THE BOOKS OF CHOW. BOOK XXI. KEUN-CH'IN. 政弟孝德陳王 ◎東 命 克友孝惟若 : 君 昔:汝施于恭爾曰、陳 周敬尹有兄惟合君 1 I. The king spake to the following effect, "Keun-ch'in, it is you who are possessed of excellent virtue, filial and respectful. Being filial, and friendly with your brethren, you can display those qualities in the exercise of government. I appoint you to rule this eastern frontier. Be reverent! INTRODUCTORY NOTE. Keun-ch'in was the successor, in the eastern capital,' of the duke of Chow, who henceforth passes off the stage of the Shoo, which he has occupied so long. Between the Officers of Chow' and the Keunch'in' there were two Books, which are both lost. The loss of the second we must much deplore, for it contained an account of the death of the duke of Chow, and an announcement made by king Ching at his bier. The duke died in Fung, the capital of his father Wăn, and, dying, signified his wish to be buried at Ching-chow, which he had built and watched over. The place was dear to him; but his wishes in regard to it were always to be dis I do not know the statesman of any nation with whom his countrymen need shrink from comparing him. But this is not the place for writing either his history or his eulogium; I only wish, before passing on with the translation of the Shoo, to consider the claim which has been advanced for him to the invention of the mariner's compass. Gaubil held that he was versed both in astronomy and geometry, and says expressly that the use of the compass was known to him;-see 'Le Chou-king, p. 214, note 4. The common opinion of the Chinese is that not only was the use of the instrument known to him, but that he discovered it. In the chapter on 'Inventions (1), in the appointed. He had sought to make it the capital of the dynasty, but king Ching would, or Inquiries into not leave Haou. He now wished that his dust should rest in its soil, but the king chose rather to have him buried in Peih, the cemetery of their House (in the pres. district of Han-yang, dep. of Se-ngan). The object, according to Sze-ma Ts'een, was to honour him. He says that the king buried him in Peih, near by king Wăn, to show that he did not presume to look on the duke as a minister.' The duke of Chow was undoubtedly one of the greatest men whom China has produced, and ancient things for the use of Learners,' it is said -The duke of Chow made the south-pointing chariot, which has come down to us in the form of the mariner's compass' The circumstances under which he is said to have made this instrument may be given first in the narrative of P. De Mailla, in his 'Histoire Generale de la Chine,' pp. 316-318. When I subjoin the sources of his narrative, the reader | 天之無別風 will see how the history has been compiled, and whether we can put faith in the things related. P. De Mailla says: This same sixth year of his reign, king Ching, after having established his different officers, received the news that the ambassadors of a foreign kingdom, called Yuěwere come to bring him presents and do him homage. This kingdom, situated to the south of the country of Kiao-tchi (交趾) or Cochin-china, had tchang-tchi (越裳氏, never sent anybody to China. The emperor gave orders that the ambassadors should be conducted to the court, and that great honours should everywhere be paid to them. This prince (? the king, or the duke of Chow) received them very well, treated them with distinction, and accepted their presents, among which was a white pheasant,-a species heretofore unknown; after which he made the inquiry be put to them on what business they had come. They replied by interpreters, that the elders of their country said loudly, that for three years they had had neither winds nor tempest, no unseasonable rains nor great waves of the sea, and that there must be some special cause for such favour of Heaven; that apparently the throne of China was occupied by a sage emperor, who had procured for them these benefits. 