).
—Yii is the dynastic designation of Shun. It is to be distin-
p. 15
2255. These
‘FB mm guished from Yii (FE). the name of Shun’s successor, the founder of the dynasty of Hsia. Bunsen confounded the two appellations (Egypt's Place in Universal History, IIT, p. 399).
—Yii is the dynastic designation of Shun. It is to be distinp. 15and other marvellous notices of Y4o and Shun are largely added to by Mencius and Sze-ma Kzdien, but their accounts are of the same extraordinary character. I must believe that the oldest portions of the Shd do not give us the history of Yao and Shun, but legendary tales about them. At the same time it must be allowed that the compiler Thei .__ of these books in their present form had in eir compiler | , . had ancient his possession some documents as old as the documents on time of Yao. To my mind three things renbase his der this admission necessary. First, the titles representations. of the high officers of Y4o and Shun are different from those of the corresponding dignitaries at a later age. The principal personage was called the Four Mountains; next to him was the General Regulator; and the Minister of Religion was the Arranger of the Ancestral Temple. It is more probable that the compiler received these and other peculiar designations from old documents than that he invented them himself. Second, the style of these early books is distinguished in several particulars from the style of those of Hsia, Shang, and Kau. I need only specify the exclamations, ‘Alas!’ ‘Ah!’ and ‘Oh!’ which are expressed by characters that we do not elsewhere find used in the same way. Third, the directions of Y4o to his astronomers, telling them how to determine the equinoxes and solstices, by means of the stars culminating at dusk in those seasons, could not be the inventions of a later age. The reader will find this subject discussed in the next chapter, where it is shown how those culminating stars may be employed to ascertain the era of Yao. No compiler, ignorant of the precession of the equinoxes, which was not known in China till about the middle of our fourth century, could have framed Y4o’s directions with such an adjustment to the time assigned to him in chronology. When the Books of Thang and Yii received their present form, we cannot tell. Probably it was in the early period of the K4u dynasty, though I am not without a suspicion that some verbal changes were made in them under the short-lived dynasty of AKAin, which intervened betweenp. 16 the dynasties of Kau and Han, and possibly some also when they were recovered under the latter.
4. It remains for us to consider the case of the Tribute
The Tribute Of Yii, the first, as the books are now arranged,
the dynasties of Kau and Han, and possibly some also when they were recovered under the latter.
4. It remains for us to consider the case of the Tribute
The Tribute Of Yii, the first, as the books are now arranged, of Yi. of those of Hsia, but belonging, as has been already said, to the period of Y4o, or at least to the period when Y4o and Shun were together on the throne. It thus appears out of its chronological order, and must share in the general uncertainty which attaches to the documents of the first two parts of our classic.
Yao, in what year of his reign we are not told, appears suddenly startled by the ravages of a terrible inundation. The waters were overtopping the hills, and threatening the heavens in their surging fury. The people everywhere were groaning and murmuring Was there a capable man to whom he could assign the correction of the calamity? All the nobles recommend one Khw4n, to whom Y4o, against his own better judgment, delegates the difficult task, on which Khwan labours without success for nine years. His son Yii then entered on the work. From beyond the western bounds of the present China proper he is represented as tracking the great rivers, here burning the woods, hewing the rocks, and cutting through the mountains that obstructed their progress, and there deepening their channels until their waters flow peacefully into the eastern sea. He forms lakes, and raises mighty embankments, till at length ‘the grounds along the rivers were everywhere made habitable; the hills cleared of their superfluous wood ; and access to the capital was secured for all within the four seas. A great order was effected in the six magazines (of material wealth); the different parts of the country were subjected to an exact comparison, so that contribution of revenue could be carefully adjusted according to their resources. The fields were all classified according to the three characters of the soil, and the revenues of the Middle Kingdom were established.’ Of the devotion with which Yii pursued his work, he says himself in the Yi and Ki:—I mounted my four conveyances,’— carriages on the land, boats on the water, sledges in icy places, and
p. 17
p. 17
shoes with spikes in them in ascending the hills,—‘ and all along the hills hewed down the woods, at the same time, along with Yi, showing the people how to get flesh to eat, —that is, by capturing fish and birds and beasts. ‘I opened passages for the streams throughout the nine provinces, and conducted them to the sea. I deepened the channels and canals, and conducted them to the streams, at the same time, along with Ki, sowing grain, and showing the people how to procure the food of toil.in addition to flesh meat. I urged them to exchange what they had for what they had not, and to dispose of their accumulated stores. In this way all the people got grain to eat, and the myriad regions began to come under good rule.’ And again :—‘ When I married in Td-shan, I remained with my wife only four days.’ Mencius says that while engaged on his task, he thrice passed the door of his house; but did not enter it. His own words are:—‘ When K4Ai (my son) was wailing and weeping, I did not regard him, but kept planning with all my might my labour on the land.’
