越臣邦卜、御君肆休圖翼 士爾伐惟 ○于子事越予朕功以 尹告卜我于 友 御庶殷切 氏我并有 事邦逋爾 罔君播庶吉士邦○事武 to restore tranquillity and to perpetuate the plans of my father. The great business I am engaging in will have a successful issue, for I have divined and always got a favourable intimation. There 6 fore I tell you, the princes of my friendly States, and you, the directors of departments, my officers, and the managers of my affairs, I have obtained a favourable reply to my divinations. I will now go forward with you from all the States, and punish those vagabond and transported ministers of Yin. 7 III. And now, you the princes of the various States, and you the various officers and managers of my affairs, all retort on me, saying, signification given to it in the text is derived. | 尹氏, the governors or directors,'一庶 llow the same character comes to have signifi cations so different is one of the mysteries which, the heads of the various magisa Lexicographer may solve by tracing its his tory, and showing how forms driginally distinct terial departments.' Gan-kwŏ says they were have coalesced in one] 武圖功一繼 the卿大夫, nobles and great officers. 嗣武王所圖之功 This constrne. Compare the 百尹 of Bk. XXII., p. 3. We tion of the clause is given by Ts'ae, and Keang Shing concurs in it. Other views may be seen in the 註疏 and in Woo Ching's commentary. 我有云云-大事, ‘great affair,’ referring to the warlike expedition about to be proceeded with. It is said in the that “the “great affairs " of a State are sacrifice and war' (國之大事,在 might bring out the meaning of the by saying the directors, of the several surnames.' 予得吉卜云云,一于, as in the last par.,往逋播臣,the ab sconded scattered ministers.' Woo-käng and the old adherents of his House, who continued language. There was enough in the circumwith him, are intended by this contemptuous stances of their condition to afford a ground for 與戎 并吉‘all together are lucky' The king had divined; and the three men' who had operated with the three shells, or interpreted the threefold intimation of the one shell, all foretold a happy result;-see the 'Great Plan,' p. 24. Ts'ae gives the connection of the two parts of the clause thus:一知我有戎 事休美者朕卜三龜而 吉也 We are not to suppose that this divining was the same as that mentioned in par.2. That was earlier, before the rebellion had revealed itself; this was with reference to the expedition which was in progress. 6. so describing them. Ch. III. Pp. 7-9. THE KING COMPLAINS OF THE RELUCTANCE OF THE PRINCES AND OFFICERS 7. The proposal of the princes and officers to go contrary to the ora and abandon the expedition. 罔不反 cles, -'there is not one who does not retort.' Kang shing says-無不反我之意.all oppose my views.' Keang Shing would take as simply 一復, ‘to reply. The two ideas are here combined in the term. All the rest of the par. is to be taken as the language of the mal 肆子至御事—肆=故‘therefore contents. Gan-kwǔ, indeed, takes only 艱大 艱 于 艱肆 思 ○ 征小宮不不 子邦靜,反 朕役 予 害者君亦 身遺 翼室惟艱 8 越天哉呼人違不越在 大 予投予允永下可予王民 "The hardships will be great, and that the people are not still has its source really in the king's palace, and in the mansions of those princes of the troubled State. We, little ones, and the old reverent inen as well, think the expedition ill-advised. Why does your najesty not go contrary to the divination? (I, in my youth, think also continually of the hardships, and say, Alas! these senseless movements will deplorably afflict widowers and widows! But I am the servant of Heaven, which has assigned 'the difficulties will be great,' as their words, and makes out all the rest to be a portion of 2%. (read in the 4th 老之敬事者害(read the king's reply. But, to my mind, the text is tone)==曷,‘why.' The paraphrase of the altogether unmanageable on this view. The is: exegesis which I have followed, and which ap- whole in the Daily Explanation' is: - pears in the translation, is not unattended with difficulties; but it gives an interpretation of the 小子固無所知識至于敬 passage in harmony with the general tenour of事之老乃老成達之 the Announcement, and not harsher, as regards particular expressions, than we are obliged to人皆以為不可人謀未協 admit in many other places 民不辭 龜兆難憑曷不違下而聽 至君室-this is an allusion, as plain as 人乎 the duke of Chow could permit himself to make, to the dissatisfaction of his three brothers charged with the oversight of Yin, the rumours which they had spread against himself, and the suspicions which those had awakened in the king's mind. The 邦君 are Sëen, Too, and Choo.