have doubts. Study that all your purposes may be with the light of reason. Do not go against what is right, to get the praise of the people. Do not oppose the people's wishes, to follow your own desires. Attend to these things without idleness or omission, and the barbarous tribes all around will come and acknowledge your sovereignty."

Yu said, "O! think of these things, O Ti. The virtue of the ruler is seen in his good government, and that government in the nourishing of the people. There are water, fire, metal, wood, the earth, and grain-these must be duly regulated; there are the rectification of the people's virtue, the tools and other things that supply the conveniences of life, and the securing abundant means of sustentation — these must be harmoniously attended to. When the nine services thus indicated have been orderly accomplished, that accomplishment will be hailed by the people's songs. Caution them with gentle words, correct them with the majesty of law, stimulate them with the songs on those nine subjects, in order that your success may not suffer diminution." The Ti said, "The earth has been reduced to order, and the influences of heaven produce their complete effect; those six magazines and three departments of governmental action are all truly regulated, and may be depended on for a myriad generations; this is your merit."

2. The Ti said, "Come, you Yu. I have occupied my place for thirty and three years. I am between ninety and a hundred years old, and the laborious duties weary me. Do you, eschewing all indolence, take the leading of my people." Yu replied, "My virtue is not equal to the position, and the people will not repose in me. But there is Kao-yao with vigorous activity sowing abroad his virtue, which has descended on the black-haired people, till they cherish him in their hearts. O Ti, think of him! When I think of him, my mind rests on him as the man fit for this place; when I would put him out of my thoughts, my mind still rests on him; when I name and speak of him, my mind rests on him for this; the sincere outgoing of my thoughts about him is that he is the man. O Ti, think of his merits."

The Ti said, "Kao-yao, that of these my ministers and all my people hardly one is found to offend against the regulations of the government is owing to your being Minister of Crime, and intelligent in the use of the five punishments, thereby assisting the inculcation of the five cardinal duties, with a view to the perfection of my government, and that through punishment there may come to be no punishments, but the people accord with the path of the Mean. Continue to be strenuous." Kao-yao replied, "Your virtue, O Ti, is faultless. You condescend to your ministers with a kindly ease; you preside over the multitudes with a generous forbearance. Punishments do not extend to the criminal's heirs, while rewards reach to succeeding generations. You pardon inadvertent faults, however great, and punish purposed crimes, however small. In cases of doubtful crimes, you deal with them lightly; in cases of doubtful merit, you prefer the high estimation. Rather than put an innocent person to death, you will run the risk of irregularity and error. This life-loving virtue has penetrated the minds of the people, and this is why they do not render themselves liable to be punished by your officers." The Ti said, "That I am able to follow and obtain what I desire in my government, the people responding everywhere as if moved by the wind-this is your excellence."

The Ti said, "Come Yu. The inundating waters filled me with dread, when you accomplished truly all that you had represented, and completed your service; thus showing your superiority to other men. Full of toilsome earnestness in the service of the country, and sparing in your expenditure on your family, and this without being full of yourself and elated, you again show your superiority to other men. You are without any prideful assumption, but no one under heaven can contest with you the palm of ability; you make no boasting, but no one under heaven can contest with you the palm of merit. I see how great is your virtue, how admirable your vast achievements. The determinate appointment of Heaven rests on your person; you must eventually ascend the throne of the great sovereign. The mind of

man is restless, prone to err; its affinity to what is right is small. Be discriminating, be uniform in the pursuit of what is right, that you may sincerely hold fast the Mean. Do not listen to unsubstantiated words; do not follow plans about which you have not sought counsel. Of all who are to be loved, is not the ruler the chief? Of all who are to be feared, are not the people the chief? If the multitude were without their sovereign Head, whom should they sustain aloft? If the sovereign had not the multitude, there would be none to guard the country for him. Be reverential! Carefully maintain the throne which you are to occupy, cultivating the virtues that are to be desired in you. If within the four seas there be distress and poverty, your Heaven-conferred revenues will come to a perpetual end. It is the mouth which sends forth what is good, and raises up war. I will not alter my words."

Yu said, "Submit the meritorious ministers one by one to the trial of divination, and let the favoring indication be followed." The Ti replied, "According to the rules for the regulation of divination, one should first make up his mind, and afterward refer his judgment to the great tortoise-shell. My mind in this matter was determined in the first place; I consulted and deliberated with all my ministers and people, and they were of one accord with me. The spirits signified their assent, and the tortoise-shell and divining stalks concurred. Divination, when fortunate, should not be repeated." Yu did obeisance with his head to the ground, and firmly declined the place. The Ti said, "You must not do So. It is you who can suitably occupy my place." On the first morning of the first month, Yu received the appointment in the temple dedicated by Shun to the spirits of his ancestors, and took the leading of all the officers, as had been done by the Ti at the commencement of his government.