Along with his operations to assuage the wide-spread inundation, Yii thus carried on other most important labours proper to an incipient civilization. We gather from the Sha that it did not take him many years to accomplish his mighty undertaking. It was successfully finished before the death of Yao. All this is incredible. The younger Biot, in an article on the Tribute of Yii, published in the Journal Asiatique, in 1842, says: —‘If we are to believe the commentators, Yii will become a supernatural being, who could lead the immense rivers of China as if he had been engaged in regulating the course of feeble streamlets.’ There is no occasion to say, ‘If we are to believe the commentators ;'—if we are to believe the Sha, this is the judgment that we must form about Yii.
The general conclusion to which Biot came about the document under our notice was that we are to find in it only the progress of a great colony. Yii was the first explorer of the Chinese world. He established posts of colonists or planters in different parts of the territory. He caused the wood around those posts to be cut down,
Ct] c
18 THE sHOd KING.
Yii was the first explorer of the Chinese world. He established posts of colonists or planters in different parts of the territory. He caused the wood around those posts to be cut down,
Ct] c
18 THE sHOd KING.
and commenced the cultivation of the soil. After Yii, the labours of draining the country and clearing the forests continued during some ages, and the result of all was attributed by Chinese tradition to the first chief. I have no doubt there is an inkling of the truth in this view of the French sinologue, but the idea of Yii’s being the leader of a Chinese colony had better be abandoned. We recognise the primitive seat of the Chinese people, in the southern parts of the present Shan-hsi, with the Ho on the west and south of it. His son fought a battle with the Chief of Hf at a place in the present department of Hsi-an, in Shen-hsi, across the Ho, and his grandson was kept a sort of prisoner at large in the present province of Ho-nan, south of the river. The people or tribe extended itself westward, eastward, and southward, and still later northward, as it increased in numbers, and was able to subdue the earth.
The flood of Y4o was probably an inundation of the Ho, similar to many in subsequent times which have procured for that river the name of ‘China’s Sorrow,’ and Yii distinguished himself in the assuaging of it, and the regulation of its course to the sea. The extent of the country came to be ascertained under the dynasties of Hsia and Shang, and its different parts were gradually occupied by the increasing numbers of the people, and contributed their various proportions of revenue to the central government. There were memorials of the toils which Yii had undergone, and of allotments of territory which he had made to the most distinguished among his followers. It occurred to some historiographer to form a theory as to the way in which the whole country might have been brought to order by the founder of the Hsia dynasty, and he proceeded to glorify Yi by ascribing so grand an achievement to him. About the same time, probably, the popular stories of Yii’s self-denial had found their expression in the Yi and Xi, prompting at once the conception of the Tribute of Yii, and obtaining for it a favourable reception. Yii entered well into association with Y4o and Shun, and formed a triad with themp. 19 at the beginning of the Chinese monarchy. Their wisdom and benevolence appeared in him, combined with a practical devotion to the duties of his position, in which all sovereigns would have a model, to win them from indolence and self-indulgence, and stimulate them to a painstaking discharge of their responsibilities.
Their wisdom and benevolence appeared in him, combined with a practical devotion to the duties of his position, in which all sovereigns would have a model, to win them from indolence and self-indulgence, and stimulate them to a painstaking discharge of their responsibilities.
