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ANCIENT CHINA SIMPLIFIED

[Illustration: Tripod of the Chou dynasty, date 812 B. C. In 1565A. D. It was placed by the owner for safety in a temple on SilverIsland (near Chinkiang), where it may be seen now. Taken (by kindpermission of the author) from Dr. S. W. Bushell's "Chinese Art, "vol. I. P. 82. ]

ANCIENT CHINA SIMPLIFIED

BY EDWARD HARPER PARKER, M. A. , (Manc. )

PROFESSOR OF CHINESE AT THE VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTERLONDON

PREFACE

Boswell once remarked to Dr. Johnson that "the history of Englandis so strange that, if it were not well vouched as it is, it wouldbe hardly credible. " To which Johnson replied in his usual style:"Sir, if it were told as shortly, and with as little preparationfor introducing the different events, as the history of the Jewishkings, it would be equally liable to objections of improbability. "Dr. Johnson went on to illustrate what he meant, by specificallusion to the concessions to Parliament made by Charles I. "If, "he said, "these had been related nakedly, without any detail ofthe circumstances which generally led to them, they would not havebeen believed. "

This is exactly the position of ancient Chinese history, which maybe roughly said to coincide in time with the history of the Jewishkings. The Chinese Annals are mere diaries of events, isolatedfacts being tumbled together in order of date, without any regardfor proportion. Epoch-making invasions, defeats, and cessions ofterritory are laconically noted down on a level with the prince'sindiscretion in weeping for a concubine as he would weep for awife; or the Emperor's bounty in sending a dish of sacrificialmeat to a vassal power by express messenger. In one way there is adistinct advantage in this method, for, the historian being seldomtempted to obtrude his own opinion or comments, we are left aclear course for the formation of our own judgments upon the factsgiven. On the other hand, it is unfortunate that what may becalled the philosophy of history has never been seized by theChinese mind: the annalists do not trouble themselves with therights and aspirations of the masses; the results to generalpolicy that naturally follow upon increase of population, perfecting of arms and munitions of war, admixture of foreignblood with the body politic, and such like matters. The heads ofevents being noted, it seems to be left to the reader to fill inthe details from his imagination, and from his knowledge ofcontemporary affairs. For instance, suppose the reign of QueenVictoria were to begin after this fashion:--"1837, 5th moon, Kalends, Victoria succeeded: 9th moon, Ides, Napoleon paid avisit: 28th day, London flooded; 10th moon, 29th day, eclipse ofthe sun"; and so on. At the time, and for many years--possiblycenturies--afterwards, there would be accurate general traditional, or even written, information as to who Victoria was; why Napoleonpaid a visit; in what particular way the flood affected England generally;from what parts the eclipse was best visible, etc. These details wouldfade in distinctness with each successive generation; commentatorswould come to the rescue; then commentators upon commentators;and discussions as to which man was the most trustworthy of them all. 

Under these circumstances it is difficult enough for the Chinesethemselves to construct a series of historical lessons, adequateto guide them in the conduct of modern affairs, out of soheterogeneous a mass of material. This difficulty is, in the caseof Westerners, more than doubled by the strange, and to usinharmonious, sounds of Chinese proper names: moreover, as theyare monosyllabical, and many of them exactly similar whenexpressed in our letters, it is almost impossible to rememberthem, and to distinguish one from the other. Thus most persons whomake an honest endeavour by means of translations to master theleading events in ancient Chinese history soon throw down the bookin despair; while even specialists, who may wish to shorten theirlabours by availing themselves of others' work, can only get afirm grip of translations by comparing them with the originals: itis thus really impossible to acquire anything at all approachingan accurate understanding of Chinese antiquity without possessingin some degree the controlling power of a knowledge of thepictographs. 

It is in view of all these difficulties that an attempt has beenmade in this book to extract principles from isolated facts; toavoid, so far as is possible, the use of Chinese proper names; tointroduce these as sparingly and gradually as is practicable whenthey must be used at all; to describe the general trend of eventsand life of the people rather than the personal acts of rulers andgreat officers; and, generally, to put it into the power of anyone who can only read English, to gain an intelligible notion ofwhat Chinese antiquity really was; and what principles andmotives, declared or tacit, underlay it. It is with this objectbefore me that I have ventured to call my humble work "AncientChina Simplified, " and I can only express a hope that it willreally be found intelligible. 

EDWARD HARPER PARKER. 

18, GAMBIER TERRACE, LIVERPOOL, May 18, 1908. 

AIDS TO MEMORY

There is much repetition in the book, the same facts beingpresented, for instance, under the heads of Army, Religion, Confucius, and Marriages. This is intentional, and the object isto keep in the mind impressions which in a strange, ancient, andobscure subject are apt to disappear after perusal of only one ortwo casual statements. 

The Index has been carefully prepared so that any allusion orstatement vaguely retained in the mind may at once be confirmed. The chapter headings, or contents list, which itself containsnearly five per cent of the whole letterpress, is so arranged thatit omits no feature treated of in the main text. 

In the earlier chapters uncouth proper names are reduced to aminimum, but the Index refers by name to specific places andpersons only generally mentioned in the earlier pages. Forinstance, the states of Lu and CHÊNG on pages 22 and 29: it ishard enough to differentiate Ts'i, Tsin, Ts'in, and Ts'u at theoutstart, without crowding the memory with fresh names until thenecessity for it absolutely arises. 

The nine maps are inserted where they are most likely to beuseful: it is a good plan to refer to a map each time a place ismentioned, unless the memory suffices to suggest exactly wherethat place is. After two or three patient references, situationsof places will take better root in the mind. 

The chapters are split up into short discussions and descriptions, because longer divisions are apt to be tedious where ancienthistory is concerned. And the narrative of political movement isfrequently interrupted by the introduction of new matter, in orderto provide novelty and stimulate the imagination. Moreover, allchapters and all subjects converge on one general focus. 

On page 15 of "China, her Diplomacy, etc. " (John Murray, 1901), Ihave confessed how tedious I myself had found ancient Chinesehistory, and how its human interest only begins with foreignrelations. I have, however, gone systematically through the millonce more, and my present object is to present general resultsonly obtainable at the cost of laboriously picking out andresetting isolated and often apparently unconnected records offact. 

NAMES OF CHIEF LOCALITIES

CHOU: at first a principality in South Shen Si and part of KanSuh, subject to Shang dynasty; afterwards the imperial dynastyitself. 

TS'lN: principality west of the above. When the Chou dynasty movedits capital east into Ho Nan, Ts'in took possession of the oldChou principality. 

TSIN: principality (same family as Chou) in South Shan Si (and inpart of Shen Si at times). 

TS'I: principality, separated by the Yellow River from Tsin andYen; it lay in North Shan Tung, and in the coast part of Chih Li. 

TS'U: semi-barbarous principality alone preponderant on the Yang-tsz River. 

WU: still more barbarous principality (ruling caste of the samefamily as Chou, but senior to Chou) on the Yang-tsz _embouchure_and Shanghai coasts. 

YÜEH: equally barbarous principality commanding another_embouchure_ in the Hangchow-Ningpo region. Wu and Yüeh wereat first subordinate to Ts'u. 

YEN: principality (same family as Chou) in the Peking plain, northof the Yellow River mouth, SHUH and PA: in no way Chinese or federal; equivalent to Centraland Eastern Sz Ch'wan province. 

CHÊNG: principality in Ho Nan (same family as Chou). 

SUNG: principality taking in the four corners of Ho Nan, ShanTung, An Hwei, and Kiang Su (Shang dynasty family). 

CH'ÊN: principality in Ho Nan, south of Sung (family of thePloughman Emperor, 2250 B. C. , preceding even the Hia dynasty). 

WEI: principality taking in corners of Ho Nan, Chih Li, and ShanTung (family of the Chou emperors). 

TS'AO: principality in South-west Shan Tung; neighbour of Lu, Wei, and Sung (same family as Chou). 

TS'AI: principality in Ho Nan, south of CH'ÊN (same family asChou). 

LU: principality in South-west Shan Tung, between Ts'ao and Ts'i(its founder was the brother of the Chou founder). 

HÜ: very small principality in Ho Nan, south of Cheng (sameobscure eastern ancestry as Ts'i), K'I: Shan Tung promontory and German sphere (of Hia dynastydescent); it is often confused with, or is quite the same as, another principality called _Ki_ (without the aspirate). 

The above are practically all the states whose participation inChinese development has been historically of importance, NAMES OF CHIEF PERSONAGES

CONFUCIUS: after 500 B. C. Premier of Lu; traced his descent backthrough the Chou dynasty vassal ruling family of Sung to the Shangdynasty family. 

TSZ-CH'AN: elder contemporary of Confucius; premier of Cheng;traced his descent through the vassal ruling family of Cheng tothe Chou dynasty family: date of death variously stated. 

KWAN-TSE: died between 648 and 643 B. C. , variously stated; premierof Ts'i; traced his descent to the same clan as the ruling dynastyof Chou. 

YEN-TSZ: died 500 B. C. ; premier of Ts'i; traced his descent to alocal clan, apparently eastern barbarian by origin. 

WEI YANG: died 338 B. C. ; premier of Ts'in; was a concubine-bornprince of the vassal state of Wei, and was thus of the imperialChou dynasty clan. 

SHUH HIANG: lawyer and minister of Tsin; belonged to one of the"great families" of Tsin; was contemporary with Tsz-ch'an. HIANGSÜH: diplomat of the state of Sung; pedigree not ascertained, KI-CHAH: son, brother, and uncle of successive barbarian kings ofWu, whose ancestors, however, were the same ancestors as theorthodox imperial rulers of the Chou dynasty; contemporary of Tsz-ch'an. 

NAMES OF THE SO-CALLED "FIVE PROTECTORS"

(ONLY THE TWO FIRST OF THE FIVE WERE SO OFFICIALLY; THE TWO LASTWERE SO, EVEN OFFICIALLY, THOUGH NEVER COUNTED AMONGST THE FIVE. )

1. MARQUESS OF Ts'i (not of imperial Chou clan, perhaps of"Eastern Barbarian" origin). 

2. MARQUESS OF TSIN (imperial Chou clan). 

3. DUKE OF SUNG (imperial Shang dynasty descent), 4. "KING" OF T'SU (semi-barbarian, but with remote imperialChinese legendary descent). 

5. EARL OF TS'IN (semi-Tartar, with legendary descent from remoteimperial Chinese). 

6. "KING" OF Wu (semi-barbarian, but of imperial Chou familydescent). 

7. "KING" OF YÜEH (barbarian, but with legendary descent fromultra-remote imperial Chinese). 

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

_OPENING SCENES_

Beginning of dated history--Size of ancient China--Parcelled outinto fiefs--Fiefs correspond to modern _hien_ districts--Mesne lords and sub-vassals--Method of migration and colonizing--Course of the Yellow River in 842 B. C. --Distant fiefs in Shan Tungand Chih Li provinces of to-day--A river which subsequently becamepart of the Grand Canal--The Hwai River system of waters--Europeans always regard China from the sea inwards--Corea, Japan, and Liao Tung unknown in 842 B. C. Except, perhaps, to the vassalstate in Peking plain--Orthodox Chinese adopting barbarian usagesin Shan Tung--Eastern barbarians on the coast to Shanghai--Noknowledge of South or West Asia--Left bank of Yellow River wasmostly Tartar, except in South Shan Si--Ancient capital in ShanSi--Ancient colonization of the Wei River valleys in Shen Si--Possibilities of Western ideas having been carried by Tartarhorsemen from Persia and Turkestan--Traditions of western, eastern, and southern intercourse previous to 842 B. C. --Earlyknowledge of the River Yang-tsz and its three mouths--Explorationsby ancient emperors--Development of China followed much the samenormal course as that of Greece or England. 

CHAPTER II

_SHIFTING SCENES_

Character of the early colonizing Chinese satraps--Revolt of thewestern satrap and flight of the Emperor in 842 B. C. --Daughter ofa later satrap marries the Emperor--Tartars mix up with questionsof imperial succession and kill the Emperor--Transfer of theimperial metropolis from Shen Si to Ho Nan--The Chou dynasty, dating from 1122 B. C. --Before its conquest, the vassal house ofChou occupied the same relation to the imperial dynasty of Shangthat the Wardens of the Western Marches, or Princes of Ts'in, didin turn to the imperial dynasty of Chou--The Shang dynasty had in1766 B. C. , for like reasons, supplanted the Hia dynasty-No eventsof great interest recorded in limited area of China before 771B. C. --Decline of the imperial power until its extinction in 250B. C. --The Five Tyrant or Protector period--Natural movement tokeep pace with political development--Easier system of writing--Development of trade and industry--Living interests clash withextinct aspirations--From 722 B. C. To 480 B. C. Is the period ofchange covered by Confucius' history

CHAPTER III

_THE NORTHERN POWERS_

The state of Tsin in Shan Si--In 771 B. C. : its ruler escorts theEmperor to his new capital--Only in 671 B. C. Does Confuciusmention Tsin--Divided from Ts'in by the Yellow River--Importantdifference between the sounds Tsin and Ts'in--Importance of thewhole Yellow River as a natural boundary--The state of Ts'i alsoengaged in buffer work against Tartar inroads--Remote origin ofTs'i-Ts'in, Tsin, and Ts'i grow powerful as the Emperor growsweaker--The state of Yen in the Peking plain--The founder of Yenimmortalized in song--Complete absence of tradition concerningYen's origin--Its possible relations with Corea and Japan--Centreof political gravity transferred for ever to the north--Tartarmovements in Asia generally 800-600 B. C. --Never was a Tarterempire--Reason for using the loose word "Tartars"--Race divisionsthen probably very much as now--Attempt to classify the Tartars indefinite groups--Ch'wan unknown by any name--Nothing at all wasknown in China of the north and west: _á fortiori_ of CentralAsia

CHAPTER IV

_THE SOUTHERN POWER_

The collapse of the Emperor led to restlessness in the south too--The Jungle country south of the River Han--Ancient origin of itskings--Claim to equality--Buffer state to the south--Ruling casteconsisted of educated Chinese--Extension of the Ts'u empire--Annamese connections--Claims repeated 704 B. C. --Capital moved toKing-thou Fu near Sha-shï--First Ts'u conquests of China--Fivehundred years of struggle with Ts'in for the possession of allChina

CHAPTER V

_EVIDENCE OF ECLIPSES_

How far is history true?--Confucius and eclipses--Evidencenotwithstanding the destruction of literature in 213 B. C. --Retrospective calculations of eclipses and complications ofcalendars--Eclipse of 776 B. C. --Errors in Confucian history owingto rival calendars

CHAPTER VI

_THE ARMY_

Paraphernalia of warfare--Ten thousand and one thousand chariotstates--Use of war-chariots, leather or wood--Chariots allottedaccording to rank--Seventy-five men to one cart--War-chariots dateback to 1800 B. C. --Tartar house-carts--Rivers mostly unnavigablein north--Introduction of canals and boat traffic--Population andarmies--Vague descriptions--Early armies never exceeded 75, 000men--The use of flags--Used in hunting as well as in war--Victimssacrificed to drums--A modern instance of this in 1900 A. D. 

CHAPTER VII

_THE COAST STATES_

The coast states in possession of the Yang-tsz delta--The state ofWu really of the same origin as the imperial dynasty of Chou--Comparison with Phoenician colonists--Wu induced by Tsin to attackTs'a-Ancient name was _Keugu_--Wu falls into the whirl ofChinese politics--Confucius and his contemptuous treatment ofbarbarians-Lu, in South Shan Tung, the place where Confucius heldofficial posts--Great Britain and Duke Confucius--Five ranks forrulers of vassal states--Sacking of the Ts'u capital by Wu in 506B. C. --Wu's vassal Yüeh turns against Wu--_Uviet_ the nativename of Yüeh--Bloody wars between Wu and Yiieh--Extinction of Wuin 483 B. C. --Yüeh was always a coast power--Reasons forConfucius' endeavours to re-establish the old feudal system

CHAPTER VIII

_FIRST PROTECTOR OF CHINA_

The first Hegemon or Protector of China and his own vassal kingdomof Ts'i--Limits of Ts'i and ancient course of the Yellow River--Absence of ancient records--Shiftings of capital in the ninthcentury B. C. --Emperor's collapse of 842 and its effect upon Ts'i--Aid rendered by Ts'i in suppressing the Tartars--Inconsiderablesize of Ts'i--Revenges a judicial murder two centuries old--Rapidrise of Ts'i and services of the statesman--philosopher Kwan-tsz--The governing caste in China--Declares self Protector of China 679B. C. --Tartar raids down to the Yellow River in Ho Nan-Chinesedurbars and the duties of a Protector--Ts'in and Ts'u too far offor too busy for orthodox durbars--Little is now known of thepuppet Emperor's dominions--Effeminate character of all theCentral Chinese orthodox stales--Fighting instincts all with semi-Chinese states--Struggle for life becoming keener throughout China

CHAPTER IX

_POSITION OF ENVOYS_

Sanctity of envoys--Rivalry of Tsin north and Ts'u south forinfluence over orthodox centre--The state of CHÊNG (imperialclan)--The state of Sung (Shang dynasty clan)--Family sacrifices--Instances of envoy treatment--The philosopher Yen-tsz: his irony--The statesman Tsz-ch'an of CHÊNG--Ts'u's barbarous and callousconduct to envoys--Greed for valuables among high officers--squabble for precedence at Peace Conference--Confucius manipulateshistory--Yen-& and Confucius together at attempted assassination

CHAPTER X

_THE SECOND PROTECTOR_

Death of First Protector and his henchman Kwan-tsz, 648-643 B. C. --Ts'i succession and Sung's claim to Protectorate--Tartar influencein Ts'i--Ts'u's claim to the hegemony--Ridiculous orthodoxchivalry--Great development of Tsin--A much-married ruler--Marriage complications--Interesting story of the politicalwanderings of the Second Protector--Tries to replace Kwan-tszdeceased--Pleasures of Ts'i life--Mean behaviour of orthodoxprinces to the Wanderer--Frank attitude of Ts'u--SuccessiveTartar-born rulers of Tsin, and war with T&n--Second Protectorgains his own Tsin throne--Puppet Emperor at a durbar--Tsinobtains cession of territory--Triangular war between the Powers--Description of the political situation--China 2500 years agobeginning to move as she is now doing again

CHAPTER XI

_RELIGION_

I'Jo religion except natural religion--Religion not separate fromadministrative ritual--The titles of "King" and "Emperor"--Prayercommon, but most other of our own religious notions absent--Localreligion in barbarous states--Distinction between loss andannihilation of power--Ducal rank and marquesses--Distinctionbetween grantee sacrifices and personal sacrifices--Prayer and theancient Emperor Shun, whose grave is in Hu Nan--Chou Emperor'ssickness and brother's written prayer--Offers to sacrifice self--Messages from the dead--Lao-tsz's book--Ts'in and conquered TsinSacrifices--Further instances of prayer

CHAPTER XII

_ANCESTRAL WORSHIP_

Ancestral tablets carried in war-Shrines graduated according torank--Description of shrines--Specific case of the King of Ts'u--Instance of the First August Emperor much later--Temple of Heaven, Peking, and the British occupation of it--Modern Japanese instanceof reporting to Heaven and ancestors--Tsin and Ts'i instances ofit--Sacrificial tablets--Writing materials--Lu's special spiritualstatus--Desecration of tombs and flogging of corpses--Destructionof ancestral temples--Imperial presents of sacrificial meat--Fasting and purification--Intricate mourning rules. So-65

CHAPTER XIII

_ANCIENT DOCUMENTS FOUND_

History of Tsin and the Bamboo Annals discovered after 600 years'burial--Confirmatory of Confucius' history--Obsolete and modernscript--Ancient calendars--Their evidence in rendering datesprecise--The Ts'in calendar imposed on China--Rise of the Ts'inpower--Position as Protector--Vast Tartar annexations by Ts'in--Duke Muh of Ts'in and Emperor Muh of China--Posthumous names--Discovery of ancient books--Supposed travels of Emperor Muh toTartary--Possibility of the Duke Muh having made the journeys--Ts'in and Tsin force Tartars to migrate--Surreptitious vassal"emperors"--Instances of Annam and Japan--Tsin against Ts'in andTs'u after Second Protector's death--Ts'i never again Protector--Ts'in's Chinese and Tartar advisers--Foundations for Ts'in'sfuture empire. 

