may thus exactly determine mid-spring. The people are dispersed in the fields, and birds and beasts breed and copulate."

He further commanded the third brother Hsi to reside at Nan-chiao, in what was called the Brilliant Capital, to adjust and arrange the transformations of the summer, and respectfully to observe the exact limit of the shadow. "The day," said he, "is at its longest, and the star is in Hwo; you may thus exactly determine mid-summer. The people are more dispersed; and birds and beasts have their feathers and hair thin, and change their coats."

He separately commanded the second brother Ho to reside at the west, in what was called the Dark Valley, and there respectfully to convoy the setting sun, and to adjust and arrange the completing labors of the autumn. "The night," said he, “is of the medium length, and the star is in Hsu; you may thus exactly determine mid-autumn. The people feel at ease, and birds and beasts have their coats in good condition."

He further commanded the third brother Ho to reside in the northern region, in what was called the Somber Capital, and there to adjust and examine the changes of the winter. "The day," said he, "is at its shortest, and the star is in Mao; you may thus exactly determine mid-winter. The people keep in their houses, and the coats of birds and beasts are downy and thick."

The Ti said, "Ah! you, Hsis and Hos, a round year consists of three hundred, sixty, and six days. Do you, by means of the intercalary month, fix the four seasons, and complete the period of the year. Thereafter, the various officers being regulated in accordance with this, all the works of the year will be fully performed.”

3. The Ti said, "Who will search out for me a man according to the times, whom I can raise and employ?" Fang-chi said, "Your heir-son Chu is highly intelligent." The Ti said, "Alas! he is insincere and quarrelsome; can he do?"

3

* In Part II, Yu speaks of this son of Yao as "the haughty Chu of Tan," Tan probably being the name of a State, over which, according to tradition, he had been appointed.

VOL. XI.-2.

4

The Ti said, "Who will search out for me a man equal to the exigency of my affairs?" Hwan-tau said, "Oh! the merits of the Minister of Works have just been displayed on a wide scale." The Ti said, "Alas! when all is quiet, he talks; but when employed, his actions turn out differently. He is respectful only in appearance. See! the floods assail the heavens!"

The Ti said, "Ho! President of the Four Mountains,5 destructive in their overflow are the waters of the inundation. In their vast extent they embrace the hills and overtop the great heights, threatening the heavens with their floods, so that the lower people groan and murmur! Is there a capable man to whom I can assign the correction of this calamity?" All in the court said, "Ah! is there not Khwan?" The Ti said, "Alas! how perverse is he! He is disobedient to orders, and tries to injure his peers." The President of the Mountains said, "Well but—. Try if he can accomplish the work." Khwan was employed accordingly. The Ti said to him, "Go; and be reverent!" For nine years he labored, but the work was unaccomplished.

The Ti said, "Ho! President of the Four Mountains, I have been on the throne seventy years. You can carry out my commands; I will resign my place to you." The Chief said, "I have not the virtue; I should disgrace your place." The Ti said, "Show me some one among the illustrious, or set forth one from among the poor and mean." All then said to the Ti, "There is an unmarried man among the lower people, called Shun of Yu." The Ti said, "Yes, I have heard of him. What have you to say about him?"

The

4 Hwan-tau and the Minister of Works, whom he recommends, appear in the next Book as great criminals.

5 President of the Four Mountains, or simply Four Mountains, appears to have been the title of the chief minister of Yao. The four mountains were: mount Thai in the east; Hwa in the west, in Shanhsi; Hang in the south, in Hu-nan; and Hang in the north, in Chih-li. These, probably, were the limits of the country, so far as known, and all within these points were the care of the chief minister.

6 Khwan is believed to have been the father of Yu, who afterwards coped successfully with the inundation. We are told that he was earl of Chung, corresponding to the present district of Hu, in Shen-hsi.

