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Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1Their 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. 20 THE SHO KING. 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
2The 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 INTRODUCTION. 21
3D. 9-22). In the Shd itself the current cycle is used to chronicle INTRODUCTION. 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 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.
1Their 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. 20 THE SHO KING. 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
2The 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 INTRODUCTION. 21
3D. 9-22). In the Shd itself the current cycle is used to chronicle INTRODUCTION. 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 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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