奪義寇民及作尤有曰方。 攘姦賊罔于亂 訓若◎ 矯宄鴟不平延始量古王 2 II. The king said, "According to the teachings of ancient times, Ch'e-yew was the first to produce disorder, which spread among the common people, till all became robbers and murderers, owllike in their conduct, traitors and villains, snatching and filching, dissemblers and oppressors. Ch. II. Pp. 2-11. THE FIRST PART OF THE KING'S ADDRESS ;-INTRODUCTORY. THe first RISE OF DISORDER IN THE EMPIRE; THE CASE OF THE PEOPLE OF MEAOU; HOW SHUN dealt WITH THEM; AND HOW HE WENT ON TO LABOUR BY HIS MINISTERS FOR THE PEOPLE, ENDING WITH THE SUBJECT OF PUNISHMENTS. 2. Ch'eyew, the first author of disorder in the empire. 若古有訓-this clause is equivalent to the 日若稽古 with which the Canons considered a historical personage. The two characters of the name may be translated-The Stupid and Extraordinary.' According to Szema Ts'een, when the power of the descendants of Shin-nung, the second of the five Tes, with whom he commences his history, was declining, great confusion prevailed, and the princes all turned their arms against one another. Then the star of Hwang-te began to rise, and the well inclined gathered around him as their leader. Of all the princes Ch'e-yew was the most violent and oppressive. He attempted to seize the imperial power, when Hwang-te took the field against him, and put him to death after three engagements, and himself superseded the House of Shin-nung. Many fables about dragons, there are the lessons.' Gaubil translates-mists, and the invention of the compass, have 'Selon les anciens documents.' But that is more than the text says. He adds in a note,-"These ancient documents are without doubt some books of history which subsisted in the time of king Muh.' Possibly so; but then we know nothing about them, their author, or their authority. There has been no allusion hitherto of Yaou and Shun commence. may be taken with Woo Ch'ing, as 'an introductory in the Shoo, if we except the words of Shun in the Yih and Tseih,' p. 4, to anything anterior to the time of Yaou; and here all at once king Muh carries us, as will be seen, three centuries farther back, even to before the year 1 of the calendared history of the empire. L'first produced disorder.' indicates that the 'disorder' was 'rebellion,' resistance to the Powers that were of the time. 平 been mixed up by subsequent writers with the struggle between Hwang-te and Ch'e-yew. One tradition, indeed, makes Ch'e-yew later than Hwang-te. Gan-kwo says he was 'the ruler of Kew-le'); and in the T, we read that 'Kewle became disorderly and vicious during the decay of Shaou-haou' (及少皞氏之 衰也九黎亂德). Now Shaou 骂 hou was the son of Hwang-te. It is true that in the time of Shaou-haou. The authority of Confucius again is pleaded for making Che-yew a common man, and the greediest of all men (蚩尤庶人之 ). See Wang Ming-shing, in loc. See also the 16th chapter of Premare's preliminary discourse, prefixed to Gaubil's Shoo-king, where he has given all the information that Lo Peih ( has collected about Ch'eyew in his 路史 I pass on from this par. to the next with two remarks.-First, It is not clear for what purpose king Muh commences his discourse of punishments with this mention of Ch'e-yew, 罔麗極無曰五以弗虔。 差刑為辜法虐刑用◎ 有并越劓殺之惟靈苗 辭制取始戮刑作制民 3 "Among the people of Meaou, they did not use the power of good, but the restraint of punishments. They made the five punishments engines of oppression, calling them the laws. They slaughtered the innocent, and were the first also to go to excess in cutting off the nose, cutting off the ears, castration, and branding. All who became liable to those punishments were dealt with without distinction, no difference being made in favour of Perhaps he meant to indicate, as the Daily |堯典又誅之). This pedigree of the Explanation' says, that it was this rebel who first gave