In the nineteenth of the Books of Part V, the duke of K4u counsels his young sovereign, king KAing (B.C. 1115- 1077), to have his armies in a good state of preparation, so that he might go forth ‘ beyond the footsteps of Yii,’ and travel over all beneath the sky, everywhere meeting with submission. The duke’s reference to ‘the footsteps of Yii’ does not prove that Yii really travelled and toiled as the Tribute of Yii reports, but only that such was the current belief at the commencement of the K4u dynasty, while it affords at the same time a presumption that our document was then among the archives of the kingdom. It may have been compiled before the end of the Hsia dynasty, or under that of Shang. From Shang it passed to Kau, and came under the care of the recorders of the Exterior. Then subsequently it was very properly incorporated in the collection of the Shad.
5. While we are thus unable to receive the six earliest documents in our classic as contemporaneous in their present form with the events which they relate, it is not meant
Yao, Shun to throw doubt on the existence of Y4Ao, and Viiare hun, and Yii as historical personages. More alt historical especially does Yii stand forth as the first
Personae: sovereign of the dynasty of Hsia, the man who laid the foundation of the hereditary monarchy in China, its feudal sovereign who ‘conferred surnames and lands. The documents which follow the Tribute of Yi, commencing with the Speech at Kan, delivered in B.c. 2197 by Yii’s son and successor, may all be received as veritable monuments of antiquity.
p. 20
CHAPTER III.
ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF CHINA, AND THE PRINCIPAL ERAS IN THE SHO.
1. Ido not enter here on the subject of the chronology of China further than is necessary to show that there is no chronological difficulty in the way of our accepting the documents of the Shd, which I have just specified, as being possessed of the antiquity ascribed to them.
The Sha itself does not supply the means of laying down
No detailed any scheme of chronology for the long period chronological of time which it covers. We learn from it that be made out the dynasty of K4u succeeded to that of
The Sha itself does not supply the means of laying down
No detailed any scheme of chronology for the long period chronological of time which it covers. We learn from it that be made out the dynasty of K4u succeeded to that of from the Shd. Shang (another name for which was Yin), and the dynasty of Shang to that of Hsia, and that prior to Yii, the founder of the Hsia, there were the reigns of Shun and Y4o. As P. Gaubil has observed, ‘If we had only the Shad King, we should have but confused ideas of the time comprised in the different parts of the book.’ There is nothing in this to awaken our surprise. The chronology of a nation comes to be cultivated as a science only when a necessity is felt to arrange the events of its history in regular series on the course of time.
2. It was under the Han dynasty that it was first
Attempts at attempted to construct a_ chronological systematic scheme of the history of the nation. For
“once this purpose its scholars employed the well-the Han known cycle of sixty years, in the fifteenth Period. year of the seventy-sixth revolution of which T am now writing. It was assumed that this cycle was first devised by T4-n4o, an officer of Hwang Ti, in B.C. 2637, which is the first year of the first cycle. But all scholars in China, whether they call in question this origin of the cycle or not, now agree in saying that the use of the cyclic characters to chronicle years was not the ancient method, and did not begin earlier than the time of the usurper Mang (A. D. 9-22). In the Shd itself the current cycle is used to chronicle
p. 21
D. 9-22). In the Shd itself the current cycle is used to chronicle
p. 21
days, and days only. Years are specified according to their order in the reign of the sovereign to whom they are referred. Such specification of years in it, however, is rare. Before the Han dynasty a list of sovereigns, and of the Ancient length of their several reigns, was the only method of method which the Chinese had of determining Sine lente the duration of their national history. And Oh eeinete it would still be a satisfactory methcd, if we " had a list of sovereigns, and of the years that each reigned, that was complete and reliable. But we do not have this. Even in the early part of the Han dynasty, Sze-m4 Khien’s father and himself, in their Historical Records, completed about B.C. 100, were obliged to content themselves with giving simply the names and order of most of the rulers of Shang and Hsia. It is right to state also that in A.D. 279, when the grave of king Hsiang of Wei (died in B.C. 295) was opened, there were found a number of bamboo tablets in it, written in the ancient seal characters, among which the most valuable portion was a book of annals, beginning with the reign of Hwang Ti, and coming down to the sixteenth year of the last king of K'4u, B.C. 299. This work is still current under the name of the Annals of the Bamboo Books. The chronology derived from it is shorter than the received system by rather more than 200 years. If in any of the ‘classical books of the A4u dynasty we had a statement of the length of the national history from any given era to the time of the writer, the notice would be exceedingly valuable; or, if the length of the reigns of the sovereigns of Shang and Hsia, cursorily mentioned in it, were correctly given, we should be in a position to make an approximate computation for ourselves. But there are only two passages in all those books which are helpful to us in this point. The former of them is in a narrative in 30 Kkid-ming’s supplement to the Spring and Autumn, under the third year of duke Hsiian, where it is said that the dynasty of Shang possessed the throne for 600 years. The other passage is the last chapter of the works of Mencius, where that philosopher says that ‘from Yao and Shun to Thang ’—a period including all the dynasty of Hsia —
