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允敬人哲我宗公否大先 ◎周及曰則民王

允若時不啻不敢含

德厥愆日朕之愆

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厥文高鳴厥否之

或王宗呼

汝告兹及自

厥刑

四祖殷祝心心

日人甲王○ 違于

警暑是企

愆百小迪及中周應小

kings, both small and great, will be changed and disordered. The people blaming you will disobey and rebel in their hearts;-yea, they will curse you with their mouths."

16 VI. The duke of Chow said, "Oh! those kings of Yin, Chungtsung,Kaou-tsung, and Tsoo-këă, with king Wăn of our Chow, these 17 four men carried their knowledge into practice. If it was told them The inferior people murmur against you, and revile you,' then they paid great and reverent attention to their conduct; and with reference to the faults imputed to them they said, 'Our faults are really so.' They acted thus, not simply not daring to cherish

the way thus exhibited; and I don't think we can do better with it. Woo Ching, taking

the genuineness of the 民; and indeed, if 民 be genuine here (and there is no evidence to the contrary), the same character in the prec.

不聽 as Ts'ae does, gives for the rest a construction of his own, and makes the meaning-par. cannot be assailed. The reading of,

moreover, and consequent making this chapter terminate without any application to king Ching, takes from its connection with the rest of the

Book.

Ch. VI. Pp. 16–18. THE DUKE PRESSES ON THE KING THE DUTY OF LISTENING TO ADVICE BY THE EXAMPLE OF THE GOOD SOVEREIGNS WHOM HE HAS MENTIONED, AND POINTS OUT AGAIN THE EVIL CONSEQUENCES OF A CONTRARY COURSE.

"If you will not hearken to this and profit by it, then men will persuade you to change and confuse the correct laws of the former kings. Those laws were very favourable to the people; and when they are so changed, the people, small and great, will cherish, some of them, a rebellious resentment in their hearts, while others will proceed to curse you with their mouths' ( 王于此古人 不聽信則 人乃道說之以變亂先王 way of their knowledge. Tone says this is 16. 迪哲:‘trod in the 之正法先王之法甚便于 what Mencius calls the richest fruit of wisdom, 民一變亂之則至于或小 或大或有違怨于心者矣, 也;sce IV., Pt. I, xxvii. 2.). away'(智之實知而弗去是 17. 皇目 或有詛于口者). Keang Shing reads 此厥不聖人乃訓變 敬德-皇=大,‘great,' greatly. We may take 敬德 as in Bk. XII., or more 亂正刑云云=‘When the ancient

sovereigns were not sage, then men led them

away to change,' &c., according to the view of

Woo Ching. He is compelled, however, to doubt

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Ts'ae

-the knowing, and not putting the knowledge

6

generally, as I have done in the translation.

Ying-ta makes the clause增修善政

they increasingly cultivated good government.’

呼厥辜心念

嗣身怨亂

十九節

呼嗣王其監于䒑

身〇周公日鳴

兹。嗚

小乃怒。

有罰則怨壽此 同無不若汝張厥

不汝幻、聽

永則日 日人

18 anger. If you will not listen to this and profit by it, when men with extravagant language and deceptive tricks say to you, "The inferior

19

people are murmuring against you and reviling you,' you will believe them. Doing this, you will not be always thinking of your princely duties, and will not cultivate a large and generous heart. You will confusedly punish the crimeless, and put the innocent to death. There will be a general murmuring, which will be concentrated upon your person."

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VII. The duke of Chow said, " Oh! you king, who have succeeded to the throne, make a study of these things.”

厥愆于其所誣毁之愆|道 as in the translation. This is much better

in the case of the faults which were wrongly than, with Keang Shing, to read as p'eih, imputed to them.' 18. This is the applicaand understand the expression as

tion of the prec. two parr., as par. 15 was an

application of 14. Kéang Shing cannot adopt
聖 here in the first clause as in p. 15, not

having the precedent which he there had. Still
he says we ought to read ; but I cannot
think so.
The duke of Chow would not have
put the case that the worthies he celebrated
could have behaved themselves so unworthily.

At 則若是 the transition is abrupt, but

the meaning is plain. 不永念厥 辟=不能永念其為君之

不能 引咎自責也,‘they could not have acknowledged the blame, and reproved themselves.' 怨有同,‘resentments will

be the same,' i.e., people may receive injuries of different kinds, but all will agree in the feeling of injury and resentment.

Ch. VII. P. 19. Concluding exhortation, that the king should think of all that had been said to

him, and use the address as a light to guide him to from what wus evil and dangerous.

safety and excellence,- -as a beacon to warn him

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THE BOOKS OF CHOW.

BOOK XVI. PRINCE SHIH.

