that they therefore received the appointment which
Yin had enjoyed.* The duke of A^'au acted as
assistant to my royal predecessors, and tranquillized
and established their kingdom. Cautiously did he
deal with the refractory people of Yin, and removed
them to the city of Lo, that they might be quietly
near the royal House, and be transformed by its
^ That is, he went from Hao, founded by king Wu, to Fang
the capital of Wan. The king wished to give his charge in the
temple of king Wan, because the duke of Pi had been one of
his ministers.
^ KhTun^-kzw was a name of the new or ' lower ' capital of
Lo, perhaps as giving ' completion,' or full establishment to the
dynasty.
^ The duke of Pi had succeeded the duke of ^au, in the office
of Grand-Master, under king -Oang.
BOOK XXIV. CHARGE TO THE DUKE OF PI. 247
lessons. Six and thirty years have elapsed^; the
generation has been changed ; and manners have
altered. Through the four quarters of the land
there is no occasion for anxiety, and I, the One
man, enjoy repose.
' The prevailing ways now tend to advancement
and now to degeneracy, and measures of govern-
ment must be varied according to the manners
(of the time). If you (now) do not manifest your
approval of what is good, the people will not be led
to stimulate themselves in it. But your virtue,
O duke, is strenuous, and you are cautiously atten-
tive to the smallest things. You have been helpful
to and brightened four reigns ^ ; with deportment all
correct leading on the inferior officers, so that there
is not one who does not reverently take your words
as a law. Your admirable merits were many (and
great) in the times of my predecessors ; I, the little
child, have but to let my robes hang down, and fold
my hands, while I look up for the complete effect
(of your measures).'
3. The king said, ' Oh ! Grand-Master, I now
reverently charge you with the duties of the duke of
A'au. Go! Signalize the good, separating the bad
from them ; give tokens of your approbation in their
neighbourhoods ^ making it ill for the evil by such
distinction of the good, and thus establishing the
influence and reputation (of their virtue). When
the people will not obey your lessons and statutes,
^ Probably, from the death of the duke of A'au.
2 Those of Wan, Wu, A7/ang, and the existing reign of Khang.
' Setting up, that is, some conspicuous monument, with an
inscription testifying his approbation. All over China, at the
present day, such testimonials are met with.
248 THE SHtj KING. PART v.
mark off the boundaries of their hamlets, making
them fear (to do evil), and desire (to do good).
Define anew the borders and frontiers, and be
careful to strengthen the guard-posts through the
territory, in order to secure tranquillity (within) the
four seas. In measures of government to be con-
sistent and constant, and in proclamations a combi-
nation of completeness and brevity, are valuable.
There should not be the love of what is extraordi-
nary. Among the customs of Shang was the flat-
tery of superiors ; sharp-tonguedness was the sign of
worth. The remains of these manners are not yet
obliterated. Do you, O duke, bear this in mind.
I have heard the saying, " Families which have for
generations enjoyed places of emolument seldom
observe the rules of propriety. They become disso-
lute, and do violence to virtue, setting themselves in
positive opposition to the way of Heaven. They
ruin the formative principles of good ; encourage
extravagance and display ; and tend to carry all
(future ages) on the same stream with them." Now
the officers of Yin had long relied on the favour
which they enjoyed. In the confidence of their
prideful extravagance they extinguished their (sense
of) righteousness. They displayed before men the
beauty of their robes, proud, licentious, arrogant,
and boastful ; — the natural issue was that they
should end in being thoroughly bad. Although
their lost minds have (in a measure) been recovered,
it is difficult to keep them under proper restraint.
If with their property and wealth they can be
brought under the influence of instruction, they may
enjoy lengthened years, virtue, and righteousness ! —
these are the great lessons. If you do not follow
BOOK XXIV. CHARGE TO THE DUKE OF PI. 249
in dealing with them these lessons of antiquity,
wherein will you instruct them ? '
4. The king said, ' Oh ! Grand-Master, the secu-
rity or the danger of the kingdom depends on those
officers of Yin. If you are not (too) stern with them
nor (too) mild, their virtue will be truly cultivated.
The duke of A'au exercised the necessary caution at
the beginning (of the undertaking) ; A^un-/^//an dis-
played the harmony proper to the middle of it ; and
you, O duke, can bring it at last to a successful issue.