22 THE SHO KING.
The other passage is the last chapter of the works of Mencius, where that philosopher says that ‘from Yao and Shun to Thang ’—a period including all the dynasty of Hsia —
p. 22
‘there were 500 years and more; from Thang to king Wan ’—the period of the Shang dynasty—‘ 500 years and more ; and from king Wan to Confucius, 500 years and more. We know that Confucius was born in B.C. 551. Adding 551 to the 1500 years ‘and more,’ given by Mencius, we have the era of Y4o and Shun at 2100 years ‘and more’ before our Christian era. And the received chronology places Yii’s accession to the throne, as the successor of Shun, in B.C. 2205. Vague as the language of Mencius is, I do not think that with the most painstaking research, apart from conclusions based on astronomical considera tions, we can determine anything more precise and definite concerning the length of Chinese history than it conveys. 3. The Charge to the Marquis Wan, which now forms ‘The period the 28th Book of the 5th Part of the Sha, ofthe Kau is understood to have been delivered by dynasty. king Phing, the thirteenth of his line. His place in historical time is well ascertained. Confucius’ chronicle of the Spring and Autumn commences in B.C. 722. The first of the thirty-six solar eclipses mentioned in it took place three years after, on the 14th February (N.S.) 719, and it is recorded that in the month after king Phing died. Here therefore is a point of time about which there can be no dispute. An earlier date in the K4u dynasty is known with the same certainty. The Book of Poetry mentions an eclipse of the sun which took place on the 29th August, B.C. 776, in the sixth year of king YQ, who preceded Phing. Yd reigned eleven years, and his predecessor, Hsiian, forty-six, whose reign consequently commenced B.C. 827. Up to this date Chinese chronologers agree. To the ten reigns before king Hsiian, the received chronology assigns 295 years, making the dynasty begin in B,C, 1122, which cannot be far from the truth. 4. In the period of the Shang dynasty we cannot fix a The period single reign by means of astronomical facts. ofthe Shang The received chronology assigns to it twentydynasty. eight reigns, extending over 644 years, so that its commencement was in B.C. 1766, The scheme.
p. 23
4. In the period of the Shang dynasty we cannot fix a The period single reign by means of astronomical facts. ofthe Shang The received chronology assigns to it twentydynasty. eight reigns, extending over 644 years, so that its commencement was in B.C. 1766, The scheme.
p. 23
derived from the bamboo books makes the sovereigns to be thirty, but the aggregate of their reigns is only 508. Mencius says that between Thang, the founder of the dynasty, and Wad-ting, the twentieth sovereign (in the common scheme), ‘there had been six or seven worthy and sage rulers!,’—leading to the conclusion that the number of twenty-eight sovereigns in all is not beyond the truth, In the fifteenth of the Books of K4u the names of three of the Shang rulers are given, and the duration of their reigns,—to show how Heaven is likely to crown a good king with length of sway. They are Thai Mau, who reigned seventy-five years; W4-ting, who reigned fifty-nine; and 30-4i4, who reigned thirty-three. The two schemes agree in the length of those reigns and of five others. From the statement in the 30-4wan, to which I have referred above, that the Shang dynasty possessed the throne for 600 years, and Mencius’ language that it lasted ‘for 500 years and more,’ we may believe that the 644 years of the common scheme are more likely to be correct than the 508 of the shorter.
