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○許與爾○我呼方定帝

乃我珪之今先 之爾庭

卜 我歸許我王 民子敷 三乃俟 ·俟我 亦 罔孫佑

龜屏爾 我命

降祇

寶畏地用

吉珪。不璧龜歸命嗚四

The people of the four quarters stand in reverent awe of him. Oh! do not let that precious Heaven-conferred appointment fall to the ground, and all our former kings will also have a perpetual 8 reliance and resort. I will now seek for your orders from the great tortoise. If you grant what I request, I will take these symbols and this mace, and return and wait for the issue. If you do not grant it, I will put then by.”

9

The duke then divined with the three tortoises, and all were favourable. He took a key, opened and looked at the oracular

received the decree in the imperial hall,' which

is a great weakening of the duke's argument,

and without the sanction of any critic.

than those employed by the princes.

歸 俟爾命‘will return and wait for your 四方至祇畏,the critics generally orders, which would be seen in the recovery of connect this with the preceding clause, and | king Woo, and the duke's death. Ma says:– extend the force of the 用能 to it. It待爾命武王當愈我當死 seems rather to be a description of the success 屏璧與珪屏(2d tone)一去

of Woo's govt.,-exaggerated, indeed, but jus

or

tifiable in the circumstances. 天之降 藏 The meaning is, that he would put those

寶命天所降之寶命

the translation.

-as in

我先王云云

---

'our former kings' are all the princes of the House of Chow, from Shun's minister of Agriculture downward. The saying that they would

have a perpetual reliance and resort' is to the

effect that the sacrifices to them would ever be continued.

P. 8. The duke proposes to divine for the answer of the kings, and tells them what will be the

instruments of worship aside;-the dynasty

would fall, and the House of Chow would have

no more imperial sacrifices to offer.

Pp. 9, 10. The divination is favourable, and the duke deposits his prayer in the coffer.

9.

龜‘He divined with the three

tortoises I suppose that the divination took place before the altars, and that a different shell

was used to ascertain the mind of each king.

Choo He says:一或三王前各

以龜之三兆卜之,He divined

consequence of their refusing his request. 今龜卜之 Lin Che-ke, however, says:一 我命=今我就受三王之 命‘I will now go at once and receive the

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according to the three prognostics given by the tortoise.' This is in accordance with the lan

guage of the Chow Le, Bk. XXIV., p. 1, 太下

大龜 in the Tribute of 掌三兆之法一日玉兆 二

Yu, Pt. i., 52. The shells of the tortoise em

ployed for imperial divinations were larger|日瓦兆三日原兆 which Biot

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能念予

公歸乃納

終命

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是于害公書

日乃

瘳匱衲 兹王小體

10 responses which also were favourable. He said, “ According to the forin of the prognostic, the king will take no injury. I, who am but a child, have got his appointment renewed by the three kings, by whom a long futurity has been consulted for. I have to wait 11 the issue. They can provide for our one man." Having said this, he returned, and placed the tablets in the metal-bound coffer; and next day the king got better.

translates:-'Grand Augure. Il est préposé aux trois methodes pour l'observation des fissures sur l'ecaille de la tortue. La première est appelée fissure de jade; la seconde, fissure de poterie; la troisième, fissure de plaine.'

襲;

not die, but also that he would get better without himself being taken as a substitute. The words do not convey that impression to my mind. In the Daily Explanation,' they are referred to the three kings as in the translation.

·習吉習一重or; see the 一我小子新受命于三王惟

Great Speech,' Pt. ii., 5. 啟籥見書以久後子孫為計而許我

by 書 we are to understand占書‘written 以保佑
written 以保佑元子孫

oracles.' The par. of the Chow Le, following

that quoted above, is一其經兆之體 俟能念予一人一兹攸侯

皆百有二十其頌皆千有

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the 歸俟爾命 of par. 8, the only differe

ence being that the words here are those of

(The forms of the regular prognostica- soliloquy, and not addressed to the kings. The

tions were in all 120, the explanations of which amounted to 1,200.' Those explanations, no

doubt, consisting of a few oracular lines; were the of the text. They were kept by themselves, and consulted on occasion, according to certain rules which have not come down, The duke of Chow at this time had recourse to them. The meaning of in this place is very uncertain. Properly speaking, it denotes a kind of flute, Here it seems to denote a sort of key with which the apartment or chest, or whatever it might be, in which those oracles were kept, was opened. Kang-shing, Ma Yung, and Wang

|

is king Woo. The duke would seem

to be resigning himself to the thought of his own death. He must be taken, but he can confidently leave the king and the dynasty in the care of the three kings.

