34

若暘恆若寒時父曰無

若雨日若燠時肅凶極 急日若日若暢時○備 恆豫日徵聖日若雨日凶、 寒恆僭日時謀日若休

若燠恆狂風時哲日徵極

33 plants will be abundantly luxuriant. Should any one of them be either excessively abundant, or excessively deficient, there is evil. "There are the favourable verifications:-namely, of gravity, which is emblemed by seasonable rain; of orderliness, emblemed by seasonable sunshine; of wisdom, emblemed by seasonable heat; of deliberation, emblemed by seasonable cold; and of sageness, emblemed by seasonable wind. There are also the unfavourable verifications:-namely, of wildness, emblemed by constant rain; of assumption, emblemed by constant sunshine; of indolence, emblemed

ed for by Lin Che-k'e, who understands

the round year, the months, and the days,' of 'In every case, good and bad,

which we have the account in the 35th and foll.

paragraphs. He took the view from Ts'ae

the issue is in accordance with the course of

the conduct, and therefore we find the character

Yuen-too), a critic also of the Opposed to 'gravity,' we have E,

Sung dyn., earlier than himself. It supposes a

more artificial structure of the text than the

若

'incoherence,' 'wildness.' Opposed to 'or

derliness,' we have 僭=差'error'‘presumptuous error.' Opposed to wisdom,' there is, 'idleness,' 'indecision' (Wang Suh read

study of the whole Book authorizes. 各 и±--, order,' 'series.' The order of time and the degree of quantity, are both included, (±, with the same meaning). Opposed to 後之序). -='deliberation,' there is, 'urgency,' 'haste ; '

and opposed to ‘sageness' there is 'stupidity. The various phenomena, by which these qualities good and bad are responded to in nature and providence, are of course all fanciful. Since the Han dynasty, the critics have nearly all abandoned themselves to vain jangling in speculations on the operation of the five elements,

備極過甚則凶一者極無 and their distributions through the seasons of 不至亦謂不時失叙

the year, en rapport with the virtues and failings And yet, as we saw on the last Divi

of men.

34. The favourable or good, and the unfavour-sion, many of them do not endorse the stateable or bad, verifications. The student will see that this par. and the 6th are closely connected. The successful achievement of each of the 'five businesses' has its verification in the character | of the phenomena which have been described, and failure in, or the neglect, of them, has also its corresponding outward manifestation. On the, with which each clause terminates, Ying-tă observes:-***

ments of the text without misgivings. Ts'ae observes that 'to say on occasion of such and such a business' being successfully achieved, there will be the favourable verification corresponding to it, or that on occasion of such and such a business' being failed in, there will be the corresponding unfavourable verification, would betray a pertinacious obtuseness, -would show that the speaker was not a man to be talked with on the mysterious opera

35

時康用父易歲師歲○日 旣○章用百月尹卿曰蒙 易日家明穀日惟士王恆 百月用後用時日惟省風 穀歲平民成無○月惟若。

by constant heat; of haste, emblemed by constant cold; and of stupidity, emblemed by constant wind.”

He went on to say, "The sovereign is to examine the character of the whole year; nobles and officers, that of the months; and 36 the inferior officers, that of the day. If throughout the year, the month, the day, there be an unchanging seasonableness, all the kinds of grain are matured; the operations of government are wise; heroic men stand forth eminent; and in the families of the people 37 there are peace and prosperity. If throughout the year, the month, the day, the seasonableness is interrupted, the various kinds of grain

tions of nature. It is not easy to describe the reciprocal meeting of Heaven and men. The hidden springs touched by failure and success, and the minute influences that respond to them-who can know these but the man who

has apprehended all truth (必日某事 得則某休徵應某事失則 某咎徵應則亦膠固不通 而不足與語造化之妙弃 天人之際未易言也失得 之幾應感之微非知道者, 孰能識之哉?” This is in effect

admitting that the statements of the text can be of no practical use.

