Name Of The Part.—jl>, 'The Books

of Chow.' Chow is the dynastic designation under which Woo and his descendants possessed the empire from B.C. 1121—255, a period of 867 years. They traced their lineage up to K'e

(3f|)i the minister of Agriculture (jg 1%

under Shun. K'e is said to have been a son of the emperor K'uh (b.c. 2432). The marvels of his birth and infancy are pleasantly described in the second Part of the She King, and are duly

chronicled by Sze-ma Ts'eon (^9 ^?Jj

He was invested with the principality of T'ae

(pjfl), the Pre«- <"»■ °f Foo-fung w,

dep. of Fung-ts'eang (J|^ pjj), in Shen-se.

In the time of Kef, B.C. 1796, the fortunes of the family, which had for some time

been waning, revived under Kung-lew

who established himself in Pin (BfeJ), the

pres. small department of ^JfJ. There his descendants remained till B.c 1320, when Tan-foo, afterwards styled king T'ae in the sacrificial ritual of the dynasty, removed to the foot of

mount K'e in the pres. dis. of K'e-san alt |_L|), dep. of Fung-ts'eang;—see Men., I., Pt., II., xiv., and xv. The State which he established there was called Chow. King T'ae was succeeded by his son Ke-leih, or king Ke, and he again by his son Chung, or king Wan, who transmitted his hereditary dominions, greatly increased, and his authority to his Boh Pit or king Woo. Woo then adopted Chow as the designation of the dynasty which he founded.

The Books of Chow were more numerous, as we might expect, than those of the previous dynasties,—even though they belong only to little more than the first half of its history. Nor did they suffer so much in consequence of the fires of Ts'in as those of the Shang dynasty. Out of 38 documents there remain 20 whoso genuineness