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火日日日日日日五極威

日潤土金木火水行◎ 用 炎下水五四

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5 III. III. [i.] "First, of the five elements.-The first is named water; the second, fire; the third, wood; the fourth, metal; the fifth, earth. The nature of water is to soak and descend; of fire, to blaze and ascend; of wood, to be crooked and to be straight; of metal, to obey and

names of the Divisions added to it. It differs from the common representations of the Plan, by containing the 5th division in the centre, which is ordinarily excluded, from numerical considerations.

皇極。五行

as to attract men 'towards' () what is desired. No numbers, it is observed, are used with reference to the fifth Division, the perfection which it indicates not being capable of

measurement.

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Ch. III. Pp. 5-40. PARTICULAR DESCRIPTION OF THE NINE DIVISIONS. 5. Of the five elements. Gaubil does not translate, but gives always-les cinq hing.' We have got into the habit of rendering it in English by 'elements.' But it seems hardly possible to determine what the Chinese mean by the term. By elements' we mean the first principles or ingredients of which all bodies are composed.' The Pythagoreans, by their four elements of earth, water, air, and fire-a classification first made, apparently, by Ocellus-did not intend 30 much the nature or essence of material substances, as the forms under which matter is actually presented to us. The term, meaning 'to move,' 'to be in action,' shows that the original conception of the Chinese is of a different nature; and it is said, in the dict., that 'the five hing move and revolve throughout heaven and earth, without ever ceasing, and

For the names of the subjects of the nine hence they are so called (TE

Divisions, see on their several paragraphs that

follow.

With regard to the 'five, it is

said they are to be reverently used. The
being personal, belonging to the government of
one's self, it is required to be reverent' in
respect to them. [Keang Shing, after Lew
Hin, reads for, but rests
on good authority;—see the, in loc.].
The 'eight '
are to be used 'liberally.'

is read as if it were and defined by 厚 Ma Yung and Wang Suh try to retain

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FZ). Dis

tributed,' say the editors of Yung-ching's Shoo, through the four seasons, they make the "five arrangements;" exhibited in prognostications, they give rise to divination by the tortoise and the reeds; having lodgment in the human body, they produce "the five businesses;" moved by good fortune and bad, they produce" the various verifications;" communicated to organisms, they produce the different natures, hard and soft, good and evil; working out their results in the

changes of those organisms, they necessitate here benevolence and there meanness, here longevity and there early death:-all these things are from the operation of the five hing. But if we speak of them in their simplest and most important character, they are, as here, what man's life depends upon, what the people cannot do without.'

Leaving all this jargon, and turning to the 'counsels of Yu' parr. 7, 8, we find that water, fire, metal, wood, and earth' are, along with 'grain,' the six magazines,' from which the people are to be provided with what is necessary for their sustenance and comfort. We may content ourselves, therefore, with under

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聽言事穡酸上穡曰上 言五 作從作潤從未

日日日日甘苦下革 革E 從思視貌◎作曲作土

視貌四二 辛直鹹直 日日日日五稼作炎稼金

to change; while the virtue of earth is seen in seed-sowing and ingathering. That which soaks and descends becomes salt; that which blazes and ascends becomes bitter; that which is crooked and straight becomes sour; that which obeys and changes becomes acrid; and from seed-sowing and ingathering comes sweetness.

[ii.] "Second, of the five businesses.-The first is called demeanour; the second, speech; the third, seeing; the fourth, hearing; and the fifth, thinking. The virtue of the demeanour is called respectfulness; of speech, accordance with reason; of seeing, clear

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duced, and the saltness is made by the soaking and descending. When fire, blazes on without ceasing, charring and scorching for a long time, the bitter taste is produced, and the bitterness is made by the blazing and ascending'; &c., &c. The reader may find a reasonable meaning in all this, if he can. Ts'ae observes that the five elements have their several sounds, colours, and airs, as well as tastes, but the text only speaks of their tastes, those being of greater importance to the people than the others.

P. 6. Of the five businesses. To translate

從革, it is said, 以性言,‘describe the 五事 by the five businesses' reads awkward

nature of the elements' But nature in such a case is only expressive of some qualities belong

and uncouth; but I can do no better with it.