11. 金之匱‘the metal-bound

coffer.' Ts'ae says that it was this coffer which contained the oracles of divination, the same which is alluded to in p. 9. It may have been so; but I should rather suppose it to have been different, a special chest in which important archives of the dynasty, to be referred to on great emergencies, were kept. The duke gave orders to all whose services he had employed the record of

Suh define it nearly in the same way, as 開藏 in the ceremony to say nothing about it (see p. 之管藏、兆書管; and 開藏 17), but it was right that ng about it (see p. 占兆書管 10. 體兆之體 He therefore placed it there, not thinking that

the form of the prognostic,' appearing on the

shell of the tortoise. 惟永終是圖

-Woo Ching understands this to be spoken by the duke of himself, so that he not only understood from the divination that the king would

prayer should be preserved in this repository.

it would be-hoping that it would not be -brought to light in his time.

[The prayer of the duke of Chow is addressed to the three kings, and I have said above, that it is addressed to them in the character of mediators or intercessors with Heaven or God.

12

於將國流群 殷

獳不日 弟

公子。利公於乃其

II. Afterwards, upon the death of king Woo, the duke's elder bro

ther, he of Kwan, and his younger brothers, spread a baseless rumour

through the kingdom, saying, "The duke will do no good to the

The analogy of the circle of religious notions among the Chinese obliges us to adopt this conclusion, and, in par. 7, we have an express reference to the supreme disposing of God in human affairs. Still it must be allowed that the doctrine of the former kings being only intercessors is not indicated in the text so clearly as it might have been. In illustration of this I shall quote the words of Ts'aou Heotseuen (; Ming dyn). He says: -The earlier scholars were led, by the words "I have received a new appointment for him from the three kings," to doubt whether the duke's language (in p. 6)-"I have many abilities and arts which fit me to serve spiritual beings," really referred to Heaven. They rather thought it did not; but we must not thus pertinaciously insist upon particular expressions. Anciently, when sovereigns sacrificed to Heaven and Earth, they associated their ancestors as assessors and sharers at the cere

因新品

PRAYER IN THE COFFER IS DISCOVERED, AND
THE YOUNG KING ACKNOWLEDGES WITH HIS
TEARS THE INJUSTICE OF HIS THOUGHTS, AND
RECEIVES THE DUKE BACK, WHILE HEAVEN AC-
CORDS EVIDENT TOKENS OF ITS APPROVAL.

12. The manner in which the duke of Chow was
brought into suspicion. The last par. closes with
the statement that the king suddenly recovered
the day after the duke's prayer. This opens with
a reference to his death. Five years have elapsed.
Woo died B.C., 1,115, and was succeeded by
his son Sung

), whose reign dates from

B.C. 1,114, and who is known in history by the title of Ching ), 'the Completer.' Ching was only 13 years old, and the duke of Chow acted as regent of the empire. It was natural he should do so, for he was the ablest of all the sons of Wăn, and had been devotedly attached to his brother Woo, whose chief adviser he had been, and was without the shadow of disloyal feeling. The accession of dignity and influence which he now received, however, moved his elder brother Seen, and some of his other brothers to envy, and they had come to be engaged in a treasonable conspiracy against the throne. We have seen how Woo, after the death of the tyrant Show, pardoned his son, generally known by the name of Woo-kăng

mony; when they prayed for anything to Heaven and Earth, they depended on the efficacious spirituality of their ancestors to present and second their request. Heaven was the most honourable, and they did not dare to approach it abruptly; their ancestors were the nearest to them, and they could, through the kindness between them, make their thoughts known to them. There is no reason why we should not say that the words, "I have received a new appointment from the three kings," are equivalent to "I have received a new appointment for him from Heaven" = the title of 'Inspectors' or 'Overseers' ( ,即疑上文 能多材多藝以服事鬼神 非指天言亦不必如此拘 泥古者人君天地必以 配享其有所禱于天 必藉祖宗之靈以爲 蓋天至 敢唐突 而祖宗至親始可以情告 也謂新命于三王卽新受 命于天可也)