雨意者 中國有聖人乎有則 往 朝之周公乃薦於宗廟 Im the sixth year of the duke of Chow's regency, he framed the ceremonial and official statutes of the dynasty, and made its music. The whole empire became harmonious and tranquil. At that time, ambassadors came from Yue-chang, with three elephants, and interpreters speaking nine languages, and presented a white pheasant. King Ching put them in the hands of the duke of Chow, who said, "Where the benefits of his virtue have not been experienced, the superior man declines to receive gifts; and a sovereign does not acknowledge as his subjects those to whom he has not issued the orders of his govt.; -on what ground is it that this offering comes to us?" The ambassadors begged to say, “ We come by the command of the elders of our kingdom. They said, For a long time there have been no unusual winds nor unseasonable rains in the sky. Is it not likely that there is a sagely man in the middle kingdom? Why should you not go and pay homage at his court ?" On this the duke of Chow presented them in the ancestral temple.' It will be observed that in this account no mention is made of the ' south-pointing chariots.’ We come to Han Ying, not much later than In his Introduction to the She 'After that, the duke conducted them to the ancestral temple of the reigning family, where | Fuh-shang. he caused to be displayed on the one side the pre- King'(韓詩外傳), composed about the sents which they had brought, and on the other those which king Ching was sending to their prince. Among these were five chariots of a new invention. They accommodated the travellers, and indicated at the same tine the route which they kept, by means of a small box, made in the form of a pavilion or dome, suspended from the roof, in which was a hand that always pointed to the south, to whatever side the chariots might turn. It was on this account that they were called Tchi-nan-tshe (指南車), or chariot of the south. This machine was very useful to the envoys of Yue-tchang-tchi, for when they were arrived at the kingdom of Founan-lin, on the borders of the sea, they took to some barques, and by means of this compass they needed only one year to return to their own kingdom.’ Now, the Shoo does not contain, and never contained, any account of this embassy from Cochin-china, and I have searched in vain for any mention of it in Sze-ma Ts'een. The earliest mention of it is in Fuh-shang's Introduction middle of the second century B.C., we have 深恐使 久矣 唔受 雨也海不波溢也三 Howering head, which was almost large enough to the Shoo’(尙書大傳). His account is the following:一周公居攝六年 制禮作樂天下和平越裳 以三象重九譯而獻白雉 成王以歸周公公日,德澤 不加 君子不饗其 ·不饗其質,政 令不 拖焉,則君不臣 君不臣其人, 賜也其使請日, betoken that the empire is now at length be吾受命吾國之黃者日 國之黃日久 the ruler of Yue-chang sent an embassy with time of king Ching, three stalks of grain grew through a mulberry tree and came out in one to fill a cart, and long enough to fill the box of it. The king said to the duke of Chow, “ What is this thing ?" The duke replied, "Three stalks growing into one head probably coming one." Sure enough, three years after, It is attributed to him under different circumstances in a fragment of the Works of interpreters speaking nine different languages, which presented a white pheasant to the duke of Chow. The interpreters were necessary, because the distance was very great, with dark, "The hero of Demon valley,' a Taouist charand deep mountains and rivers, so that the ambassadors might not be understood. The duke of Chow asked to what they were indebted for the offerings, when the interpreters said, "We received the command from the grey-haired men of our kingdom, who said, 'For long, even for three years, we have had neither violent winds nor disastrous rains, nor storms on the sea. We may believe that there is a sage in the middle kingdom;-why not go and present yourselves at his court?' This is the reason we are come."" latan, somewhat later than Mencius, towards the end of the Chow dynasty. What he says, is that the prince of Suh-shin presented a white pheasant to king Wăn. There being a fear lest duke of Chow made the south-pointing chariot he should lose his way on his return home, the to conduct him safely (肅慎氏獻白 A 因作指南車以送之;-see the I do not find this account in the Introduction 太平御覽卷第七百七十 of Han Ying, as it is now generally edited;, art. I.). Now, the Book of the Shoo which but it is quoted continually in illustration of immediately followed the Officers of Chow' the embassy from Yue-chang;-see the , on the 'Life of the duke of Chow.' There seems to be no reason to doubt its having come from Han Ying; but it will be seen that neither does he make any mention of the 