Medhurst renders the phrase by 'the five senses,'

ing to them. again, is said to be

descriptive of the virtue of earth;

which is plainly inadmissible. Gaubil gives

for it les cinq occupations ou affaires.'

and hence we read 土稼穡 and not From the language of p. 4,-敬用五事,

土日稼穡 (Metal obeys and changes';

i.e., it alters its form when acted on by fire From to the end we have the 味 or 'five tastes' of the elements;-not, how

ever, the tastes that are proper to them, but those which they are found in course of time to assume. This is denoted by E, which I have translated becomes.' Hea Seuen has said, 'The reason why we find used in connection with the five tastes or flavours of the elements is this.-Water as it issues from the spring is not salt;-but when it flows away to the sea, and is there collected and coagulated together for a long time, the salt taste is pro

we gather that the 'aspect,' 'the speech,' &c.,

are not themselves the, but what give occasion to them. -, 'carriage,’

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睿明

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日聖哲肅聰

賓六 司貨政睿明恭聽 一作作作日

日師 師R寇 日食○聰從思 歲 ○ ○七司 司四三三作作日

ness; of hearing, distinctness; and of thinking, perspicaciousness. The respectfulness becomes manifest in gravity; accordance with reason, in orderliness; the clearness, in wisdom; the distinctness, in deliberation; and the perspicaciousness, in sageness.

[iii.]“Third, of the eight objects of government:–the first is called food; the second, commodities; the third, sacrifices; the fourth, the minister of works; the fifth, the minister of instruction;the sixth, the minister of crime; the seventh, the entertainment of guests; the eighth, the army.

[iiv.]“Fourth, of the five arrangements. The first is called the year; the second, the month; the third, the day; the fourth, the 微‘penetrating to what is minute.

would come in the minister of works, to secure

the comfort of their dwellings; and the minister

X, &c., describe the consummation of those of instruction to teach them all their moral

virtues (五德之用),一what they come

to, as is indicated by the 作.

These businesses are represented as being in the human person what the five elements are in nature. Demeanour is the human correspondency of water, speech that of fire. But again leaving all this, can we tell what the writer would be at? Lin Che-k'e refers to what Mencius says, VII., Pt. I., xxxviii.,-The bodily organs with their functions belong to our Heaven-conferred nature; but a man must be a sage before he can satisfy the design of his bodily organization;' and then adds that this paragraph contains the science of doing this. Certainly if a man have attained to the results here exhibited, he has made much progress in self-government and personal cultivation.

P. 7. The eight oljects of government. Medhurst translates by the eight Regulators,' and Gaubil by les huit regles du Gouvernement.' It means the eight things to be attended to in government, its objects or departments. They seem to be stated in the order of their importance in the view of the speaker. Food' belongs to the department of agriculture. and commodities' or‘goods' to that of trade and commerce. These two things being secured, the people would have the essentials of life, and would be able to attend to their

duties; and the minister of crime to deter them from evil. All festive ceremonies, all the intercourses of society, could then be regulated; and maintained, to secure the general well-being of finally the efficiency of the army would be

the State.

It will be seen that the three first and two last are the objects to be attended to in their several departments, while the intermediate three are the names of the ministers. No account can be given of this peculiarity of the style. So the author was pleased to write,very unsatisfactorily.

P.8. The five subjects of urrangement. Medhurst calls the, the 'five Arrangers,' and Gaubil, les cinq Periodes.' He observes in

a note that ‘粑 is used for chronicles and annals; for a revolution of the stars, of cycles, of years; and that it may express a fixed point for chronology and astronomy.' The term properly denotes the sorting of threads of silk,' and thence is applied to the digesting of chronicles and arranging of annals. It is hard to say whether it is intended in the text for the objective work of arranging the measures of the things spoken of, or, for those things as measured and arranged.

歲=天時之一周: a complete re

duties to spiritual beings and to the dead. Then | volution of the seasons.' 月‘the moon,’is

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極厥厥 五 其五五日

福有皇曰四日

用極極曆

保于惟敷歛皇數星 錫時建

極。汝

stars and planets, and the zodiacal signs; and the fifth, the calendaric calculations.

[v.] "Fifth, of royal perfection.-The sovereign having established his highest point of excellence, he concentrates in himself the five happinesses, and then diffuses them so as to give them to his people:-then on their part the multitudes of the people, resting

here'month,' the period of a lunation,' in- | serving as an example and attractive influence cluding the determination of new and full moon, and the intermediate phases., 'the sun,' ,-see Can. of

is here'a day.' AR

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Medhurst

to all below, both ministers and people. It is supposed to be in the centre, the exact middle, but it should not be called the centre or Mean. Take its primary application to the beam forming the ridge of a house:'-that is the highest point of the roof, on which the other parts rest, and it is in the centre of it; but it is called By royal perfection' and not.