CHAPTER XIV

_MORE ON PROTECTORS_

The Five Protectors of China more exactly defined--No such periodas the "Five Tyrant period" can be logically accepted as accurate--Chinese never understand the principles of history as distinctfrom the detailed facts--International situation defined--Flankmovements--Appearance of barbarous Wu in the Chinese arena--Phonetic barbarian names--The State of Wei--Enlightened princeenvoy to China from Wu--Wu rapidly acquires the status ofProtector--Confucius tampers with history--Risky position of theKing of Wu--Yüeh conquers Wu, and poses as Protector--The River Sz(Grand Canal). 

CHAPTER XV

_STATE INTERCOURSE_

Further explanations regarding the grouping of states, and thesize of the smallest states--Statesmen of all orthodox statesacquainted with one another--No dialect difficulties in ancienttimes--Records exist for everything--Absence of caste, butpersistence of the hereditary idea--The great political economistKwan-tsz--Tsz-ch'an, the prince-statesman of Cheng--Shuh Hiang, statesman of Tsin--Reference to Appendix No. R--The statesman Yen-tsz of Ts'i--Confucius' origin as a member of the royal Sungfamily--Confucius' wanderings not so very extensive--Confucius nomere pedant, but a statesman and a humorist--Hiang Suh of Sung, inventor of "Hague" Conferences--Ki-chah, prince-envoy of Wu--K'u-peh-yuh, an authority in Wei--Ts'in had no literary men--Lao-% ofTs'u--Reasons why Confucius does not mention him

CHAPTER XVI

_LAND AND PEOPLE_

Ancient land and land-tax-Combination of military service withland cultivation--Studious class had to study _tao_ (in itspre-Lao-tsz sense)--Next the trading classes--Next the cultivators--Last the handicraftsmen--Another division of the people--Responsibilityof rulers to God--Classification of rulers and ruling ranks--Eunuchsand slaves--Cadastral survey in Ts'u state--Reserves for sporting--Cemeteries--Salt-flats Another land and military service system inTs'u--Kwan-tsz's system in Ts'i--Poor relief--Shrewd diplomacy--Hismaster becomes First Protector--commerce and fairs--"The people"ignored in history--Tsin reforms and administration--The "great family"nuisance--Roads, supplies, post-stages--Ts'i had developed evenbefore Kwan-tsz--Restlessness of active minds under the yoke of ritual. 

CHAPTER XVII

_EDUCATION AND LITERARY_

Very little mention of ancient writing or education--Bakedinscribed bricks unknown to the _loess_ region--Cession ofland inscribed upon metal--The Nine Tripods--Ts'u claims them--Instances of written grants and prayers--Proof of teaching--Awritten public notice--Probable use of wood--Conventions uponstone--Books in sixth century B. C. --Maps, cadastre, and censusrecords--A doubtful instance--A closed letter--Indentures--Amilitary map--Treaties--Ancient theory _of_ juvenile educationfor office--Invention of new-written script 827 B. C. --Patriarchal ruleinconsistent with enlightenment--Unification of script, weights, measures, and axle-breadths by the First August Emperor Further invention of scriptand first dictionary--Facility of Chinese writing for reading purposes--Chinese now in a state of flux. 

CHAPTER XVIII

_TREATIES AND VOWS_

Treaties and imprecations--Smearing with blood of victims--Squabble _re_ precedence in the treaty-making--Shuh Niang'sphilosophy--Confucius' tampering with history condoned--Care ofChinese in preserving first-hand evidence--Emperor ignored bytreaty-makers--Form of a treaty, with imprecation--Mesne lords andtheir vassals--Negotiations and references for instructions--Ts'u's first protectorate in 538--Ts'u's difficulty with Wu--TheSix Families of Tsin--Sacrificing cocks as sanction to vows--Drawing human blood as sanction--Pigs for the same purpose--Kwan-tsz's honourable behaviour in keeping treaty--Confucius not sohonourable: instances given--Casuistry backed up by a proverb. 

CHAPTER XIX

_CONFUCIUS AND LITERATURE_

Life-time of Confucius--Secret of his influence--Visit of the Wuprince to Confucius' state--Lu's "powerful" family plague--Lu'sposition between Tsin and Ts'u influences--Ts'i studies the ritualin Lu: Yen-tsz goes thither--Sketch of Lu history in itsconnection with Confucius--What were his practical objects?--Authorities in support of what Confucius' Annals tell us--Originalconception of natural religion--Spread of the earliest patriarchalChinese state--No other people near them possessed letters--Theway in which the Chinese spread--Lines of least resistance--Thespiritual emperor compared with some of the Popes--Lu's spiritualposition--Confucius of Sung descent, and at first not aninfluential official in Lu--Lu's humiliation--Ts'i's intrigues tocounteract Confucius' genius--Travels of Confucius and hishistory--His edited works. 

CHAPTER XX

_LAW_

Original notion of law--War and punishment on a level--Secondarypunishments--Judgment given as each breach occurs--No distinctionbetween legislative and judicial--Private rights ignored by theState--Public weal is Nature's law--First law reform for theHundred Families--Dr. Legge's translation of the Code--Proclamation of the Emperor's laws--Themistes or decisions--Capricious instances: boiling alive by Emperor--Interference ofEmperor in Lu succession--Tsang Wen-chung's coat--Barbarity ofthe Ts'u laws--Lu's influence with the Emperor--Tsin's engravedlaws--Tsz-ch'an's laws on metal in Cheng--Confucius disapproves ofpublished law--English judge-made law--All rulers accepted Choulaw--Reading law over sacrificial victim--Laconic ancient laws--Command emanates from the north--Definition of imperial power--Thelaws of Li K'wei in Ngwei state (part of old Tsin)--Directinfluence on modern law. 

CHAPTER XXI

_PUBLIC WORKS_

Engineering works of old Emperors--Marvellous chiselled gorgeabove Tch'ang--Pa and Shuh kingdoms (= Sz Ch'wan)--The engineer LiPing in Sz Ch'wan: his sluices still in working order after 2200years of use--Chinese ideas about the sources of the Yang-tsz--TheLolo country and its independence--The Yellow River and itsvagaries--Substitution of the Chou dynasty for the Shang dynasty--First rulers of Wu make a canal--Origin of the Grand Canal--Explanation of the old riverine system of Shan Tung--Extension ofthe Canal by the First August Emperor--Kublai Khan's share in it--The old Wu capital--Soochow and its ancient arsenals--No bridgesin old clays: fords used--Instances--Limited navigability ofnorthern rivers--Various Great Walls--Enormous waste of humanlife--New Ts'in metropolis--Forced labour and eunuchs. 

CHAPTER XXII

_CITIES AND TOWNS_

Ancient cities mere hovels--Soul, the capital of modern Corea--Modern cities still poor affairs--Want of unity causes downfall ofTs'in and China--Magnificence of Ts'i capital--Ts'u's palacesimitated in Lu--The capital of Wu--Modern Soochow--Nothing knownof early Ts'in towns--Reforms of Wei Yang in Ts'in--Probablepopulation--Magnificent buildings at new Ts'in metropolis--Facility with which vassal states shifted their capitals--Insignificant size of ancient principalities--Walled cities. 

CHAPTER XXIII

_BREAK-UP OF CHINA_

Collapse of Wu, flight in boats to Japan--Ground to believe thatthe ruling caste of Japan was influenced by Chinese colonists inthe fifth century B. C. --Rise of Yueh, and action in China asProtector--Changes in the Hwai River system--Last days of the Choudynasty--The year 403 B. C. Is the second great pivot point inhistory--Undermining of Ts'i state by the T'ien or Ch'en family--Confucius shocked at the murder of a Ts'i prince--Sudden rise ofTs'in after two centuries of stagnation--The reforms of Wei Yanglead to the conquest of China--Orthodox China compared withGreece--The "Fighting State" Period. 

CHAPTER XXIV

_KINGS AND NOBLES_

Titles of the Emperors of the Chou dynasty--The word "King" inmodern times--Posthumous names--The title "Emperor" and the word"Imperial"--"God" confused with "Emperor"--Lao-tsz's view--Comparison with Babylonia, Egypt, etc. --No feudal prince wasrecognized by the Emperor as possessing the same title as theEmperor--The Roman Emperors--The five ranks of nobles--TheEmperor's private "dukes" compared with cardinals--The state ofLu--The state of Ts'i--The state of Tsin--No race hatreds inChina--The state of Wei--Clanship between dynasties--Sacrificialrights--The state of Cheng: a fighting ground for all--The stateof Ch'en--Explanation of the term "duke" as applied to allsovereign princes. 

CHAPTER XXV

_VASSALS AND EMPEROR_

The vassal princes of the Chou and previous dynasties--Vassalprinces and their relations with the Emperors--Protectors makegreat show of defending the Emperors rights--The Emperor'ssacrifices to God--Rules and rights concerning fees--All Chinabelongs to the Emperor--Peculiar notions about the Emperor'sterritory--Respect due to imperial envoys--Direct and indirectvassals--Ts'u's group of vassals--Ts'u compared with Macedon--Never subject to the Emperors--Right of passage for armies--Special complimentary use of the term "viscount"--Titles notinherited during mourning--Forms of address--Rival Protectors andtheir respective subordinate states--Tribute from the states tothe Emperor, and presents from the Emperor to the vassal states--The Emperor accepts _faits accomplis_, and takes what he canget. 

CHAPTER XXVI

_FIGHTING STATE PERIOD_

Period of fighting states--Tsin divided into Han, Ngwei, and Chao-Ts'in developing herself in Tartary and in Sz Ch'wan--Want oforderly method in Chinese history--How the statesmen of eachvassal state developed resources--Ts'in's military developmentcompared with that of Prussia from 1815 to 1870--"Perpendicularand Horizontal" period--Object to crush Ts'in--Rival claimants foruniversal empire--First appearance of the Huns or Turks-Helplessposition of Old China--Bloody battles in Ts'in's final career ofconquest--A million men decapitated--Immense cavalry fights-Ts'in's supreme effort for conquest of China. 

CHAPTER XXVII

_FOREIGN BLOOD_

_Resume_ of Chinese historical development--General lines ofChinese advance--Methods of Chinese colonization--Equal pedigreeclaims of half-Chinese states--Tsin and Ts'i were even moreancient than orthodox China--Degree of foreignness in Ts'u-Ts'unative words and music--Ts'u peculiarities-Succession laws in Ts'uand Lu compared--Further evidence of Ts'u's foreign ways--Beards--Titles, posthumous and other--Ts'u admits her own savagery--Ts'u'sclaim to the Nine Tripods--Ts'u and the Chou rites--Ts'u's gradualcivilization--Confucius' admiration of Ts'u--Confucius' style inspeaking of barbarians--Distinction between "beat" and "battle"--German distinctions of rank compared with Chinese--The historicalhonour of "naming"--Vagueness of testimony and the way to testevidence. 

CHAPTER XXVIII

_BARBARIANS_

The state of Wu--First Chinese princely emigrants adoptedbarbarian usages--The Jungle country and Wu--Wu's way of doing thehair and Wu's confession of barbarism--Federal China uses Wuagainst Ts'u--Wu the same language and manners as Yueh--Native Wuwords--Wu's ignorance of war--Wu's early isolation--Ts'i entersinto marriage relations with Wu--Mencius objects retrospectively--Wu ruling caste--The Wu language--Succession laws of Wu--A Wuprince's views on the soul--Confucius' views on ghosts--Ki-chah'sintimacy with orthodox statesmen--Rumours of Early Japan--Japanand Wu tattooing customs alike--Japanese traditions of aconnection with Wu--Dangers of etymological guess-work--Doubtsabout racial matters in Wu--Small value of Japanese history andtradition--General conclusions. 

CHAPTER XXIX

_CURIOUS CUSTOMS_

Small size of ancient China--Description of ancient nucleus andsurrounding barbarians--Amount of foreign element in each vassalstate--Policy of the Ts'i and Lu administrations--The savagetribes of the eastern coasts--Persistency of some down to 970A. D. --Ts'in's unliterary quality--Her human sacrifices--HerTurkish blood--Late influence of the Emperors over Ts'in--Ts'in'sgradual civilization--Ki-chah on Ts'in music--Ts'u treats Ts'in asbarbarian still in 361 B. C. --Ts'in's isolation previous to 326B. C. --Tartar rule of succession at one time in Ts'in--Yiieh'sbarbarism--Its able king--Native name--Mushroom existence as apower--The various branches of the Yiieh race in Foochow, W&chow, and Tonquin--Wu and Yiieh spoke the same language--Ruling caste ofWu--Stern military discipline in Wu and Yiieh--Neither stateproved to have had human sacrifices--Crawling customs--AncientChinese descent of rulers--Yiieh's later capital in the Germansphere--Her power always marine. 

CHAPTER XXX

_LITERARY RELATIONS_

Literary relations between vassal states--Confucius set the ballof philosophy a-rolling--The fourfold "Bible" of China--Odes weregenerally known by heart--Comparison with President Kruger and histexts--Quotations from Odes and Book enable us to fix dates--Bookswere heavy weights in those days--People trusted to memory--TheRites more exclusively understood by the ruling classes--Comparison with Johnsonian wits--Instances cited, with sideproofs--History and Classics corroborate each other-Evidences--Confucius' ancestor composes odes--Political song by the childrenof Tsin--Another still-existing ode in reference to the SecondProtector--Ts'u's early literary knowledge--General knowledge ofOdes and History--Ignorance of Ts'in-Ts'in ancient documents theonly ones now remaining--First definite notion of abolishing thefeudal system--The pivot point 403 B. C. --Ts'in's conquests innorth, south, east, and west--The First August Emperor's travels--Lao-tsz's Taoist philosophy becomes fashionable--Ts'in's hatred oforthodox literature, and of the Odes and Book in particular--TheBook of Changes escapes his hatred--Revolutionary decree of theFirst August Emperor-Lost annals of all feudal states but Ts'in--Learned Tartars of Tsin-Confucius used Tsin annals too--Origin ofthe name _Shi-ki, _ or "Historical Annals"--Further evidenceof lost histories--Curious name for Ts'u Annals--Ts'u poetry-Ts'u's knowledge of past history--The term "Springs and Autumns"--Baldness of early Chinese annals. 

CHAPTER XXXI

_ORIGIN OF THE CHINESE_

Whence did the Chinese come?--All men of equal age and ancestry--Records make civilization and nobility--Evidences of antiquity--China and the West totally unknown to each other in ancient times--Tartars the connecting link--Though tamed by religion they arenot much changed now--Traders then, as now, but no throughtravellers--Chinese probably in China for myriads of years beforetheir records began--Tonic peculiarities of all tribes near Chinaexcept the Tartars--Chinese followed lines of least resistance--Tartars driven back, but difficult to absorb--So with Coreans andJapanese-Indo-China not so favourable for Chinese absorption--Records decided the direction taken by culture--Southern half-Chinese have equal claims with orthodox Chinese--Traditions ofancient emperors in north, coast, and south parts--Suggestions asto how the most ancient Chinese spread themselves--No hint ofimmigration from anywhere--The old suggestion of immigration fromthe Tarim Valley and Babylonia--Suggested compromise with Westernreligious views--Creation and Nature--Compromise with thesupernatural and imaginative--Summing up. 

CHAPTER XXXII

_THE CALENDAR_

The Chinese calendar--Confucius and eclipses--Proclaiming the newmoon--Celestial observations in different states--Chinese year isluni-Solar--Difficulty with the exact length of a moon--Ingeniousdevices for bringing the solar and lunar years, the seasons, solstices, and equinoxes into harmony with agricultural needs--Thesixty-year cycle--Various reforms of the calendar, and variouschanges in the month beginning the year--Effect of calendarchanges on Confucius' birthday--All is evidence in favour ofaccuracy of the Chinese records. 

CHAPTER XXXIII

_NAMES_

The difficulty of proper names--Instances-Clans and detachedfamilies--Surnames and personal names--Strange personalappellations--Interchange of names by all states--Eunuchs andpriests-Minute rules about "naming" individuals--Confucius conveyspraise or censure by "naming" persons--The principles upon whichseveral names are applied to one person--Tabu-Instances, and Romanparallel--The Duke of Chou virtual founder of posthumous namesystem--Dying king and posthumous choice of name--Incestuousmarriages in own clan--Hushing up incest in high places--Complication of names connected--Bearing of names upon thepolitical events connected therewith. 