5. The dynasty of Hsia lasted, according to the received chronology, 439 years, and according to the bamboo books,
The period 431; So that the difference here between the of Hsia. two schemes is small. The former estimate carries us up to B.C. 2205, as the first year of Yii’s reign.
I referred on page 13 to an eclipse of the sun, mentioned in the fourth of the Books of Hsi4, as having occurred in the reign of Kung Khang, a grandson of Yii, and stated that P. Gaubil had found by calculation that on the day and month stated in the document, and in the quarter of the heavens given, an eclipse did occur in the fifth year of Kung Khang, that is, in B.C. 2156, and was visible at his capital at 6" 49’, A.M. In 1840, J. B. Biot submitted a copy of Gaubil’s calculations to the younger Largeteau, a member, like himself, of the Institute of France, who went over them with the lunar tables of Damoiseau and the solar tables of Delambre, and brought out the result that
1 Mencius, II, i, ch. 1.
p. 24
B. Biot submitted a copy of Gaubil’s calculations to the younger Largeteau, a member, like himself, of the Institute of France, who went over them with the lunar tables of Damoiseau and the solar tables of Delambre, and brought out the result that
1 Mencius, II, i, ch. 1.
p. 24
there was indeed an eclipse on the day stated, but before the rising of the sun at the then capital of China. My friend, the Rev. Dr. Chalmers of Canton, not knowing anything of the examination made by Largeteau, undertook to verify the eclipse in 1861, and found that while the year, the month, and the day, as given by Gaubil, were correct, the eclipse had taken place during the night, and could not have been seen by the Chinese astronomers. The eclipse mentioned in the document of the Sha cannot therefore be used at present to confirm the received chronology of China ; but I am unwilling to give it up entirely. M. Biot says that, ‘ Notwithstanding the failure of the attempt of Largeteau to verify the eclipse, the hope of yet finding it in some one of the years of the twenty-second century before our era is not entirely lost. We ought to wait till the further perfecting of the lunar tables brings us new lights, by means of which we can form a surer judgment.’
6. We come to the earliest period of Chinese history of which the ShQ makes more than a cursory mention,—that
The period Of Yo and Shun. It says that Shun was of Yao _— thirty years on the throne with Y4o, and that, and Shun. fifty years after, he died and went on high. We learn from it also that it was in the seventieth year of his reign that Y4o sought for another to relieve him of the toils of government. The period covered by the two therefore is 150 years, which both the schemes of chronology accept. Adding two years of mourning between Shun’s death and Yii’s accession to the throne, we have B.C. 2357 as the first year of Y4o.
In the Canon of Yao, when that personage is giving directions to his astronomers how to determine the equinoxes and solstices, he tells them that at the vernal equinox they would find the star in Nido, and at the autumnal in Hsii; at the summer solstice, the star in Hwo, and at the winter in M4o. It has always been assumed by Chinese scholars that when Yé4o said, ‘The star of mid-spring is in
1 Etudes sur l'Astronomie Indienne et sur l’Astronomie Chinoise, pp. 376- 382.
p. 25
Nido, he meant the star culminating at dusk at that season, at the point of observation. And so of the other stars and seasons. A Chinese astronomer at the present day would similarly express himself.
376- 382.
p. 25
Nido, he meant the star culminating at dusk at that season, at the point of observation. And so of the other stars and seasons. A Chinese astronomer at the present day would similarly express himself.
Further, the most common, and what was the earliest division of the ecliptic in China, is that of the twenty-eight lunar mansions, forming what we may call the Chinese zodiac. These mansions are grouped together in four classes of seven each, assigned to the four quarters of the heavens’. Of the celestial spaces which Y4o specified, Nido is the general name for the seven mansions or constellations belonging to the southern quarter; Hwo is an old name of what is now called Fang, the central constellation of the eastern quarter ; Hsii and Mao are the central constellations of the northern and southern quarters respectively. What Y4o meant therefore was, that his astronomers could determine the solstices and the autumnal equinox by the culmination of the stars in the mansions which he specified for those seasons. And we may assume that he directed them, for the star of the vernal equinox, to Hsing, the central mansion in the southern space Nido. Now, Hsing corresponds to a (Alphard) Hydra, and small stars near it, in our stellar nomenclature; Hwo, to f, 3 in Scorpio; Hsii, to 8 Aquarii; and M4o, to Pleiades. When we wish to make the directions of Y4o available for the purpose of chronological enquiry, the question that arises is this :— When did the above-named stars culminate at dusk in China at the equinoctial and solstitial seasons?
