double heart, who helped them to maintain and regulate the royal House. Thus did they receive the true favouring decree from God; and thus did great Heaven approve of their ways, and give them 6 the four quarters of the empire. Then they appointed and set up principalities, and established bulwarks to the throne, with a view to us their successors. Now do ye, my uncles, I pray you, consider with one another, and carry out the service which the dukes, your predecessors, rendered to my predecessors. Though your persons be 而極其誠內外充實:Gan-kwo|皇天 above, and make 天 the nominative took the latter view, making 齊=中. He to命乃命之建侯云云. The gives一致行至中信之道; and I 'planting of defences or screens' (樹屏 ) is have translated accordingly. Ma Yung likewise nothing different from the 'setting up of princes' took 齊中; but he put a stop there, and joined 信 as an adverb with the clause that follows, in which construction Këang Shing has followed him. 熊羆之士 -see Bk. II., p. 9. 用端命于上帝,一用 (建). 在我後之人在 must be taken as 'with reference to,' 'for the sake of.. -二伯 as 一二, in par. 1. Ying-tă observes that when the emperor was addressing princes of large States who bore the same surname with himself, he called them 伯必; and if their principalities =‘thus,' ‘thereby'端正直, correct We seem to be obliged to understand a after were small, he called them. The princes of a different surname were addressed by him as 用:‘they thus received the right favouring | 伯舅 and 叔舅 Here Cha'ou speaks decree from God.' Keang Shing is the only one who construes differently, saying一用能端 直其命于上帝言正命以 待天也:What follows,皇天云云, is an expansion of this clause, a more accurate description of the 'favouring decree.' 訓 一順, ‘to accord with’‘to approve.' 6. He appeals to the great princes to assist him as their fathers had assisted Wăn and Woo, and in accordance with the intention of their appointments. 命建侯樹屏the subject of 命 so that the force of the term merges in that of more particularly to the great princes of his own surname. 尙胥至先王胥=相;曁=與:胥曁‘with one another 顧顧忌而不忘to think of and not forget.' 綏=安.According as we take this to meantto soothe,to tranquillize,' or 'to pursue quietly and steadily,' we get two views of the passage. Lin Che-k'e, after Soo Shih, adopts the latter view, and compares the sentiment with that in the 'Pwankăng, Pt. i, p. 14, and Pt. ii., p. 14.使諸 is Wan and Woo, as founders of the dynasty, 侯能盡忠於王室如其先 建 and樹. This is much better than, with 公之於先王則爾先公在 Keang Slung, to suppose the par. to begin at | 天之靈於是安矣. If you, princes, 7 服釋揖皆 遺恤王心身 冕趨聽群鞠厥室罔在 反出命公子若用不外 喪王相旣羞無奉在乃 distant, let your hearts be in the royal house. Thus enter into my anxieties and act in accordance with them, so that I, the little child, may not be put to shame.” III. All the dukes, having heard this charge, bowed to one another and hastily withdrew. The king put off his cap, and assumed again his mourning dress. can discharge all loyal service to the royal House, as your predecessors did to mine, then their souls will have repose in heaven.' I was at first inclined to this view, but a closer inspection of the text makes me prefer the former, which is that given by Ts'ae after Gan-kwo. 用奉恤厥若 may be taken as in the translation, after Ts'ae and Gan-kwo. The ‘Daily Explanation' has:一用以此 心仰奉在上之憂勤而順 承毋違. Or we may translate' Be thus reverently anxious to act in accordance with the requirements of your duty,' which is the view taken by Lin Che-k'e. 汝諸侯其 職所當順者當奉恤之而 不敢忽忘 鞠子一稚子, here confirms the interpretation of the The phrase which I have adopted in p. 2. concluding statement, showing that the king and all the officers only assumed their mourning dress at the conclusion of this Announcement, has, since the time of Soo Shih, given rise to a controversy, which will probably be among Chinese critics interminable. According to Shih, everything about the publication of the Testamentary Charge and the subsequent proceedings ought to have been transacted in mourning garb; and 。 the neglect of this was a melancholy violation of propriety. If the duke of Chow had been alive, Shih thinks that he would not have allowed it, and he wonders why Confucius selected the documents recording it to form a portion of the Shoo. In point of fact, it cannot be proved positively that any violation of the proprieties for the ceremonies to be observed on various But to a student from the west transmitted. established by the duke of Chow was committed, occasions in the imperial court have not been 'a child,' one who has not yet left his mother's the controversy appears trivial. We are glad arms.' Ch. III. P. 7. THE AUDIENCE CLOSES, AND THE KING RESUMES HIS MOURNING, The use of to have the ceremonies actually observed at so distant a date brought before our eyes so graphi cally as is done in The Testamentary Charge,' and 'The Announcement of king K'ang.' THE BOOKS OF CHOW. BOOK XXIV. THE CHARGE TO THE DUKE OF PEIH. 