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25

○○同鄉下謀
從逆

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卿庶

士民從

汝蓄 庶汝身士筮。 從 ○卿 則

逆從汝逆

汝噬庶卿

龜疆民

汝 士有

◎ 從逆 子從從及疑 汝縱 卿筮 孫是龜庶謀 則從民士從 其之從人,及 從汝 汝逆從癎 謂筮謀乃 龜則吉龜士吉大從及心

"If you have doubts about any great matter, consult with your own heart; consult with your nobles and officers; consult with the 26 masses of the people; consult the tortoise and milfoil. If you, the tortoise, the milfoil, the nobles and officers, and the common people all consent to a course, this is what is called a great concord, and the result will be the welfare of your person, and good fortune to 27 your descendants. If you, the tortoise, and the milfoil all agree, while the nobles and common people oppose, the result will be 28 fortunate. If the nobles and officers, the tortoise, and the milfoil all agree, while you oppose and the common people oppose, the 29 result will be fortunate. If the common people, the tortoise and the milfoil all agree, while you and the nobles and officers oppose, 30 the result will be fortunate. If you and the tortoise agree, while Pp.25–31. Rules for the application of the | the Pwan-kăng complains that the opinions of results of divination, and the varying conclusions of the people were kept from him. Compare also, men, to the solution of doubts. 25. Pp. 2 and 3 in 'The punitive Expedition of Yin. Choo He observes that the opinions of men is not ‘great doubts,' but (doubts on a great were first taken into consideration, but as they are liable to be affected by ignorance, and selfish considerations, the views of the spirits, above

matter’The‘Daily Explanation' says,一國 家大事有行止可疑而未 such disturbing influences, and intimated by 決者云云. It is not to be supposed that

It is not to be supposed that the emperor would on every little matter or private occasion consult both men and spirits in the way proposed. We must keep in mind that the Great Plan' is a scheme of government. There are five parties whose opinions were to be weighed:first, the emperor himself; next, his high nobles and officers generally

(卿士); third, the common people; fourth,

the tortoise; and fifth, the stalks of the she. The student will remember how the emperor in

VOL. III.

in the final determination.
the divinations, were to have the greater weight
26. The cuse

of a great concord, all the five parties agreeing.
27. The emperor, the tortoise-shell, and the
milfoil, all agreeing, carry it over the nobles and
28. The nobles and
officers, and the people.
officers, with the tortoise and milfoil, carry it over
the sovereign and people. 29. The people, with
the tortoise and milfoil, carry it over the sovereign,
and the nobles aud officers. 30. When the
sovereign and the tortoise were opposed to all the
other parties. In this case, not only are the

43

凶。吉人共○作作

作作庶卿從

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○用用違龜外內民士筮

入作靜于筮凶吉

筮凶吉

the milfoil, the nobles and officers, and the common people oppose, internal operations will be fortunate, and external operations will

31 be unlucky. When the tortoise and milfoil are both opposed to the views of men, there will be good fortune in stillness, and active operations will be unlucky.

different intimations. The doubt therefore re

opinions of men divided, but the spirits also give 箕子之說行後世人君將 有棄卿士忽庶民而惟龜 邪說異

mained, and the difficulty was settled by a

kwǒ, were cases of marriages, capping, and

compromise!‘Internal affairs,' acc. to Gan

sacrifices, within the State;‘external affairs'

were military expeditions undertaken beyond

it. Choo He says: In this case, the tortoise

opposing and the milfoil consenting, nothing,

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it would seem, should be undertaken. But the 遂信不移雖箕子之賢不

tortoise-shell was supposed to give surer indica

tions than the plant, and as all the human

opinions agreed, it was inferred that internal affairs might be proceeded with and would be fortunate! It is needless to point out the inconsistency of this. 31. Where the divinations gave results contrary to all the human opinions. In this case the spirits carried it over men.

能拔於流俗也, ‘From the oldest

time never has anything turned out fortunate which the nobles and officers, with the common people, all disapproved of. Were the statements of the viscount of Ke to obtain currency and credence, the sovereigns of future ages would be found casting away their high ministers and officers, and slighting their people, attending

用靜吉‘using stillness, there will be only to the intimations of the tortoise-shell and

good fortune.' By 'stillness' is meant refraining from the undertaking doubted of.

