not have been real. Should they really have existed, then perhaps the two bears were first metamorphosed into human beings, before they engendered the two ministers.

Niu Ai, Duke of Lu, was changed into a tiger during a sickness. Man can be transformed into an animal, as animals can become men. Probably the black lizard, which entered the harem, was also first changed into a man.

Between heaven and earth it does not happen that creatures of a different species mix and couple. Should Heaven have the same law as man, their likes and dislikes would also be similar. Man does not like different species, therefore Heaven would not consort with such either. Although man is created by Heaven, he is like the lice which are produced on man. Man does not love those lice, for what reason then should Heaven desire to beget through man? Different classes have different natures, and their sentiments and desires do not agree. Heaven and Earth are husband and wife. Heaven emits its fluid into Earth and produces the various things. Man is born by propagation. If Sages are formed of a very fine essence, yet they receive the fluid from their fathers, and are not endowed with a special essence from Heaven. Should the recipients of a special essence become Sages, Hsieh and Hou Chi are not Sages, and, if it be necessary that all Sages should have received a special fluid, the Twelve Sages2 did not all meet this requirement. What fluid did the mothers of Huang Ti, Ti Ku, Chuan Isü and Shun receive, and what did the mothers of Wên Wang, Wu Wang, Chou Kung, and Confucius swallow to become pregnant?

Perhaps the surnames of the Three Dynasties:-Sse, Tse, and Chi gave the impetus to the invention of those unfounded and marvellous stories, as the legend of Huang Ti's ascension to heaven originated from the local name of Ting-hu.3 Not only are they irrational, but those names are also misinterpreted. When Tsang Hsieh invented writing, he made the signs agree with the ideas. Chiang Yuan walked into the foot-prints of a giant. "Foot-print" (chi=跡) means a basis" (chi J), therefore the surname should be "his" (ch'i = 1) with "earth" (tu = ±) below, but =) it is "woman" (nü =) with "chin” with "chin" (i =) at its side. This

1 Cf. p. 326.

2 Cf. p. 304.

3 For this legend vid. P. 332.

4 A minister of Huang Ti, cf. p. 244.

is not the character chi =基 or chinor in accordance with the circumstances,' whence their truth becomes very doubtful.

Judging by the surname Chi of the Chou of those of the Hsia and Yin, we arrive at the conclusion that Tse and Sse have nothing to do with a swallow's egg or pearl-barley. May be that the mothers of Yu, Hsieh, and Hou Chi were just going to conceive, when they happened to swallow a grain of pearl-barley and a swallow's egg, or walked upon the foot-prints of a giant. The world is fond of the marvellous, a propensity which has been the same in ancient and modern times. Unless they see wonders, people do not believe that a person possesses extraordinary faculties. Thus they explain surnames according to their preconceived ideas. The world puts implicit faith in these explanations, and they are therefore regarded as true. Sages have repeatedly uttered their doubts, but they could not solve them, and the shallow discussions of the scholars of the day cannot discriminate between right and wrong.

The literati, who approve of all that is old, have put forward those arguments. The Shiking says that there was no rending and no tearing, which means to say that by Ilou Chi's birth the body of his mother was not much affected. From this the literati, perverting the right principles, have derived the story of the unnatural birth of Yu and Hsieh. The fecundation by the dragon and the dream of the meeting with the spirit are of the same nature. The mothers of Yao and Kao Tsu were just about to become enceinte, when they met with a thunder-storm and a dragon carrying clouds and rain along. People seeing these phenomena then told the stories.

A dream that one meets with a dragon is an augury of the birth of a wise son. Is a dream of a meeting with ghosts not like a dream of a rendez-vous with a spirit? How could it be real? When the mother had intercourse with the dragon in the wilds, and when the dragon appeared on high, Yao and Kao Tsu perchance received their destiny of wealth and honour, for a dragon is an auspicious animal, and to meet it appearing above is a lucky omen and a sign that fate has been received.

When the Emperor Kuang Wu Ti saw the light in the Chiyang palace, a phoenix alighted on the ground, and an auspicious grain grew in one room. When Sages are born, and strange birds and auspicious things appear as portents, strange and auspicious

things become visible indeed. If, however, we are to regard the children born then as the offspring of those things, should we consider the Emperor Kuang Wu Ti as the essence of the auspicious blade or the fluid of the phoenix?

According to the chapters on the pedigree of the Emperors1 and the Genealogical Tables of the Three Dynasties2 Yü was the son of Kun, and Hsieh and Hou Chi were both sons of the Emperor Ku, their mothers being second wives of Ku. Yao also was a son of the Emperor Ku. Why then must the wives of kings and emperors walk into the country? Although the ancient times are noted for their simplicity, yet there were already certain rules of propriety established. And why did these ladies bathe in the rivers? It follows that the assertion about the Sages receiving a special fluid from Heaven and their mothers becoming pregnant by swallowing something is a fallacy.