occasion for the use of punishment at all. (言古人制刑之由 Second, It is plain that at the commencement of human history Chinese tradition placed a period of innocence, a season when order and virtue ruled in men's affairs. regard it as a fancy of the learned scholar. chiefs of the Meaou is ingenious, but I can only Equally fanciful is his explanation of the char acter as applied to the ruler of the Meaou, that it is indicative of contempt, and stigmatises him as no better than one of the common herd. Gan-kwo, who is followed by Woo Ch'ing, for Pp. 3,4. The wickedness of the people of 苗民 gives 三苗之君, ‘the ruler of Meaou; and the excessive use of punishments among them. The king appears to pass over a period of three or four hundred years; and from the time of Ch'e-yew, anterior, acc. to the prevailing accounts, to the invention of the cycle by Hwang-te, he comes down to the time of Shun. So, it will be seen, we must understand these and the following paragraphs. 苗民-Ido not see how we can take these characters otherwise than in the translation. K'ang-shing says that they mean ‘the ruler of Kew-le. The prince so denominated,' he says, 'giving trouble in the days of Shaou-haou, was dealt with by Chien-henh (顓頊),一afterwards the successor to the throne, who put Kew-le to death, and removed a portion of his family to the outskirts of the empire on the west. There they reappeared as the chiefs of San-mëaou, and in the reign of his or the em successor Kaou-sin(高辛氏 peror Kuh (帝嚳), B.c. 2,431, displayed their hereditary wickedness, when it devolved finally on Yaou to take them in hand. (苗民謂 九黎之君也九黎之君于 少昊氏衰而棄善道上效 蚩尤重刑必變九黎言苗 民者有苗九黎之後顓頊 代少昊誅九黎分流 孫居于西裔者為三苗至 高辛之衰又復九 San-meaou.' As I said above, I do not see how meaning of this seems to be was good to transform the people, but restrain ed them by heavy punishments.' 惟作 五虐之刑-we cannot be surprised that some of the critics should argue from this that the invention of the five punishments' is here attributed to the chiefs of the Meaou. But the conclusion is not warranted by the language, nor by history. (The five punishments -cuting off the nose, and the ear, castration, branding, and death-are all recognised by Shun (Can. of Shun, p. 11). They used those same punish ments in Meaou, but excessively and more barbarously. The use of 虐 and 淫 sufficient- 無辜,this · ; or, as Woo was the way in which they abused the heaviest punishment, that of death. 矜腥德民,于戮詛中 ○ 刑罔上方盟 劉皇發有上告虐 之帝聞馨帝無威 泯 ○ 四節 中于信以 泯泯棼棼罔 ◎民興胥漸 不哀惟香監 庶覆罔 4 those who could offer some excuse. The mass of the people were gradually affected by this state of things, and became dark and disorderly. Their hearts were no more set on good faith, but they violated their oaths and covenants. The multitudes who suffered from the oppressive terrors, and were in danger of being murdered, declared their innocence to Heaven. God surveyed the people, and there was no fragrance of virtue arising from them, but the rank odour of their cruel punishments. 5 "The great emperor compassionated the innocent multitudes who were in danger of being murdered, and made the oppressors feel the 啄-去陰之刑‘castration’被虐威而陷于刑戮之衆 有云云,Comp. Bk. X., p. The char. was originally written 歜越 兹云云-this was the way in which 11. On the meaning of 馨 see XXI., p. 3. they abused the four punishments just men- 刑發聞 惟腥‘what the puntioned. K'ang-shing takes here--ishments sent forth to be smelt was only a rank 于此施刑并制; but I prefer to odour' Tsee says:一而刑戮發聞, retain the meaning of MJ, as in the transla- 莫非腥穢 tion. 民典胥漸 -on the extent of民 here, see on the next par. 漸 (read tsãen, 1st tone)=漸染 'were soaked and dyed' The 胥=相, shows how the in The, [For the first part of par. 3, we find in Mih's 尙同中-呂刑之道曰,苗 民否用練折則刑惟作五 殺之刑日法 The critics say that fluence was communicated from one to another. and靈弗 and 否折 and 制 萃 were all sounded like each other. Even if we should 泯泯昏 棼禁(Shing edits 粉| admit this, how do we have 則 for 以, and 粉)=亂・罔中于信中 is here 心‘the heart;’the centre of the man. 