Bunsen tells us that Ideler, computing the places of the constellations backwards, fixed the accession of Yao at B.C. 2163, and that Freret was of opinion that the observations left an uncertainty of 3°, leaving a margin of 210
1 In the Official Book of Kau, a work of the twelfth century before our era, Book XXVI, par. 25, in the enumeration of the duties of the astronomer royal of that day, there is mentioned the determination of ‘the places of the twenty-eight stars,’ meaning ‘the principal stars in the twenty-eight lunar mansions.’ The names of the stars and their mansions are not mentioned ;—surely a sufficient indication that they were even then well known. See Biot’s Etudes sur l’Astronomie Indienne, &c., pp. 112, 113.
p. 26
See Biot’s Etudes sur l’Astronomie Indienne, &c., pp. 112, 113.
p. 26
years’. Qn the other hand, J. B. Biot found in the directions a sufficient confirmation of the received date for Y4o’s accession,— B.C. 2357%. Appended to this Introduction is a chart of the stars as they were visible in China in B.C. 2300, which the Rev. C. Pritchard, Savilian Professor of Astronomy in the University of Oxford, kindly prepared for me. An inspection of it, in the manner directed by him, will show that the phenomena indicated by Y4o to his astronomers were all apparent at that date. This fact must be accepted as a strong proof of the approximate correctness of the chronology, which places Y4o in the twenty-fourth century B.c. The precession of the equinoxes, it has already been observed, was not known in China till more than 2500 years after the time assigned to Yao, so that the culminating stars at the equinoxes and solstices .of his remote period could not have been computed back scientifically in the time of the Kau dynasty, during which the collection of the Sh existed. The form in which the directions are given, and other things in the Canon, savour, indeed, of legend, and I have not claimed for it that in its present form it be received as a document contemporaneous with the reign of Yao. I have argued, however, that the compiler of it had before him ancient documents, and one of them must have contained the facts about the culminating of the stars, which I have now endeavoured to set in a clear light.
The mention of these culminating stars does seem to fix Y4o’s place in chronology in the twenty-fourth century B. C., and to show that at that remote era it was the custom to make and to record astronomical observations of the heavenly bodies. Having respect to these things, my claim to have the documents of the Sha from the Speech at Kan, nearly two centuries later than Yao, downwards, regarded as contemporaneous with the events which they describe, cannot be considered extravagant.
7. In the 27th Book of the 5th Part, the Marquis of
1 Egypt's Place in Universal History, III, pp. 400, 401. * Etudes sur 1’Astronomie Indienne, &c., pp. 361-366.
p. 27
7. In the 27th Book of the 5th Part, the Marquis of
1 Egypt's Place in Universal History, III, pp. 400, 401. * Etudes sur 1’Astronomie Indienne, &c., pp. 361-366.
p. 27
Lii on Punishments, there is a historical reference which would carry us back four centuries beyond the time of Yao. It is said that, ‘According to the teachings of antiquity, AZih Yd was the first to create disorder.’ There is no intimation, however, of the time when this rebel disturbed the happy order and innocence which had previously prevailed ; and the very same sentence brings the review of antiquity down to the time of Shun. But the chronologers place him in the reign of Hwang Ti, towards the end of the twenty-seventh century B.c. Other writers describe the struggle between him and Hwang Ti, in which dragons, mists, and the invention of the compass play conspicuous parts. It is to the credit of the Sh, and an evidence of its being a genuine collection of historical memorials, that this cursory reference to KAih Y0 is the only mention in it of any name older than that of Yao.
Tue Use or THE Cart.