[Many Chinese critics of more recent times seem to have an uneasy feeling of dissatisfaction on the subject of the ancient divinations; but hardly one has the courage boldly and fairly to disown them. To do so would be inconsistent with the proper veneration for the sages.

the she. Perverted talk and strange principles would find their way to influence, and there would be no end to the troubles of the empire. These passages belong to the fondness for superstition which was characteristic of the Shang dynasty; accustomed to hear such things said, people believed them, and even a man of worth, like the viscount of Ke, could not keep himself from going with the current of the

prevailing custom These observations are

unusually free and sound, as coming from a himself thus should have gone on to bolder

T's ae Ch'in said:-義之所當為而 不為者非數之所能知也,Chinese scholar. The man who expressed 義之所不當為而為者亦非 Conclusions, affecting the reputation for sageness 數之所能知也非義不占 非疑不占非疑而占謂之 非義而占謂之欺‘Not to

of Yu and Shun, and even of Confucius himself. I am sorry to find a writer, so sensible in

general as Hoo Wei, trying to beat down the remarks of Ching with the authority of the

do what in right ought to be done :-no rule for great sage:- -草廬說經往往有賢

this can be obtained from numbers; and no rule

can be obtained from them to do what in right

智之過,而此說尤為紕繆,

ought not to be done. There should be no divi- 夫子之贊易也日探賾索

nation in reference to what would not be right,

and no divination where there are no doubts.隱鈎深致遠以定天下之吉

To divine where there are no doubts is pronoun

what would not be right is pronounced “a piece 蓍龜又曰人謀鬼謀百姓 ced “a piece of folly;” to do so in reference to 凶成天下之亹亹者莫大乎

of deception."

66

Woo Chring observed: 天下之事與能謂其可以斷天下之 卿士庶民皆不可而猶有 疑也大禹之疑豈別有 吉者蓋自古未之有也使所指而箕子以卜筮附會

敘各者曰寒日 雨庶 庶以來時日燠日徵

о 草其備五風日暘日

32 [viii]. "Eighth, of the various verifications.-They are rain; sunshine; heat; cold; wind; and seasonableness. When the five come all complete, and each is in its proper order, even the various

之邪使箕子而溺於流俗 BIT, Ts'aou-loo' [this is a

designation by which Woo Ching is known], ' in his remarks upon the Classics, often speaks about the errors of the worthy and wise; but here he errs and commits himself more than

usual. The Master, in his observations on the Yih, has said, "To unravel what is confused, and search out what is mysterious; to hook up what is deep, and reach to what is distant, thus determining whatever will be fortunate or unlucky, and rousing all men to continuous effort: there is nothing better than the use of the she and the tortoise-shell" (see the

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p. 37. The Master' of course is Confucius]. He also says, "Men are consulted; the spirits are consulted; the common people also contribute their ability"

may be also that the viscount of Ke wanted

are full of false ideas on the subject of physics.

to play the physicist on points which he did not know.'

Gaubil describes correctly the way in which the character is here applied, but the translator should not render it from what it is applied to, but according to its proper signification. In the dict. it is defined by, to bear witness,' 'to attest,' and by H, 'to illustrate;' and then there is quoted from par. 4 of this Book, 'Verifications' is probably as good a term as can be found in our language. The giving the name to the various phenomena in the text, and making them indicators of the character of men's conduct, is of a piece with the divinations of the last division. It is another form of superstition. If there underlie the words of the viscount of Ke some

1, p. 69), meaning that thus all things doubted feeling of the harmony between the natural and

of may be determined. Did the great Yu mean anything else than this by his "Examination of Doubts"? and did the viscount of Ke accommodate to that what he said about divination by the tortoise and the milfoil? Had he been sunk in the current of prevailing custom merely, how could he have been the viscount of Ke?'

spiritual worlds, which occurs to most men at times, and which strongly affects minds under deep religious thought or on the wings of poetic rapture, his endeavour to give the subject a practical application is so shallow that it only strikes us as grotesque and absurd.

The Division falls into two parts. In the first parr. 32-34, we have a description of the verifying phenomena, and the interpretation of them.

