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!

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."

3 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.

6

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

4 Probably the seven stars of the Great Bear.

66

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."

were four appearances of the princes at court. They gave a report of their government in words, which was clearly tested by their works. They received chariots and robes according to their merits.

He instituted the division of the land into twelve provinces, raising altars upon twelve hills in them. He also deepened the rivers.

He exhibited to the people the statutory punishments, enacting banishment as a mitigation of the five great inflictions; with the whip to be employed in the magistrates' courts, the stick to be employed in schools, and money to be received for redeemable offenses. Inadvertent offenses and those which could be ascribed to misfortune were to be pardoned, but those who transgressed presumptuously and repeatedly were to be punished with death. "Let me be reverent! Let me be reverent!" he said to himself. "Let compassion rule in punishment!"

He banished the Minister of Works to Yu island; confined Hwan-tau on mount Chung; drove the chief of Sanmaio and his people into San-wei, and kept them there; and held Khwan a prisoner till death on mount Yu. These four criminals being thus dealt with, all under heaven acknowledged the justice of Shun's administration. 10

4. After twenty-eight years the Ti deceased, when the people mourned for him as for a parent for three years. Within the four seas all the eight kinds of instruments of music were stopped and hushed. On the first day of the first month of the next year, Shun went to the temple of the Accomplished Ancestor.

5. He deliberated with the President of the Four Moun

7 As Yu, according to Part III, divided the land into nine provinces, this division of it into twelve must have been subsequent to the completion of Yu's work.

8 Those five great inflictions were: branding on the forehead; cutting off the nose; cutting off the feet; castration; and death, inflicted in various ways.

This punishment was for officers in training; not for boys at school. 10 The Minister of Works, Hwan-tau, and Khwan are mentioned in the former Canon. Yu island, or Yu Chau, was in the extreme north of the present district of Mi-yun.

tains how to throw open the doors of communication between himself and the four quarters of the land, and how he could see with the eyes, and hear with the ears of all.

He consulted with the twelve Pastors, 11 and said to them, "The food! — it depends on observing the seasons. Be kind to the distant, and cultivate the ability of the near. Give honor to the virtuous, and your confidence to the good, while you discountenance the artful; so shall the barbarous tribes. lead on one another to make their submission."

Shun said, "Ho, President of the Four Mountains, is there any one who can with vigorous service attend to all the affairs of the Ti, whom I may appoint to be General Regulator, to assist me in all affairs, managing each department according to its nature?" All in the court replied, “There is Po-yu,12 the Minister of Works." The Ti said, "Yes. Ho! Yu, you have regulated the water and the land. In this new office exert yourself." Yu did obeisance with his head to the ground, and wished to decline in favor of the Minister of Agriculture, or Hsieh, or Kao-yao. The Ti said, "Yes, but do you go and undertake the duties."

The Ti said, "Chi, 13 the black-haired people are still suffering from famine. Do you, O prince, as Minister of Agriculture, continue to sow for them the various kinds of grain.

The Ti said, "Hsieh,14 the people are still wanting in affection for one another, and do not docilely observe the five orders of relationship. It is yours, as the Minister of Instruction, reverently to set forth the lessons of duty belonging to those five orders. Do so with gentleness."

The Ti said, Kao-yao, the barbarous tribes trouble our great land. There are also robbers, murderers, insurgents,

11 These were the twelve princes holding the chief sway and superintendence in his twelve provinces.

12 Po-yu is the great Yu, the founder of the Hsia Dynasty. Po denotes, probably, his order as the eldest among his brothers.

13 Chi was the name of the Minister of Agriculture, better known in the Shih and other books as Hau-chi, the progenitor of the kings of Chau.

14 Hsieh was honored by the kings of the Shang Dynasty as their progenitor.