As a matter of fact Sages have their prototypes among their ancestors; being as virtuous as Wen Wang and Wu Wang, they still find their peers. Confucius, playing the flute, knew that he was a descendant of the Yin, and Hsiang Yü, having double pupils, was cognisant of his being a scion of Shun.5 The Five Emperors and Three Rulers had all Huang Ti as their ancestor. He was a Sage, who first received a grand destiny. Therefore all his descendants became emperors and rulers. At their births there were miracles of course, which, if they did not appear in things, became manifest in dreams.

3 As the mother of Hsieh did, when she swallowed the egg, cf. chap. XXXVII. 4 We learn from Lun-hếng Bk. XXIV, p. 3 that it was against the custom to make music on the anniversaries of the downfall of the Hsia and Yin dynasties, as one did not write on the death day of T'sang Hsieh, the inventor of writing. I infer from this that the last emperors of the Hsia and Yin dynasties were famous for their music, and that Confucius feeling in himself a talent for music imagined that he was a descendant of the Yin emperors.

5 Shun had double pupils as well, vid. p. 304.

SO

CHAPTER XXVII.

Unfounded Assertions (Wu hsing).

Men receive the vital fluid from heaven at their birth, and are all given a fate fixing the length of their lives, in accordance to which their bodies exist for a longer or shorter period. Just vases are formed out of clay by the potter, and plates from copper by the founder. As the shape of a vessel, once completed, cannot be made smaller or bigger, thus the duration of the corporeal frame having been settled, cannot be shortened or prolonged. The said fluid forms the constitution, which determines fate and shapes the body. The fluid and the material body pervade each other. Life and death correspond to fixed periods. The body cannot be transformed, and likewise fate cannot be lengthened or shortened. We may elucidate the question as to the duration of human life by observing the potter and founder.

Some one might object saying, “True, if a potter uses his stuff to make a vase, this vase, after its completion, lasts, until it breaks, but cannot be formed anew. If, however, a founder casts a plate out of copper, although it be finished, it can be melted again, and be made into a cup or, if that is not possible, into a vessel. Although men, who owe their spirits to heaven, all have a destiny fixing their span, by which their bodies are regulated, they can, if they know the right way and an effective elixir, change their bodies and prolong their lives all the same."

I reply, "If a founder recasts a finished vessel, he must first liquefy it in fire, before he is able to enlarge or diminish, extend or shorten it. If a man desiring to protract his years, should wish to be like the copper vessel, there must be some sort of a furnace with coal, where the change and the transmutation of his body could take place. The body having been changed, the lifetime might also be extended. How could men, in order to change their bodies, undergo a smelting process like a copper vessel?" The Li Ki states, When the water pours down, one does not offer fish or turtles for food." Why? Because, when the

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1 Li Ki chap. 1, No. 1 (Chü-li), p. 20v. (Legge's translation Vol. I, p. 84.) Various reasons have been assigned by the commentators for this rule. They say,

rain water rushes down, snakes and reptiles are changed and become fish or turtles. Since they give up their original real nature and are transformed only for a while, the servants take care and dare not offer them to their masters for food. Would men desirous of having their bodies transmuted, be satisfied with a change like that of reptiles and snakes? Those reptiles which are liable to a change are worse off than those which do not change at all. Before they change, they are not eaten by men, but, when they have been transformed into fish and turtles, men eat them. Being eaten, their long lives are cut short, and that is not what people desire. Years and months change, and the intrinsic fluid may transform one species into another. Frogs become quails, and sparrows turn into clams. Man longing for bodily transformation would like to resemble quails and crabs. These are in the same plight as fish and turtles. Man fishes for crabs and eats them, when he catches them. Although without a metamorphose of the body, life cannot be lengthened, this result cannot be aimed at.

Duke Niu Ai of Lu was laid up with a malady for seven days, when he was transformed into a tiger.2 Kun3 when banished to Mount Yü-shan turned into a moose. Do those who seek transformation desire to become a tiger like Niu Ai, or a moose like Kun? The life of a tiger or a moose is not longer than the human. In this world the human nature is the noblest of all, therefore the transmutation of a man into a bird or a beast cannot be desirable. It would be a great boon, if an old man could be transformed into a youth, or if at least the white hair could turn black again, the lost teeth grow once more, and the animal forces be strengthened, so that the person could jump about, devoid of all decrepitude. This would be grand indeed! Where would be the advantage of a transformation, if life were not prolonged thereby?

If a thing is transformed, its concomitant fluid, as it were, favours the change. Human work may produce new forms, it is not Heaven which transforms things in order to prolong their duration. No more can a transformation be brought about by eating divine herbs or wonderful drugs. A man constantly using cordials can

in opposition to Wang Chung, that during heavy rain-falls fish are so easily got as not to be valuable, or that then they are muddy and not fit for eating. This last reason seems the most plausible.

1 To become like a quail or a crab.

2 Quoted from Huai Nan Tse, who adds that the tiger devoured his brother,

when he opened the door.

3 A legendary minister of Yao and father to Great Yü.