P. 32. the sun coming forth,'

or=

Pp. 32-38. Of the various verifications. Medhurst translates by the general verifications;'—rightly, as regards, but -明, ‘brightness,' ‘sunshine' 懊-熱 wrong, as regards, which-not, warmth diffused,' or= =煖.(heat.” The meaning of and is sufficiently shown by their opposition to and

one merely,' 'many,' 'various.' Gaubil renders the phrase by' 'les apparences, unhappily. In a note he says:-'I render the Chinese character by apparences,' not having found any word which would cover the whole extent of its meaning. In the present case, it signifies meteors, phenomena, appearances, but in such a sort that those have relation to some other things with which they are tes soute or meteor or phenomenon indicates some good or some evil. It is a kind of correspondence which is supposed, it appears, to exist between the ordinary events of the life of men, and the constitution of the air, according to the different seasons; what is here said supposes I know not what physical speculation of those times. It is needless to bring to bear on the text the interpretations of the later Chinese, for they

6

'rain and cold.' -I have translated
this by seasonablenss,' and would extend its
meaning to all the preceding verifications, so
that there are only five and not six phenomena.
The specification of 'five' inmediately after
(*), and the way in which the
(五者來備),
phenomena are mentioned in the next par. with
the adjunct of H, seem to require this inter-
pretation. This was the view also of Gan-kwo,
and is adopted by Choo He and most other
critics. Gaubil however, translates

by 6. Les saisons.' And this view is contend

若暘恆若寒時父曰無

雨日 若燠時肅凶極 若暢時

備 恆豫曰徵聖 徵聖曰若雨 曰凶, 寒 恆僭日時 謀日 若休 若燠恆狂風時哲日徵極

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33 plants will be abundantly luxuriant. Should any one of them be either excessively abundant, or excessively deficient, there is evil.

34

“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-ke, who understands 時of|者其所致者皆順其所行 “the round year, the months, and the days,' of 故言若也,In every case, good and bad,

which we have the account in the 35th and foll. paragraphs. He took the view from Ts'ae

Yuen-too(蔡元度), a critic also of the

Sung dyn., earlier than himself. It supposes a more artificial structure of the text than the

study of the whole Book authorizes. 各

the issue is in accordance with the course of the conduct, and therefore we find the character

#Opposed to 'gravity,' we have E··

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

derliness,' we have 僭差'error'‘pre

--, 'order,' 'series.' sumptuous error.' Opposed to 'wisdom,' there is idleness,' 'indecision' (Wang Suh read

The order of time and the degree of quantity,

are both included, (各得其多寡先 後之序). 庶草蕃廡-廡=

abundant,' 'luxuriant.' This is a very simple truth. It is supposed to be mentioned as one of the least consequences of the seasonableness of the various phenomena, from which all others, however great, may be inferred.

33. Gan-kwo's expansion of this is- 者 備極過甚則凶一者極無 不至亦凶謂不時失叙

34. The favourable or good, and the unfavourable 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 inanifestation. the, with which each clause terminates,

On

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舒, with the same meaning). Opposed to deliberation, there is 急 ‘urgency, ‘haste;" and opposed to‘sageness' there is 蒙 ‘stupi

dity.' 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 a

bandoned themselves to vain jangling in speculaand their distributions through the seasons of

tions on the operation of the five elements,

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

sion, many of them do not endorse the state-
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 cor-
responding to it, or that on occasion of such
and such a business' being failed in, there
will be the corresponding unfavourable veri-
fication, would betray a pertinacious obtuseness,
-would show that the speaker was not a man

6

Ying-tǎ observes:- -此休答皆日若 to be talked with on the mysterious opera

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35

時康用父易歲師歲○日 旣○章用百月尹卿日蒙 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 某徵應則亦膠固不通 而不足與語造化之妙 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

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

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 rank

must examine severally the year, the month,

and vague way, with reference to the different

lasts for a

S

we make it relate to hall

to a

phrase. For instance, a violent wind shall in a day do injury to the grain fields. The wind lasts for a single day only, but its injurious effects extend to the months and the year. Shall we make it relate to the inferior officers? or to the high officers and the sovereign? Whenever any unfavourable verification happens, 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.
change.' But we must take in the same
way as in p. 34, meaning 'seasonableness.' The

時無易‘if the times do not

meaning is that if rain and sunshine, heat and cold, and wind all occur seasonably, the various

the language of p. 4. By 師尹 we are to understand all the 有司 or inferior officers. See on 庶尹 in the ‘Yih and Tseih’p. 10. We may take here as- 庶or眾; with regard to the rank of the which the text mentions, the whole scope of the passage shows grain of truth in the assertions, and a bushel of it could only be of a lower grade. The sovereign stands to his nobles and great officers as nonsense. Hoo Wei says that is used 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

effects enumerated will follow. There is a

employés 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 家 refers to those who are in

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