CHAPTER XXXIV

_EUNUCHS, HUMAN SACRIFICES, FOOD_

Eunuchs and their origin--criminals with feet chopped off askeepers--Noseless criminals for isolated picket duty--The brandedwere gate-keepers--Eunuchs for the harem--"Purified men"--Comparative antiquity of Persia and China--Eunuchs in Tsin--Ts'ieunuchs and Confucius--Eunuchs in Wu--Ts'u's uses for eunuchs--Eunuch intrigues in connection with the First August Emperor--TheFirst Emperor's putative father--His works--Eunuch witnessesassassination of Second August Emperor--General employ of eunuchsin China--Human sacrifices in Ts'in and Ts'u: also in Ts'i--Doubtsas to its existence in orthodox China--Han Emperor's prohibition--No fruit wine in ancient China--Spirits universal--Vice aroundancient China rather than in it--Instances of heavy drinking inTs'i and Ts'u--Tsin drinking--Confucius and liquor--Drinking inTs'in--Ancient Chinese were meat-eaters--Horse-flesh and Tartars--Horse-liver in Prussia--Anecdote of Duke Muh and the hippophagi--Bears' paws as food--Elephants in Ts'u--Dogs as food. 

CHAPTER XXXV

_KNOWLEDGE OF THE WEST_

The Emperor Muh's voyages to the West in 984 B. C. --The question ofdestroyed state annals-Exaggerated importance of the expedition, even if facts true--King Muh's father was killed in a similarexpedition--Discovery of the Bamboo Books of 299 B. C. In 281 A. D. --Imaginary interpretations put upon King Muh's expedition byEuropean critics--The Queen of Sheba--Professor Chavannesattributes the travels of Duke Muh of Ts'in 650 B. C. --Descriptionof first journey--Along the great road to Lob Nor-Modern evidencethat he got as far as Urumtsi--Six hundred days, or 12, 000 miles--Specific evidence as to distance travelled each day--VariousTartar incidents of the journey--The Emperor's infatuation on thesecond journey--Lieh-tsz, the Taoist philosopher, on the EmperorMuh's travels--Arguments qualifying M. Chavannes' view that DukeMuh, and not the Emperor Muh, undertook the journeys. 

CHAPTER XXXVI

_ANCIENT JAPAN_

Wu kingdom--Name begins 585 B. C. --This is the year Japanese"history" begins--The first king and his four sons--Prince Ki-chah--War with Ts'u and sacking of its capital--King Fu-ch'ai andhis wars against Yiieh--Offered an asylum in Chusan--Suicide ofFu-ch'ai--Escape of his family across the seas to Japan--Chinaknew nothing of Japan, even if Wu did--Story reduced to its trueproportions--Traces of prehistoric men in Japan--Possiblemovements of original inhabitants--Existing evidence better thannone at all--East from Ningpo must be Japan--Like early Greeks andEgyptian colonists--Natural impulses to emigration--Refugees fromChina compared to Will Adams--Natural desire to improve pedigrees--No shame to Japan's ruling caste to hail from China--Europeancomparisons--How the Japanese manufactured their past history--Imagination must be kept separate from evidence. 

CHAPTER XXXVII

_ETHICS_

Peculiar customs--Formalities of surrender--A number of instancesof succession rules--Status of wives-Cases where the Emperorhimself breaks the rules--Instances of irregular succession invarious states--Customs of war--Cutting off the left ear astrophy--Rewards for heads--Principles of facing north and south--Turning towards Mecca--Left and Right princes--Modern instances ofofficial seating--North and south facing houses--Chivalrous rulesabout mourning--Funeral missions--The feudal yearnings ofConfucius explained--Respect even of barbarians for mourning--Manyother quaint instances of funeral and mourning rules--Promisesmade to a dying _non compos_ of no avail--Mencius and thediplomatists. 

CHAPTER XXXVIII

_WOMEN AND MORALS_

Rights of women in ancient China--The legal rule and the actualfact--Instances of irregularity in female status, both in ancientand modern China--Instances of incest and irregular marriage evenin orthodox states-Women, once married, not to come back--Themuch-married Second Protector--Hun and Turk customs about takingover Wives--Clan marriages of doubtful legality--Succession rules--Ts'u irregularities and caprice--Elder brothers by inferiorwives--Paranymphs, or under-studies of the wife--Women alwaysunder some man's power--Incestuous fathers--_Lex Julia_ introducedinto Yiieh by its vengeful King--The evil morals of the Shanghai-Ningporegion of ancient Yiieh--No prostitution in ancient China, except perhapsin Ts'i--No infanticide--Incest and names. 

CHAPTER XXXIX

_GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE_

Orthodox China compared with orthodox Greece--Our persistent"traditions" about the Tower of Babel and the Tarim Valley-Wu, Yiieh, and ancient traditions--The "Tribute of Yii" says nothingof Western origin of Chinese--No ancient knowledge of the West, nor of South China--The Blackwater River and the Emperor Muh--The"Tribute of Yii" says nothing of the supposed Western emigrationof the Chinese--Some traditions of Chinese migrations from thesouth--Traditions of enfeoffment of vassals in Corea, about 1122B. C. --Knowledge of China as defined by the First Protector, and asvisited by the Second in the seventh century B. C. --Evidence of theEmperor's limited knowledge of China in 670 B. C. --Yiieh firstappears in 536 B. C. --Tsin never saw the sea till 589 B. C. --Ts'i'signorance of the south-u, Yiieh, and Ts'u all purely Yang-tszriverine states--Ts'u alone knew the south--CHÊNG's ignorance ofthe south--Ts'u and orthodox China of the same ancient stock--Tsin's ignorance of Central China--Tsin defines Chinese limits forTs'u--Ancient orthodox nucleus was the "Central State, " a namestill employed to mean "China" as a whole. 

CHAPTER XL

_TOMBS AND REMAINS. _

Evidences still remaining in the shape of the tombs of greathistorical personages--Elephants used to work at the Wu tombs--Royal Ts'u tomb desecrated--Relics of 1122 B. C. Found in Lu--Ts'indestitute of relics--Confucius and the Duke of Chou's relics--Eachgeneration of Chinese sees and doubts not of its own antiquities--No reason for European scepticism--Native critics know much morethan we do. 

CHAPTER XLI

_THE TARTARS_

From ancient times Tartars intimately connected with the Chinese--How the Chou state had to migrate to avoid the Tartars--Chouancestors had originally fled from China to the Tartars--Choufamily's subsequent dealings with the Tartars--How Ts'in replacedChou as the semi-Tartar or westernmost state of China--Tartars formany centuries in possession of Yellow River north bank--Onceextended to Kiang Su province--Confucius' knowledge of theTartars--Tartar attacks in the eighth and seventh centuries B. C. --Causes of the Protector system--Incompetence of Emperors to staveoff Tartar attacks--Ts'i's extensive relations with the Tartars--The Second Protector and his adviser--Rude treatment of the SecondProtector by the orthodox Chinese states--Ts'u's bluff hospitality--Second Protector had to check Chinese instead of Tartar ambitions--Tsin's Tartar admixture--Comparison with Roman adventurers--HowTartars have in modern times ruled China and Asia. 

CHAPTER XLII

_MUSIC_

Music in Chinese life--Confucius' present dwelling and the ancientinstruments therein--Comparison with Wagner's Ring--Musicians ascorrupters of simplicity--Tsin and Ts'in dialects--Music as anadjunct to government--Confucius' views on music--Ts'u music--Theeffect of music on the mind--Rewards in the shape of right to playcertain tunes--The Emperor Muh's music--Music coupled withsoothsaying--Lao-tsz on benevolence and justice-Playing the banjo--Music at sacrifice or worship--Modern abstinence from music--First August Emperor compared with Saul and his music. 

CHAPTER XLIII

_WEALTH, SPORTS, ETC. _

Ancient and modern ideas of wealth--Ts'in and Ts'u valuables--Furniture--Mats and divans--Tea and wine--Tartar couches--Inlaidivory sofas--State treasure--Wealth in horses-Silks and furs inTsin and Ts'u--Women as property--Pearls and jade as portableproperty--A Chinese Crocesus--Escape by sea to Shan Tung--Gold asmoney--Bribery with "metal"--Iron and gold mines in Wu--Fine Wuswords--"Cash" as coins--Ts'u money--Weight of a gold piece--Cooksimportant personages--"Meat-eaters" meant the ruling classes--Silk universal--Poor wore hemp--No cotton--Ts'in custom of wearingswords--Jade marks of rank--Sports--Egret fights-war hunts--Horsesin Peking plain--Hunting chariots and "shaft-gates"--_Yamen, ya_, and Turkish encampments--Cockfighting-Lifting heavyweights--Ball games--Women at looms--Little said of family life--No homely pastimes--No squeezed feet--Helplessness of the peopleunder their taskmasters. 

CHAPTER XLIV

_CONFUCIUS_

Confucius--His merits--His imperial and ducal origin--Migration ofhis family from Sung to Lu--His warrior father--His quaintchildish fancies--Lu officer foretells his greatness--His firstpupils--His appointment as steward--His visit to Laos--No reasonfor mentioning this visit in history--Neither philosopher yet"great"--Lu in a quandary--Helplessness of the Emperor under Tsin, Ts'i, and Ts'u pressure--Yen-tsz sees Confucius, and discussesTs'in's greatness--Studying the Rites at Lu-Date of Confucius'visit to Lao-tsz--Struggle of great families for popular rights--Confucius offers services to Ts'i--Examines Rites of Hia--Yen-tsz's jealousy of Confucius--Confucius back in Lu--His literarylabours--His official posts and his views on law--Ts'i overborneby Wu--Ts'i's attempt at assassination defeated by Confucius'diplomacy--Treaty between Lu and Ts'i--Civil war in Lu--ConfuciusPremier--Successful administration--Confucius leaves Lu indisgust--His treatment in Wei state--Leaves Wei, but returns toold friend there--Confucius' suspicious visit to a lady--Leavesdisgusted _via_ Sung for Ts'ao--Visits to Cheng (mistaken forTsz-ch'an) and Ch'en--A prey to rival ambitions--Episode of theManchurian bustard--Revisits Wei--Arrested; solemn promise broken--Base behaviour--Starts to visit Tsin--Confucius' enemy repents--Arrangements to get Confucius back to Lu--He first visits Ts'ai-Excursion to Ts'u--Three years more in Ts'ai--T-s'u's literarystatus--Competition amongst princes for Confucius' services--Confucius and war--Reaches Lu after fourteen years of wandering--Confucius' travels the same as the Second Protector's--Consoleshimself with literature--Popularizes history-Edits the Changes andthe Odes--His history--The Tso Chwan. 

CHAPTER XLV

_CONFUCIUS AND LAO-TSZ_

Historians had to be careful--Reverence for rulers--Confucius'feelings--His failings--All on the surface--His concealments--Hisartful censures--Sanctity of the classes--Confucius' meannessesand indiscretions--Allowances must be made for time and place--Tsz-ch'an quite as good a man--Reasons for permanency of Confuciansystem--Reasons for Lao-tsz not being mentioned--All Chinesestatesman-philosophers were, or tried to be, practical--Firstmention of Lao-tsz's new Taoism--Lao-tsz well known 400 B. C. --State intercourse before Confucius' time--Philosophy taught byword of mouth--Cheapening of books accounts for spread ofknowledge--Description of ancient books--Confucius was young whenhe visited Lao-tsz--Lao-t&s book in ancient character--Meagrenessof details evidence of rigid truth--Obscurity of the Emperor--Difficult questions of fact answered--How Lao-tsz was visited--Proofs of genuineness--Originals must be studied by foreigncritics. 

CHAPTER XLVI

_ORACLES AND OMENS_

Consulting the oracles--The Changes, or Book of Diagrams--Ts'u andTs'i as instructors of Chou--Tortoise augury--Consultingancestors--Heaven's decree--Heaven's spontaneous, manifestationsof favour--Astrology--Prognostication--Text of the Changessurvives unmutilated--Ts'in consults oracles about moving capital--Ts'in's greatness foretold--Omens--_Dies_ n&s--Oracles inthe battlefield--Prophecy in Tsin, Ts'u, and Lu--Shuh Hiang'sscepticism--Tsz-ch'an and the omen of fighting snakes--Childrensing prophetic songs--"Passing on" threatened evil--Tortoiseoracles in Ts'o and Wu--High status of diviners-"-Transferring"evil in Ts'u--Rivers as gods--Our own prophecies--Good faith andtruth. 

CHAPTER XLVII

_RULERS AND PEOPLE_

Personal character of wars--People's interests ignored--Instances--Comparisons with the Golden Fleece and Naboth's vineyard--SecondProtector avenges scurvy treatment--The halt, the maim, and theblind--Jephthah's rash vow-Divinity of kings--Ts'u more tyrannicalthan China--Responsibility of Chinese before Heaven--The King cando no wrong--Emperors reign under Heaven--Heaven in the confidenceof rulers--Sacred person of kings--Distinction between officialand private death--Double chivalry of a Tsin general--The gods andTsz-ch'an's scepticism. 

APPENDICES

INDEX

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

[For the illustration of the Wuchuan vase, and the inscriptionthereon, I am indebted to Dr. S. W. Bushell M. D. , from whose workon "Chinese Art" (vol. I. P. 82) the plates (kindly lent by H. M. Stationery Office) are taken. For the photograph of the Duke of"Propagating Holiness" (i. E. Confucius) I am indebted to theJesuit Fathers of Shanghai, and to Father Tschepe, who obtained itfrom his Grace. ]

1. Tripod of the Chou dynasty, date 8l2 B. C. In 1565 A. D. It wasplaced by the owner for safety in a temple on Silver Island (nearChinkiang), where it may be seen now. 

Taken (by kind permission of the author) from Dr. S. W. Bushell's"Chinese Art, " vol. I. P. 82. _Frontispiece_

2. K'ung Ling-i, the hereditary Yen-shêng Kung, or "PropagatingHoliness Duke"; 76th in descent from K'ung K'iu, alias K'ungChung-ni, the original philosopher, 551-479 B. C. 

This portrait was presented to "the priest P'êng" (Father Tschepe, S. J. ), on the occasion of his visit last autumn (7th moon, 33rdyear). To _face page 81_

3. Original inscription on the Sacrificial Tripod, together with(1) transcription in modern Chinese character (to the right), and(2) an account of its history (to the left). Taken from Dr. Bushell's "Chinese Art". 

[Illustration: MAP]

LIST OF MAPS

1. The other small maps will explain each section more in detail. 

2. This map is intended to give a general idea of the extremelylimited area of the empire in the sixth century B. C. 

3. Like the modern Sultan, the Chow Emperor was gradually driveninto a corner, surrounded by Bulgarias, Servias, Egypts, and othercountries once under his effective rule; and, like the Sultan, theChou Emperor remained spiritual head for many centuries after thepractical dismemberment of his empire. 

4. Until quite recent times, the true source of the Yang-tsz hadbeen unknown to the Chinese, and the River Min has been, and evenstill is, considered to be the chief head-water. It flows throughthe rich country of ancient Shuh, now the administrative centre ofSz Ch'wan province. 

5. Even now the Yang-tsz River is practically the only great routefrom China into Sz Ch'wan, and in ancient times the rapids wereprobably not negotiable by large craft. 

6. The land routes into Sz Ch'wan from the head-waters of the Weiand Ilan Rivers are all extremely precipitous. It was not until200 B. C. That any military road was attempted. 

7. Ancient China meant the Yellow River. Then the Han and theHwai. Next the Yang-tsz. Last the Sz Ch'wan tributaries of theYang-tsz. It was through the lakes and rivers south of the Yang-tsz that China at last colonized the south. 

CHAPTER I

OPENING SCENES

The year 842 B. C. May be considered the first accurate date inChinese history, and in this year the Emperor had to flee from hiscapital on account of popular dissatisfaction with his tyrannicalways: he betook himself northward to an outlying settlement on theTartar frontier, and the charge of imperial affairs was taken overby a regency or duumvirate. 

At this time the confederation of cultured princes called China--or, to use their own term, the Central Kingdom--was a verydifferent region from the huge mass of territory familiar to usunder those names at the present day. It is hardly an exaggerationto say that civilized China, even at that comparatively advancedperiod, consisted of little more than the modern province of HoNan. All outside this flat and comparatively riverless regioninhabited by the "orthodox" was more or less barbaric, and suchcivilization as it possessed was entirely the work of Chinesecolonists, adventurers, or grantees of fiefs _in partibusinfidelium_ (so to speak). Into matters of still earlierancient history we may enter more deeply in another chapter, butfor the present we simply take China as it was when definitechronology begins. 

The third of the great dynasties which had ruled over this limitedChina had, in 842 B. C. , already been on the imperial throne forpractically three hundred years, and, following the custom of itspredecessors, it had parcelled out all the land under its sway tovassal princes who were, subject to the general imperial law andcustom, or ritual, together with the homage and tribute dutyprescribed thereunder, all practically absolute in their owndomains. Roughly speaking, those smaller fiefs may be said to havecorresponded in size with the walled-city and surrounding districtof our own times, so well known under the name of _hien_. About a dozen of the larger fiefs had been originally granted tothe blood relations of the dynastic founder in or after 1122 B. C. ;but not exclusively so, for it seems to have been a point ofhonour, or of religious scruple, not to "cut off the sacrifices"from ruined or disgraced reigning families, unless the attendantcircumstances were very gross; and so it came to pass thatsuccessive dynasties would strain a point in order to keep up thespiritual memory of decayed or rival houses. 

Thus, at the time of which we speak (842 B. C. ), about ten of thedozen or so of larger vassal princes were either of the same clanas the Emperor himself, or were descended from remoter branches ofthat clan before it secured the imperial throne; or, again, weredescended from ministers and statesmen who had assisted thefounder to obtain empire; whilst the two or three remaining greatvassals were lineal representatives of previous dynasties, or oftheir great ministers, keeping up the honour and the sacrifices ofbygone historical personages. As for the minor fiefs, numberingsomewhere between a thousand and fifteen hundred, these play nopart in political history, except as this or that one of them mayhave been thrust prominently forward for a moment as a pawn in thegame of ambition played by the greater vassals. Nominally theEmperor was direct suzerain lord of all vassals, great or small;but in practice the greater vassal princes seem to have been whatin the Norman feudal system were called "mesne lords"; that is, each one was surrounded by his own group of minor ruling lords, who, in turn, naturally clung for protection to that powerfulmagnate who was most immediately accessible in case of need; thusvassal rulers might be indefinitely multiplied, and there is somevagueness as to their numbers. 

