assist (the government), and their sovereign became entirely intelligent." Every year, in the first month of spring, the herald, with his wooden-tongued bell, goes along the roads, (proclaiming), "Ye officers able to instruct, be prepared with your admonitions. Ye workmen engaged in mechanical affairs, remonstrate on the subjects of your employments. If any of you do not attend with respect (to this requirement), the country has regular punishments for you."

'Now here are the Hsi and Ho. They have allowed their virtue to be subverted, and are besotted by drink. They have violated the duties of their office, and left their posts. They have been the first to let the regulating of the heavenly (bodies) get into disorder, putting far from them their proper business. On the first day of the last month of autumn, the sun and moon did not meet harmoniously in Fang. The blind musicians beat their drums; the inferior officers galloped, and the common people (employed about the public offices) ran about3. The Hsi and the Ho, however, as if they were (mere) personators of the dead in their offices, heard nothing and knew nothing;-so stupidly went they astray (from their duties) in the matter of the heavenly appearances, and rendered themselves liable to the death appointed by the former kings. The statutes of government say, "When they anticipate the time, let them be put to death without mercy; when (their

1 A similar practice existed in the Kâu dynasty.

2 See the Introduction, p. 13.

3 Similar observances are still practised on occasion of an eclipse of the sun. See Biot's Etudes sur l'Astronomie Indienne et Chinoise, pp. 357-360.

reckoning) is behind the time, let them be put to death without mercy."

'Now I, with you all, am entrusted with the execution of the punishment appointed by Heaven.* Unite your strength, all of you warriors, for the royal House. Give me your help, I pray you, reverently to carry out the dread charge of the Son of Heaven.

'When the fire blazes over the ridge of Khwăn1, gems and stones are burned together; but if a minister of Heaven exceed in doing his duty, the consequences will be fiercer than blazing fire. While I destroy, (therefore), the chief criminals, I will not punish those who have been forced to follow them; and those who have long been stained by their filthy manners will be allowed to renovate themselves.

'Oh! when sternness overcomes compassion, things are surely conducted to a successful issue. When compassion overcomes sternness, no merit can be achieved. All ye, my warriors, exert yourselves, and take warning, (and obey my orders)!'

1 Khwǎn is perhaps a part of the Khwăn-lun mountain in the west of the Ko-ko-nor, where the Ho has its sources. The speaker evidently thought of it as volcanic.

PART IV. THE BOOKS OF SHANG.

BOOK I. THE SPEECH OF THANG.

SHANG was the name under which the dynasty that superseded Hsiâ (B. c. 1766) held the kingdom for fully 300 years. Yin then began to be used as well as Shang, and the dynasty was called indifferently Shang or Yin, and sometimes Yin-Shang by a combination of the two names. The ruling House traced its origin into the remote times of antiquity, through Hsieh, whose appointment by Shun to be Minister of Instruction is related in the Canon of Shun. For his services Hsieh was invested with the principality of Shang, corresponding to the present small department of the same name in Shen-hsî. From Hsieh to Thang, the founder of the dynasty, there are reckoned fourteen generations, and we find Thang, when he first becomes prominent in history, a long way from the ancestral fief, in the southern Po,' corresponding to the present district of Shang-khiû, department Kwei-teh, Ho-nan. The title of the dynasty, however, was derived from the original Shang.

There were in the Shû, when the collection was formed, thirty-one documents of Shang in forty Books, of which only eleven remain in seventeen Books, two of them containing each three parts or sections. The Speech of Thang, that is now the first Book in the Part, was originally only the sixth. Thang was the designation of the hero, whose surname, dating from Hsieh, was 3ze, and name Lî. Thang may be translated, 'the Glorious One.' His common style in history is as Khăng Thang, Thang the Completer,' or 'Thang the Successful.' He had summoned his people to take the field with him against Kieh, the cruel and doomed sovereign of Hsiâ, and finding them backward to the enterprise, he sets forth in this Book his reasons for attacking the tyrant, argues against their reluctance, using in the end both promises and threats to induce them to obey his orders.

The king said, 'Come, ye multitudes of the people, listen all to my words.

It is not I, the little child', who dare to undertake a rebellious enterprise; but for the many crimes of the sovereign of Hsiâ, Heaven has given the charge to destroy him.*

'Now, ye multitudes, you are saying, "Our prince does not compassionate us, but (is calling us) away from our husbandry to attack and punish Hsiâ." I have indeed heard (these) words of you all; (but) the sovereign of Hsiâ is guilty, and, as I fear God, I dare not but punish him.*

'Now you are saying, "What are the crimes of Hsiâ to us?" The king of Hsiâ in every way exhausts the strength of his people, and exercises oppression in the cities of Hsiâ. His multitudes are become entirely indifferent (to his service), and feel no bond of union (to him). They are saying, When wilt thou, O sun, expire? We will all perish with thee 2." Such is the course of (the sovereign) of Hsiâ, and now I must go (and punish him).

'Assist, I pray you, me, the One man, to carry out the punishment appointed by Heaven. I will greatly reward you. On no account disbelieve me;I will not eat my words. If you do not obey the words which I have thus spoken to you, I will put

The little child' is a designation used humbly of themselves by the kings of Shang and Kâu. It is given also to them and. others by such great ministers as Î Yin and the duke of Kâu.

2

Kieh, it is said, had on one occasion, when told of the danger he was incurring by his cruelties, pointed to the sun, and said that as surely as the sun was in the heavens, so firm was he on the throne.

your children to death with you;-you shall find no forgiveness.'

BOOK II. THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF KUNG-HUI.

THIS Book is the first of the 'Announcements,' which form a large class of the documents in the Shû. They are distinguished from the Speeches, as being made in a general assembly, or published, for the information of all, whereas the Speeches were made to an army.

Kung-hui, of an old family, whose surname was Zăn, with its seat in the territory of Hsieh, corresponding to the present district of Thang, department Yen-kâu, Shan-tung, was a minister of Thang. Thang has been successful against Kieh, and dethroned him, but is haunted by some feeling of remorse, and afraid that what he has done may be appealed to in future ages as an apology for rebellion. This gives occasion to the Announcement, in which Kung-hui vindicates the proceeding of the king, showing, first, that he had only obeyed the guidance of Heaven, and, then, that men consented with Heaven in the matter. He concludes with various counsels addressed to the king.

1. When Thang the Successful was keeping Kieh in banishment in Nan-khâo 1, he had a feeling of shame on account of his conduct, and said, 'I am afraid that in future ages men will fill their mouths with me, (as an apology for their rebellious proceedings.)'

2. On this Kung-hui made the following announcement: 'Oh! Heaven gives birth to the people with (such) desires, that without a ruler they must fall into all disorders; and Heaven again gives birth

1 Nan-khâo is identified with the present district of Khâo, department Lû-kâu, An-hui.