郊畢成周王越六惟 可 公 至朝三月 + 王保之于步日庚有 若釐豐自壬午 日東命以宗申 年 1 I. In the sixth month of his twelfth year, the day of the new moon's appearance was Kăng-woo, and on Jin-shin, the third day after, the king walked in the morning from the honoured city of Chow to Fung, and there, with reference to the multitudes of Chingchow, gave charge to the duke of Peih to protect and regulate the eastern frontier. INTRODUCTORY NOTE. If that reign must|Peih was in the pres. dis. of Chang-ngan (長 安), dep. of Se-ngan. It was not a large have been happy which, extending over a considerable number of years, has yet left few or no memorials in history, that of king Kang may styled duke or Kung. That title is employed principality, whose ruler was entitled to be be so characterized. It extended over twenty- here as a denomination of dignity or office, the six years, but no other event of it, after the Announcement of the last Book, is alluded to in the chief of Peih having succeeded to the duke of Shoo or by Sze-ma Ts'een, but that appoint- | Chow as Grand-Tutor;-see on Bk. XXII., p. ment of the duke of Peih, to which we have 3. He was a scion of the House of Chow. This now arrived. Ts'een, indeed, tells us that 'dur- and his being Grand-Tutor may both be inferred ing the time of kings Ching and K'ang, the from the manner in which king K'ang addresses empire was in a state of profound tranquillity, so that punishments were laid aside, and not used for more than forty years' (成康之 際天下安 刑錯四十餘 年不用). Happy China! THE NAME OF THE BOOK.-畢命(The Charge to the duke of Peil.' The territory of | him as 變師 Ch'in Sze-k'ae says that his name was Kaou (高). He must have been well advanced in years, when the 'Charge' re corded here was addressed to him, for, ace. to p. 5, he had played his part in the fortunes of his House from the time of king Wăn. The Book was not in the Shoo of Fuh-shang. CONTENTS. 'King K'ang,' says Ts'ae, 'considering the condition of the multitudes of Ching chow, appointed the duke of Peih to protect and regulate that district and its people. This Book contains the charge to him as it was recorded on tablets.' Keun-ch'in, who had succeeded to the duke of Chow in charge of Ching-chow, has followed him to the grave. By the labours of those two great ministers, a considerable change had been effected in the character of the people of Yin who had been transferred to that district. King K'ang appoints the duke of Peih to enter into and complete their work, adopting such measures as the altered character of the people, and altered circumstances of the time, called for. The charge occupies all the Book after an introductory paragraph, and may be divided into three chapters, each introduced by the words-The king said.' The first, parr. 2-5, speaks of what had been accomplished in Ching-chow, and the admirable qualities of Kaou which fitted him to accomplish what remained to be done. The second, parr. 6—11, speaks of the special measures which were called for by the original character and by the altered character of the people. The third, parr. 12—15, dwells on the importance of the charge, and stimulates the duke, by various motives, to address himself to fulfil it effectually. of those times counted the day when the sun and moon were veritably in conjunction to be the first day of the moon. The time of a lunation was divided into the time of brightness and the time of obscurity; the passage from the obscure to the bright time was described as "the death of the obscure," and the passage from the bright to the obscure time as "the birth of the obscure;" -see "The Testamentary Charge." The standard History gives 26 as the years of K'ang's reign; if that be correct, his death took place B.C. 1,042, since we have found that B.C. 1,056 was his 12th year; and B.C. 1,067 was the first year of his reign. "This year, B.C. 1,067, should be marked by the cycle characters, the 11th year of the cycle. Now, the "Bamboo Books" do mark his first year so; but the year which they denote is that B.C. 1,007, differing from the true year, which appears to have been demonstrated, exactly an entire cycle of 60 years.' [As the cycle names of the days here afford ground for such important conclusions, in which Gaubil, I may state, was anticipated by Chang Yih-hing (the Buddhist priest mentioned on page 19), under the Tang dynasty, it becomes desirable to establish the genuineness of the par., which may be hastily thrown aside with the remark that it only occurs in one of the controverted Books. Now this we are able to do, so far as the year, month, and days are concerned, from a 惟十 Ch. I. P. 1. THE TIME; PLACE; AND GENERAL NATURE OF THE CHARGE. passage in the 漢律歴志第一下 being that referred to by Gaubil, and which is to this effect: 康王十二年六月 至壬申一脚 see on Bk. XII., p. 2. As 戊辰朔三日庚午故畢命 it denotes the third day of the moon, we are again enabled to bring the commonly re- 豐刑日惟十有二年六月 ceived chronology to the test of calculation. here; Here I will give the note of Ganbil, as on par.