, and continued him in Yin to main

tain the sacrifices to the kings of his line. To guard against the very probable contingency of his rebellion, however, he placed three of his own brothers in the State along with him, with

Ch. II. Pp. 12-19. AFTER THE DEATH OF KING WOO THE DUKE OF CHOW FALLS UNDER SUSPICION OF NOT BEING LOYAL TO THE THRONE. TWO YEARS PASS BY, AND THEN HEAVEN INTERPOSES TO BRING HIS INNOCENCE TO LIGHT; THE

), who should overawe both him and the old ministers of Show. Those overseers were Seen,

own as Kwan Shuh, older than the duke of Chow; Too (度), known as Ts'ae Shuh (蔡

), immediately younger than the duke; and

Choo(處), known as Hoh Shuh (霍叔), the

eighth of Wăn's sons. Perhaps Sëen thought that on the death of Woo the regency, if not Mencius ascribes the appointment of him as overseer of Yin to the duke of Chow (see Men., II., Pt. II., ix.), as, no doubt, it was made by Woo on his advice. This may have exasperated him the more against Tan who had thus shelved him, he would think, away from the court. However it was induced, soon after the death of Woo, those three brothers entered into a conspiracy with Woo-kǎng to throw off the yoke of the

the throne, should have devolved upon himself.

得罪二公王告我老公乃

○人年居O我無

于撕則東周先以辟我

13 king's young son." Upon this the duke of Chow represented to the

14

two dukes, saying, "If I do not take the law to these men, I shall

not be able to make my report to our former kings."

He resided accordingly in the east for two years, when the

new dynasty, and as a preliminary step, they endeavoured, in the manner indicated in the text, to stir up division between the regent and his nephew.

-Kwan was the name of a city and territory,—the pres. sub. dep. of Ching

, in the dep. of K'ae-fung, Ho-nan. It formed the appanage of Seen, the third of Wăn's sons. I suppose that was originally merely indicative of Seen's place in the line of his brothers (see on Con. Ana., XVIII., xi.); but it has come to be joined with, so that Kwǎn

shuh is now in effect simply a historical name.

羣弟‘the younger brothers' were Too and

The duke of Chow, on being aware of the insinuations circulated against him, resolved to meet them with promptitude. He owed a duty to the former kings and to the dynasty, and whatever the young king might think, he would act at once against the rebellious and the disloyal.

14. Justice done on the criminals. The different views that are taken of the last paragraph necessarily affect the interpretation of this. the east, operating against Woo-kǎng and the Acc. to Gan-kwo, the duke spent two years in false brothers, and at the end of that time he had got them into his hands, and dealt with them according to his views of their several

guilt, Ying-tă says:-(this has already

been explained by 東征之二年則

Ch'oo, as has been detailed above. 流言,罪人於此皆得謂獲三叔

-set words flowing,'-spread a baseless ru-Kang-shing on the other

mour.

不利於孺子‘ will not be hand says:-居東者出處東國

advantageous to the child.' By, of

course, the young emperor is meant.

The resolution of the duke.

13.

待罪以須君之察已

-ever since the Han dynasty the meaning of here has been debated. Gan-kwo, reading the term peih, according to its proper enuncia

tion, defined it by 法, and explained the text by 我不以法法三叔則我 無以成周道告我先王

in the translation. K'ang-shing, on the other hand readas, and with the meaning of that term, so that the text='If I do not get out of the way,-leave my dignities, and retire from court, I shall not be able,' &c., &c. The editors of Yung-ching's Shoo do not give a decided opinion on either side. Ts'ae has followed K'ang-shing, but his master Choo He wavered between the two views, approving now the one, and now the other. Maou K'e-ling has a long note on the subject, in his

Bk. III., recanting his early opinion in favour of K'ang-shing's view, and giving eight reasons for adopting in preference that of Gan-kwŏ. Some of them are sufficiently forcible. I have no hesitation in differing on this point from the generally approved interpretation sanctioned by Ts'ae.

