THE BOOKS OF SHANG. BOOK VII. THE GREAT ANNOUNCEMENT. 嗣洪于事爾王 哲疆我家弔 邦 有迪大幼不天越鱿 能民歴沖少降爾大 格康服人延割御誥 節 大 骂 1 I. "The king speaks to the following effect:-'Ho! I make a great announcement to you, the princes of the many States, and to you, the managers of my affairs.-Unpitied am I, and Heaven sends down calamities on my House, without exercising the least delay. It greatly occupies my thoughts, that I, so very young. have inlherited this illimitable patrimony, with its destinies and domains. have not displayed wisdom, and led the people to tranquillity, and how much less should I be able to reach the knowledge of the decree of Heaven ! THE NAME OF THe Boor.-大誥(The | of Chow in calling it ‘great We need not look Great Announcement,' At the commencement of the first paragraph, these two characters,– 大誥-occur, and they are thence taken and made the name of the Book. Gan-kwo, indeed, says that the Book sets forth great doctrines for the information of the empire, and thence I for any higher or deeper meaning in the title. The pre fatory note says, When king Woo had deceased, the three overseers and the wild tribes it received its name (陳大道以誥天 of Yin, he made The Great Announee 下故以名篇). But we look in vain for any ‘great doctrines' in the Book. The emergency which called the announcement forth was sufficiently important to justify the duke of the Hwae rebelled. The duke of Chow responsibility lying on him to maintain the empire gained by the virtues and prowess of his father, and of the senseless movements of the House of Yin to regain its supremacy; he complains of the reluctance of many of the princes and high officers to second him in putting down the revolt; and proclaims with painful reiteration the support and assurances of success which he has received from the divining tortoise-shells. The three overseers are not mentioned, though we may find an allusion or two to them. The whole tone is feeble. I have divided, it will be scen, the 15 paragraphs in which it is now generally edited into five chapters. The date of the announcement is generally referred to the third year of Ching B.C., 1,112. But such an arrangement of events supposes Keang-shing, Ming-shing, and other opponents of the false K'ung.' adopt this view, and the ingenuity with which they argue for it is amusing; but it is too absurd to justify our entering into an examination of their arguments. Comp. the in the Pwan-kăng, Pt. i., 16; and often in several of the Books of Chow that follow. 猷大誥爾多邦-猷 appears to have come into use, under the Chow dynasty, as an exclamation, like the of the 'Canon of Yaou.' I do not see what other meaning can be given to it here, or in the next Bk., p. 1; et al. Here Ma Yung and others in the Han dynasty read it after the duke of Chow's residence in the cast, spokenWZZ-and explained it by of in the last Book, to have been a voluntary exile, and that this expedition against Yin was undertaken after he returned in the manner described. But I saw reason to understand the sojourning in the east as a description of this very expedition, and that the return mentioned Gan-kwo even attempted to give it the same meaning in its place at the beginning of the sentence: -周公稱王命順大 was on its successful termination. On this viewИTZZ. the announcement was made in the first or second year of Ching, and the expedition was finished in the third year. On that point,-the date of the extinction of Woo-kang and his revolt, there is an agreement. The style of the Book is about as difficult as that of the Pwan-kang. We may doubt,' says Wang Gan-shih, whether parts have not been lost, and other parts have not fallen out of their proper place. Our plan is to let alone what we cannot understand, and to explain what we find ourselves able to do. It is difficult,' says Choo He, to point the Book. The sentences are very long, and students generally try to break them up into shorter ones, which makes the interpretation more difficult still.' Ch. I. Pp. 1, 2. NOTWITHSTANDING HIS YOUTH AND INCOMPETENCIES, THE KING FEELS REVOLT WHICH WAS THREATENING THE RECENT LY ACQUIRED EMPIRE. But this is exceedingly harsh and unnatural. Lin Che-k'e was the first, so far as I have ascertained, who explained the term as an exclamation. It is a pity that this meaning of it does not appear in the dictionary. 爾多 III., Bk. III., Ode x., st. 5. In the 'Pwan-kang,' Pt. iii., 7, it was read teih, with the meaning of 'to come to,' i.e., to reach the mark of goodness; and so Gan-kwo took it, and Keang Shing takes it, but with different relations to the rest of the sentence;—-see the and 尙書集註音疏 Ts'ae expands 1. 