You three princes will have been one in aim, and
will have equally pursued the proper way. The
penetrating power of your principles, and the good
chara.cter of your measures of government, will exert
an enriching influence on the character of the people,
so that the wild tribes, with their coats buttoning on
the left\ will all find their proper support in them,
and I, the little child, will long enjoy much happi-
ness. Thus, O duke, there in A7zang-/'au will you
establish for ever the power (of A'au), and you will
have an inexhaustible fame. Your descendants will
follow your perfect pattern, governing accordingly.
'Oh! do not say, "I am unequal to this;" but
exert your mind to the utmost. Do not say, " The
people are few ; " but attend carefully to your busi-
ness. Reverently follow the accomplished achieve-
ments of the former kings, and complete the excel-
lence of the government of your predecessors.'
^ Confucius once praised Kwan A'ung, a great minister of Kh\,
in the seventh century B.C., for his services against the wild tribes
of his time, saying, that but for him they in China would be wear-
ing their hair dishevelled, and buttoning the lappets of their coats
on the left side. See Analects, XIV, xviii. The long robes and
jackets of the Chinese generally stretch over on the right side of
the chest, and are there buttoned.
250 THE SHU KING. PART V.
Book XXV. The A'un-ya.
According to the note in the Preface to the Shu, the charge
delivered in this Book to A'iin-ya, or possibly ' the prince Ya,'
was by king Mu ; and its dictum is not challenged by any
Chinese critic. The reign of king AV^ao, who succeeded to
Khang, is thus passed over in the documents of the Shu. Mu
was the son and successor of AV^ao, and reigned from b.c. iooi
to 947.
A'iin-ya s surname is not known. He is here appointed to be
Minister of Instruction, and as it is intimated that his father
and grandfather had been in the same office, it is conjectured
that he was the grandson of the earl of Zn\, who was Minister
of Instruction at the beginning of the reign of king Khang.
The Book is short, speaking of the duties of the office, and
stimulating Ya to the discharge of them by considerations drawn
from the merits of his forefathers, and the services which he
would render to the dynasty and his sovereign.
I. The king spoke to the following effect : —
* Oh ! A'iin-ya, your grandfather and your father,
one after the other, with a true loyalty and honesty,
laboured in the service of the royal House, accom-
plishing a merit that was recorded on the grand
banner ^ I, the little child, have become charged
by inheritance with the line of government trans-
mitted from Wan and Wu, from K/iang and Khang ;
I ^Iso keep thinking of their ministers who aided
them in the good government of the kingdom ; the
trembling anxiety of my mind makes me feel as if
I were treading on a tiger's tail, or walking upon
spring ice. I now give you charge to assist me ;
^ The grand banner was borne aloft when the king went to
sacrifice. There were figures of the sun and moon on it, and
dragons lying along its breadth, one over the other, head above
tail. The names of meritorious ministers were inscribed on it
during their lifetime, preparatory to their sharing in the sacrifices
of the ancestral temple after their death.
BOOK XXV. THE X-iJN-YA. 251
be as my limbs to me, as my heart and backbone.
Continue their old service, and do not disgrace your
grandfather and father.
' Diffuse widely {the knowledge of) the five in-
variable relations (of society), and reverently seek
to produce a harmonious observance of the duties
belonging to them among the people. If you are
correct in your own person, none will dare to be
but correct. The minds of the people cannot
attain to the right mean (of duty) ; — they must be
guided by your attaining to it. In the heat and
rains of summer, the inferior people may be de-
scribed as murmuring and sighing. And so it is
with them in the great cold of winter. How great
are their hardships ! Think of their hardships in
order to seek to promote their ease ; and the people
will be tranquil. Oh ! how great and splendid were
the plans of king Wan ! How greatly were they
carried out by the energy of king Wu ! All in
principle correct, and deficient in nothing, they are
for the help and guidance of us their descendants.
Do you with reverence and wisdom carry out your
instructions, enabling me to honour and follow the
example of my (immediate) predecessors, and to
respond to and display the bright decree conferred
on Wan and Wu ; — so shall you be the mate of your
by-gone fathers.'
2. The king spoke to the following effect : —
' A'un-ya, do you take for your rule the lessons
afforded by the courses of your excellent fathers.
The good or the bad order of the people depends
on this. You will thus follow the practice of your
grandfather and father, and make the good govern-
ment of your sovereign illustrious.'
