合極在 天永功非之或 不畏報寶雨私 政 在民天中惟以惟辭家 于罔罰惟罰庶府獄于 天有不人非尤辜貨獄 advantage to yourselves by means of those pleas. Gain got by the decision of cases is no precious acquisition; it is an accumulation of guilt, and will be recompensed with many evils:-you should ever stand in awe of the punishment of Heaven. It is not Heaven that does not deal impartially with men, but men ruin themselves. If the punishment of Heaven were not so extreme, the people would have no good government all under heaven." 以刑視刑也I think this is probably | of guilt. 尤=殃 ‘judgments,' ‘miseries.’ the meaning; but the critics are far from being Literally is 'numerous extraordinary agreed in it. Gan-kwǔ, for instance, interprets from 朕言 ‘My words are mostly those of evils.. 惟人在命-from the relation warning. I feel reverently about punishments, of this clause to that which precedes,-非天 and ought to employ none but the virtuous to pre side in their administration.' 今天至在 T-Ts'ae understands this as meaning that 'Heaven would by punishments aid the people, and you, who are in the office of judges, may be said to correspond to it below' (天以刑 相治斯民汝實任責作配 在下). The meaning which I have given requires less of supplement, and equally lays a foundation for the advices that follow. See Wang Kăng-yay, in loc. 單辭 is supposed by Tsae to mean ‘statements unsupported by witnesses'(無證之辭). The words are literally-single pleas.' They seem clearly to be opposed to the which follows, and = tone side of a case, such as that which will| first come before a magistrate. 亂 is to be taken in the sense of 怡,‘to govern,' to order rightly.' 兩辭=兩造者之辭 'the cases of both the parties.' 無或至 惟罰,-this must all be construed as if it 獄貨 is the result of 私家于獄之兩辭 if is defined by 聚, ‘to collect,' 'to accumulate, were one sentence. and 功by 事, ‘deeds.’ 惟府辜 不中, we can easily determine its meaning; but it is not easy to see clearly the force of 在命·We may at once dismiss the view of punishment of Heaven on him.' So says Kăng yay, but he throws no light on 在Woo Ching tries to do this, saying 人之為人 having the fate of his life; in, men bring punish于在有生之命‘man is man in hecto be by their conduct the arbiters of their own fate. After all, the meaning must be taken satisfactorily explained. 天法至末 the simplest way is to take these two clauses as an admonition to the princes and judges, that if they do not do what they can to insure good govt. for the people, Heaven's punishments ment on themselves, because it is their preroga a good deal on trust; the language cannot be will surely overtake them. Gan-kwǒ, Këang Shing and others, take 極 as中,‘the per 功: 'but it is forming a treasury of decds | fect mean, and highest excellence, referring to 22 兹王咸辭惟聽民何呼下。 祥嘉中屬刑之之監嗣 刑師有于無哉 孫王 監慶五疆哲尙德今 往嗚 VII. The king said, " Oh! ye who shall hereafter inherit the digmities and offices of the present time, to whom are ye to go for your models ? Must it not be to those who maintained and promoted the virtue belonging to the unbiassed nature of the people. I pray you give attention to my words. The wise men of antiquity by their use of punishments have obtained boundless fame. Everything relating to the five punishments exactly hit with them the due mean, and hence came their excellence. Receiving from your sovereigns the good multitudes, behold in the case of those men punishments made felicitous." 皇極 in (The Great Plan, but I cannot construe the last clause on that view. Ch. VII. P. 22. CONCLUSION;-THE KING WISHES TO IMPRESS HIS LESSONS ON THE JUDGES natural to understand 嗣孫 of the descend ants of those whom the king was addressing. Indeed I do not see how the or the 4 往 can be taken in any other way. 非 德于民之中,it is difficult to tell explains the whole:一明哲之人用 刑而有無窮之譽蓋由五 刑咸得其中,所以有慶也 He takes 極 as simply =刑 ‘punishments,' but it must denote more than that,' punishments rightly inflicted and duly apportioned’(五刑之施皆中 正之極也) The editors of Yung exactly what Gan-kwǒ understood by this. He Ching's Shoo, without condemning Ts'ae's view, 3: 非當立德於民為之 eays: direct attention to a construction proposed by 中正乎. He then connects 尙明聽 Seu Këaou (徐僑) and some other 之哉 with this. If you do so, you will perhaps listen to my words.' Keang Shing connects the clauses similarly, but takes the in the 聽 sense of 聽獄 'to listen to crimi | critics, who understand 無疆之辭 of (the numberless pleas, false and true, that might be advanced on any question before the judges.' The wise men spoken of could carry the light of principle and a clear understanding into all this confusion, and referring every point to the laws, bring out an issue exactly 明聽之 is spoken by the king without accordant with right. 