'south-pointing chariots.' The earliest authority that I have found for connecting the duke of Chow and the embassy from Cochin china with these chariots is the 中華古今注 a Work of the Tsin 6 dynasty, the writer of which, after giving his opinion that the invention was due to Hwangte, about 1,500 years anterior to the Chow dynasty! adds that Hang Keen of the After Han,' attributed it to the duke of Chow. We read:-The duke having produced by his govt. a state of great tranquillity, the people of Yuechang came with interpreters speaking different languages, and presented one white pheasant, two black pheasants, and the tusk of an elephant. was about the chief of Suh-shin; but the presumption from the prefatory notice is that it did not contain anything about the duke of Chow. It related, moreover, to a visit from that chief to king Ching, and not to king Wăn. Allusion has been made to the account which carries back the making of the southpointing chariot to Hwang-te, more than 2,600 years before Christ. This is given by Sze-ma Ts'een.-Hwang-te was operating to put down a rebellious chief, called Ch'e-yew, who frustrated his measures for a time by enveloping the armies in clouds of mist, so that the emperor's men could not tell their position. Against this magical contrivance, Hwang-te made the chariots in question, and succeeded in taking the rebel alive. Later narrators ascribe the chariots to Hwang-te's empress; and there have been those who, forgetting the claims both of Hwang-te and the duke of Chow, have ascribed them to Kwan Chung, the chief counsellor of the duke Hwan of Ts'e, in the 7th cent. B.C.;-see the The ambassadors being astray as to their road 事物原卷第二 back, the duke gave them two pieces of orna- My readers will probably be disposed with me to set down the embassy from Yuč-chang as a mere legend, and the claim of the duke of Chow to be the inventor of the 'south pointing chariot' as nothing better. VOL. III. The general opinion among the Chinese, therefore, that the duke of Chow made the southpointing chariot,' cannot be received as resting on a historical foundation. The south-pointing chariot' altogether may be called in question. The accounts of its construction as being drawn by four horses, with the wooden figure of a genius on the roof, are all (木仙人) fabulous;-see the . c. It would be hard to say that the mariner's compass was the child of this chariot. The truth, I imagine, is this, that the Chinese got some knowledge of the compass-found it out them selves, or learned it from India-not long before the Christian era, and that then the fables about ancient times were invented. the making of south-pointing chariots in more The Name of the Book.-, Keun ch'in. Ts'ae says that this was the name of the minister; and as the Book contains the charge given to him, it is called after him. Others would translate the characters-- Prince Ch'in,' as we translate the title of Bk. XVI., by 'Prince Shih.' Thus Hea Seen says:- He must have been invested with some principality as its ruler, on which account he is called # 68 2 II. "Formerly, the duke of Chow acted as teacher and guardian of the myriads of the people, who cherish the remembrance of his virtue. Go you, and with sedulous care undertake his charge; act in accordance with his regular ways, and exert yourself to illus duties of an administrator, while it is true that a bad son and a bad brother cannot be trusted Prince' with which this Keun-ch'in had anything to do, it is better to abide by the view of Ts'ae, in which he followed Gan-kwŏ. K'ang-shing supposed that Keun-ch'in was a son of the duke of Chow, a younger brother of Pih-k'in, but the evidence seems conclusive that this was not the case. The charge could hardly have been delivered without containing some reference to such a relation between Keun-ch'in and his predecessor. See in Lin Che-k'e, on the point. The Book is found only in the text of Gan-kwŏ. CONTENTS. I take the summary of these which is given in the 'Complete Digest of Commentaries on the Shoo.'