252 THE SUtj KING.
PART V.
Book XXVI. The Charge to A'^iung.
The charge recorded here, like that in the last Book, is assigned
to king Mu. It was deUvered on the appointment of a A'/i'mng
or Po->^/nung (that is, the eldest A7nung, the eldest brother
in his family) to be High Chamberlain. Of this ^>^iung we
know nothing more than we learn from the Shu. He was no
high dignitary of state. That the charge to him found a place
in the Shu, we are told, shows how important it was thought
that men in the lowest positions, yet coming into contact with
the sovereign, should possess correct principles and an earnest
desire for his progress in intelligence and virtue.
King Mu represents himself as conscious of his own incompetencies,
and impressed with a sense of the high duties devolving on
him. His predecessors, much superior to himself, were yet
greatly indebted to the aid of the officers about them ; — how
much more must this be the case with him !
He proceeds to appoint -Oiung to be the High Chamberlain,
telling him how he should guide correctly all the other servants
about the royal person, so that none but good influences should
be near to act upon the king ; — telling him also the manner
of men whom he should employ, and the care he should exercise
in the selection of them.
The king spoke to the following effect : — * Po-
i-^iung, I come short in virtue, and have succeeded
to the former kings, to occupy the great throne.
I am fearful, and conscious of the peril (of my posi-
tion). I rise at midnight, and think how I can avoid
falling into errors. Formerly Wan and Wu were
endowed with all intelligence, august and sage,
while their ministers, small and great, all cherished
loyalty and goodness. Their servants, charioteers,
chamberlains, and followers were all men of correct-
ness ; morning and evening waiting on their sove-
reign's wishes, or supplying his deficiencies. (Those
kings), going out and coming in, rising up and sitting
BOOK XXVI. THE CHARGE TO rfflUNG. 253
down, were thus made reverent. Their every warn-
ing or command was good. The people yielded a
reverent obedience, and the myriad regions were all
happy. But I, the One man, am destitute of good-
ness, and really depend on the officers who have
places about me to help my deficiencies, applying
the line to my faults, and exhibiting my errors, thus
correcting my bad heart, and enabling me to be the
successor of my meritorious predecessors.
* Now I appoint you to be High Chamberlain,
to see that all the officers in your department and
my personal attendants are upright and correct, that
they strive to promote the virtue of their sovereign,
and together supply my deficiencies. Be careful in
selecting your officers. Do not employ men of
artful speech and insinuating looks, men whose
likes and dislikes are ruled by mine, one-sided men
and flatterers ; but employ good men. When these
household officers are correct, the sovereign will be
correct ; when they are flatterers, the sovereign will
consider himself a sage. His virtue or his want of
it equally depends on them. Cultivate no intimacy
with flatterers, nor get them to do duty for me as
my ears and eyes ; — they will lead their sovereign
to disregard the statutes of the former kings. If
you choose the men not for their personal goodness,
but for the sake of their bribes, their offices will be
made of no effect, your great want of reverence for
your sovereign will be apparent, and I will hold you
guilty.'
The king said, ' Oh ! be reverent ! Ever help
your sovereign to follow the regular laws of duty
(which he should exemplify).'
2 54 THE SHU KING. PART V.
Book XXVII.
The Marquis of Lii on Punishments.
The charge or charges recorded in this Book were given in the
hundredth year of the king's age. The king, it is again under-
stood, was Mti; and the hundredth year of his age would be
B.C. 952. The title of the Book in Chinese is simply 'Lii's
Punishments,' and I conclude that Lii, or the marquis of Lii,
was a high minister who prepared, by the king's orders, a code
of punishments for the regulation of the kingdom, in connexion
with the undertaking, or the completion, of which the king
delivered to his princes and judges the sentiments that are here
preserved.
The common view is that Lii is the name of a principality, the
marquis of which was Mfi's Minister of Crime. Where it was
is not well known, and as the Book is quoted in the Li K\
several times under the title of ' Fu on Punishments,' it is sup-
posed that Lu and Fu (a small marquisate in the present Ho-nan)
were the same.
The whole Book is divided into seven chapters. The first is
merely a brief introduction, the historiographer's account of the
circumstances in which king Mii delivered his lessons. Each
of the other chapters begins with the words, ' The king said.'