周命旣于天○日周
O 日、
旣我墜殷降弗君公 君
受有厥殷喪弔奭若

1 I. The duke of Chow spake to the following effect, "Prince Shih, 2 Heaven, unpitying, sent down ruin on Yin; Yin has lost its appointment, and the princes of our Chow have received it. I do not dare, however, to say, as if I knew it, 'The foundation will ever truly

THE NAME OF THE BOOK.-, Prince Shih.' With these words the Book begins, and they are taken to be its designation. Shih was the name of the duke of Shaou; see on the title of Book XII. It was to him that the address or announcement here preserved was delivered, so that his name is not an inappropriate designation for it. The Book is found in both the texts.

CONTENTS. Ts'ae says that the duke of Shaou had announced his purpose to retire from office on account of his age, when the duke of Chow persuaded him to remain at his post; and the reasons which he set before him were recorded to form this Book. If this was the design of the duke of Chow, he was a master of the art of veiling his thoughts with a cloud of words. There are expressions which may be taken, indeed, as intimating a wish that the prince Shih should continue at court, but some violence has to be put upon them.

The prefatory notice is to the effect that, when the two dukes were acting as chief ministers to king Ching, the duke of Chow was 'not pleased'; ; see p. 11), and the

duke of Chow made the Prince Shih.' This expression- not pleased 'has wonderfully vexed the ingenuity of the critics. It is of no use adducing their various explanations of it, for there is nothing in the Book to indicate the existence of such a feeling in Shih's mind. If

he was really entertaining such a feeling from any cause, and had in consequence sought leave to withdraw from public life, the duke of Chow thought it his best plan to make no open reference to those delicate points.

The two principal ideas in the address arethat the favour of Heaven can only be permanently secured for a dynasty by the virtue of its sovereigns; and that that virtue is secured mainly by the counsels and help of virtuous ministers. The ablest sovereigns of Shang are mentioned, and the ministers by whose aid it was, in a great measure, that they became what they were. The cases of Wăn and Woo of their own dynasty, similarly aided by able men, are adduced in the same way; and the speaker adverts to the services which they-the two dukes--had already rendered to their House and their sovereign, and insists that they must go on to the end, and accomplish still greater things. It may be that he is all the while combating some suspicion of himself in the mind of prince Shih, and rebuking some purpose which Shih had formed to abandon his post at the helm of the State; but this is only matter of inference, and does not by any means clearly appear. It will be seen that I have, for convenience' sake, arranged the three and twenty paragraphs in four chapters.

Ch. I. Pp. 1-6. CHOW IS For the PRESENT RAISED BY THE FAVOUR OF HEAVEN TO THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE EMPIRE. BUT THAT FA

尤天帝 亦君于敢天基我 不知棐永不

違命 已不

惟越

1.祥。曰,忱、

◎ 其 其我于知

亦不敢寜于4

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終亦休日

在 遠于 嗚終

我罔 念上我呼出
我呼出不若厥

abide in prosperity. [If Heaven aid sincerity, ]' Nor do I dare to say, as if I knew it, 'The final end will issue in our misfor3 tunes.' Oh! you have said, O prince, 'It depends on ourselves.' I also do not dare to rest in the favour of God, never forecasting at a distance the terrors of Heaven in the present time when there is no murmuring or disobedience among the people;-the issue is with men. Should our present successor to his fathers

VOUR MAY NOT BE PERMANENT. THE DUKE OF
CHOW IS ANXIOUS, AND PRINCE SHIH SHOULD
BE THE SAME, TO SECURE IT BY CULTIVATING THE
VIRTUE OF THE KING.

1. 君奭-in the plainness of ancient manners, it is said, when people were talking together they called each other by their names. Shih, however, is honour ed with the title of prince,' which might be given to him, as he had been invested with the principality of Yen. See on the name of Bk. XII. 2. Chow had superseded Yin in the possession of the empire, but it could not be kaown

beforehand how long it would continue.. 弗 云云 ;–sce Bk. XIV., p. 2. The 旣

-see

in the next two clauses has no conjunctive force, but marks the perfect tense. 我不敢 知至末-compare Bk. XII, p. 17. That

passage seems to have misled the old interpreters, and still to mislead many of the present day, as to the meaning of the text. They make the speaker to have the fate of the past-away

dynasty of Yin before him, and not that of their

existing Chow.-'I do not dare to know and

say, “The House of Yin at its beginning might

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bave long accorded with prosperous ways,'
&c. It is plain to me that the speaker has be-
fore him the destiny of Chow, which they of
the dynasty must fashion for themselves. Whe-
ther it would be long or short must depend on

sincerely virtuous, and so be aided by Heaven, and yet not abide in security, is contrary to reason, and to the most strongly cherished

principles of Chinese doctrine. Medhurst read
the words with the next part of the par.- And
should Heaven aid us in very deed, still I would
not dare positively to affirm that our end would
be entirely the result of misfortune. But such
a construction is inadmissible.. I have put the
clause in the translation as incomplete, and also
within brackets, to intimate that I think it

out of place. 其終出于不祥
Shing reads 其崇出于不
—Kêang
詳; but he explains 崇by終 and 詳 by
(一祥). Another reading, evidently false,
-道出于不詳

was

Pp.3–5. The duty of the ministers of Chow

was to do what they could in the present to secure the permanence of the dynasty. 3. 嗚呼,