徐僑日情辭雖 any syntactical relation to what precedes. 難窮惟智哲則有見以 Moreover, after 除 we expect that individuals 人而用刑雖情辭之來紛 will be spoken of as models to those who are addressed. I therefore take 非德于民 然無有疆界而以理燭之 , with Ts'ae, as === 非用刑成 以辭係法各協其極自然 有慶矣 嘉師‘the good multi 德而能全民所受之中者 有慶矣 tudes.' This is a designation for the people, as 哲人至有慶 –acc. to the | naturally possessing the unbiassed nature' translation,哲人 are those referred to as which is denominated民之中 above. CONCLUDING NOTE. The student, after this careful examination of 'Leu on Punishments,' will not wonder that many of the Chinese critics themselves should have been puzzled to account for its finding a place among the documents of the Shoo. They ask, 'Did Confucius mean that it should meet with approval or disapproval?' Ts'ae thinks he admitted it into his compilation by way of warning, and because in the kindly feeling of compassion for the people that breathes in it, it shows that the generous spirit of former times was not yet extinct. It is of no use speculating in this way. I suppose Confucius admitted the Book, because it was the best of the times that he could find. It is a pity that he did not accompany it with some exposition of his own views on the historical allusions in it, and on Muh's scheme for the redemption of punishments. Wang Pih's' Doubts ' about this Book are: 刑大辟之刑如可贖 -呂形訓刑始於帝舜 千鍰之貲者無所往 約而義備此所以為至治 可殺 天下烏得而不亂 之世也訓刑終於穆王目 後 世三章之約可謂極 而罰輕此所以為衰亂 世也只流宥五刑 敘事者述此一凡 之 而未嘗 之云 簡矣而殺人者必死 而必死非特為死者 1.為生者戒也,為死者執 為一人立也為生 法為天下立也忍於一人 忍者小不忍於天下 所以為好生也聖人不忍 而人之心豈有一毫好殺之 意刑至於不可不殺者是 乃所以為仁之至義之 刑之書首以為 與流各自有正麗之罪, 自有從之法 寬之也寬之者亦次第 輕之爾以大辟 者後世之刑也蓋 者所以有 宥宮也劓刑所以宥 有 也墨刑所以 也而流 乏中亦自有之義 宥殛也放者 也流 宥放也 辟之刑決 也 不識聖人 宥之矣舜 言治目亂句詳後刑又者而從宮所荆流者者直未之不可於康又刑君辟之之 流不刑罪嘗不期贖命罰及命日刑朴 無赦之言成 成王 陳旣日三細不 宥叉 以止辟乃辟未聞五 俱贖也贖刑者贖鞭扑 刑 創於有則是聖人之制 呂刑者律書也法吏之辭 人制刑之 本意 其審克之語凡四哀矜惻 獄之姦尙可以為後世聽 宜之術以斂民財斯言 足以得穆王之本情者與 THE BOOKS OF CHOW. BOOK XXVIII. THE CHARGE TO PRINCE WAN. 不辟正命下昭顯王 先謀昭亦帝敷慎義 文侯之命 1 The king spoke to the following effect :-" Uncle E-ho, how illustrious were Wan and Woo! Carefully did they illustrate their virtue, till it rose brightly on high, and the fame of it was widely diffused here below. Therefore did God cause his favouring decree to light upon king Wăn. Thereafter there were ministers who aided and illustriously served their sovereigns, following and carrying out their plans and counsels great and small, so that my fathers sat tranquilly upon the throne. country, or even intend that it should afford materials for such a history. His design, we may rather judge, was to bring together such pieces as might show the wonderful virtue and intelligence of ancient sovereigns and statesmen, who should be models to those of future ages. But in all the space of time of which I am writing, there was neither sovereign nor statesman to whom it could give him pleasure to refer. Indeed, king Woo, the first of the sovereigns of Chow, had no successor equal to him. self. But for his brother, the duke of Chow, the dynasty would have come to an early end. There was a constant degeneracy after king K'ang. Its progress was now and then temporarily, 614 Wei(湃渭之間). and was finally invest but feebly, arrested. Power and influence passed his studs in the plains near the rivers K'ëen and with a steady progress from the imperial court to one feudatory and another, till in the time of Confucius himself the successors of Woo were hardly more than 'shadows of an empty name.' According to my plan I introduce here the names of the sovereigns between Muh and Ping, and a few particulars of their reigns. [i.] E-hoo(), the son of Muh, and known as king Kung (#), or 'The Reverent'(諡法旣過能改日共 succeeded to the throne B.C. 945, and reigned for 12 years, acc. to the common chronology. The only incident of his reign of which we find mention is given by Sze-ma Ts'een from the 語周語上, and is to the effect that the king was on one occasion rambling near the river King, in the pres. dep. of Ping-leang (), Kan-suh, attended by the duke Kang