Pp.35–38. We have here apparently an endeavour to show how the 'various verifications are to be thoughtfully made use of,' according to

the language of p. 4. By師尹 we are to

understand all the or inferior officers.

See on 庶尹 in the ‘Yih and Tseih’p. 10.

We may take 師 here as

|

prehends all dignities in himself, he must be every month doing on himself the examination work of a high officer, and every day that of an inferior. The editors of Yung-ching's Shoo say on this point: The sovereign, the high

must examine severally the year, the month,

and vague way, with reference to the different phrase.

a

officers, and the inferior officers, it is said here,
and the day; but this is spoken in a general
of their offices:-we must not stick to
rank
hue. For instance, a violent wind shall in
Lusts for a single day only, but its injurious
Shall we make it relate to the inferior officers ?
Whenever any unfavourable verification hap-

a day do injury to the grain fields. The wind
effects extend to the months and the year.
or to the high officers and the sovereign?
pens, no one should put the thing off himself.
Every one should examine himself, and do so
with regard to every matter.' Experience
and their own sense have made many in China
wiser in many things than their classics, but
they will not give up the national idols.

36, 37. 時無易

36, 37. 時無易'if the times do not

change.' But we must take in the same way as in p. 34, meaning 'seasonableness.' The

麻or眾; with meaning is that if rain and sunshine, heat and

regard to the rank of the which the text

mentions, the whole scope of the passage shows

it could only be of a lower grade. The sove

cold, and wind all occur seasonably, the various effects enumerated will follow. There is a

grain of truth in the assertions, and a bushel of

nonsense. Hoo Wei says that is used

reign stands to his nobles and great officers as the year to months, including and leading on with reference to the government of the court them all; and they again stand to their inferior

employeés as the month to the days. Must the (以朝政言之), and 俊民 of indisovereign then, by the rule here laid down, viduals who have no office(以無位者

wait till the year's end before examining his

character and ways ? I suppose, as he com- 言之 while refers to those who are in

38

雨。從冬月星星。用昏用 ○星有之有星○微不不 九則夏行好有庶家明成 五月則雨好民用後父 福風之有日風惟不民用

do not become matured; the operations of government are dark and unwise; heroic men are reduced to obscurity; and in the families of the people there is no repose.

"The common people are like the stars. Some stars love the wind, and some love the rain. The course of the sun and moon give winter and summer. The course of the moon among the stars gives wind and rain.

office. In regard to the last clause, I prefer the view which is given in the translation.

who says: 民之麗乎土,猶星

[Gaubil has here the following note:-There. But this would make is supposed here a mutual correspondence between the ordinary events of the life of men, especially of kings and grandees, and the constitution of the air; but instead of adopting the false ideas which the viscount of Ke may have

had on that subject we may reflect on what has been thought about it in Europe, and on what many people still think and say of a culpable and dangerous character. It appears that the Chinese have admitted a homogeneous matter in all bodies; that they have admitted a soul subsisting after the destruction of the body; that they have admitted spirits, and one spiritual Being, Master of heaven, of earth, and of men. But they have been bad physicists, and have troubled themselves little with metaphysics or with logic. They have not thought too much (?) of examining the grounds of their reasoning on the nature of beings; and they have in no way fathomed the question of the union of the soul with the body, nor that of the operations

of the soul.'

There is no danger of our adopting the notions of the viscount of Ke on the correspondence between the weather and the characters of men. A great service would be done by the Sinologue, who should take up the Great Plan,' and produce a commentary on it for Chinese readers, clearly and minutely unfolding the errors on the constitution of nature and the course of providence of which it is full. From this ground we might go on to shake the stronghold of their confidence in all the ancient teachings and the wisdom of their so-called sages.]