王若日- the phrase as in the translation:我不為 these are the words of the duke of Chow, spoken by him as regent of the empire, and in the name 天所恤 天降割于我家, of the young king. We are not to suppose in---, ‘injuries,' ‘calami deed that Ching had anything to do with the announcement. Doubting the duke's loyalty, he would not have sent him to attack his ties.' Heaven sends down calamities on my House,'-this has reference especially to the early death of king Woo; and we may include also the present troubles occasioned by the revolt in Yin. other uncles; but the duke acted as the great says that by we should understand the duke himself. His words are:-- The king is the duke of Chow. He was regent of the empire, and in giving charge about such great affairs, in the exigency of the circumstances, he called himself the king.' 不少延‘without a quick succession. and carried to the next sentence. Of this construction I shall speak on the next clause. K'ang-shing pointed as in the text and interpreted E as= is more naturally construed as I have done in the translation, following Ts'ae and other Sung critics. 洪惟一大思 I greatly think.' Gan-kwo, I have just said, began this 2 于予不人敷求水子已踟 天不忘受賁 若予天 降敢大命攸惟涉惟命 閉功兹前濟往淵小 'Yes, I who am but a little child am in the position of one who has to cross a deep water;-it must be mine to go and seek how to cross over. I must diffuse the elegant institutions of my predecessor, and augment the appointment which he received from Heaven; -so shall I be not forgetful of his great work. Nor shall I dare to restrain the majesty of Heaven seen in the inflictions it sends down. of light is afforded by Kin Le-ts'ëang, who clause with, and his comment on 延惟 rest of the announcement. Perhaps a glimpse 我幼沖人凶害延大惟 says:一此言成王以幼沖嗣位 累我幼童人成王言其不 流言展轉而事變如此未 可不誅之意, The calamities are so pro- 能上測天意如何以起下 so young;-the king's meaning is that there 文求濟卜筮之意 This speaks tracted and great that they involve me who am was nothing for him but to cut off the criminals.' 嗣無疆大歴服,一歴 is de fined as says:歴=天之歴數服domains.' Ts'ne says 五服, the five do mains ;' but they were more than ‘five' under the Chow dynasty. Nearly all the critics define -on of how king Ching, inheriting the throne at so early an age, with the baseless rumours going about, and such changes of events occurring, of Heaven, in order to introduce what is said difficulties, and the intimations afforded by divination;'-see the 集說 2. 已 is used, was unable to fathom what might be the mind below about his seeking how to cross over his acc. to Ts'ae, as a continuative particle, indicating that though the speaker had come to a pause, yet he must go on expressing his sentiments 服 by 事, and then expand it into something (巳承上語辭已而有不能 like 服王事; but Ts'ae's meaning is much 已之意). Our Yes' corresponds to it. simpler. 弗造哲迪民康 予惟至攸濟‘this,’says Ganthis Gan-kwǔ has-不能為造智道 -不能為造智道 kwǔ,'expresses the king's awe' (言祇懼) 以安人, ‘I cannot practise the ways of He might have saidawe and perplexity' 敷 wisdom to repose the people.' Keang Shing -弗遭逢明哲之人以道 賁敷前人受命 賁敷前人受命-the former clause 于安‘I have not met with (=found), in- | plexity; this seems to express what under all telligent men to lead the people to repose.' Better than either, Woo Ch'ing read with an aspirate, 'to go to,' 'to arrive at;' and -弗能造於明哲以導民 於安, I have not attained to wisdom, so as to conduct the people to tranquillity.' So I take the words. 矧日云云-I take 格 here with Gan-kwǔ as w 至‘to reach to.' I do not know what the young king, or rather the duke of Chow, had in view by 天命 the decree or appointment of Heaven,' nor can I discern the bearing of the whole clause on the expresses the young king's apprehensive per circumstances he felt it incumbent upon him to do. The language however, is difficult to construe and interpret. Lin Che-k'e says:-'Gan kwǔ read賁 firm, as in the “Pwan-kăng,” Pt. it. 7, and with the same signif. of great, and iii., gave the meaning-'I will spread and practise great principles, so spreading and displaying the appointment received by Wan and Woo.' But the text only says 敷賁 and to make that = 1 will display great principles' is wide of the mark and forced. Soo and Lin Tsze hwuy (林子晦) read the character pe, with the meaning of ‘to adorn’(飾 : ; as in the Announcement of T.ang,' p. 5). Soo then in 3 越亦西于有紹大王用。 兹不土西大命天寶遺0 鰲靜人土艱日明龜我 蠢。靜人王艱 II. The Tranquillizing king left to me the great precious tortoise, to bring into connection with me the intelligence of Heaven. Í consulted it, and it told me that there would be great trouble in the region of the west, and that the western people would not be still. Accordingly we have the present senseless movements. terpreted-"What I diffuse must be to adorn and extend the appointment received by my predecessors, and not forget their merit," while Lin Tsze-hwuy says, “The meaning is–I will cultivate and illustrate the institutions, to impart ornament to the empire." The character is thus both pronounced and interpreted by them differently from Gan-kwǔ; but the meanings they bring out are as far from being clear as his. Wang Gan-shih says, better than any of them, that the text is maimed, and we need not weary ourselves to fix its meaning. The translation simply follows the view of Ts‘ae, reception of visitors at court there were the attendants and officers who received them, and went between them and the prince. They and their function were called 介紹: Similarly we are told here that the tortoise-shell was a connecting medium between the mind of man and the mind of Heaven. And this was the belief of the duke of Chow! 