Just as the oldest civilizations of the West concentratedthemselves along the banks of the Euphrates and the Nile, so themost ancient Chinese civilization is found concentrated along thesouth bank of the Yellow River. The configuration of the land asshown on a modern map assists us to understand how the industriouscultivators and weavers, finding the flat and so-called_loess_ territory too confined for their ever-increasingnumbers, threw out colonies wherever attraction offered, andwherever the riverine systems gave them easy access; whether byboat and raft; or whether--as seems more probable, owing to thescanty mention of boat-travel--by simply following the low levelssought by the streams, and tilling on their way such pasturages asthey found by the river-sides. When it is said that the earliestChinese we know of clung to the Yellow River bed, it must beremembered that "the River" (as they call it simply) turned sharpto the north at a point in Ho Nan province very far to the west ofits present northerly course, near a city marked in the modernmaps as Jung-t&h, in lat. 35 degrees N. , long, 114 degrees E. , orthereabouts; moreover, its course further north lay considerably to thewestward of the present Grand Canal, taking possession now of thebed of the Wei River, now of that of the Chang River, according towhether we regard it before or after the year 602 B. C. ; but alwaysentering the Gulf near modern Tientsin. Hence we need not besurprised to find that the Conqueror or Assertor of the dynastyhad conferred upon a staunch adviser, of alien origin, and upontwo of his most trusty relatives, the three distant fiefs whichcommanded both sides of the Yellow River mouth, at that time nearthe modern Tientsin. There was no Canal in those days, and theriver which runs past Confucius' birth-place, and now goes towardsfeeding the Grand Canal, had then a free course south-east towardsthe lakes in Kiang Su province to the north of Nanking. It will benoticed that quite a network of tributary rivers take their risein Ho Nan province, and trend in an easterly direction towards theintricate Hwai River system. The River Hwai, which has a greathistory in the course of Chinese development, was in quite recenttimes taken possession of by the Yellow River for some years, andsince then the Grand Canal and the lakes between them have soimpeded its natural course that it may be said to have no naturaldelta at all; to be dissipated in a dedalus of salt flats, irrigation channels, and marshes: hence it is not so obvious to usnow why the whole coast-line was at the period we are nowdescribing, when there was no Grand Canal, quite beyond the reachof Chinese colonization from the Yellow River valley: this wasonly possible in two directions--firstly to the south, by way ofthe numerous ramifications of the Han River, which now, as then, joins the Yang-tsz Kiang at Hankow; and secondly to the south-east, by way of the equally numerous ramifications of the HwaiRiver, which entered the sea in lat. 34ø N. No easy emigration tothe westward or south-westward was possible in those comparativelyroadless days, for not a single river pointed out the obvious way towould-be colonists. 

Accustomed as we now are to regard China as one vast homogeneouswhole, approachable to us easily from the sea, it is not easy forus to understand the historical lines of expansion without thesepreliminary explanations. Corea and Japan were totally unknowneven by name, and even Liao Tung, or "East of the River Liao, "which was then inhabited by Corean tribes, was, if known bytradition at all, certainly only in communication with the remoteChinese colony, or vassal state, in possession of the Pekingplain: on the other hand, this vassal state itself (if it hadrecords of its own at all), for the three centuries previous to842 B. C. , had no political relations with the federated Chineseprinces, and nothing is known of its internal doings, or of itsimmediate relations (if any) with Manchus and Coreans. The wholecoast-line of Shan Tung was in the hands of various tribes of"Eastern Barbarians. " True, a number of Chinese vassal rulers heldpetty fiefs to the south and the east of the two highly civilizedprincipalities already described as being in possession of theLower Yellow River; but the originally orthodox rulers of thesepetty colonies are distinctly stated to have partly followedbarbarian usage, even despite their own imperial clan origin, andto have paid court to these two greater vassals as mesne lords, instead of direct to the Emperor. South of these, again, came theHwai group of Eastern barbarians in possession of the Lower Hwaivalley, and the various quite unknown tribes of Eastern barbariansoccupying the marshy salt flats and shore accretions on the KiangSu coast right down to the River Yang-tsz mouth. 

As we shall see, a century or two later than 842 B. C. Powerfulsemi-Chinese states began to assert themselves against thefederated orthodox Chinese princes lying to their north; but, whendated history first opens, Central China knew nothing whatever ofany part of the vast region lying to the south of the Yang-tsz;nothing whatever of what we now call Yiin Nan and Sz Ch'wan, notto say of the Indian and Tibetan dominions lying beyond them; _fortiori_ nothing of Formosa, Hainan, Cochin-China, Tonquin, Burma, Siam, or the various Hindoo trading colonies advancing fromthe South Sea Islands northwards along the Indo-Chinese coasts;nothing whatever of Tsaidam, the Tarim Valley, the Desert, thePersian civilization, Turkestan, Kashgaria, Tartary, or Siberia. 

It is, and will here be made, quite clear that the whole of theleft bank of the Yellow River was in possession of various Turkishand Tartar-Tibetan tribes. The only exception is that the south-west corner of Shan Si province, notably the territory enclosedbetween the Yellow River and the River F&n (which, running fromthe north, bisects Shan Si province and enters the Yellow Riverabout lat. 35" 30' N. , long. 110 degrees 30' E. ) was colonized by a branchof the imperial family quite capable of holding its own againstthe Tartars; in fact, the valley of this river as far north asP'ing-yang Fu had been in semi-mythical times (2300 B. C. ) theimperial residence. It will be noticed that the River Wei joinsthe Yellow River on its right bank, just opposite the point wherethis latter, flowing from the north, bends eastwards, the Weiitself flowing from the west. This Wei Valley (including the sub-valleys of its north-bank tributaries) was also in 842 B. C. Colonized by an ancient Chinese family--not of imperial extractionso far as the reigning house was concerned--which, by adoptingTartar, or perhaps Tartar--Tibetan, manners, had for manygenerations succeeded in acquiring a predominant influence in thatregion. Assuming that--which is not at all improbable--the nomadhorsemen in unchallenged possession of the whole desert and Tartarexpanse had at any time, as a consequence of their raids indirections away from China westward, brought to China any newideas, new commercial objects, or new religious notions, thesenovelties must almost necessarily have filtered through this semi-Chinese half-barbarous state in possession of the Wei Valley, orthrough other of their Tartar kinsmen periodically engaged inraiding the settled Chinese cultivators farther east, along theline of what is now the Great Wall, and the northern parts of ShanSi and Chih Li provinces. 

We shall allude in a more convenient place and chapter to specifictraditions touching the supposed journeys about 990 B. C. Of aChinese Emperor to Turkestan; the alleged missions from Tonquin toa still earlier Chinese Emperor or Regent; and the pretendedcolonization of Corea by an aggrieved Chinese noble-all threeevents some centuries earlier than the opening period of datedhistory of which we now specially speak. For the present we ignorethem, as, even if true, these events have had, and have now, nospecific or definite influence whatever on the question of Chinesepolitical development as expounded here. It seems certain that formany centuries previous to 842 B. C. The ruling and the literaryChinese had known of the existence of at least the Lower Yang-tszand its three mouths (the Shanghai mouth and the Hangchow mouthhave ceased long ago to exist at all): they also seem to haveheard in a vague way of "moving sands" beyond the great northerlybend of the Yellow River in Tartarland. It is not even impossiblethat the persistent traditions of two of their very ancientEmperors having been buried south of the Yang-tsz--one near themodern coast treaty-port of Ningpo, the other near the modernriverine treaty-port of Ch'ang-sha--may be true; for nothing ismore likely than that they both met their death whilst exploringthe tributaries of the mysterious Yang-tsz Kiang lying to theirsouth; because the father of the adventurous Emperor who issupposed to have explored Tartary in ggo B. C. Certainly lost hislife in attempting to explore the region of Hankow, as will beexplained in due course. 

All this, however, is matter of side issue. The main point we wishto insist upon, by way of introduction, in endeavouring to giveour readers an intelligible notion of early Chinese development, is that Chinese beginnings were like any other great nation'sbeginnings--like, for instance, the Greek beginnings; these werecentred at first round an extremely petty area, which, graduallyexpanding, threw out its tentacles and branches, and led to thefinal inclusion of the mysterious Danube, the gloomy Russianplain, the Tin Islands, Ultima Thule, and the Atlantic coasts intoone fairly harmonious Graeco-Roman civilization. Or it may becompared to the development of the petty Anglo-Saxon settlementsand kingdoms and sub-kingdoms, and their gradual politicalabsorption of the surrounding Celts. In any case it may be saidthat there is nothing startlingly new about it; it followed anormal course. 

CHAPTER II

SHIFTING SCENES

Having now seen how the Chinese people, taking advantage of thematerial and moral growth naturally following upon a settledindustrial existence, and above all upon the exclusive possessionof a written character, gradually imposed themselves as rulersupon the ignorant tribes around them, let us see to what familiesthese Chinese emigrant adventurers or colonial satraps belonged. To begin with the semi-Tartar power in the River Wei Valley--destined six hundred years later to conquer the whole of China aswe know it to-day--the ruling caste claimed descent from the mostancient (and of course partly mythological) Emperors of China; butfor over a thousand years previous to 842 B. C. This remote branchof the Chinese race had become scattered and almost lost amongstthe Tartars. However, a generation or two before our openingperiod, one of these princes had served the then ruling imperialdynasty as a sort of guardian to the western frontier, as a rearerof horses for the metropolitan stud, and perhaps even as a guideon the occasion of imperial expeditions into Tartarland. Thesuccessor of the Emperor who was driven from his capital in 842B. C. About twenty years later employed this western satrap tochastise the Tartar nomads whose revolt had in part led to theimperial flight. After suffering some disasters, the conductors ofthis series of expeditions were at last successful, and in 815B. C. The title of "Warden of the Western Marches" was officiallyconferred on the ruler for the time being of this western state, who in 777 B. C. Had the further honour of seeing one of hisdaughters married to the Emperor himself. This political move onthe part of the Emperor was unwise, for it led indirectly to theTartars, who were frequently engaged in war with the Warden, interfering in the quarrels about the imperial succession, inwhich question the Tartars naturally thought they had a right tointerfere in the interests of their own people. The upshot of itwas that in 771 B. C. The Emperor was killed by the Tartars inbattle, and it was only by securing the military assistance of thesemi-Tartar Warden of the Marches that the imperial dynasty wassaved. As it was, the Emperor's capital was permanently moved eastfrom the immediate neighbourhood of what we call Si-ngan Fu inShen Si province to the immediate neighbourhood of Ho-nan Fu inthe modern Ho Nan province; and as a reward for his services theWarden was granted nearly the whole of the original imperialpatrimony west of the Yellow River bend and on both sides of theWei Valley. This was also in the year 771 B. C. , and this is reallyone of the great pivot-points in Chinese history, of equal weightwith the almost contemporaneous founding of Rome, and the gradualsubstitution of a Roman centre for a Greek centre in thedevelopment and civilization of the Far West. The new capital wasnot, however, a new city. Shortly after the imperial dynastygained the possession of China in 1122 B. C. , it had been surveyed, and some of the regalia had been taken thither; this, with a viewof making it one of the capitals at least, if not the solecapital. 

As Chinese names sound uncouth to our Western ears, and will, therefore, in these introductory chapters only be used sparinglyand gradually, it becomes correspondingly difficult to explainhistorical phenomena adequately whilst endeavouring to avoid asfar as possible the use of such unintelligible names: it will bewell, then, to sum up the situation, and even repeat a little, sothat the reader may assimilate the main points without fatigue orrepulsion. The reigning dynasty of Chou had secured the adhesionof the thousand or more of Chinese vassal princes in 1122 B. C. , and had in other words "conquered" China by invitation, much inthe same way, and for very much the same general reasons, thatWilliam III. Had' accepted the conquest of the British Isles; thatis to say, because the people were dissatisfied with theirlegitimate ruler and his house. But, before this conquest, thevassal princes of Chou had occupied practically the sameterritory, and had stood in the same relation to the imperialdynasty subsequently ousted by them in 1122, that the Wardens ofthe Marches occupied and stood in when the imperial house of Chouin turn fled east in 771 B. C. The Shang dynasty thus ousted by theChou princes in 1122, had for like misgovernment driven out theHia dynasty in 1766 B. C. Thus, at the time when the Wardens of theMarches (whose real territorial title was Princes of Ts'in)practically put the imperial power into commission in 771 B. C. , the two old-fashioned dynasties of Shang and Chou had alreadyruled patriarchally for almost exactly one thousand years, andnothing of either a very startling, or a very definite, characterhad taken place at all within the comparatively narrow areadescribed in our first chapter. 

From this date of 771 B. C. , and for five hundred years more downto 250 B. C. , when the Chou dynasty was extinguished, the rule ofthe feudal Emperors of China was almost purely nominal, and exceptin so far as this or that powerful vassal made use of the moral, and even occasionally of the military power of the metropolitandistrict when it suited his purpose, the imperial ruler waschiefly exercised in matters of form and ritual; for under allthree patriarchal dynasties it was on form and ritual that theidea of government had always been based. Of course the otherpowerful satraps--especially the more distant ones, those notbearing the imperial clan-name, and those more or less tinged withbarbarian usages--learning by degrees what a helpless andpowerless personage the Emperor had now become, lost no time inturning the novel situation to their own advantage: it isconsequently now that begins the "tyrant period, " or the period ofthe "Five Dictators, " as the Chinese historians loosely term it:that is to say, the period during which each satrap who had thepower to do so took the lead of the satrap body in general, andgave out that he was restoring the imperial prestige, representingthe Emperor's majesty, carrying out the behests of reason, compelling the other vassals to do their duty, keeping up thelegitimist sacrifices, and so on. In other words, the populationof China had grown so enormously, both by peaceful in-breeding andby imperceptible absorption of kindred races, that more elbow-roomwas needed; more freedom from the shackles of ritual, rank, andfeudal caste; more independence, and more liberty to takeadvantage of local or changed traditions. Besides all this, theart of writing, though still clumsy, expensive, and confined inits higher and literary aspects to the governing classes, hadrecently become simplified and improved; the salt trade, irontrade, fish industry, silk industry, grain trade, and art of usuryhad spread from one state to the other, and had developed: thoughthe land roads were bad or non-existent, there were great numbersof itinerant dealers in cattle and army provisions. In a word, material civilization had made great strides during the thousandyears of patriarchal rule immediately preceding the criticalperiod comprised between the year 842 B. C. And the year 771 B. C. The voices of the advocates and the preachers of ancientpatriarchal virtues were as of men crying in a wilderness ofsubstantial prosperity and manly ambition. Thus political andnatural forces combined with each other to prepare the way for aradical change, and this period of incipient revolution isprecisely the period (722-480) treated of in Confucius' history, the first history of China--meagre though it be--which deals withdefinite human facts, instead of "beating the air" (as the Chinesesay) with sermons and ritualistic exhortations. 

CHAPTER III

THE NORTHERN POWERS

We have already alluded to a princely family, of the same clan-name as the Chou Emperor, which had settled in the southern partof modern Shan Si province, and had thus acted as a sort of bufferstate to the imperial domain by keeping off from it the Tartar-Turk tribes in the north. This family was enfeoffed by the newChou dynasty in 1106 B. C. To replace the extremely ancientprincely house which had reigned there ever since the earliestEmperors ruled from that region (2300 B. C. ), but which hadresisted the Chou conquest, and had been exterminated. Nothingdefinite is known of what transpired in this principalitysubsequently to the infeoffment of 1106 B. C. , and prior to theevents of 771 B. C. , at which latter date the ruling prince, hearing of the disaster to his kinsman the Emperor, went to meetthat monarch's fugitive successor, and escorted him eastwards tohis new capital. This metropolis had, as we have explainedalready, been marked out some 340 years before this, and hadcontinued to be one of the chief spiritual and political centresin the imperial domain; but for some reason it had never before771 B. C. Been officially declared a capital, or at all events_the_ capital. Confucius, in his history, does not mention atall the petty semi-Tartar state of which we are now speakingbefore 671 B. C. , and all that we know of its doings during thiscentury of time is that rival factions, family intrigues, andpetty annexations at the cost of various Tartar tribes, and ofsmall, but ancient, Chinese principalities, occupied most of itstime. It must be repeated here, however, that, notwithstandingTartar neighbours, the valley of the River Fen had been the seatof several of China's oldest semi-mythical emperors-possibly evenof dynasties, -and at no time do the Tartars seem to have eversucceeded in ousting the Chinese from South Shan Si. The officialname of the region after the Chou infeoffment of 1106 B. C. Was theState of Tsin, and it was roughly divided off to the west from itsless civilized colleague Ts'in by the Yellow River, on the rightbank of which Tsin still possessed a number of towns. It isparticularly difficult for Europeans to realize the sharpdistinction in sound between these two names, the more especiallybecause we have in the West no conception whatever of the effectof tone upon a syllable It may be explained, however, that thesonant initial and even-voiced tone in the one case, contrastedwith the surd initial and the scaled tone in the other, involvesto the Chinese mind a distinction quite as clear in all dialectsas the European distinction in all languages between the twostates of Prussia and Russia, or between the two peoples Swedesand Swiss: it is entirely the imperfection of our Westernalphabet, not at all that of the spoken sounds or the ideographs, that is at fault. 

The Yellow River, running from north to south, not only roughlyseparated from each other these two Tartar-Chinese buffer statesin the north-west, but the same Yellow River, flowing east, andits tributary, the River Wei, also formed a rough boundary betweenthe two states of Tsin and Ts'in (together) to the north, and theinnumerable petty but ancient Chinese principalities surroundingthe imperial domain to the south. These principalities orsettlements were scattered about among the head-waters of the HanRiver and the Hwai River systems, and their manifest destiny, ifthey needed expansion, clearly drove them further southwards, following the courses of all these head-waters, towards the Yang-tsz Kiang. But, more than that, the Yellow River, after thusflowing east for several hundred miles, turned sharp north inlong. 114ø E. , as already explained, and thence to the north-eastformed a second rough boundary between Tsin and nearly all theremaining orthodox Chinese states. Tsin's chief task was thus toabsorb into its administrative system all the Tartar raiders thatventured south to the Yellow River. 