室, as opposed to 宮, I translate by ‘mansion.’ 越予小子,考翼不 可征云云:-this passage presents several difficulties, and no construction of it has been proposed, against which objections cannot be urged. 予小子 is taken by Gan-kwǔ of the king speaking of himself, and this is the one strong point in his construction mentioned above. In the translation the phrase is taken in the plural: so the princes and officers, opposed to the expedition, describe themselves. = 考 is taken as = =老‘old,’‘fathers' 翼 敬:‘to be reverent,' ie, in the conduct of business. The character is thus used in the She King, as may be seen in the diet. 考翼 Pp. 8, 9. How the king replies to the princes and officers, complaining of their want of sympathy with him, and urging again the authority of the oracles. 28. 允鰲鰥寡哀哉一 'indeed the senseless movements; widowers and widows, alas: Gan-kwù brings out the meaning thus: 信蠢動天下使無妻 無夫者受其害可哀哉 Woo Ching observes that the young and strong would be carried off to the expedition, and so the widowers and widows would be left in their solitude without those whose duty it was to care for them. 予造天役=予 所為之事皆天所役使 the things which I do are all services required from me by Heaven' Keang Shing takes 造一遭, as in p. 1, which would give here a good enough meaning. 遺大投大于我身 -Heaven is the nominative to the verbs | and投. The Daily Explanation has:-天 于不圖恤御邦沖 君人 惟命王敢功不 惟王替 ○ 可 用 下興 卜 九節 事,君 鳴其用我帝子成 呼相克小命 惟 天民綏邦 天 沖人不邛自恤 明矧受周休子考于氏爾 me this great task, and laid this hard duty on my person. I therefore, the young one, do not pity myself, and it would be right in you, the princes of the States, and in you, the many officers, the directors of departments, and the managers of my affairs, to soothe me, saying, “ Do not be distressed with sorrow. We shall surely complete the plans of your Tranquillizing father." 9 Yes, I, the little one, dare not disregard the charge of God. Heaven, favourable to the Tranquillizing king, gave such prosperity to our small State of Chow. The Tranquillizing king divined and acted accordingly, and so he calmnly received his great appointment. Now Heaven is helping the people;-how much more must I follow the divinations! Oh! the clearly-intimated will of Heaven is to be feared:–it is to help my great inheritance. 實以甚大者遺于吾之身, 甚艱者投于吾之身 卬自恤卬我 or 身, ‘I,' ‘myself The meaning is that the king would do his duty, without considering the risks and troubles to which it would expose him. 義爾至圖 功一義=以義言之,‘speaking of the case with reference to what is right.' -, 'to labour,' 'to distress one's-self.' (一毋)毖于恤君母勞于憂 'Let not your Majesty distress yourself about this matter of sorrow. The princes and officers are then supposed to say that they would dis pose of the revolt for him.-凡我為 9. 已,一as in p. 2. 不敢替上 VOL. III. 'to disregard,' to make of 帝命替=廢, none effect. The charge of God' is that implied in p. 5, when the divinations were all favour able, and the king was thus instructed to go forward with the expedition against Woo-kăng and his associates. 天休至兹命 –the divinations of king Woo referred to are those mentioned in 'The Great Speech,' Pt. ii., p. 5, 朕夢協朕卜襲于休祥 今天其相民-How was Heaven now helping the people? Gan-kwǔ replies– the coming forward of the ten men of worth By to support the king.' Possibly the king, or the duke rather, may have had this in mind. 矧亦惟卜用=况我亦惟卜 是用: 天明,云云-the transla ligence of Heaven,' is that mentioned in p. 3, as tion here follows Ts'ae. The 天明, (intelconveyed by the great tortoise' Thus clearly intimated, it was to be reverenced. Opposition to it could only entail disaster. How much 47 前我 君子 予棐化 于考弗肆不我 王丕 丕王畏 若克日 .天大 卒功勤遠爾我 所哉省惟 圖昂 曷 天 爾售 功其辭我圖 知人 閟知 人,基。 