The first two of them are an historical resumd of the lessons
of antiquity on the subject of punishments, and an inculcation
on the princes and officers of justice to give heed to them, and
learn from them. The next two tell the princes of the diligence
and carefulness to be employed in the use of punishments, and
how they can make punishments a blessing. The fourth chap-
ter treats principally of the commutation or redemption of
punishments, and has been very strongly condemned by critics
and moralists. They express their surprise that such a docu-
ment should be in the Shu, and, holding that the collection was
made by Confucius, venture to ask what the sage meant by
admitting it. There is, in fact, no evidence that the redemption
of punishments on the scale here laid down, existed in China
before Mu's time. It has entered, however, into the penal code
of every subsequent dynasty. Great official corruption and de-
pravation of the general morality would seem to be inseparable
from such a system. The fifth chapter returns again to the
BOOK XXVII. MARQUIS OF LU ON PUNISHMENTS. 255
reverence with which punishments should be employed; and the
sixth and last is addressed to future generations, and directs
them to the ancient models, in order that punishments may
never be but a blessing to the kingdom.
A Chinese critic says that throughout the Book 'virtue' and 'exact
adaptation ' are the terms that carry the weight of the meaning.
Virtue must underlie the use of punishments, of which their
exact adaptation will be the manifestation.
1. In reference to the charge to (the marquis of)
Lu : — When the king had occupied the throne till he
reached the age of a hundred years, he gave great
consideration to the appointment of punishments,
in order to deal with (the people of) the four
quarters.
2. The king said, 'According to the teachings of
ancient times, KJi\^ Y6 was the first to produce dis-
order, which spread among the quiet, orderly people,
till all became robbers and murderers, owl-like and
yet self-complacent in their conduct, traitors and
villains, snatching and filching, dissemblers and
oppressors \
* Among the people of Miao, they did not use
the power of goodness, but the restraint of punish-
ments. They made the five punishments engines
of oppression ^, calling them the laws. They
' KK^ Yu, as has been observed in the Introduction, p. 27, is
the most ancient name mentioned in the Shu, and carries us back,
according to the Chinese chronologists, nearly to the beginning of
the twenty-seventh century b. c. P. Gaubil translates the characters
which appear in the English text here as * According to the
teachings of ancient times ' by ' Selon les anciens documents,'
which is more than the Chinese text says. — It is remarkable that
at the commencement of Chinese history, Chinese tradition placed
a period of innocence, a season when order and virtue ruled in
men's affairs.
^ I do not think it is intended to say here that ' the five punish-
ments ' were invented by the chiefs of the Miao ; but only that
256 THE SHtj KING.
PART V.
slaughtered the innocent, and were the first also to
go to excess in cutting off the nose, cutting off the
ears, castration, and branding. All who became
liable to those punishments were dealt with without
distinction, no difference being made in favour of
those who could offer some excuse. The people
were gradually affected by this state of things, and
became dark and disorderly. Their hearts were no
more set on good faith, but they violated their oaths
and covenants. The multitudes who suffered from
the oppressive terrors, and were (in danger of) being
murdered, declared their innocence to Heaven. God
surveyed the people, and there was no fragrance of
virtue arising from them, but the rank odour of their
(cruel) punishments.*
' The great Tt^ compassionated the innocent
multitudes that were (in danger of) being murdered,
and made the oppressors feel the terrors of his
majesty. He restrained and (finally) extinguished
the people of Miao, so that they should not con-
these used them excessively and barbarously. From two passages
in the Canon of Shun, we conclude that that monarch was
acquainted with ' the five great inflictions or punishments,' and
gave instructions to his minister Kao-yao as to their use.
^ Here is the name — Hwang Ti — by which the sovereigns of
China have been styled from b.c. 221, since the emperor of -^^in,
on his extinction of the feudal states, enacted that it should be
borne by himself and his descendants. I have spoken of the
meaning of Ti and of the title Hwang Ti in the note on the
translation of the Shii appended to the Preface. There can
be no doubt that it was Shun whom king Mu intended by the
name. A few sentences further on, the mention of Po-i and
Yii leads us to the time subsequent to Yao, and th^re does not
appear to be any change of subject in the paragraph. We get
from this Book a higher idea of the power of the Miao than
from the Books of Part II.