But there was a third northern state engaged in the task ofkeeping back the Tartar tribes, and in developing a civilizationof its own-based largely, of course, upon Chinese principles, butmodified so as to meet local exigencies. This was the state ofTs'i, enclosed between the Yellow River to the west and the sea tothe east, but extending much farther north than the boundaries ofmodern Shan Tung province, if, indeed, the embouchure of theYellow River, near modern Tientsin, did not form its northernboundary; but the promontory or peninsula, as well as all thecoast, was still in the hands of "barbarian" tribes (now longsince civilized and assimilated), of which for many centuries pastno separate trace has remained. We have no means of judging nowwhether these "barbarians" were uncultured, close kinsmen of theorthodox Chinese; or remote kinsmen; or quite foreign. When theChou principality received an invitation by acclamation to conquerand administer China in 1122, an obscure political worthy fromthese eastern parts placed his services as adviser and organizerat the command of the new Chou Emperor, in return for whichimportant help he received the fief of Ts'i. Although obscure, this man traced his descent back to the times when (2300 B. C. ) hisancestors received fiefs from the most ancient Emperors. From thattime down to the year 1122 B. C. , and onwards to the events of 771B. C. , nothing much beyond the fact of the Chou infeoffment isrecorded; but after the Emperor had been killed by the Tartar-Tibetans, this state of Ts'i also began to grow restive; and theseventh century before Christ opens with the significant statementthat "Ts'in, Tsin, and Ts'i, now begin to be powerful states. " Ofthe three, Tsin alone bore the imperial Chou clan-name of_Ki_. 

[Illustration: Map. 

1. In 2200 B. C. The Yellow River was divided at the point whereour map begins, and the main waters were conducted to the RiverChang, which thus formed one river with it. But a secondary branchwas conducted eastwards to the Rivers T'ah and Tsi (now, 1908, theYellow River). 

2. In 602 B. C. This secondary branch suddenly turned north, followed the line of the present (1908) Grand Canal, and joinedthe main branch, i. E. The River Chang. 

3. The capitals of Ts'i and Lu are shown. The Yellow River dividedTsin from Ts'i, but Tartars harried the whole dividing line. ]

 North of the Yellow River, where it then entered the sea near themodern treaty-port of Tientsin, there was yet another greatvassal state, called Yen, which had been given by the founders ofthe Chou dynasty to a very distinguished blood relative andfaithful supporter: this noble prince has been immortalized inbeautiful language on account of the rigid justice of hisdecisions given under the shade of an apple-tree: it was thepractice in those days to render into popular song the chiefevents of the times, and it is not improbable, indeed, that thisSaga literature was the only popular record of the past, until, asalready hinted, after 827 B. C. , writing became simplified and thusmore diffused, instead of being confined to solemn manifestoes andcommandments cast or carved on bronze or stone. 

"Oh! woodman, spare that tree, Touch not a single bough, His wisdom lingers now. "

The words, singularly like those of our own well-known song, areknown to every Chinese school-boy, and with hundreds, eventhousands, of other similar songs, which used to be daily quotedas precedents by the statesmen of that primitive period in theirpolitical intercourse with each other, were later pruned, purified, and collated by Confucius, until at last they receivedclassical rank in the "Book of Odes" or the "Classic of Poetry, "containing a mere tenth part of the old "Odes" as they used to bepassed from mouth to ear. 

Even less is known of the early days of Yen than is known ofTs'in, Tsin, and Ts'i; there is not even a vague tradition tosuggest who ruled it, or what sort of a place it was, before theChou prince was sent there; all that is anywhere recorded is thatit was a very small, poor, and feeble region, dovetailed inbetween Tsin and Ts'i, and exposed north to the harassing attacksof savages and Coreans (_i. E. _ tribes afterwards enumeratedas forming part of Corea when the name of Corea became known). Themysterious region is only mentioned here at all on account of itsdistinguished origin, in order to show that the Chinesecultivators had from the very earliest times apparently succeededin keeping the bulk of the Tartars to the left bank of the YellowRiver all the way from the Desert to the sea; because later on(350 B. C. ) Yen actually did become a powerful state; and finally, because if any very early notions concerning Corea and Japaneseislands had ever crept vaguely into China at all, it must havebeen through this state of Yen, which was coterminous with LiaoTung and Manchuria. The great point to remember is, the extensiveterritory between the Great Wall and the Yellow River then layalmost entirely beyond the pale of ancient China, and it was onlywhen Ts'in, Tsin, Ts'i, and Yen had to look elsewhere than to theEmperor for protection from Tartar inroads that the centre ofpolitical gravity was changed once and for ever from the centre ofChina to the north. 

We know nothing of the precise causes which conduced to unusualTartar activity at the dawn of Chinese true history: in theabsence of any Tartar knowledge of writing, it seems impossiblenow that we ever can know it. Still less are we in a position tospeculate profitably how far the movements on the Chinesefrontier, in 800-600 B. C. , may be connected with similarrestlessness on the Persian and Greek frontiers, of which, again, we know nothing very illuminating or specific. It is certain thatthe Chinese had no conception of a Tartar empire, or of a coherentmonarchy, under the vigorous dominion of a great military genius, until at least five centuries after the Tartars, killed a ChineseEmperor in battle as related (771 B. C. ). It is even uncertain whatwere the main race distinctions of the nomad aggregations, looselystyled by us "Tartars, " for the simple reason that the ambiguousChinese terminology does not enable us to select a more specificword. Nevertheless, the Chinese do make certain distinctions; and, as what remains of aboriginal populations in the north, south, east, and west of China points strongly to the probability ofpopulations in the main occupying the same sites that they did3000 years ago (unless where specific facts point to a contraryconclusion), we may fairly assume that the distribution was thenvery much as now-beginning from the east, (1) Japanese, (2)Corean, (3) Tungusic, (4) Mongol-Turkish, (5) Turkish, (6)Turkish-Tibetan, and Mongol-Tibetan (or Mongol-Turkoid Tibetan), (7) Tibetan. The Chinese use four terms to express these relativequantities, which may be called X, Y, Z, and A. The term "X, " pureand simple, never under any circumstances refers to any butTibetans (of whom at this time the Chinese had no recordedknowledge whatever except by name); but "X + Y" also refers totribes in Tibetan regions. The term "West Y" seems to meanTibetan-Tartars, and the term "North Y" seems to mean Mongoloid-Tunguses. There is a third Y term, "Dog Y, " evidently meaningTartars of some kind, and not Tibetans of any sort. The term "Z"never refers to Tibetans, pure or mixed, but "Y + Z" looselyrefers to Turks, Mongols, and Tunguses. The terms "Red Z", "WhiteZ, " and "North Z" seem to indicate Turks; and what is more, thesecolour distinctions--probably of clothing or head-gear-continue toquite modern times, and always in connection with Turks or Mongol-Turks. The fourth term "A" never occurs before the third centurybefore Christ, and refers to all Tartars, Coreans, etc. ; but notto Tibetans: it need not, therefore, be discussed at present. Themodern province of Sz Ch'wan was absolutely unknown even by name;but several centuries later, as we shall shortly see, it turnedout to be a state of considerable magnitude, with quite a littleimperial history of its own: probably it was with this unknownstate that the bulk of the Tibetans tried conclusions, if theytried them with China at all. 

Be that as it may, the present wish is to make clear that at thefirst great turning-point in genuine Chinese history the whole ofnorth and west China was in the hands of totally unknown powers, who completely shut in the Middle Kingdom; who only manifestedthemselves at all in the shape of occasional bodies of raiders;and who, if they had any knowledge, direct or indirect, of India, Tibet, Turkestan, Siberia, Persia, etc. , kept it strictly tothemselves, and in any case were incapable of communicating it inwriting to the frontier Chinese populations of the four bufferstates above enumerated. 

CHAPTER IV

THE SOUTHERN POWER

But the collapse of the imperial power in 771 B. C. Led torestlessness in the south as well as in the north, north-western, and north-eastern regions: except for a few Chinese adventurersand colonists, these were exclusively inhabited by nomad Tartars, and perhaps some Tibetans, destitute of fixed residences, cities, and towns; ignorant of cultivation, agriculture, and letters; androving about from pasture to pasture with their flocks and herds, finding excitement and diversion chiefly in periodical raids upontheir more settled southern and western neighbours. 

The only country south of the federated Chinese princes in Ho Nanprovince (as we now call it) was the "Jungle" or "Thicket, " a termwhich vaguely designated the lower waters of the Han River system, much as, with ourselves, the "Lowlands" or the "Netherlands" did, and still does, designate the outlying marches of the English andGerman communities. "Jungle" is still the elegant literary namefor Hu Peh, just as Ts'in, Tsin, and Ts'i are for Shen Si, ShanSi, and Shan Tung. The King of the Jungle, like the Warden of theWestern Marches, traced his descent far back to the same ancientmonarchs whose blood ran also in the veins of the imperial houseof Chou; and moreover this Jungle King's ancestors had served thefounders of the Chou dynasty in 1150 B. C. , whilst they were stillhesitating whether to accept the call to empire: hence in latertimes (530 B. C. ) the King made it a grievance that his family hadnot received from the founder of the Chou dynasty presentssymbolical of equality of birth, as had the Tsin and Lu (SouthShan Tung) houses. If any tribes, south, south-east, or south-westof this vague Jungle, whose administrative centre at first laywithin a hundred miles' radius of the modern treaty-port ofIch'ang, were in any way known to Central China, or were affectedby orthodox Chinese civilization, it was and must have beenentirely through this kingdom of the Jungle, and in a second-handor indirect way. The Jungle was as much a buffer to the south asTs'in was to the north-west, Tsin to the north, and Ts'i to thenorth-east. The bulk of the population was in one sense non-Chinese; that is, it was probably a mixture of the manyuncivilized mountain tribes (all speaking monosyllabic and tonicdialects like the Chinese) who still survive in every one of theprovinces south of the Yang-tsz Kiang; but the ruling caste, whoseadministrative centre lay to the north of these tribes, thoughaffected by the grossness of their barbarous surroundings, weremanifestly more or less orthodox Chinese in origin and sympathy, and, even at this early period (771 B. C. ), possessed a considerableculture, a knowledge of Chinese script, and a general capacityto live a settled economical existence. As far back as 880 B. C. The King of the Jungle is recorded to have governed or conciliatedthe populations between the Han and the Yang-tsz Rivers; but, though he arrogated to himself for a time the title of "Emperor" or"King" in his own dominions, he confessed himself to be a barbarian, and disclaimed any share in the honorific system of titles, living orposthumous, having vogue in China, reserving it for his successorsto assert higher rights when they should feel strong enough. Likean eastern Charlemagne, he divided his empire between his threesons; and this empire, which gradually extended all along theYang-tsz down to its mouths, may have included in one of itsthree subdivisions a part at least of the Annamese race, as will besuggested more in detail anon. 

The first really historical king, who once more arrogated thesupreme title in 704 B. C. , took advantage of imperial weakness toextend his conquests not only to the south but to the north of theRiver Han, attacking petty Chinese principalities, and boldlyclaiming recognition by the Emperor of equality in title. "I am abarbarian, " said he, "and I will avail myself of the dissensionsamong the federal princes to inspect Chinese ways for myself. " TheEmperor displayed some irritation at this claim of equal rank, butthe King retorted by referring to the services rendered by his(the King's) ancestor, some five hundred years earlier, to theEmperor's ancestor, virtual founder of the Chou dynasty. In 689B. C. The next king moved his capital from its old site above theIch'ang gorges to the commanding central situation now known asKing-thou Fu, just above the treaty-port of Sha-shi': this placehistorically continues the use of the old word Jungle (_King_), and has been all through the present Manchu dynasty (1644-1908)the military residence of a Tartar-General with a Banner garrison;that is, a garrison of privileged Tartar soldiers living in cantonments, and exempt from the ordinary laws, or, at least, the application ofthem. It is only in 684 B. C. That the Jungle state is first honouredwith mention in Confucius' history: it was, indeed, impossible thento ignore its existence, because, for the first time in the annalsof China, Chinese federal princes between the Han River and thewesternmost head-waters of the Hwai River had been deliberatelyannexed by these Jungle "barbarians. " History for the next 450 yearsfrom this date consists mainly of the intricate narration how Ts'in, Tsin, Ts'i, and the Jungle struggled, first for hegemony, and finally for thepossession of all China, The Jungle was now called Ts'u. 

CHAPTER V

EVIDENCE OF ECLIPSES

Having now shown, as shortly and as intelligibly as we can, howthe germs of Chinese development were sown at the dawn of truehistory, let us proceed to examine how far that history, as it hascome down to us, contains within it testimony to its own truth. Weshall revert to the description of wars and ambitions in duecourse; but, as so obscure a subject as early Chinese civilizationis only palatable to most Western readers in small, varied, andsugared doses, we shall for the moment vary the nourishmentoffered, and say a few words upon eclipses. 

Confucius, whose bald "Spring and Autumn" annals, as expanded bythree separate commentators (one a junior contemporary ofhimself), is really the chief authority for the period 722-468B. C. , was born on the 20th day after the eclipse of the sun whichtook place in the 10th month of 552 B. C. , or the 27th of the 8thmoon as worked out to-day (for 1908 this means the 22ndSeptember). Confucius himself records thirty-seven eclipses of thesun between 720 and 481, those of 709, 601, and 549 being total. Of course, as Confucius primarily recorded the eclipses as seenfrom his own petty vassal state of Lu in Shan Tung province (lat. 35" 40' N. , long, 117" E. ), any one endeavouring to identify theseeclipses, and to compare them with Julian or Gregorian dates, must, in making the necessary calculations, bear this importantfact in mind. It so happens that nearly one-third of Confucius'thirty-seven eclipses are recorded as having taken place betweenthe two total eclipses of 601 and 549. This being so, I referredthe list to an obliging officer attached to the Royal Observatory, who has kindly furnished me with the following comparative list:-

CONFUCIUS' DATE. OPPOLZER'S JULIAN DATE. B. C. 601, 7th moon. ---600, September 20. " 599, 4th " ---598, March 5. " 592, 6th " ---591, April 17. " 575, 6th " ---574, May 9. " 574, 12th " ---573, October 22. " 559, 2nd " ---558, January 14. " 558, 8th " ---557, June 29. " 553, 10th " ---552, August 31. " 552, 9th " " 552, 10th " ---551, August 20. " 550, 2nd " ---549, January 5. " 549, 7th " ---548, April 19. 

It will be observed that there is no Oppolzer's date to comparewith the first of the two eclipses of 552; this is because Iomitted to notice that there had been recorded in the "Springs andAutumns" two so close together, and therefore I did not include itin the list sent to the Observatory; but with the exception of thetotal eclipse of 601, all the other eclipses, so far as days ofthe moon and month go, are as consistent with each other as aremodern Chinese dates with European (Julian) dates. As regards theyear, Oppolzer's dates are the "astronomical" dates, that is, theastronomical year--x is the same as the year (x + 1) B. C. ; or, inother words, the year _of_ Christ's birth is, for certainastronomical exactitude purposes, interpolated between the years 1B. C. And A. D. 1, as we vulgarly compute them: that is to say, theeclipses of the sun recorded 2, 400 years ago by Confucius, fromnotes and annals preserved in his native state's archives as farback as 700 B. C. , are found to be almost without exception fairlycorrect, with a uniform "error" of about one month, despite thefact that attempts were made by the First August Emperor todestroy all historical literature in 213 B. C. This being so in thematter of a dozen eclipses, there still remain two dozen forspecialists to experiment upon, not to mention comets and othercelestial phenomena. From this collateral evidence, imperfectthough it be, we are reasonably entitled to assume that the threeexpanded versions of Confucius' history are trustworthy, or at thevery least written in the best of faith. 

Just as our mathematicians find no difficulty either inforetelling or retrospecting eclipses to a minute, so does theancient "sixty" cycle, which the Chinese have from time immemorialused for computing or noting days and years, enable them, or forthe matter of that ourselves, to calculate back unerringly anydesired day. Thus, suppose the 1st January, 1908, is the 37th dayof the perpetual cycle of sixty days; then, if the Chinesehistorians say that an eclipse took place on the first day of thenew moon, which began the 9th Chinese month of the yearcorresponding in the main to our 800 B. C. , and that the 1st day ofthe moon was also the 37th day of the sixty-day perpetual cycle, all we have to do is to take roughly six cycles for each year, sixthousand cycles for each thousand years, allowing at the same timetwo extra cycles every third year for intercalary moons, and thendealing with the fractions or balance of days. If our calculationdoes not bring the two 37th cyclic days together accurately, wemust of course go into the question of how and when the Chinesecalendars were altered, a subject that will be treated of in asubsequent chapter. It must be remembered that there can never beany question of so much as a whole year being involved in thebalance of error; for, with the Chinese as with us, one year, whenever modified, always means that space of time, howeverirregularly computed at each end of it, within which two solsticesand two equinoxes have taken place, Voltaire, in the article on"China" of his Universal Dictionary, remarks that "of 32 ancientChinese eclipses, 28 have been identified by Western mathematicians";and M. Edouard Chavannes, who has given a great deal of timeand labour to working out the mysteries of the Chinese calendar, does not hesitate to claim accuracy to the very day (29th August)for the eclipse of the sun recorded in the Book of Odes (as re-editedby Confucius) as having taken place on the 28th cyclic day of thebeginning of the both moon in 776 B. C. (i. E. Of--775). This eclipseis of course not recorded in the "Springs and Autumns, " whichbegins with the year 722 B. C. 

The Chou dynasty, which came into power in 1122, for the secondtime put back the year a month because the calendar was gettingconfused. That is, they made what we should call January begin thelegal year instead of February; or the still more ancient March;but some of the vassals either used computations of their own, orkept up those handed down by the two dynasties previous to that ofChou: hence in the Confucian histories, as expanded, there arefrequent discrepancies in consequence of events apparently copiedfrom the records of one vassal state having been reported to thehistorian of a second vassal state without steps having been takento adjust the different new years. 