爾 10 攸不其友事敢毖 IV. “The king says, You, who are the old ministers, are fully able to examine the long-distant affairs;-you know how great was the toil of the Tranquillizing king. Now where Heaven shuts up and distresses us is the place where I must accomplish my work ;—I dare not but do my utmost to complete the plans of the Tranquillizing king. It is on this account that I use such efforts to remove the doubts and carry forward the inclinations of the princes of my friendly States. Heaven also assists me with sincere expressions of attachment, which I have ascertained among the people;-how dare I but aim at the completion of the work formerly begun by the we are to understand the old minis ters of king Woo,(武王之舊臣 意毖 means difficult and not easy.' These are the definitions given by Ts'ae, who adds 天之所以否閉艱難國家 多難者乃我成功之所在 The above definition of is not given in the dictionary, tho' it may be very reasonably derived from the explanation of the term in the 說文as=閉門. The dict. makes it 慎 after Gan-kwǔ, and with reference to this passage. Këang Shing defines it by 勞, which makes it simply a synonym of. Ts'ae took his definition from Lin Che-k'e. The place where king Ching had to accomplish his work, was the east, where the revolt was going on; but the f does not indicate the locality simply, 肆 予至邦君-化者化其固滯 but all the circumstances of the case. the 考翼 of p. 7, who are there quoted as opposed to the expedition. 遠省-to examine the remote,' i.e., the affairs of past days.by is meant dissolving their obstinate 天至事,一this is an instance obstructions;" 誘者誘其順從by of what Choo He calls the 'long sentences of is meant inducing them to follow him with the‘Great Announcement 閟者否塞 accordance. These again are the definitions of 不通之意閟 means shut up, without Ts'ae,-very good. 天棐至攸終 is taken by Gan-kwó and most other -棐 thoroughfare.' 毖者艱難不易之 11 寕予毖終 父肯厎思其○寜 厥矧厥考朕曰攸敢民亦 Tranquillizer? Heaven moreover is thus toiling and distressing my people, so that it is as if they were suffering from disease;-how dare I allow the appointment which the Tranquillizer, my predecessor, received, to be without its happy fulfilment?'" -“The king says, Formerly, at the initiation of this expedition, I spoke of its difficulties, and revolved them daily. But when a deceased father, wishing to build a house, had laid out the plan, if his son be unwilling to raise up the hall, how much less will he be willing to complete the roof! Or if the father had broken up the ground, and his son is unwilling to sow the seed, how much less critics as = 輔‘to pose by putting the revolt down. his sense of filial duty impelled the king to the ex 看:“to aid. 忱一誠信 'sincere.' Heaven does not speak ;-where were the ‘expressions' of its regard? The ten men of worth, who had come forward to encourage the king, might be considered as giving utterance to the voice of the people,' = the voice of God.' Choo He was dissatisfied with this interpretation of. He said that though all the elder scholars concurred in it, it made the passage unintelligible.' He himself, on the authority chiefly of Yen Sze-koo, made the character synonymous with E, 'not,' so that the meaning is-Heaven really does not utter words, but its mind may be ascertained from the mind of the people.' This brings out substantially the same meaning as the other view 11. How pedition. 若昔日朕其逝=初 undertake this expedition to the east. So, of the next clause are to be taken in the past tense. Woo, indeed, is half disposed to take simply as an expletive or exclamation, but there is no necessity for having recourse to such a construction. Thinking of the difficulties which the expedition was pressed with, the king might have wished to abandon it; but to prevent his doing so, there came in the considerations of his duty to his father which are set forth in the rest of the paragraph. In this way we get a It is only a variation of the phrase consistent meaning from the whole. Gan of棐 By寕人 I understand king Woo. Ts'ae takes it as =寜臣,‘the ministers,' meaning those who had co-operated with king Woo in his great work, and adds that this description of them would cover with shane those of them who were dissuading king Ching from the expedition. See a note from Ch'in Leih on this point in the 附錄 天亦云 云,there is another consideration, which de terinined the king's resolution. His father's object was to give repose and happiness to all the people. This revolt was distressing them, –a fever, a serious disease in the State. He must secure the realization of his father's pur kwǒ and Këang Shing, instead of taking 若 昔 as 昔日,or昔者 give 若 a full verbal force, 順to accord with The for mer then interprets-'In accordance with ancient principles, I must proceed with this expedition to the east (順古道我其 往東征矣). Ihave spoken quite enough about the difficulties and hardships of the empire, and I daily think of them.' The latter says: -- In accordance with the example of the king my predecessor, I ought to go and punish |