庚午胐王命作策刑 We 2 of The Testamentary Charge: It is agreed do not know what to make of that the day here is the third day of the sixth moon of the calendar of Chow. Lew Hin and Pan Koo pretend that this was the year corresponding to B.c. 1,067, to which year they refer the twelfth year of king Kang; and this chronology is followed in the In the year B.C. 1,067, the 16th of May was, indeed, the day 庚午。 or the 7th of the cycle, but it is plain that Lew Hin had seen a copy of the Charge to Peih,' in this par. substantially the same with what we have in the text before us.] see on Bk. 王朝至于-朝步, III., p. 1. 宗周 ,—see on Bk. XX., p. 1. We are to understand Haou. The king went to Fung,' says Ts'ae, 'to give the charge in the temple of king Wăn, because the duke of Peih had been minister to him.' 成周一this was what was called, the lower capital,” See on Bk. XXI., p. 1., where also the eastern frontier,' is explained. but the 14th of May was not the first day of the moon which did not happen till several days after; and that year therefore was not the 12th of Kang's reign. Laying down the principle avowed by Pan Koo and Lew Hin about the third day of the moon, the cycle names in the text agree with the year B.C. 1,056. The 16th of May was the day of new moon in China; the 18th, the third day of the moon, was 4; and this month was the sixth in the calendar. The time had come to adopt of Chow, since during it the sun entered the a difft. method with the people of Yin from those sign of the Twins. From "The Announcement of Shaou," "The Announcement about Lo," and pursued by their former overseers, the duke of this Book, we see that the Chinese astronomers Chow and Keun-ch'in ;-as is explained below. 保 2 II. The king spoke thus:-Oh! Grand-tutor, it was when king Wan and king Woo had diffused their great virtue through the empire that they were able to receive the appointment which Yin 3 had enjoyed. The duke of Chow acted as assistant to my royal predecessors, and tranquillized and established their empire. Cautiously did he deal with the refractory people of Yin, and removed them to the city of Lo, that they might be quietly near the royal house, and thus be transformed by its lessons. Six and thirty years. have elapsed, the generation has been changed, and manners the last Book, we might translate this by Uncle and Tutor.' Lin Che-k'e, moreover, says that the duke of Peih was 'a son of king Wăn, a younger brother of king Woo and the duke of Chow, and an uncle of king Ching (文王之子, 武王周公之弟成王之叔 炎); but I do not know his authority for such a statement. Sze-ma Ts'een has given the view. Ching must certainly be included. Gaubil ly,'these former kings.. 厥家厥 city' of Lo was the place where the nine in Ching-chow and thecountry about might very well be said to be near the royal house.' The Daily Explanation' expands 式化厥訓 into 日間我周之仁聲善政日 names of Win's ten sons by his queen Tae-sze,親我周之仁人君子由是潛 and this duke is not among them. I believe he was a scion of the House of Chow; but we may 消其悍暴之習而漸化于 take 從師 here in the same way as in Pt. 德義之訓 旣歴三 IV., Bk. XI., p. 1, as 太師 If he had really been a brother of the duke of Chow, we might have expected some reference to the fact in the course of the Charge. 3. 惟周 公左右先王一the critics generally | understand by all K'ang's predecessors, ——Wăn, Woo, and Ching. Lin Che-k'e contends with much force that the phrase should in this place be restricted to king Ching. It is hardly necessary to depart from the more common 'there have elapsed-been gone through-three Ke, or periods of twelve years.' A period of twelve years was denominated a 紀 acc. to Ying-tă, because in that period the planet Jupiter completed a revolution in his orbit, and the cycle characters of the 地支, or ‘earthly branches,' had also run their round. We do not know exactly from what year we are to reckon these 36 years. If, as is commonly believed, the reign of Ching lasted 37 years, and we add 12 years of K'ang's reign to them, we obtain four duodenary periods, and not three. Even |