CHAPTER VI

THE ARMY

As the struggle for pre-eminency which we are about to describeinvolved bloodthirsty combats extending almost uninterruptedlyover five centuries, it may be of interest to inquire of whatconsisted the paraphernalia of warfare in those days. It appearsthat among the Chinese federal princes, who, as we have seen, onlyoccupied in the main the flat country on the right bank of theYellow River, war-chariots were invariably used, which is the moreremarkable in that after the Conquest in 220 B. C. Of China by theFirst August Emperor of Ts'in, and down to this day, war-chariotshave scarcely ever once been even named, at least as having beenmarshalled in serious battle array. The Emperor alone was supposedin true feudal times to possess a force of 10, 000 chariots, andeven now a "10, 000-chariot" state is the diplomatic expressionfor "a great power, " "a power of the first rank, " or "an empire. "No vassal was entitled to more than 1000 war-chariots. In theyear 632 B. C. , when Tsin inflicted a great defeat upon its chiefrival Ts'u, the former power had 700 chariots in the field. In 589B. C. The same country, with 800 chariots included in its forces, marched across the Yellow River and defeated the state of Ts'i, its rival to the east. Again in 632 Tsin offered to the Emperor100 chariots just captured from Ts'u, and in 613 sent 800 chariotsto the assistance of a dethroned Emperor. The best were made ofleather, and we may assume from this that the wooden ones found itvery difficult to get safely over rough ground, for in acelebrated treaty of peace of 589 B. C. Between the two rivalstates Tsin and Ts'i, the victor, lying to the west, imposed acondition that "your ploughed furrows shall in future run east andwest instead of north and south, " meaning that "no systematicobstacles shall in future be placed in the way of our invadingchariots. "

One of the features in many of the vassal states was the growth ofgreat families, whose private power was very apt to constrain thewishes of the reigning duke, count, or baron. Thus in the year537, when the King of Ts'u was meditating a treacherous attackupon Tsin, he was warned that "there were many magnates at thebehest of the ruler of Tsin, each of whom was equal to placing 100war-chariots in the field. " So much a matter of course was it touse chariots in war, that in the year 572, when the rival greatpowers of Ts'u and Tsin were contesting for suzerainty over one ofthe purely Chinese principalities in the modern Ho Nan province, it was considered quite a remarkable fact that this principalityin taking the side of Ts'u brought no chariots with the forces ledagainst Tsin. In 541 a refugee prince of Ts'u, seeking asylum inTsin, only brought five chariots with him, on which the ruler, ashamed as host of such a poor display, at once assigned himrevenue sufficient for the maintenance of 100 individuals. It sohappened that at the same time there arrived in Tsin a refugeeprince from Ts'in, bringing with him 1000 carts, all heavilyladen. On another occasion the prince (not a ruler) of aneighbouring state, on visiting the ruler of another, brings withhim as presents an eight-horsed chariot for the reigning prince, asix-horsed conveyance for the premier, a four-horsed carriage fora very distinguished minister in the suite, and a two-horsed cartfor a minor member of the mission. 

Besides the heavy war-chariots, there were also rather morecomfortable and lighter conveyances: in one case two generals arespoken of ironically because they went to the front playing thebanjo in a light cart, whilst their colleague from another state--the very state they were assisting--was roughing it in a war-chariot. These latter seem to have connoted, for militaryorganization purposes, a strength of 75 men each, and four horses;to wit, three heavily armed men or cuirassiers in the chariotitself, and 72 foot-soldiers. At least in the case of Tsin, aforce of 37, 500 men, which in the year 613 boldly marched offthree hundred or more English miles upon an eastern expedition, isso described. On the other hand, thirty years later, a small Ts'uforce is said to have had 125 men attached to each chariot, whilethe Emperor's chariots are stated to have had 100 men assigned toeach. In the year 627 a celebrated battle was fought between therival powers of Ts'in and Tsin, in which the former was utterlyrouted; "not a man nor a wheel of the whole army ever got back. "War-chariots are mentioned as having been in use at least as farback as 1797 B. C. By the Tartar-affected ancestors of the Choudynasty, nearly 700 years before they themselves came to theimperial power. The territory north of the River Wei, inhabited bythem, is all yellow _loess_, deeply furrowed by the stream inquestion, and by its tributaries: there is no apparent reason tosuppose that the gigantic cart-houses used by the Tartars, even tothis day, had any historical connection with the swift war-chariots of the Chinese. 

Little, if anything, is said of conveying troops by boat in any ofthe above-mentioned countries north of the Yang-tsz River. Noneof the rivers in Shen Si are navigable, even now, for anyconsiderable stretches, and the Yellow River itself has its strictlimitations. Later on, when the King of Ts'u's possessions alongthe sea coast, embracing the delta of the Yang-tsz, revolted fromhis suzerainty and began (as we shall relate in due course) totake an active part in orthodox Chinese affairs, boats andgigantic canal works were introduced by the hitherto totallyunknown or totally forgotten coast powers; and it is probablyowing to this innovation that war-chariots suddenly disappearedfrom use, and that even in the north of China boat expeditionsbecame the rule, as indeed was certainly the case after the thirdcentury B. C. 

Some idea of the limited population of very ancient China may begained from a consideration of the oldest army computations. TheEmperor was supposed to have six brigades, the larger vassalsthree, the lesser two, and the small ones one; but owing to theloose way in which a _Shi_, or regiment of 2, 500 men, and a_Kun_, or brigade of 12, 500 men, are alternately spoken of, the Chinese commentators themselves are rather at a loss toestimate how matters really stood after the collapse of theEmperor in 771: but though at much later dates enormous armies, counting up to half a million men on each side, stubbornlycontended for mastery, at the period of which we speak there is noreason to believe that any state, least of all the imperialreserve, ever put more than 1000 chariots, or say, 75, 000 men, into the field on any one expedition. 

Flags seem to have been in use very much as in the West. Thefounder of the Chou dynasty marched to the conquest of Chinacarrying, or having carried for him, a yellow axe in the left, anda white flag in the right hand. In 660 one of the minor federalprinces was crushed because he did not lower his standard in time;nearly a century later, this precedent was quoted to anotherfederal prince when hard-pressed, in consequence of which a sub-officer "rolled up his master's standard and put it in itssheath. " In 645 "the cavaliers under the ruler's flag "--definedto mean his body-guard--were surrounded by the enemy. 

During the fifth century B. C. , when the coast provinces, havingseparated from the Ts'u suzerainty, were asserting their equalitywith the orthodox Chinese princes, and two rival "barbarian"armies were contending for the Shanghai region, one royal scionwas indignant when he saw the enemy advance "with the flagcaptured in the last battle from his own father the general. "Flags were used, not only to signal movements of troops during thecourse of battle, but also in the great hunts or battues whichwere arranged in peace times, not merely for sport, but also inorder to prepare soldiers for a military life. 

For victories over the Tartars in 623, the Emperor presented theruler of Ts'in with a metal drum; and it seems that sacrificing tothe regimental drum before a fight was a very ancient custom, which has been carried down to the present day. In 1900, duringthe "Boxer" troubles, General (now Viceroy) Yiian Shi-k'ai isreported to have sacrificed several condemned criminals to hisdrum before setting out upon his march. 

[Illustration: Hilly County Dividing Wei Valley from Han Valley. 

1. Si-ngan Fu is at the junction of the King River and Wei River. The encircled crosses mark the oldest and the newest Ts'incapitals; all other Ts'in capitals lay somewhere between the Kingand the Wei. 

2. From 643 B. C. To 385 B. C. Ts'in was in occupation of theterritory between the Yellow River and the River Loh, taken fromTsin and again lost to Tsin at those dates. ]

CHAPTER VII

THE COAST STATES

Before we enter into a categorical description of the hegemony orProtector system, under which the most powerful state for the timebeing held durbars "in camp, " and in theory maintained the shadowyrights of the Emperor, we must first introduce the two coaststates of the Yang-tsz delta, just mentioned as having assertedtheir independence of Ts'u, each state being in possession of oneof the Great River branches, In ancient times the Yang-tsz wassimply called the _Kiang_ ("river"), just as the Yellow Riverwas simply styled the _Ho_ (also "river"). In those days theGreat River had three mouths-the northernmost very much as atpresent, except that the flat accretions did not then extend sofar out to sea, and in any case were for all practical purposesunknown to orthodox China, and entirely in the hands of "Easternbarbarians"; the southerly course, which branched off near themodern treaty-port of Wuhu in An Hwei province, emerging into thesea at, or very near, Hangchow; and the middle course, which waspractically the combined beds of the Soochow Creek and the WusungRiver of Shanghai. Before the Chou dynasty came to power in 1122B. C. , the grandfather of the future founder, as a youth, displayedsuch extraordinary talents, that, by family arrangement, his twoeldest brothers voluntarily resigned their rights, and exiledthemselves in the Jungle territory, subsequently working their wayeast to the coast, and adopting entirely, or in part, the rudeways of the barbarous tribes they hoped to govern. We canunderstand this better if we picture how the Phoenician and Greekmerchants in turn acted when successively colonizing Marseilles, Cadiz, and even parts of Britain. Excepting doubtful genealogiesand lists of rulers, nothing whatever is heard of this colonyuntil 585 B. C. --say, 800 years subsequent to the originalsettlement. A malcontent of Ts'u had, as was the practice amongthe rival states of those, times, offered his services to thehated Tsin, then engaged in desperate warfare with Ts'u: heproposed to his new master that he should be sent on a mission tothe King of Wu (for that was, and still is, for literary purposes, the name of the kingdom comprising Shanghai, Soochow, and Nanking)in order to induce him to join in attacking Ts'u. "He taught themthe use of arrows and chariots, " from which we may assume thatspears and boats were, up to that date, the usual warlikeapparatus of the coast power. Its capital was at a spot abouthalf-way between Soochow and Nanking, on the new (British)railway line; and it is described by Chinese visitors during thesixth century B. C. As being "a mean place, with low-built houses, narrow streets, a vulgar palace, and crowds of boats andwheelbarrows. " The native word for the country was something likeKeugu, which the Chinese (as they still do with foreign words, as, for instance, _Ying_ for "England") promptly turned into aconvenient monosyllable Ngu, or Wu. The semi-barbarous King wasdelighted at the opening thus given him to associate with orthodoxChinese princes on an equal footing, and to throw off his formertyrannical suzerain. He annexed a number of neighbouring barbarianstates hitherto, like himself, belonging to Ts'u; paid visits tothe Emperor's court, to the Ts'u court, and to the petty buthighly cultivated court of Lu (in South Shan Tung), in order to"study the rites"; and threw himself with zest into the whirl ofinterstate political intrigue. Confucius in his history hardlyalludes to him as a civilized being until the year 561, when theKing died; and as his services to China (i. E. To orthodox Tsinagainst unorthodox Ts'u) could not be ignored, the philosopher-historian condescends to say "the Viscount of Wu died this year. "It must be explained that the Lu capital had been celebrated forits learning ever since the founder of the Chou dynasty sent theDuke of Chou, his own brother, there as a satrap (1122 B. C. ). Confucius, of course, wrote retrospectively, for he himself wasonly born in 551 and did not compose his "Springs and Autumns"history for at least half a century after that date. The old Lucapital of K'uh-fu on she River Sz (both still so called) is theofficial headquarters of the Dukes Confucius, the seventy-sixth indescent from the Sage having at this moment direct semi-officialrelations with Great Britain's representative at Wei-hai-wei. Itmust also be explained that the vassal princes were all dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts, or barons, according to the size oftheir states, the distinction of their clan or gens, and thelength of their pedigrees; but the Emperor somewhat contemptuouslyaccorded only the courtesy title of "viscount" to barbarian"kings, " such as those of Ts'u and Wu, very much as we vaguelyspeak of "His Highness the Khedive, " or (until last year) "HisHighness the Amir, " so as to mark unequality with genuine crownedor sovereign heads. 

The history of the wars between Wu and Ts'u is extremelyinteresting, the more so in that there are some grounds forbelieving that at least some part of the Japanese civilization wassubsequently introduced from the east coast of China, when theruling caste of Wu, in its declining days, had to "take flighteastwards in boats to the islands to the east of the coast. " Butwe shall come to that episode later on. In the year 506 thecapital of Ts'u was occupied by a victorious Wu army, undercircumstances full of dramatic detail. But now, in the flush ofsuccess, it was Wu's turn to suffer from the ambition of a vassal. South of Wu, with a capital at the modern Shao-hing, near Ningpo, reigned the barbarian King of Yiieh (this is a corruptedmonosyllable supposed to represent a dissyllabic native wordsomething like Uviet); and this king had once been a 'vassal ofTs'u, but had, since Wu's conquests, transferred, either willinglyor under local compulsion, his allegiance to Wu. Advances weremade to him by Ts'u, and he was ultimately induced to declare waras an ally of Ts'u. There is nothing more interesting in ourEuropean history than the detailed account, full of personalincident, of the fierce contests between Wu and Yiieh. Theextinction of Wu took place in 483, after that state had played avery commanding part in federal affairs, as we shall have occasionto specify in the proper places. Yiieh, in turn, peopled by a racesupposed to have ethnological connection with the Annamese ofVietnam or "Southern Yiieh, " became a great power in China, and in468 even transferred its capital to a spot on or near the coast, very near the German colony of Kiao Chou in Shan Tung. But itspredominance was only successfully asserted on the coasts; to usethe historians' words: "Yiieh could never effectively administerthe territory comprised in the Yang-tsz Kiang and Hwai Riverregions. "

It was precisely during this barbarian struggle, when federatedChina, having escaped the Tartars, seemed to be running the riskof falling into the clutches of southern pirates, that Confuciusflourished, and it is in reference to the historical eventssketched above-(1) the providential escape of China fromTartardom, (2) the collapse of the imperial Chou house, (3) thehegemony or Protector system, (4) the triumph of might over rite(right and rite being one with Confucius), and (5) the desirability ofa prompt return to the good old feudal ways--that he abandonedhis own corrupt and ungrateful principality, began his peripateticteaching in the other orthodox states, composed a warning historyfull of lessons for future guidance, and established what wesomewhat inaccurately call a "religion" for the political guidance ofmankind. 

CHAPTER VIII

FIRST PROTECTOR OF CHINA

The first of the so-called five hegemons or lords-protector of thefederated Chinese Empire (after the collapse of the imperialpower, and its consequent incapacity to protect the vassal statesfrom the raids of the Tartars and other barbarians) was the Lordof Ts'i, whose capital was at the powerful and wealthy city ofLin-tsz (lat. 37ø, long. 118ø 30'; still so called on the modernmaps), in Shan Tung province. Neither the Yellow River nor theGrand Canal touched Shan Tung in those days, and Lin-tsz wasevidently situated with reference to the local rivers which flownorth into the Gulf of "Pechelee, " so as to take full politicaladvantage of the salt, mining, and fishing industries. A word ishere necessary as to this Protector's pedigree: we have seen thathis ancestor, thirteen generations back, had inspired with hiscounsels and courage the founder of the imperial Chou dynasty in1122 B. C. ; he had further given to the new Emperor a daughter ofhis own in marriage, had served him as premier, and had finallybeen enfeoffed in reward for his services as Marquess of Ts'i, theeconomic condition of which far-eastern principality he had in avery few years by his energy as ruler mightily improved, notablywith reference to the salt and fish industries, and to generalcommerce. The Yellow River, then flowing along the bed of what isnow called the Chang River, and the sea, respectively, were thewestern and eastern limits of this state, which embraced to thenorth the salt flats now under the administration of a specialTientsin Commissioner, and extended south to the present ManchuTartar-General's military garrison at Ts'ing-thou Fu. Of course, later on, during the five-hundred-year period of unrest, extensions and cessions of territory frequently took place, bothwithin and beyond these vague limits, usually at the expense of Luand other small orthodox states. Across the Yellow River, whosecourse northwards, as already stated, lay considerably to the westof the present channel, was the extensive state of Tsin; and southwas the highly ritual and literary Weimar of China, the unwarlikeprincipality of Lu, destined in future times to be glorified byConfucius. 

Scarcely anything is recorded of a nature to throw specific lightupon the international development of these far-eastern parts. Butin the year 894 B. C. The reigning prince of Ts'i was boiled aliveat the Emperor's order for some political offence, and hissuccessor thereupon moved his capital, only to be transferred backto the old place by his son thirty-five years later. The imperialflight of 842 naturally caused some consternation even in distantTs'i, and in 827 the next Emperor on his accession commanded thereigning Marquess of Ts'i to assist in chastising the WesternTartars. When this last Emperor's grandson was driven from his oldhereditary domain in 771, and the semi-Tartar ruler of Ts'in tookpossession of the same, as already narrated, Ts'i was still soinconsiderable a military power that even two generations afterthat event, in the year 706, it was fain to apply for assistanceagainst Northern Tartar raids to one of the small Chineseprincipalities in the Ho Nan province. (Roughly speaking, "Northern Tartars" were Manchu-Mongols, and "Western Tartars" wereMongol-Turks. ) In 690 the prince, whose sister had married theneighbouring ruler of Lu, made an armed attack by way of vengeanceupon the descendant of the adviser who had counselled the Emperorto boil his ancestor alive in 894: his power was now soconsiderable that the Emperor commissioned him to act withauthority in the matter of a disputed succession to a minorChinese principality. This was in the year 688 B. C. , and it wasthe first instance of a vassal acting as dictator or protector onbehalf of the Emperor; only, however, in a special or isolatedcase. Two years later this prince of Ts'i was himself assassinated, and the disputes between his sons regarding the successionterminated with the advent to the throne of one of the greatcharacters in Chinese history, who was magnanimous and politicenough to take as his adviser and premier a still greater character, and one that almost rivals Confucius himself in fame as an author, a statesman, a benefactor of China; and a moralist. 

This personage, who, like most Chinese of the period, carried manynames, is most generally known as the philosopher Kwan-tsz, andhis chief writings have survived, in part at least, until our ownday. He was, in fact, a distant scion of the reigning imperialfamily of Chou, and bore its clan name of _Ki_. Here it maybe useful to state parenthetically that most prominent men in allthe federated states seem to have belonged to a narrow aristocraticcircle, among whose members the craft of government, theknowledge of letters, and the hereditary right to expect office, was inherent; at the same time, there was never at any dateanything in the shape of a priestly or military caste, and powerappears to have been always within the reach of the humblest, so long as the aspirant was competent to assert himself. 