殺 for虐? The same pass. appears in the Le Ke, Bk. Chin King says:一罔中于信 6:一中于信無中 緇衣 p.3, in a form which is somewhat 心出於誠信者信不由中 different still:-中| different still:-甫刑曰苗民匪用 也 以覆詛盟-覆 to turn 命制以刑惟作五虐之刑 upside down,' governs 詛 and 盟. I hardly 日法 know how to construe Ts'ae's 相與反覆 詛盟而已. Shing quotes, in illustration of the sentiment, from the 左傳隱 三年, these words,一信不由中質 無益也虐威庶戮= 虐威庶戮=其 Pp.5–11. How the Meaouites were dealt with; the evils produced by them remedied; and the system of punishments in the empire put into a tion in connection with this paragraph is as to satisfactory state. 5. The important questhe emperor whom we are to understand by Kang-shing, followed of course by 皇帝 威寡帝鰥在降下。絕辜 惟有清寡下格地○苗報 畏辭問無明群天乃民虐 德于 蓋明后通命無以 明苗 5.民、 秦之重世威 惟德鰥皇常逮有黎在遏 terrors of his majesty. He restrained and finally extinguished the people of Meaou, so that they should not continue to future generations. 6 Then he commissioned Ch'ung and Le to make an end of the communications between earth and heaven, and the descents of spirits ceased. From the princes down to the inferior officers, all helped with clear intelligence the spread of the regular principles of duty, 7 and the solitary and widows were no more disregarded. The great emperor with an unprejudiced mind carried his inquiries low down among the people, and the solitary and widows laid before him. their complaints against the Meaou. He sought to awe the people by his virtue, and all were filled with dread; he proceeded also to Këang Shing and Wang Ming-shing thought | Daily Explanation gives:一竄其君于 heuh who was the subject, after which the 三分比其黨以遏絕有 that in this par. and the next it was Chuen discourse turns to Yaou. Gan-kwǔ, who is foll. 苗之民而不使其繼世在 by Woo Ch'ing, makes the emperor to be Yaou all through. Neither view is admissible. The things spoken of in parr. 8, 9, can only be ascribe ed to Shun. 乃命 at the beginning of p. 8, connects it so closely with p. 7, that we can only understand Shun to be the 皇帝 And as there is no intimation of that being difft. from the person indicated by the same title in par. 5, we must believe that Shun who is the principal subject in all the rest of this chapter is there intended. This is the view of Ts'ae, after Lin Che-k'e. We get from what is said of the Meaou in these parr. a higher idea of them and their prince than is commonly entertained. From king Muh's language I judge that Shun had in 下國以貽百姓之害焉 6. 乃命至降格,this par. seems to interpose a difficulty in the way of the view which I have adopted above, that it is Shun who is to be understood as the emperor' in all this chapter. We read nothing in the Shoo of here spoken of. No Ch'ung and Le were officers his appointing any ministers to do the work of his. Nor do they appear among the ministers of Yaou, though it is attempted to identify Chung with He (羲) and Le with Ho (和). The passage formed the subject of a conversation in the lifetime of Confucius, between king Ch'aou (昭王;B.C.514–488) of Tsoo and one hn a powerful rival, and that the struggle | of his ministers, called Kwan Yih-foo (觀射 which lasted through the reigns of Yaou, Shun, 6 and Yu was of a dynastic nature. The chief of. What is meant,' asked the king, by San-meaou was more than the head of a bar barous horde. He was a dangerous rival for the throne. The ' people ' mentioned in p. 4, were probably the people of the empire generally. 皇帝至不辜一 -we must take here as what is said in one of the Books of Chow about Ch'ung and Le, that they really brought it about that there was no intercourse between heaven and earth? If they had not done so, would people have been able to ascend to ? 庶戮 in the last par. 