P. 38. The people should examine the stars.

the paragraph of a different character entirely from those immediately preceding. The text is evidently analogous with the clauses of par. 35, and the which we must under

stand there of the

± and Éifi #,

we

must understand here also after
"The people should examine the stars.' But
nothing is said of verifications' in connection
with the stars and the people ;-what was to
result from the examination of the stars? The
people,' says Woo Ch'ing, 'would know when it
was summer, and when it was winter, when
they might expect wind, and when they might
expect rain. Knowing these things they could
carry on their labours and take their precau-
tionary measures accordingly.' We thus find
a meaning in the paragraph, though of a diffe-
rent kind from what the preceding paragraphs
would lead us to look for. On the view of the
first clause, taken by Ts'ae and the commenta-
tors generally, the whole paragraph appears
equally out of place, and no reasonable
meaning can be given to it.
stellation -the hand of Sagittarius—is
said to bring wind, and, or Hyades, to bring
rain. Ts'ae goes at great length into the
courses of the sun and moon, but all according
to the accounts of the astronomers of the Han

The con

R-Medhurst translates this dynasty. The text specifies no stars from

The common people are like the stars,' and Gaubil, in the same way,-'Les étoiles représentent les peuples.' This also is the view of Ts'ae,

which we might determine the place of the sun in the heavens at the solstices or equinoxes, when the Book was made.

39

[ix]. "Ninth, of the five happinesses.-The first is long life; the second is riches; the third is soundness of body and serenity of mind; the fourth is the love of virtue; the fifth is an end crowning the life. 40 As to the six extremities again, the first is misfortune, shortening the life; the second is sickness; the third is sorrow; the fourth is poverty; the fifth is wickedness; the sixth is weakness."

Pp. 39, 40. Of the five happinesses and six | according to the rank and station. Lin Che-k'e extremities. It is said, in p. 4, that a hortatory says, 'a sufficiency for food and clothing is use is to be made of the five happinesses, and 'freedom from sickness,' 'an awing use of the six extremities.' It is not easy to see how this division enters into the i.e., good health,—-according to Gan-kwo. Moscheme of the Great Plan. Tsăng Kung ( dern critics extend the meaning, as in the trans

lation.−形康而心寧 攸好

loved.' The meaning, says Lin Che-k'e, is a natural disposition tending to the love of virtue

says:-'The nine divisions all describe the course of the sovereign. The happinesses when virtue is what is and extremities are conditions by which the sovereign examines his own attainments and defects in reference to the people. That these happinesses should be among the people, is what the sovereign should aim after; and the

extremities' being among them is what he

rather than of pleasures and other lower things.

考終命-Tsae explains this by the

words of Mencius, VII., Pt. I., ii. 1, || 集說

should be standing in awe of ;-see the E, 'submissively receiving all the will of

Hoo Wei, on the other hand, says:-The five conditions of happiness and six conditions of suffering, are by the doing of Heaven, and not from any arrangements of men. We have it said in the division on Royal Perfection, "He concentrates in himself the five happinesses, and then diffuses them so as to give them to his people;"-we have therefore in this place only the names of the happinesses and their opposites,

and nothing about their use' (五福六極 皆天之所為非人之所設 也,其歛時敷錫之道具在 皇極章中,故此但列其目 而不言其用).

,

'disastrous short breaking. The meaning is -the life coming to an untimely and disastrous close.and are the opposite of

close. 疾 and 憂

.惡-Gan-kwǒ explained this by 醜

39.-longevity;' without specifying ugliness,' and the last extremity

any number of years. Gan-kwo says it means 120 years; but this is absurd. A man dying over 50 is spoken of by the Chinese as not having a short life. 60 and upwards is reckoned longevity. Ts'ae says that with long life all the other happinesses can be enjoyed, and therefore it occupies the first place among them. riches;' probably meaning a competency

by

feebleness;'—perhaps in both

cases with some reference to the mind as well

as the body. H means probably boldness in what is evil, and, weakness in what is good. The viscount of Ke was not so successful in enumerating the 'extremities,' as with the 'happinesses.'

I append here a scheme of the whole Plan, modified from that which is given among the cuts in Yung-ching's Shoo :