The new ruler of Ts'i officially proclaimed himself Protector inthe year 679 B. C. , which is one of the fixed dates in Chinesehistory about which there is no cavil or doubt, He soon foundhimself embroiled in war with the Tartars, who were raiding boththe state to his north in the Peking plain, and also the minorstate, south of the Yellow River, that his predecessor hasprotected specially in 688. This was the state of Wei (imperialclan), through or near the capital town of which, near the modernWei-hwei Fu, the Yellow River then ran northwards. 

The way these successive Protectors of China afterwards exercisedtheir preponderant influence in a general sense was this: When itappeared to them, or when any orthodox vassal state complained tothem, that injustice was being done; whether in matters of duty tothe Emperor, right of succession, legitimacy of birth, greatcrime, or inordinate ambition; the recognized Protector summoned adurbar, usually somewhere within the territory of the centralarea, or China proper as previously defined, and consulted withthe princes, his colleagues, as to what course should be pursued. A distinction was drawn between "full-dress durbars" and "militarydurbars"; the etiquette in either case was very minute, andexternal behaviour at least was exquisitely courteous, thoughtreachery was far from rare, and treaties never lasted longunbroken. But to return to the First Protector. Towards the end ofhis glorious reign of forty-three years the Marquess of Ts'i grewarrogant, vainglorious, and licentious, so much so that hiswestern neighbour, the powerful state of Tsin, declined to attendthe durbars. Of the other great powers Ts'in (to the west of Tsin)was much too far off to take active part in these parliaments;Ts'u was too busy in spreading civilization among the barbarousstates or tribes south of the Yang-tsz. The Emperor waspractically a _roi fainéant_ by this time, and, curiouslyenough, less is known of what went on within his dominions orappanage after the western half of it fell to Ts'in in 771, thanof what transpired in the territories of his three menacingvassals to the north, north-west, and north-east, and of his half-civilized satrap to the south. The fact is, all four rising powerswere now carefully engaged in watching each other, and in playinga profound political game around their prey. This prey was theeastern half of the Emperor's original domain (the western halfnow, since 771 B. C. , belonging to Ts'in) and the dozen or so ofpurely Chinese, highly cultured, vassal states making up the restof modern Ho Nan province, together with small parts or wedges ofmodern Chih Li, Shan Tung, An Hwei, and Kiang Su. From first tolast none of these ritual and literary states showed any realfight; there is hardly a single record of a really crushingvictory gained by any one of them. The fighting instincts all laywith the new Chinese, that is, with the Chinese adventurers whohad got their hand well in with generations of fighting againstbarbarians--Tartars, Tunguses, Annamese, Shans, and what not--andhad invigorated themselves with good fresh barbarian blood. Thefact is, the population of China had enormously increased; thestruggle for life and food was keener; the old patriarchalappetite for ritual was disappearing; the people were beginning toassert themselves against the land-owners; the land-owners wereencroaching upon the power of the ruling princes; and China was ina parlous state. 

CHAPTER IX

POSITION OF ENVOYS

It was a fixed rule in ancient China that envoys should be treatedwith courtesy, and that their persons should be held sacred, whether at residential courts, in durbar, or on the road through athird state. During the wars of the sixth century B. C. BetweenTsin in the north and Ts'u in the south, when these two powerswere rival aspirants to the Protectorate of the original andorthodox group of principalities lying between them, and werealternately imposing their will on the important and diplomaticminor Chinese state of CHÊNG (still the name of a territory in HoNan), there were furnished many illustrations of this recognizedrule. The chief reason for thus making a fighting-ground of theold Chinese principalities was that it was almost impossible forTs'u to get conveniently at any of the three great northernpowers, and equally difficult for Ts'in, Tsin, and Ts'i to reachTs'u, without passing through one or more Chinese states, mostlybearing the imperial clan name, and permission had to be asked foran army to pass through, unless the said Chinese state was underthe predominancy of (for instance) Tsin or Ts'u. It was likeGermany and Italy with Switzerland between them, or Germany andSpain with France between them. Another important old Chinesestate was Sung, lying to the east of CHÊNG. Both these states wereof the highest caste, the Earl of CHÊNG being a close relative ofthe Chou Emperor, and the Duke of Sung being the representative orreligious heir of the remains of the Shang dynasty ousted by theChou family in I 122 B. C. , magnanimously reinfeoffed "in orderthat the family sacrifices might not be entirely cut off" togetherwith the loss of imperial sway. In the year 595 B. C. Sung went sofar as to put a Ts'u envoy to death, naturally much to the wrathof the rising southern power. Ts'u in turn arrested the Tsin envoyon his way to Sung, and tried in vain to force him to betray histrust. In 582 Tsin, in a fit of anger, detained the CHÊNG envoy, and finally put him to death for his impudence in comingofficially to visit Tsin after coquetting with Tsin's rival Ts'u. All these irregular cases are severely blamed by the historians. In 562 Ts'u turned the tables upon Tsin by putting the CHÊNG envoyto death after the latter had concluded a treaty with Tsin. Confucius joins, retrospectively of course, in the chorus ofuniversal reprobation. In 560 Ts'u tried to play upon the Ts'ienvoy a trick which in its futility reminds us strongly of theanalogous petty humiliations until recently imposed by China, whenever convenient occasion offered, upon foreign officialsaccredited to her. The Ts'i envoy, who was somewhat deformed inperson, was no less an individual than the celebrated philosopherYen-tsz, a respected acquaintance of Confucius (though, of course, much his senior), and second only to Kwan-tsz amongst the greatadministrative statesmen of Ts'i. The half-barbarous King of Ts'uconcocted with his obsequious courtiers a nice little scheme forhumiliating the northern envoy by indicating to him the small doorprovided for his entry into the presence, such as the GrandSeigneurs in their hey-day used to provide for the Christianambassadors to Turkey. Yen-tsz, of course, at once saw throughthis contemptible insult and said: "My master had his own reasonsfor selecting so unworthy an individual as myself for thismission; yet if he had sent me on a mission to a dog-court, Ishould have obeyed orders and entered by a dog-gate: however, itso happens that I am here on a mission to the King of Ts'u, and ofcourse I expect to enter by a gate befitting the status of thatruler. " Still another prank was tried by the foolish king: a"variety entertainment" was got up, in which one scene representeda famished wretch who was being belaboured for some reason. Naturally every one asked: "What is that?" The answer was: "A Ts'iman who has been detected in thieving. " Yen-tsz said: "Iunderstand that the best fruits come from Ts'u, and they say wenorthern men cannot come near the quality of their peaches. We arehonest simpletons, too, and do not look natural on the varietystage as thieves. The true rogue, like the true peach, is asouthern speciality. I did see rogues on the stage, it is true, but none of them looked like a Ts'i man; hence I asked, 'What isit?'" The king laughed sheepishly, and, for a time at least, gaveup taking liberties with Yen-tsz. 

In 545, when Ts'u for the moment had the predominant say overCHÊNG's political action, it was insisted that the ruler of CHÊNGshould come in person to pay his respects: this was after a greatPeace Conference, held at Sung, on which occasion Tsin and Ts'uarranged a _modus operandi_ for their respective subordinateor allied vassals. There was no help for it, and the Earlaccordingly went. The minister in attendance was Tsz-ch'an-a verygreat name indeed in Chinese history; he was a lawyer, statesman, "democratic conservative, " sceptic, and philosopher, deeplylamented on his death alike by the people of CHÊNG, and by hisfriend or correspondent Confucius of Lu state. The Chinesediplomats then, as now, had the most roundabout ways of pointing amoral or delicately insinuating an innuendo. On arrival at theoutskirts of the capital, instead of building the usual daïs forformalities and sacrifices, Tsz-ch'an threw up a mean hut for theaccommodation of his mission, saying: "Altars are built by greatstates when they visit small ones as a symbol of benefitsaccorded, and by way of exhortation to continue in virtuous ways. "Four years later Ts'u sent a mission of menacing size to CHÊNG, ostensibly to complete the carrying out of a marriage agreed uponby treaty between Ts'u and CHÊNG. Tsz-ch'an insisted that the bowsand arrows carried by the escort should be left outside the citywalls, adding: "Our poor state is too small to bear the fullhonour of such an escort; erect your altar daïs outside the wallfor the service of the ancestral sacrifices, and we will thereawait your commands about the marriage. "

In 538, when Ts'u was, for the first time, holding a durbar asrecognized Protector, being at the time, however, on hostile termswith her former vassal, Wu, the King of Ts'u committed the grossoutrage of seizing the ruler of a petty state, who was thenpresent at the durbar, because that ruler had married (beinghimself of eastern barbarian descent) a princess of Wu. Thefollowing year, when two very distinguished statesmen from theterritory of his secular enemy Tsin came on a political mission, the King of Ts'u consulted his premier about the advisability ofcastrating the one for a harem eunuch, and cutting off the feet ofthe other for a door-porter. "Your Majesty can do it, certainly, "was the reply, "but how about the consequences?" This was theoccasion, mentioned in Chapter VI. , on which the king was remindedhow many great private families there were in Tsin quite capableof raising a hundred chariots apiece. 

It appears that envoys, at least in Lu, were hereditary in somefamilies, just as other families provided successive generationsof ministers. A Lu envoy to Tsin, who carried a very valuable gem-studded girdle with him, had very great pressure put upon him by acovetous Tsin minister who wanted the girdle. The envoy offered togive some silk instead, but he said that not even to save his lifewould he give up the girdle. The Tsin magnate thought better ofit; but it is remarkable how many cases of sordid greed of thiskind are recorded, all pointing to the comparative absence ofcommercial exchanges, or standards of value between the feudalstates. 

Ts'u seems to have thoroughly deserved Yen-tsz's imputations oftreachery and roguery. At the great Peace Conference held outsidethe Sung capital in 546, the Ts'u escort was detected wearingcuirasses underneath their clothing. One of the greatest of theTsin statesmen, Shuh Hiang (a personal friend of Yen-tsz, Confucius, and Tsz-ch'an) managed diplomatically to keep down therising indignation of the other powers and representatives presentby pooh-poohing the clumsy artifice on the ground that by suchtreachery Ts'u simply injured her own reputation in the federationto the manifest advantage of Tsin: it did not suit Tsin tocontinue the struggle with Ts'u just then. Then there was asquabble as to precedence at the same Peace Conference; that is, whether Tsin or Ts'u had the first right to smear lips with theblood of sacrifice: here again Shuh Hiang tactfully gave way, andby his conciliatory conduct succeeded in inducing the federalprinces to sign a sort of disarmament agreement. This is one ofthe numerous instances in which Confucius as an annalist tries to_menager_ the true facts in the interests of orthodoxy. 

Even the more fully civilized state of Ts'i attempted an act ofgross treachery, when in 500 B. C. The ruler of Lu, accompanied byConfucius as his minister in attendance, went to pay his respects. But Confucius was just as sharp as Yen-tsz and Tsz-ch'an, hisfriends, neighbours, and colleagues: he at once saw through themenacing appearance of the barbarian "dances" (introduced here, again, as a "variety entertainment"), and by his firm behaviournot only saved the person of his prince, but shamed the ruler ofTs'i into disclaiming and disavowing his obsequious fellow-practical jokers. Yen-tsz was actually present at the time, inattendance upon his own marquis; but it is nowhere alleged that hewas responsible for the disgraceful manoeuvre. As a result T'siwas obliged to restore to Lu several cities and districtswrongfully annexed some years before, and Lu promised to assistTs'i in her wars. 

[Illustration: MAP

1. The River Sz still starts at Sz-shui (cross in circle; means"River Sz"), and runs past Confucius' town, K'iih-fu, into theCanal in two branches. But in Confucius' time what is now theCanal continued to be the River Sz, down to its junction with theHwai. The River I starts still from I-shui (also a cross incircle; means "River I"), passes I-thou, and used to join the Sz(now the Canal) at the lower cross in a circle. The neck (dotted)of the Hwai embouchure no longer exists, and the Lake Hung-tsehnow dissipates itself into lakelets and canals. The Wu fleets, bysailing up the Hwai, Sz, and I, could get up to Lu, and threatenTs'i. 

2. In Confucius' time the Yellow River turned north near thejunction of the Emperor's territory with Cheng: it passed throughWei, and there divided. Its main branch, after coursing throughpart of the River Wei bed, left it and took possession of theRiver Chang bed. Up to 602 B. C. The secondary branch took the moreeasterly dotted line (the present Yellow River, once the RiverTsi); but after 602 B. C. It cut through Hing, followed the Wei, and took the line of the present Canal. Hing was a Tartar-harriedstate contested by Ts'i and Tsin: it fell at last to Tsin. 

3. The capitals of Ts'i, Wei, Ts'ao, Cheng, Sung, Ch'en, Ts'ai(three) are marked with encircled crosses. K'iih-fu, the capitalof Lu, is marked with a small circle. In 278 B. C. The Ts'u capitalwas moved east to Ch'en. In 241 B. C. , under pressure of Ts'in, theTs'u capital had to be moved to the double black cross on thesouth bank of the Hwai. ]

CHAPTER X

THE SECOND PROTECTOR

We must now go back a little. The first of the so-called FiveTyrants, or the Five successive Protectors of orthodox China, haddied in 643, his philosopher and friend, Kwan-tsz, having departedthis life a little before him. Their joint title to fame lies inthe fact that "they saved China from becoming a Tartar province, "and even Confucius admits the truth of this--a most importantfactor in enabling us to understand the motive springs of Chinesepolicy. Under these circumstances the Duke of Sung, who, as wehave seen, had special moral pretensions to leadership on accountof his being the direct lineal representative of the Shang dynastywhich perished in 1122 B. C. , immediately put forward a claim tothe hegemony. He rather prejudiced his reputation, however, bycommitting the serious ritual offence of "warring upon Ts'i'smourning, " that is, of engaging the allies in hostilities with thelate Protector's own country whilst his body lay unburied, and hissons were still wrangling over the question of succession. TheTartars, however, came to the rescue of, and made a treaty with, Ts'i--this is only one of innumerable instances which show how thenorthern Chinese princes of those early days were in permanentpolitical touch with the horse-riding nomads. The orthodox Duke ofSung, dressed in his little brief authority as Protector, had thetemerity to "send for" the ruler of Ts'u to attend his firstdurbar. (It must be remembered that the "king" in his owndominions was only "viscount" in the orthodox peerage of rulingprinces. ) The result was that the King unceremoniously took hiswould-be protector into custody at the durbar, and put in a claimto be Protector himself. During the military operations connectedwith this political manoeuvre, the Duke of Sung was guilty of themost ridiculous piece of ritual chivalry; highly approved, it istrue, by the literary pedants of all subsequent ages, but ruinousto his own worldly cause. The Ts'u army was crossing a difficultford, and the Duke's advisers recommended a prompt attack. "It isnot honourable, " said the Duke, "to take advantage even of anenemy in distress. " "But, " said his first adviser, "war is war, and its only object is to punish the foe as severely and promptlyas possible, so as to gain the upper hand, and establish what youare fighting for. "

Meanwhile important events had been going on in the marquisate ofTsin, which, during the thirty-five years' hegemony of Ts'i, hadbeen engaged in extending its territory in all directions, infighting Ts'in, and in annexing bordering Tartar tribes. At itsgreatest development Tsin practically comprised all between theYellow River in its turns south, east, and north; but, thoughprobably half its population was Tartar, it never ceased to be"orthodox" in administrative principle. The energetic butlicentious ruler of Tsin had married a Tartar wife in addition tohis more legitimate spouse (daughter of the late Protector, Marquess of Ts'i); or, rather, he took two wives, the one beingsister of the other, but the younger sister brought him nochildren. Before this he had already married two sisters of quitea different Tartar tribe, and each of his earlier wives hadbrought him a son. His last pair of Tartar lady-loves gained sucha strong hold upon his affections that he was induced by themother, being the elder sister of the two, to nominate her own sonas his heir to the exclusion of the three elder brethren, who weresent on various flimsy pretexts to defend the northern frontiersagainst the more hostile Tartars. To complicate matters, theMarquess's legitimate or first spouse, the Ts'i princess, besidesbearing a son, had also given him a daughter, who had married thepowerful ruler of Ts'in to the west. Thus not only were Ts'in andTsin both half-Tartar in origin and sympathy, but at this periodthree out of four of the Tsin possible heirs were actually sons ofTartar women. The legitimate heir, whose mother was of Ts'iorigin, and, who himself was a man of very high character, endedthe question so far as he was concerned, by committing dutifulsuicide; the three sons by Tartar mothers succeeded to the throneone after the other, but in the inverse order of their respectiveages. The story of the wanderings of the eldest brother, who didnot come to the throne until he was sixty-two years of age, is oneof the most interesting and romantic episodes in the whole historyof China; and, even with the unfamiliar proper names, would make acapital romantic novel, so graphically and naturally are some ofthe scenes depicted. First he threw himself heart and soul intoTartar life, joined the rugged horsemen in their internecine wars, married a Tartar wife, and gave her sister to his most faithfulhenchman; then, hearing of the death of the Ts'i premier, Kwan-tsz, he vowed he would go to Ts'i and try to act as politicaladviser in his place. Hospitably received by the Marquess of Ts'i, he was presented with a charming and sensible Ts'i princess, whofor five years exercised so enervating an influence upon hisvirility, ambition, and warlike ardour, that he had to besurreptitiously smuggled away from the gay Ts'i capital whilstdrunk, by his Tartar father-in-law and by his chief Chinesehenchman and brother-in-law. Then he commenced a series of visitsto the petty orthodox courts which separated Ts'i from Ts'u. Several of them were rude and neglectful to this unfortunateprince in distress; but Sung was an exception, for Sung ambition, as above narrated, had been roughly checked by Ts'u, and Sung nowwished to make overtures to Tsin instead, and to conciliate aprince who was as likely as not to come to the throne of Tsin. In637 the prince reached the court of Ts'u, whose ruler had quiterecently begun to take formal and official rank as a "civilized"federal prince. Meanwhile, news came that his brother (by his ownmother's younger sister) was dead; this younger brother had takenrefuge in Ts'in during the reign of his youngest brother (the oneborn of the last Tartar favourite), and had, after that brother'sdeath, been most generously assisted to the throne in turn by theruler of Ts'in, on the understanding, however, that Tsin shouldcede to Ts'in all territory on the right bank of the Yellow River, i. E. In the modern province of Shen Si: but the new Tsin ruler hadbeen persuaded by his courtiers to go back on this humiliatingbargain, in consequence of which war had been declared by Ts'inupon Tsin, and the faithless ruler of Tsin had been for some timea prisoner of war in Ts'in; but, regaining his throne through theinfluence of his half-sister, the wife of the Ts'in ruler, haddied in harness in 637 B. C. This deceased ruler's young son wasnot popular, and Ts'in was now instrumental in welcoming therefugee back from Ts'u, and in leading him in triumph, afternineteen years of adventurous wandering, to his own ancestralthrone; his rival and nephew was killed. 