3. The Ti said, "Alas! O Yu, there is only the lord of

Many contend that this was the ancestral temple of Yao. But we learn from Confucius, in the seventeenth chapter of the Doctrine of the Mean, that Shun had established such a temple for his own ancestors, which must be that intended here.

Miao who refuses obedience; do you go and correct him." Yu on this assembled all the princes, and made a speech to the host, saying, "Ye multitudes here arrayed, listen all of you to my orders. Stupid is this lord of Miao, ignorant, erring, and disrespectful. Despiteful and insolent to others, he thinks that all ability and virtue are with himself. A rebel to the right, he destroys all the obligations of virtue. Superior men are kept by him in obscurity, and mean men fill all the offices. The people reject him and will not protect him. Heaven is sending down calamities upon him. I therefore, along with you, my multitude of gallant men, bear the instructions of the Ti to punish his crimes. Do you proceed with united heart and strength, so shall our enterprise be crowned with success."

At the end of three decades, the people of Miao continued rebellious against the commands issued to them, when Yi came to the help of Yu, saying, "It is virtue that moves Heaven; there is no distance to which it does not reach. Pride brings loss, and humility receives increase; this is the way of Heaven. In the early time of the Ti, when he was living by mount Li," he went into the fields, and daily cried with tears to compassionate Heaven, and to his parents, taking to himself all guilt, and charging himself with their wickedAt the same time with respectful service he appeared before Ku-sau, looking grave and awe-struck, till Ku also became transformed by his example. Entire sincerity moves spiritual beings; how much more will it move this lord of Miao!" Yu did homage to the excellent words, and said, "Yes." Thereupon he led back his army, having drawn off the troops. The Ti set about diffusing on a grand scale the virtuous influences of peace; with shields and feathers they

ness.

The lord of Miao against whom Yu proceeded would not be the one whom Shun banished to San-wei, as related in the former Book, but some chieftain of the whole or a portion of the people, who had been left in their native seat. That Yao, Shun, and Yu were all obliged to take active measures against the people of Miao, shows the difficulty with which the Chinese sway was established over the country.

6 Mount Li is found in a hill near Phu Chau, department of Phingyang, Shan-hsi.

danced between the two staircases in his courtyard. In seventy days, the lord of Miao came and made his submission.

BOOK III.- THE COUNSELS OF KAO-YAO 1

1. Examining into antiquity, we find that Kao-yao said, "If the sovereign sincerely pursues the course of his virtue, the counsels offered to him will be intelligent, and the aids of admonition that he receives will be harmonious." Yu said, "Yes, but explain yourself." Kao-yao said, "Oh! let him be careful about his personal cultivation, with thoughts that are far-reaching, and thus he will produce a generous kindness and nice observance of distinctions among the nine branches of his kindred. All the intelligent also will exert themselves in his service; and in this way from what is near he will reach to what is distant." Yu did homage to the excellent words, and said, "Yes." Kao-yao continued, "Oh! it lies in knowing men, and giving repose to the people." Yu said, "Alas! to attain to both these things might well be a difficulty even to the Ti. When the sovereign knows men, he is wise, and can put every one into the office for which he is fit. When he gives repose to the people, his kindness is felt, and the black-haired race cherish him in their hearts. When he can be thus wise and kind, what occasion will he have for anxiety about a Hwan-tau? what to be removing a lord of Miao? what to fear any one of fair words, insinuating appearance, and great artfulness?"

2. Kao-yao said, "Oh! there are in all nine virtues to be discovered in conduct, and when we say that a man possesses any virtue, that is as much as to say he does such and such

1 Kao-yao was Minister of Crime to Shun, and is still celebrated in China as the model for all administrators of justice. There are few or no reliable details of his history. Sze-ma Chien says that Yu, on his accession to the throne, made Kao-yao his chief minister, with the view of his ultimately succeeding him, but that the design was frustrated by Kao-yao's death. But if there had been such a tradition in the time of Mencius, he would probably have mentioned it, when defending Yu from the charge of being inferior to Yao and Shun, who resigned the throne to the worthiest, whereas he transmitted it to his

son.