Fetching
One moment.
Fetching
One moment.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1All 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. INTRODUCTION. 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 records 14 THE SHO KING. 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
2ii, 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- INTRODUCTION. 15
32255. 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- INTRODUCTION. 15 and 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 between 16 THE SHO KING. 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 source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1All 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. INTRODUCTION. 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 records 14 THE SHO KING. 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
2ii, 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- INTRODUCTION. 15
32255. 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- INTRODUCTION. 15 and 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 between 16 THE SHO KING. 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 source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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