BOOK XXVII. MARQUIS OF LU ON PUNISHMENTS. 257
tinue to future orenerations. Then he commissioned
A'^ung and Li^ to make an end of the communica-
tions between earth and heaven ; and the descents
(of spirits) ceased ^ From the princes down to the
^ JiLAung and Li are nowhere met with in the previous parts of
the Shu, nor in any other reliable documents of history, as officers
of Shun. 3hai ^^an and others would identify them with the
Hsi and Ho of the Canon of Yao, and hold those to have been
descended from a J^/iung and a Li, supposed to belong to the
time of Shao Hao in the twenty-sixth century b.c.
Whoever they were, the duty with which they were charged
was remarkable. In the Narratives of the States (a book of
the ^au dynasty), we find a conversation on it, during the life-
time of Confucius, between king K/iao of J^/in (b.c 515-489)
and one of his ministers, called Kwan Yi-fu. ' What is meant/
asked the king, ' by what is said in one of the Books of Aau
about A7zung and Li, that they really brought it about that there
was no intercourse between heaven and earth ? If they had not
done so, would people have been able to ascend to heaven?'
The minister replied that that was not the meaning at all, and
gave his own view of it at great length, to the following effect. —
Anciently, the people attended to the discharge of their duties
to one another, and left the worship of spiritual beings — the
seeking intercourse with them, and invoking and effecting their
descent on earth — to the officers who were appointed for that
purpose. In this way things proceeded with great regularity.
The people minded their own affairs, and the spirits minded
theirs. Tranquillity and prosperity were the consequence. But
in the time of Shao Hao, through the lawlessness of A'iu-li, a
change took place. The people intruded into the functions of
the regulators of the spirits and their worship. They abandoned
their duties to their fellow men, and tried to bring down spirits
from above. The spirits themselves, no longer kept in check
and subjected to rule, made their appearance irregularly and
disastrously. All was confusion and calamity, when ATwan Hsii
(b.c. 2510-2433) took the case in hand. He appointed AT/mng,
the Minister of the South, to the superintendency of heavenly
things, to prescribe the laws for the spirits, and Li, the Minister
of Fire, to the superintendency of earthly things, to prescribe the
rules for the people. In this way both spirits and people were
[r] S
258 THE Sut KING. PARTY.
inferior officers, all helped with clear intelligence
(the spread of) the regular principles of duty, and
the solitary and widows were no longer overloolced.
The great T i with an unprejudiced mind carried his
enquiries low down among the people, and the soli-
tary and widows laid before him their complaints
against the Miao. He awed the people by the
majesty of his virtue, and enlightened them by
its brightness. He thereupon charged the three
princely (ministers)^ to labour with compassionate
anxiety in the people's behalf. Po-i delivered his
statutes to prevent the people from rendering them-
selves obnoxious to punishment ; Yii reduced to
order the water and the land, and presided over the
naming of the hills and rivers ; Ki spread abroad
a knowledge of agriculture, and (the people) exten-
sively cultivated the admirable grains. When the
three princes had accomplished their work, it was
abundantly well with the people. The Minister of
Crime ^ exercised among them the restraint of
brought back to their former regular courses, and there was no
unhallowed interference of the one with the other. This was the
work described in the text. But subsequently the chief of San-
miao showed himself a J^it-li redivivus, till Yao called forth
the descendants of IT/iung and Li, who had not forgotten the
virtue and functions of their fathers, and made them take the case
in hand again.
According to Yi-f&'s statements IT/iung's functions were those
of the Minister of Religion, and Li's those of the Minister of
Instruction ; but Hsi and Ho were simply Ministers of Astronomy
and the Calendar, and their descendants continue to appear as
such in the Shu to the reign of A'ung Khang, long after we know
that men of other families were appointed to the important minis-
tries of Jv'/iung and Li.
^ Those immediately mentioned, — Po-i, Yii, and A'i. See the
Canon of Shun and other Books of Part II.
^ Kao-yao.
BOOK xxvii. MARQUIS OF LU ON PUNISHMENTS. 259
punishment in exact adaptation to each offence,
and taught them to reverence virtue. The greatest
gravity and harmony in the sovereign, and the
greatest intelligence in those below him, thus
shining forth to all quarters (of the land), all were
rendered diligent in cultivating their virtue. Hence,
(if anything more were wanted), the clear adjudica-
tion of punishments effected the regulation of the