of Meil (A), a small principality in that part of the country, when three young ladies introduced themselves into their company. Duke K'ang's mother advised him to leave them to the emperor, but he appropriated them to himself. Within a year the king made an end of him and his principality, indignant, we are to suppose, at the duke's conduct in the matter of the three ladies. I do not know that this story, as I have given it, is entitled to much faith. None is due to the romantic account of it, which is found in the history of P. de Mailla. [ii.] King Kung was succeeded, B.C. 933, by his son Këen(黄喜), known as king E (懿王 ) or The Mild' Mild(諡法溫柔賢善 B), who reigned 25 years. All that Ts'een says of him is that in his time the royal House went on to decay, and poets made him an object of their satire.' He removed the capital to Hwae-le), a place in the pres. dis, of Hing-p‘ing (T), dep. of Segan. This seems, however, to have been merely a temporary measure. The 'Bamboo Books' speak of several irruptions of barbarous tribes in this reign. [iii.] A brother of king E, by name Peihfang), succeeded him, and is known as king Heaou (E), or 'The Filial' ed with a small territory of which the chief city was Ts'in, still the name of an inferior department of Kan-suh. The king appointed him there to continue the sacrifices to Yih, as the head of the Ying clan or family ( , which thenceforth begins to make a great figure in the empire. [iv.] On the death of king Heaou, the princes raised a son of his brother and predecesto the throne, sor, of the name of See which he occupied for 16 years, till B.C. 878. He is known as king E (E), or 'The Peaceable' (諡法安心好靜日夷). He proved a weak sovereign, and was in bondage to the princes to whom he owed the empire. It is objected to him that, when he gave audience to them, he descended from the dais to meet them, as if he were their equal merely. The chief of the State of Tsoo extended the possessions of his House during this reign, and assumed the right of investing his sons with his conquests without reference to the court. He arrogated to himself, moreover, the title of king. The imperial authority was evidently but little cared for. [v.] King E was succeeded by his son Hoo ), known as king Le (E), or "The Cruel' A long reign of 51 years is assigned to him, but during the last thirteen years he was a fugitive, and the govt. was administered by two of the nobles. In B.C. 841, the people rose in rebellion, their patience exhausted by the various oppres sions, engendered by the avarice, suspicions, and cruelty of the sovereign. The king made his escape, and fled to Che (F), in the pres. sub. dep. of Hoh (), dep. of P‘ing-yang, Shanse, where he found a refuge. Disappointed by the escape of the tyrant, the people sought to wreak their fury on his eldest son, by name Tsing (), quite a youth, who had hidden himself in the house of the duke of Shaou, a descendant of Shih so famous in the early reigns of the dynasty. The loyalty of the ancestor had descended to the present Head of the family. As a minister, he had remonstrated, though in he now vain, with king Le, on his evil courses sacrificed his own son to save the heir to the crown. The people surrounded the house, and insisted on Tsing being delivered to them that ****=). Ts'een says they might satiate their fury by tearing him in nothing more of him than that he came to the throne and died. His reign, however, lasted from B.C 908 to 894. During this period, the chiefs of the House destined to supersede that of Chow begin to make their appearance on the stage of affairs. They traced their lineage np to the baron Yih ;; often called ), the Forester of Shun. One of them, named Fei-tsze(), had made himself famous at this time by his skill in rearing horses, and pieces. The duke gave his own son, of the same age as the prince, into their hands, and on him they worked their pleasure. Subsequently, the dukes of Shaou and Chow carried on the govt. for the prince until Le's death, which took place in Che in B.C. 827. [vi.] Prince Tsing commenced a long reign of 46 years in B.C. 826. He is known as king Seuen (宣王) or (The Distinguished’(諡 ‡ЯH). He had learned was taken into the king's service to superintend wisdom in the school of adversity, and from the |