we are to understand the sovereign, all that he ought to be. Ts'ae dwells upon it in its relation to his personal character, exhibiting all the virtues. Others say it is the accumulation of the personal and governmental excellences described in the previous divisions of the Plan. Our best way is to leave it in its own vagueness. I have already observed that no place is found for this in the numerical scheme of the

Pp. 9-16.. Royal perfection translates by the princely perfections;'Great Plan,' arranged according to the principles of the Yih King. There are only 8 diagrams, not 9. This might have shown the critics that this Book was not to be treated on

and Gaubil, by le terme du Souverain, on le milieu du Souverain.' Gan-kwo had defined the terms by, 'the great Mean,' and his explanation seems to have been unquestioned till the time of the Sung dynasty. Then Choo He insisted that must be taken here in the collects these five happinesses,' that is, collects, concentrates them in his own person

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those principles. 9. 斂時(一)

sense of 君 ‘prince,' ' sovereign,' referring to (斂集是五福于皇躬; see the the way in which it is interchanged within). Happiness, it is supposed, invaripar. 14 ably follows virtue-compare in the Counsels (皇有訓大處惟皇

.

of the last Division, and we are surprised to

之皇不可訓大皇只當作 of Yu' p. 5, 惠迪吉從逆凶惟 君,所以說王之義王 影響 The five happinesses' must be those 之路直到後面以為天下 王其意可見蓋皇字下從 E). Choo's criticism is correct. He is correct

also in rejecting the definition of by.

ind them mentioned here, with the definitive = before them. It is not to be won時

dered at that Hung Mae() should have

proposed to remove from this down to

is the utmost point,'-the extreme of excel-in p, 11, to the ninth division. The diffilence, realized in the person of the sovereign, and culty is a little lightened by taking =

而咎于則有皇無無
康皇極念為庶作有有凡
而則不之有民極比淫厥
色受罹不守有○德丽庶
日之于協汝凡人民

10 in your perfection, will give to you the preservation of it. That
the multitudes of the people have no lawless confederacies, and that
men in office have no selfish combinations, will be an effect of the
11 sovereign's establishing his highest point of excellence. Among all
the multitudes of the people, when any have counsel, and conduct,
and keep themselves from evil, do you bear them in mind; those who
do not come up to the highest excellence, and yet do not involve
themselves in crime, let the sovereign receive; and when a placid
是, ‘thereon’or ‘thereby,' as in the translation. | of the last par. Perhaps 作 indicates the vari
用敷錫厥庶民—
diffusing and giving them to his multitudinous, the point of establishment, is attained.

-'uses them,

people.' The king, not able to be happy him

self only, seeks to make his people happy;–it

is not said by what methods. 惟

ous efforts and steps of progress by which

11. How royal perfection will be seen in dealing

with superior men, and with inferior men also, bringing the latter to approve and attain to the highest

云云,-Tsae expands this: 一當時之 excellence. 有猷有為 are men ‘mighty

in words and deeds.' They are supposed further

民亦皆於君之極與之保 守不敢失所謂錫保也 nature, which will sustain them against tempta, to be 有守, to have that firm and resolved 皇極君民所以相與者 tion. 念之‘think of them, bear them 如此, ‘the people, after that, guard and pre

serve the perfection of the sovereign for him,

not daring to lose it or let it drop. This is

what is shown by The whole tells us what a mutual interest the ruler and the people have in this royal perfection.' It is really difficult to say what the whole tells us. The student will not fail to observe how the

in mind.' This is='give to such your confidence. You may repose trust in them.’

不協于極‘do not harmonize with–

have not yet attained to the highest excellence.' 不罹于咎=不陷於惡

The不一而不, with the adversative force

viscount of Ke begins here to address himself of, and yet.' These are a class of mediocre individuals, different from aud inferior to the

to king Woo.汝極 10. Royal per

condescend to those inferior men.' But he is

as

fection will banish from the empire all selfish con- former. 而康而色,Gan-kwǔ, taking federacies. 淫朋=邪黨bad, corrupt|而汝, took this as addressed to king Woo: parties’淫 has here its frequent meaning of-汝當安汝顏色以謙下人, 過,‘beyond bounds' Comp朋淫于‘you ought to compose your countenance, and 家 in the ‘Yih and Tseilh,’p. 8. 人無有 then obliged to understand another 人 比德 德-the here, in opp. to the 民 above, is understood to mean 有位之 人 'men having office.' fit is used in a bad 比德-私相比附, selfish combining’作極 is about i. 9. 建極

sense.

VOL. III.

the nominative to 日‘when men say,' &c,. It is better to take, with Choo He,而康 而色, as referring to the class of men just described, and = when they are pleased, and look so, saying,' &c.. Tsae says:– 見於

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