君已日時我一the simplest way of

explaining these words, is by taking 時我 是在我而已,'it—the permanence of

the dyn.-depends on us,' and. supposing that the duke refers to a remark to that effect made at some former period. by Shih. Lin Che-ke and others.adduce his language in many

their conduct. 厥基永学于休, parts of his Announcement, e.g. pp. 19, 20, which

-'its foundation will for ever be sincerely established in prosperity.. I do not understand

the next clause,若天棐忧 ‘if Heaven

assist the sincere. Whether we suppose the speaker to have reference to the past Yin or the present Chow, these words seem equally out of place. To say that either dynasty might be

they think the duke has in view. This is very likely. Other methods to try to get a meaning from the passage are harsh and violent. Gan

kwd, for instance, took the meaning to be‘Oh!

prince, what shall I say? I will say, “ You
should approve of my remaining in the govt.
It is strange that Maou K'e-ling should still
approve of such a construction. Woo Ching

前克其天天家 前 天天家前上大後 難命人下弗嗣

恭歴命諶不知光遏克子 乃易○在佚恭系

prove greatly unable to reverence Heaven and the people, and so bring to an end their glory, could we in our families be ignorant of it? 4 The favour of Heaven is not easily preserved. Heaven is hard to be depended on. Men lose its favouring appointment because they cannot pursue and carry out the reverence and brilliant virtue

takes in the same way, and then makes same interpretation must be given of the read

日時我- ‘But it is my duty to do my ing-我嗣事子孫, adopted by Kêang

utmost to preserve the favour of Heaven.'

我亦至惟人-the惟人with which this part ends corresponds to the 時我 at the beginning, and 寶惟在人而已 弗永遠念天威越我民 罔尤違 is all one clause, and to be read

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together,-another instance of Choo He's long

Shing from a passage in the 'Books of the Early

Han;'-see the 王莽傳上 恭 上下,-Teae understands ‘Heaven' to be meant by 上, and the people' by 下, so that the expression 敬天敬民

Others understand Heaven and Earth' to be

intended. 遏佚前人光-遏

sentences in the Announcements of the Shoo.絶佚墜文武光顯在

Ts ne explains it by 不永遠愈天之 家不知 is to be taken interrogatively,

威於我民無尤怨

可得謂在家不知乎.Tsae, 違之 holding that the object of the address was to

時.Këang Shing puts a stop at 威 under

standing the duke as giving one reason for his remaining in the govt. that he could not rest in the present favour of Heaven, but must forecast a change in the aspects of Providence. For the same resolution he finds another reason in

the words that follow一越我民

=

induce the duke of Shaou to abandon his purpose of retirement, takes the question as addressed to him,- Could you be ignorant of it?' The old interpreters, holding that the speaker is much occupied with vindicating his own remaining in the government, take it in the first person, -Could I be ignorant.' The best plan seems

be to put it as in the translation. It may 尤o

違,惟人在(so he points), = (That our

people may be kept from murmurs and disaffection depends on the right men being there.' To make the language in any way bear this in

terpretation he is obliged to suppose that 越 is a mistake for E. Gan-kwo paused at

and made 弗永遠念天威越我 民罔尤違 an address to Shih, = Why do you not think of the terrors of Heaven, and set about affecting and transforming our people, that they may not commit errors and fall into

opposition.’"Interpretation could hardly be

more unlicensed. Nor does he succeed better

in what remains of the par. K.e-ling labours in

vain to impart some likelihood to his views.

在我後至末-the 在 is used

as in the last Book, pp. 5 and 6. By 我後嗣 子孫

we must understand king Ching. The

thus be applied to either of the dukes; and I believe that the duke of Chow intended it both

for himself and his friend. 4,5. 天命 the Both pos不易天難諶-comp.

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sessed Pure Virtue,' p. 2; et al. Këang Shing,

on the authority mentioned above, reads一命 which may safely 不易天應棐諶

be rejected on internal grounds. In interpreting the rest of the par. there is much difference of view. Acc. to that followed in the

translation, 前人恭明德前人 之恭德與明德 the reverent virtue

and the brilliant virtue of their forefathers;

the former referring to the 恭上下 of the last par, and the latter to the 前人光 This. 恭明德 is governed by the

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