-'The whole Book may be divided into three parts. The first, which is also the first par., contains the words of Keunch'in's appointment to the charge of the eastern capital. The concluding words, -"Be reverent," are specially emphatic, and give the key-note to all that follows. The second part contains parr. 2-6, and enjoins on Keun-ch'in to exert himself to illustrate the lessons of the duke of Chow, and thereby transform the people of Yin. The third part, parr. 7-14, further enjoins on him to give full development to those lessons, and adduces various particulars in which his doing so would appear, all illustrative of the command at the commencement, that he should be reverent.' Ch. I. P. 1. THE CHARGE TO KEUN-CH'IN ; AND THE GROUND OF IT IN HIS PERSONAL EX CELLENCE. The doctrine of king Ching, however, is that of all Chinese authorities, ancient and modern ;compare 'The Great Learning,' Comm., ch. ix. [This portion of the Keun-ch'in is quoted by Confucius, Ana. II., xxi.; but not to the letter. It would be absurd, however, to conclude from that that the text here is not genuine.] 東郊 By the eastern border or frontier,' we are evidently to understand Ching-chow, 'the lower capital,' to which the people of Yin had been removed. Gaubil is quite wrong, when he would understand by here the sacrifice offered to Heaven, or the place of it. Ch'in Sze-k'ae gives the following statements: -The imperial city formed a square of nine le. Outside the city was called the off was called the "near 郊 Fifty le or frontier," and a hundred le off was called the "remote frontier." Ching-chow would be in the "near frontier.” Ch. II. Pp. 2-6. KEUN-CH'IN MUST FOLLOW THE EXAMPLE AND LESSONS OF THE DUKE OF HIS OWN JUDGMENT; EVER ASCRIBING HIS MERIT AND SUCCESS TO THE EMPEROR. 2. Biti 惟爾至有政the 保萬民-tutored and preserved the my 'filial piety and respectfulness' () are the attributes which compose the 'excellent virtue' attributed to Keun-ch'in. Gan-kwŏ interprets wrongly of 'self-respect' ( . It is expanded, however, in riads of the people.' The myriads of the people were those of Yin who had been removed to Lŏ. -This is a very clear instance of the way in which such high-sounding phrases as 萬民 are employed. 往慎乃司,−from the the next clause into 友于兄弟 and is 厥常 which follows, we must interpret 5 thus made to embrace both the respectfulness of the younger brother and the kindness of the elder. 克有政- can be displayed in the possession (or by the possessor) of govt.' This sequel does not commend itself so readily to a foreigner as it does to the Chinese. A man, it seems to us, may be a good son and a good brother, and yet be but poorly fitted for the = of the duke of Chow,‡ƒZ that which he was charged with.' Med 民其聖聖訓尙非香 五節 厥風聖旣未無之馨 政下爾見見敢猷爾稷馨 3 trate his lessons:-so shall the people be regulated. I have heard that he said, 'Perfect government is like piercing fragrance, and influences the spiritual Intelligences. It is not the millet which has the piercing fragrance; it is bright virtue.' Do you make this lesson of the duke of Chow your motto, being diligent from day to day, and not presuming to indulge in luxurious ease. 4 Ordinary men, while they have not seen a sage, are full of desire, as if they could not get a sight of him; but after they have seen him, they are still unable to follow him. Be cautioned by this. You are the wind; the inferior people are the grass. 其治矣 3. 我聞日至惟 | from The Keun-chin’in the Le Ke, Bk. 緇衣,par.15. It might be thus with the —that the king is here quoting words which he had heard, directly or indirectly, from the, the common people;' but the king duke of Chow, appears clear from the sacrifice, represent all the articles of sacrifice, 黍稷非馨明德惟馨 are found quoted from the Books of Chow, in the 左 傳僖五年. The general sentiment is the same as that which we find so often in the tells Keun-ch'in it ought not to be so with him. He must set an example to the multitude of obedience to the sage's lessons, remembering that they would take their cue from him. the 爾惟風下民惟草-comp. Ana. XII., xix, 君子之德風小人 之德草草上之風必偃 The student will not be sorry to have the following illustration of the comparison by Soo Tung-po: -天地之化育有可以指而 言者有不可求而得者日 皆知其所以爲暖雨皆知 prophets of Holy Scripture,the worthlessness 其所以為潤雷電皆 of sacrifice without an earnest moral purpose 所以爲震雪霜皆知 in the offerer. 爾尙式(一法)時 (一)周公之猷訓-爾尙取 此周公發明夫道理之訓 以為殺至於風,悠然 而大法之 So says the Daily Explana- 出去不知其所 tion, taking 猷 as an adj, qualifying 訓地之化育有 This may be done, but it is not necessary. 者蓋風之於物鼓 4. 凡人至由聖—this is quoted as 者皆知其布所日而 日知其所於自天得淳化 |