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"He resided in the east means that he left the court and dwelt in an eastern State, allowing the charge of guilt till the king should have examinadmit of this interpretation, but what he says ed into it.' The language so far will certainly on the next clause is too ridiculous. It is:

罪人周公之屬黨與知居 攝者周公出皆今二年 盡為成王所得謂之罪人, partizans of the duke of Chow and his acquain書成王意也, The criminals are the tances while he held the regency. When he withdrew from the court, they fled; but now in the two years they were all apprehended by king Ching. The historian calls them criminals, writing from the king's point of view.' Even Keang Shing does not venture to adopt this interpretation, but supposes the meaning to be that the duke, while in the east, came to know who the criminals were that had slandered him. I have said that the phrase

will itself

admit of the interpretation put on it by K'angshing; but Maou Ke-ling has shown, that if we do not understand it as Gan-kwo does, of the duke's operating in the east against his rebellious brothers, there is no other place in that direction from the court, to which his sojourn

代周啟王木電大亦王後 武公 與斯以熟未名公 王所藤大拔風未敢之乃 2 自之夫邦禾穫誼日為 說以書盡人盡天公鴟詩 二為乃弁大偃大○鴞以 公功得以恐大雷 秋王貽

15 criminals were got and brought to justice. Afterwards he made a poem to present to the king, and called it “The Owl.” The king on his part did not dare to blame the duke.

16

In the autumn, when the grain was abundant and ripe, but before it was reaped, Heaven sent a great storm of thunder and lightning, along with wind, by which the grain was all beaten down, and great trees torn up. The people were greatly terrified; and the king and great officers, all in their caps of state, proceeded to open the metalbound coffer, and examine the writings, when they found the words of the duke of Chow when he took on himself the business of taking ing for so long a time can be assigned with any had reference, would not find the difficulty in degree of probability. 15. The duce sends understanding it which we do. a poem to the king to clear himself, but is only

partially successful" The poem here referred to

is in the She King, Part I., Bk. XV., Ode ii. It begins:

'O owl, O owl,

You have taken my young ones:
Do not also destroy my nest.

I loved them ; I laboured for them;

I nourished them.-How am I to be pitied.' The received interpretation of it is that it was composed by the duke after he had crushed the insurrectionary movements in Yin, and put to By the death Woo-kǎng and Kwan-shuh. ‘owl’is intended Woo-kǎng; and by the ‘nest,' the dynasty of Chow. The writer meant that king Ching should understand by it the

王亦

is now superseded by 未敢公誚

; it means 'to reprove,' 'to blame.' The clause is understood to intimate that though the king now partially understood the motives of the duke's conduct, and could not blame him for the way in which he had dealt with his other uncles, he still looked on him with some degree of suspicion.

Pp.16–18. Heaven interposes to bring the duke's innocence to light by means of the prayer in the metal-bound coffer.

16. 秋

-we may

suppose this was the autumn of the the third

year of Ching,-B.C. 1,112. 雷電

devotion which he felt to the imperial House, 風-Lin Che-k'e brings out the 以風by

and the sorrow which the stern justice he had

been obliged to execute upon his brother occa- expanding:一天忽雷電大作又

sioned him. K'ang-shing took a difft. view of

it, in accordance with his interpretation of繼之以風

as in the translation. The

罪人斯得 in the last par., and supposed paraphrase of the Daily Explanation' is similar. 王與至之書,the 弁

that the duke intended by it to expostulate with the king on the persecution of his friends which he had instituted. But we cannot believe that he would have thus addressed the king as an Owl.' There is nothing in the poem or ode, which readily suggests the interpretation to be put upon it; but there is perhaps something in what Choo He says, that readers at the time, all-excited by the circumstances to which it

was a

skin cap,' worn in court at audiences. It is generally said that the king was going to divine that he might discover the reason of the unusual storm, and therefore opened the coffer which contained the oracles of divination. But we saw, on p. 11, that it is not certain those oracles were kept in that coffer. Possibly it was a repository of important archives, which

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