This chart is intended to represent approximately the aspect of the principal zodiacal stars as seen above the horizon of any place in central China, at any hour of any day, about the year B.C. 2300.
In order to apply the chart to a practical purpose, the reader is advised to cut out a sheet of paper (cardboard is preferable) with its upper edge exactly fitting the curved line A BOCD, and to draw, near to the bottom of the paper, a line coinciding with ‘the hour-line’ on the chart.
This being done, if it be asked what will be the aspect of the heavens when the Sun sets at the Vernal Equinox, the reader is to move the line at the bottom of the cardboard along the horizontal ‘hour-line’ of the chart until the place of the Sun in the Ecliptic at the Vernal Equinox O just touches the curved top of the paper; then all the stars not covered over are above the horizon at the time of that sunset, viz. in this case Aldebaran, Sirius, Spica, &c.; the Pleiades are just setting, Regulus and a Hydra are very near the meridian, 8 Centauri is on the point of rising, and a Serpentis is well up above the horizon. This exactly corresponds with that state of the heavens which Y4o, (alleged in the Chinese records to have flourished about B.c. 2300,) indicated to his astronomers (Hst and Ho) would be the case, viz. that he would find the star (or thep. 28 stellar division) Shun Hwo (corresponding, it is said, to a Hydre) culminating at the time of sunset at the Vernal Equinox’.
2300,) indicated to his astronomers (Hst and Ho) would be the case, viz. that he would find the star (or thep. 28 stellar division) Shun Hwo (corresponding, it is said, to a Hydre) culminating at the time of sunset at the Vernal Equinox’.
Again, if it be required to-find what constellation is culminating at the time of sunset at the Summer Solstice, the cardboard must be moved, as before, towards the right hand until the position of the Sun at the Summer Solstice, viz. G, just touches the horizon curve, when it will be seen that a Serpentis and Antares are then culminating, Regulus and 8 Centauri are just setting, while the constellations of Aquila and Aquarius are rising; Vega is a conspicuous object above the eastern horizon. This again corresponds to the indications given by Y4o to his astronomers, viz. that they would find the constellation Scorpio culminating at the time.
Thirdly, to find what constellation is culminating at sunset at the Winter Solstice, the cardboard horizon is to be moved, as before, until the Sun at F falls upon it, when the constellations Aries and Taurus with the Pleiades will be seen near to their culmination. This is a third correspondence with the indications of the astronomical sovereign. .
Lastly, at sunset of the Autumnal Equinox the movable horizon is to be shifted to the left until the point A falls upon it, where it will be seen in this position that the stars in Aquarius are culminating at the time. It is scarcely possible that all these indications of the positions of the stars at these several times of the year could be simultaneously correct at any other epoch than somewhere about B.c. 2300 or a very small number of centuries before or after.
The reader may easily make for himself many other interesting applications of the chart. A general notion of the effects of precession on the positions of the stars may be seen at once by observing the three positions of the Pleiades, at the three epochs B.C. 2300, A.D. I, and A.D. 1878, marked in the chart by the letters K, L, M; and as the approximate effect of precession is to cause all stars to move parallel to the Ecliptic and through the same arc, if the reader will imagine every star to be shifted parallel to the Ecliptic through spaces equal respectively to K L, L M, he will get the aspect of the heavens at the epochs a.p. 1 and a.p. 1878.
The following table has been calculated for the apparent positions of the principal stars in the years B.c. 2300, B.C. 1500, A.D. I, and A.D. 1000 ; except in one instance it will be found to confirm a similar calculation made by Biot for the earliest of these dates.
1 See an excellent memoir by Mr. Williams, the late Assistant Secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society, on Chinese Comets, procurable at the apartments of the Royal Astronomical Society, Burlington House, London,
p. 29
INTRODUCTION.
For the year For the year For the year For the year For the year
Williams, the late Assistant Secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society, on Chinese Comets, procurable at the apartments of the Royal Astronomical Society, Burlington House, London,
p. 29
INTRODUCTION.
For the year For the year For the year For the year For the year
Name of Star. B.C. 2300. B.C. 1500. A.D. I. A.D. 1000. A.D. 187%,