卽命 is used like the same phrase in the last Book, p. 8. 日有大至不静−this is to be taken as the reply of the tortoise, or the result obtained from the divination. Gan-kwŏ commence a new para which is that of Soo Tung-po. 子不敢, indeed makes the 日 云云 -in this clause the king intimates how it was his duty to punish Woo-king and all aiding him in his revolt. He would let the justice of Heaven take its course; he would not restrain it, but execute it rather against | them. 于, following 閉, is rather perplexing; | but we have met with it before, similarly following transitive verbs. Wang Gan-shih put a stop at, and read 即命 is with him graph. follows immediately on the divination by the 用with what follows 寕王云云, and enigmatical. The troubles arose in the east, Choo He approved of this construction;-see the . In this point Ts'ae chose to follow the two K'ung, rather than his master. Woo Ching, however, points with Gan-shih, and gives this view of the clause preceding, having closed a paragraph with 大功 - 'When Heaven was sending down its terrors on me, I did not dare to conceal them, but used the tortoise,' &c., &c. Ch. II. Pp. 3-6. THE DIVINATIONS HAD and the oracle was that the west would be they necessarily went on to trouble the west. was, it will be seen, a prophecy, rather than the solution of a doubt, and the oracle was like those of the west. We may compare it with tended; but the phrase in par. 8 deter- the Aio te, acida, Romanos vincere posse.' mines that we interpret the epithet of king-these are again the words of the Woo, Ching's father. 紹天明一紹 king. 鰲=蟲動, insects moving, wrig = 'to continue and transmit.' At a grand | gling about,' in the spring. It is often used in 有翼O鄙日疵知 節 誕 十日今哦予民我天敢殷 夫民鰲周復不國降小 予獻今邦反應有威其腆 4 'Little as the present prosperity of Yin is, its prince greatly dares to take in hand its broken line. Though Heaven sent down its terrors on his House, yet knowing of the evils in our kingdom, and that the people are not tranquil, he says –“I will recover my patrimony"; and so he wishes to make our State of Chow a border territory again. 5 'One day there was a senseless movement, and the day after, ten men of worth among the people appeared to help me to go forward the sense of 'silly,' 'impertinent.' 4. The | above, by一是雖天降威于殷然 guilt of Woo-kang. 殷小腆-this腆 亦武庚知我國有三叔疵 has marvellously vexed the critics. Gan-kwo took it as = -J、, and K‘ang-shing did the same Ma Yung made it, meaning probably • Yin, who has but little attained Wang Suh made it=主 so that 殷小腆 = this small princelet of Yin, The 說文 defines it by多, ‘many or much;' and Ming-shing says this justifies the of Kang-shing, like lucus a non lucendo! 隙民心不安故敢云云 予復反鄙我那 ,-we must put a stop at 復, and then supply 而欲 as in the translation. is Woo-kăng himself speaking, but we cannot refer the also to him. 予復=我將復殷業 is used for a border,' ' a border town.' 春 虫 Ts'ae gives 厚,‘prosperous,' | It has here the force of a verb. ‘flourishing' for it, which is no doubt the correct meaning here. Compare 自洗腆致用 至 Tung-po was the first to bring this meaning of of, it is taken as= =緒 the end of a cocoon, or of a ball of thread;' then 'a thread,' ‘a line' and with the same metaphorical applications as our word line.' The clause, as expanded by Tsae, is-乃敢大 旣亡之緒 其 All the old interpreters understood 天降威 of the troubles of the | 5. 今 the ‘Yih and 于一獻=賢(comp. Tseih,'p. 7. Këang Shing reads but with the same meaning); -, 'to go.' Who the ‘ten men of worth' were, we do not know. Gan-kwo supposed they belonged to Yin, 'loyal and far-seeing men in the rebellious territory.’ This is not likely. I suppose they were men of the imperial domain who had been forward to express their attachment to the dynasty of Chow. The 今今翼日, indicato the promptitude with which they had come forward. Ts'ae expands the clause:一个武庚 鰲動今之明日民之賢者 imperial House, with special reference to the 十夫輔我以往云云 敉 rumours about the duke of Chow set on float-*-,' to soothe,' 'to by his brothers, following so quickly on the death of king Won. The same view is taken tranquillize; 敉寜 go together,撫定 also by Woo Ching and Keang Shing. If the 知 had been before the 天 we must have con strued in this way. The meaning which appears tranquillize;’敉寜 商邦, ‘to soothe and settle the country of Shang. 武一繼 to continue. [武 is used in the translation is given by Tsae, who follows for military prowess or achievement,' and also his expansion of the previous clause, quoted for 'footsteps,' 'traces,' from which the |