遏絶, heaven (周書所謂重黎實使 云云,the measures referred to in the Can. 天地不通者何也若無然 of Shun, pp. 12 and 27, are thus described. The 民將能登天乎). The minister replied ficulty with the statement of which I began that that was not the meaning of the language | be inadmissible, we should have the same difat all, and he proceeded to give his own view of it at great length, and to the following effect: -Anciently, the people attended to the discharge of their duties to one another, and left the worship of spiritual beings-seeking intercourse with them, and invoking and effecting their descent on earth-to the officers who were appointed for that purpose. In this way things proceeded with great regularity. The people minded their own affairs, and the spirits minded theirs. Tranquillity and prosperity were the consequence. But in the time of Shaou-haou, through the lawlessness of Kew-le, a change took place. The people intruded into the func tions of the regulators of the spirits and their 羣后之逮在下,-I have translated this and the rest of the par. after Ts'ae. The 'Daily Explanation' gives for it : worship. They left their duties to their fellow-有土之諸侯及在下之百 men, and tried to bring down spirits from above. The spirits themselves, no longer kept in check ,皆精白其 and subjected to rule, made their appearance all irregularly and disastrously. All was con 是道者 fusion and calamity, when Chuen-heuh took theł☀* the case in hand. He appointed Ch'ung, the minister of the South, to the superintendency of heavenly things, to prescribe the rules for the spirits, and Le, the minister of Fire (or of the North), to the superintendency of earthly things, to prescribe the rules for the people. (命南正重司天以屬神命 蒙 brought back to their former regular courses, 歡刑威之 具其 時好惡 輔助常道, 助嘉之助 賞罰 必 福亦未有蔽而不得伸 The meaning is, that through the reforms introduced by Ch'ung and Le, a general reforma- himself a Kew-le redivivus, till Yaou called forth HTE, with which the next par. commences. It will be observed how all this agrees with the view of little less than a dynastic struggle between Shun and the Meaou. the descendants of Chung and Le who had not forgotten the virtue and function of their fathers, and made them take the case in hand again. From the details of this strange passage of which I have given a summary, it would appear that the speaker considered that the Ch'ung and Le of the text were ministers of Yaou,, and edits to the end of p. 8 descended from those of Chuen-heuh; and this on a very unsatisfactory authority, that of Mih alluded to on p. 3. of The Canon of Yaou,' that [Kêang Shing follows 罔有降格 with has given rise to the opinion which I have Teih, in whose Y‡, we read;- 呂 this was the ancestry of the minister He and Ho刑道之日皇帝清問下民 That opinion is without a tittle of satisfac. 有辭有苗日羣后之肆在 who are mentioned there. tory evidence. Acc. to Yih-foo's statements, Ch'ung's function was that of the minister of Religion, and Le's that of the minister of In struction, while He and Ho were simply minis ters of astronomy, and their descendants continue to appear as such in the reign of Ch'ung-k'ang, the grandson of Yu, long after we know that men of other families were appointed to the two important ministries in question. Gaubil's specu inted to the two 維威德明維明乃名 民在德三哲山三 川 嘉穀三 lations about the employment of the astronomer 后成功維假於民] in the time of Yaou, not only to calculate and observe the motions of the heavenly bodies, but also to do away with conjurors, false worship, &c., fall to the ground;-see 'Le Chou-king,' p. 292, n. 1. He says also, that as Chung and Le are the same as He and Ho, if we suppose that Shun is the emperor spoken of here, we must assume that he gave those officers a new commission. But if we were to allow that it is Yaou who is spoken of, which I have shown on the last par. to ZZ-this is understood to be a de ད |