Chief said, "He is the son of a blind man. His father was obstinately unprincipled; his step-mother was insincere; his half-brother Hsiang was arrogant. He has been able, however, by his filial piety to live in harmony with them, and to lead them gradually to self-government, so that they no longer proceed to great wickedness." The Ti said, "I will try him; I will wive him, and thereby see his behavior with my two daughters." Accordingly he arranged and sent down his two daughters to the north of the Kwei, to be wives in the family of Yu. The Ti said to them, "Be reverent!

7 The Kwei is a small stream in Shan-hsi, which flows into the Ho. 8 That is to say, the family of Shun of Yu. This district called Yu must not be confused with the hero Yu who first appears in the next book. There is merely a chance similarity of names.

THE SHU KING

PART II.-THE BOOKS OF YU

Book I.- THE SACRED BOOK OF SHUN

1. Examining into antiquity, we find that the Ti Shun1 was styled Chung-hwa.2 His character was entirely conformed to that of the former Ti; he was profound, wise, accomplished, and intelligent. He was mild and courteous, and truly sincere. The report of his mysterious virtue was heard on high, and he was appointed to office.

2. Shun carefully set forth the beauty of the five cardinal duties, and they came to be universally observed. Being appointed to be General Regulator, the affairs of every official department were arranged in their proper seasons. Being charged to receive the princes from the four quarters of the land, they were all docilely submissive. Being sent to the great plains at the foot of the mountains, notwithstanding the tempests of wind, thunder, and rain, he did not go astray.

The Ti said, "Come, you Shun. I have consulted you on all affairs, and examined your words, and found that they can be carried into practise now for three years. Do you ascend the seat of the Ti." Shun wished to decline in favor of some one more virtuous, and not to consent to be Yao's successor. On the first day of the first month, however, he received Yao's retirement from his duties, in the temple of the Accomplished Ancestor.3

3. He examined the pearl-adorned turning sphere, with its

1 If Shun be taken as an epithet, it will mean "the Benevolent and Sage."

2 Chung-hwa, the name of Shun according to the Han scholars, may mean "the Glorious Yao repeated."

* The Accomplished Ancestor would be, probably, the individual in some distant time to whom Yao traced his possession of the throne.

transverse tube of jade, and reduced to a harmonious system the movements of the Seven Directors.*

Thereafter he sacrificed specially, but with the ordinary forms, to God; sacrificed with reverent purity to the Six Honored Ones; offered their appropriate sacrifices to the hills and rivers; and extended his worship to the host of spirits.5

He called in all the five jade-symbols of rank; and when the month was over, he gave daily audience to the President of the Four Mountains, and all the Pastors, finally returning their symbols to the various princes.

In the second month of the year he made a tour of inspection eastward, as far as Thai-tsung, where he presented a burnt-offering to Heaven, and sacrificed in order to the hills and rivers. Thereafter he gave audience to the princes of the east. He set in accord their seasons and months, and regulated the days; he made uniform the standard-tubes, with the measures of length and of capacity, and the steel-yards; he regulated the five classes of ceremonies, with the various articles of introduction - the five symbols of jade, the three kinds of silk, the two living animals and the one dead one. As to the five instruments of rank, when all was over, he returned them. In the fifth month he made a similar tour southward, as far as the mountain of the south, where he observed the same ceremonies as at Thai. In the eighth month he made a tour westward, as far as the mountain of the west, where he did as before. In the eleventh month he made a tour northward, as far as the mountain of the north, where he observed the same ceremonies, as in the west. He then returned to the capital, went to the temple of the Cultivated Ancestor, and sacrificed a single bull.

In five years there was one tour of inspection, and there ♦ Probably the seven stars of the Great Bear.

5 Who the Six Honored Ones were can not be determined with certainty. An-kwo thought they were, "the seasons, cold and heat, the sun, the moon, the stars, and drought," that is, certain spirits, supposed to rule over these phenomena and things, and residing probably in different stars. The whole paragraph describes Shun's exercise of the prerogative of the sovereign, so far as religious worship was concerned. • The princes of the various States, whose official chief was the President of the Four Mountains, all "shepherds of men."