All orthodox China seemed to feel now that the interestingwanderer, after all his experiences of war, travel, Tartars, Chinese, barbarians, and politics, was the right man to beProtector. But it was first necessary for Tsin to defeat Ts'u in adecisive battle; a war had arisen between Tsin and Ts'u out of anattempt on the part of CHÊNG (one of the orthodox Chinese statesthat had been uncivil to the wanderer), to drag in the preponderantpower of Ts'u by way of shielding itself from punishment at Tsin'shands for past rude behaviour. The Emperor sent his own son toconfer the status of "my uncle" upon him, --which is practicallyanother way of saying "Protector" to a kinsman, --and in the year632 accordingly a grand durbar was held, in which the Emperorhimself took part. The Tsin ruler, who had summoned the durbar, and had even "commanded the presence" of the Emperor, was theguiding spirit of the meeting in every respect, except in the nominaland ritualistic aspect of it; nevertheless, he was prudent and carefulenough scrupulously to observe all external marks of deference, and to make it appear that he was merely acting as mouthpiece to the puppet Emperor; he even went the length of dutifully offeringto the Emperor some Ts'u prisoners, and the Emperor in turn "graciouslyceded" to Tsin the imperial possessions north of the Yellow River. Thus Ts'in and Tsin each in turn clipped the wings of the Autocratof All the Chinas, so styled. 

During these few unsettled years between the death of the firstreal Protector in 643 and the formal nomination by the Emperor ofthe second in 632, Ts'u and Sung had, as we have seen, bothattempted to assert their rival claims. A triangular war had alsobeen going on for some time between Ts'i and Ts'u, the bone ofcontention being some territory of which Ts'i had stripped Lu; andthere was war also between Tsin and Ts'i, Tsin and Ts'in, and Tsinand Ts'u, which latter state always tried to secure the assistanceof Ts'in when possible. From first to last, there never was, during the period covered by Confucius' history, any serious warbetween Tartar Ts'in and barbarian Ts'u; rather were they naturalallies against orthodox China, upon which intermediate territorythey both learned to fix covetous eyes. 

The situation is too involved, in view of the uncouthness ofstrange names and the absence of definite frontiers--changing asthey did with the result of each few years' campaigning--to makeit possible to give a full, or even approximately intelligible, explanation of each move. But the following main features areincontestable:--Ts'in, Tsin, Ts'i, and Ts'u were growing, progressive, and aggressive states, all of them strongly tingedwith foreign blood, which foreign blood was naturally assimilatedthe more readily in proportion to the power, wealth, and cultureof the assimilating orthodox nucleus. The imperial domain was anextinct political volcano, belching occasional fumes ofthreatening, sometimes noxious, but not ever fatally suffocatingsmoke, always without fire. "The Hia, " that is, the federation ofprinces belonging to pure Hia, or (as we now say) "Chinese" stock, were evidently unwarlike in proportion to the absence of foreignblood in their veins; but they were all of them equally_rusés_, and all of them past-masters in casuistic diplomacy. Trade, agriculture, literature, and even law, were now quiteactive, and (as we shall gradually see in these short chapters)China was undoubtedly beginning to move, as, after 2500 years of asecond "ritual" sleep, she is again now moving, at the beginningof the twentieth century A. D. 

CHAPTER XI

RELIGION

All through these five centuries of struggle, between the flightof the Emperor with the transfer of the metropolis in 771 B. C. , and the total destruction of the feudal system by the First AugustEmperor of Ts'in in 221 B. C. , it is of supreme interest to notethat religion in our Western sense was not only non-existentthroughout China, but had not yet even been conceived of as anabstract notion; apart, that is to say, from government, publiclaw, family law, and class ritual. No word for "religion" wasknown to the language; the notion of Church or Temple served by apriestly caste had not entered men's minds. Offences against "thegods" or "the spirits, " in a vague sense, were often spoken of;but, on the other hand, too much belief in their power wasregarded as superstition. "Sin" was only conceivable in the senseof infraction of nature's general laws, as symbolized andspecialized by imperial commands; direct, or delegated to vassalprinces; in both cases as representatives, supreme or local, ofHeaven, or of the Emperor Above, whose Son the dynastic centralruler for the time being was figuratively supposed to be. Novassal prince ever presumed to style himself "Son of Heaven, "though nearly all the barbarous vassals called themselves "King"(the only other title the Chou monarchs took) in their owndominions. "In the Heaven there can only be one Sun; on Earththere can only be one Emperor"; this was the maxim, and, eversince the Chou conquest in 1122 B. C. , the word "King" had doneduty for the more ancient "Emperor, " which, in remote times hadapparently not been sharply distinguished in men's minds from God, or the "Emperor on High. "

Prayer was common enough, as we shall frequently see, andsacrifice was universal; in fact, the blood of a victim was almostinseparable from solemn function or record of any kind. But suchideas as conscience, fear of God, mortal sin, repentance, absolution, alms-giving, self-mortification, charity, sackclothand ashes, devout piety, praise and glorification, --in a word, what the Jews, Christians, Mussulmans, and even Buddhists haveeach in turn conceived to be religious duty, had no well-definedexistence at all. There are some traces of local or barbarous godsin the semi-Turkish nation of Ts'in, before it was raised to thestatus of full feudal vassal; and also in the semi-Annamese nationof Ts'u (with its dependencies Wu and Yiieh); but the orthodoxChinese proper of those times never had any religion such as wenow conceive it, whatever notions their remote ancestors may haveconceived. 

Notwithstanding this, the minds of the governing classes at leastwere powerfully restrained by family and ancestral feeling, and, if there were no temples or priests for public worship, there wereinvariably shrines dedicated to the ancestors, with appropriaterites duly carried out by professional clerks or reciters. Whenever a ruler of any kind undertook any important expedition orpossible duty, he was careful first to consult the oracles inorder to ascertain the will of Heaven, and then to report the factto the _manes_ of his forefathers, who were likewise notifiedof any great victory, political change, or piece of good fortune. There is a distinction (not easy to master) between the loss of astate and the loss of a dynasty; in the latter case the populationremain comparatively unaffected, and it is only the reigningfamily whose sacrifices to the gods of the place and of theharvest are interrupted. Thus in 567, when one of the very smallvassals (of whom the ruler of Lu was mesne lord) crushed theother, it is explained that the spirits will not spiritually eatthe sacrifices (i. E. Accept the worship) of one who does notbelong to the same family name, and that in this case theannihilating state was only a cousin through sisters: "when thecountry is 'lost, ' it means that the strange surname succeeds topower; but, when a strange surname becomes spiritual heir, we say'annihilated. '" We have seen in the ninth chapter how the Shangdynasty lost the empire, but was sacrificially maintained in Sung. From the remotest times there seems to have been a tenderunwillingness to "cut off all sacrifices" entirely, probably outof a feeling that retribution in like form might at some futuredate occur to the ruthless condemner of others. There is anotherreason, which is, nearly all ruling families hailed from the sameremote semi-mythical emperors, or from their ministers, or fromtheir wives of inferior birth. Thus, although the body of the lasttyrannical monarch of the Shang dynasty just cited was piercedthrough and through by the triumphant Chou monarch, that monarch'sbrother (acting as regent on behalf of the son and successor)conferred the principality of Sung upon the tyrant's elder half-brother by an inferior wife, "in order that the dynasticsacrifices might not be cut off"; and to the very last the Duke ofSung was the only ruling satrap under the Chou dynasty whopermanently enjoyed the full title of "duke. " His neighbour, theMarquess of Wei (imperial clan), was, it is true, made "duke" in770 B. C. For services in connection with the Emperor's flight; butthe title seems to have been tacitly abandoned, and at durbars heis always styled "marquess. " Of the Shang tyrant himself it isrecorded: "thus in 1122 B. C. He lost all in a single day, withouteven leaving posterity. " Of course his elder brother could notpossibly be his spiritual heir. In 597 B. C. , when Ts'u, in itsstruggle with Tsin for the possession of CHÊNG, got the rulingEarl of CHÊNG in its power, the latter referred appealingly to hisimperial ancestors (the first earl, in 806, was son of the Emperorwho fled from his capital north in 842), and said: "Let mecontinue their sacrifices. " There are, at least, a score ofsimilar instances: the ancestral sacrifices seem to refer ratherto posterity, whilst those to gods of the land and grain appearmore connected with rights as feoffee. 

Prayer is mentioned from the earliest times. For instance Shun, the active ploughman monarch (not hereditary) who preceded thethree dynasties of Hia (2205-1767), Shang (1766-1123), and Chou(1122-249), prayed at a certain mountain in the centre of modernHu Nan province, where his grave still is, (a fact which points tothe possibility of the orthodox Chinese having worked their waynorthwards from the south-west). When the Chou conqueror, posthumously called the Martial King, fell ill, his brother, theDuke of Chou (later regent for the Martial King's son), prayed toHeaven for his brother's recovery, and offered himself as asubstitute; the clerk was instructed to commit the offer towriting, and this solemn document was securely locked up. The sameman, when regent, again offered himself to Heaven for his sicknephew, cutting his nails off and throwing them into the river, asa symbol of his willingness to give up his own body. The EmperorK'ang-hi of the present Manchu dynasty, perhaps in imitation ofthe Duke of Chou, offered himself to Heaven in place of his sickMongol grandmother. A very curious instance of prayer occurs inconnection with the succession to the Tsin throne; it will beremembered that the legitimate heir committed dutiful suicide, andtwo other half-brothers (and, for a few months, one of thesebrother's sons) reigned before the second Protector secured hisancestral rights. The suicide's ghost appears to his usurpingbrother, and says: "I have prayed to the Emperor (God), who willsoon deliver over Tsin into Ts'in's hands, so that Ts'in willperform the sacrifices due to me. " The reply to the ghost was:"But the spirits will only eat the offerings if they come from thesame family stock. " The ghost said: "Very good; then I will prayagain. . . . God now says my half-brother will be overthrown atthe battle of Han" (the pass where the philosopher Lao-tsz issupposed to have written his book 150 years later). In 645 theruler of Tsin was in fact captured in battle by his brother-in-lawof Ts'in, who was indeed about to sacrifice to the Emperor on Highas successor of Tsin; but he was dissuaded by his orthodox wife(the Tsin princess, daughter of a Ts'i princess as explained onpage 51). 

In 575 Tsin is recorded as "invoking the spirits and requesting avictory. " A little later one of the Tsin generals, after a defeat, issued a general order by way of concealing his weakness: todeceive the enemy he suggested that the army should amongst otherthings make a great show of praying for victory. There are manyother similar analogous instances of undoubted prayer. Much later, in the year 210 B. C. , when the King (as he had been) of Ts'in hadconquered all China and given himself the name, for the first timein history, of August Emperor (the present title), he consultedhis soothsayers about an unpleasant dream he had had. He wasadvised to pray, and to worship (or to sacrifice, for the two arepractically one) with special ardour if he wished to bring thingsround to a favourable conclusion: and this is a monarch, too, whowas steeped in Lao-tsz's philosophy. 

CHAPTER XII

ANCESTRAL WORSHIP

We have just seen that, when a military expedition started out, the event was notified, with sacrifice, to the ancestors of theperson most concerned: it was also the practice to carry tobattle, on a special chariot, the tablet of the last ancestorremoved from the ancestral hall, in order that, under his aegis soto speak, the tactics of the battle might be successful. Ancestralhalls varied according to rank, the Emperor alone having sevenshrines; vassal rulers five; and first-class ministers three;courtiers or second-class ministers had only two; that is to say, no one beyond the living subject's grandfather was in these lastcases worshipped at all. From this we may assume that the ordinaryfolk could not pretend to any shrine, unless perhaps the house-altar, which one may see still any day in the streets of Canton. In 645 B. C. A first-class minister's temple was struck bylightning, and the commentator observes: "Thus we see that all, from the Emperor down to the courtiers, had ancestral shrines", --astatement which proves that already at the beginning of ourChristian era such matters had to be explained to the generalpublic. The shrines were disposed in the following fashion:--Tothe left (on entrance) was the shrine of the living subject'sfather; to the right his grandfather; above these two, to the leftand right again, the great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather; opposite, in the centre, was that of the founder, whose tablet or effigy was never moved; but as each livingindividual died, his successor of course regarded him in the lightof father, and, five being the maximum allowed, one tablet had tobe removed at each decease, and it was placed in the more generalancestral hall belonging to the clan or gens rather than to thespecific family: it was therefore the, tablet or effigy of thegreat-great-grandfather that was usually carried about in war. TheEmperor alone had two special chapels beyond the five shrines, each chapel containing the odds (left) and evens (right) of thosehigher up in ascent than the great and great-great-grandfathersrespectively. The King of Ts'u who died in 560 B. C. Said on hisdeath-bed: "I now take my place in the ancestral temple to receivesacrifices in the spring and autumn of each year. " In the year597, after a great victory over Tsin, the King of Ts'u had beenadvised to build a trophy over the collected corpses of the enemy;but, being apparently rather a high-minded man, after a littlereflection, he said: "No! I will simply erect there a temple to myancestors, thanking them for the success. " After the death in 210B. C. Of the First August Emperor, a discussion arose as to whathonours should be paid to his temple shrine: it was explained that"for a thousand years without any change the rule has been sevenshrines for the Son of Heaven, five for vassal princes, and threefor ministers. " In the year 253, after the conquest of themiserable Chou Emperor's limited territory, the same Ts'inconqueror "personally laid the matter before the Emperor Above inthe suburb sacrifice";--which means that he took over charge ofthe world as Vicar of God. The Temple of Heaven (outside thePeking South Gate), occupied in 1900 by the British troops, ispractically the "suburb sacrifice" place of ancient times. It wasnot until the year 221 B. C. That the King of Ts'in, after thatdate First August Emperor, formally annexed the whole empire:"thanks to the shrines in the ancestral temple, " or "thanks to thespiritual help of my ancestors' shrines the Under-Heaven (i. E. Empire) is now first settled. " These expressions have beenperpetuated dynasty by dynasty, and were indeed again used butyesterday in the various announcements of victory made to Heavenand his ancestors by the Japanese _Tenshi, _ or Mikado; thatis by the "Son of Heaven, " or T'ien-tsz of the ancient Chinese, from whom the Japanese Shinto ritual was borrowed in whole or inpart. 

In the year 572 B. C. , on the accession of a Tsin ruler aftervarious irregular interruptions in the lineal succession, he says:"Thanks to the supernatural assistance of my ancestors--and toyour assistance, my lords--I can now carry out the Tsinsacrifices. " In the year 548 the wretched ruler of Ts'i, victim ofa palace intrigue, begged the eunuch who was charged with the taskof assassinating him at least "to grant me permission to commitsuicide in my ancestral hall. " The wooden tablet representing theancestor is defined as being "that on which the spirit reclines";and the temple "that place where the ancestral spiritualconsciousness doth dwell. " Each tablet was placed on its ownaltar: the tablet was square, with a hole in the centre, "in orderto leave free access on all four sides. " The Emperor's was twelveinches, those of vassal princes one foot (i. E. Ten inches) inlength, and no doubt the inscription was daubed on in varnish(before writing on silk became general, and before the hair-brushand ink came into use about 200 B. C. ). The rulers of Lu, beinglineal descendants of the Duke of Chou, brother of the firstEmperor of the Chou dynasty (1122 B. C. ) had special privileges insacrificial matters, such as the right to use the imperial musicof all past dynasties; the right to sacrifice to the father of theDuke of Chou and the founder; the right to imperial rites, tosuburban sacrifice, and so on; besides the custody of certainancient symbolic objects presented by the first Chou Emperors, andmentioned on page 22. 

Of course no punishment could be spiritually greater than thedestruction of ancestral temples: thus on two occasions, notablyin 575 B. C. When a first-class minister traitorously fled hiscountry, his prince, the Marquess of Lu, as a special act ofgrace, simply "swept his ancestral temple, but did not cut off thesacrifices. " The second instance was also in Lu, in 550: the Weifriend with whom Confucius lived seventy years later, whenwandering in Wei, retrospectively gave his ritual opinion on thecase--a proof of the solidarity in sympathy that existed betweenthe statesmen of the orthodox principalities. In the bloodthirstywars between the semi-barbarous southern states of Wu and Ts'u, the capital of the latter was taken by storm in the year 506, theancestral temple of Ts'u was totally destroyed, and the renegadeTs'u ministers who accompanied the Wu armies even flogged thecorpse of the previous Ts'u king, their former master, againstwhom they had a grievance. This mutilation of the dead (in caseswhere the guilty rulers have contravened the laws of nature andheaven) was practised even in imperial China; for (see page 57)the founder of the dynasty, on taking possession of the last ShangEmperor's palace, deliberately fired several arrows into the bodyof the suicide Emperor. Decapitating corpses and desecrating tombsof great criminals have frequently been practised by the existingManchu government, in criticizing whom we must not forget thetreatment of Cromwell's body at the Restoration. In the year 285B. C. , when the Ts'i capital was taken possession of by the alliedroyal powers then united against Ts'i, the ancestral temple wasburnt. In 249 B. C. Ts'u extinguished the state of Lu, "which thuswitnessed the interruption of its ancestral sacrifices. "

Frequent instances occur, throughout this troublous period, of theEmperor's sending presents of meat used in ancestral sacrifices tothe vassal princes; this was intended as a special mark of honour, something akin to the "orders" or decorations distributed inEurope. Thus in 671 the new King of Ts'u who had just murdered hispredecessor, which predecessor had for the first time set the badexample of annexing petty orthodox Chinese principalities, received this compliment of sacrificial meat from the Emperor, together with a mild hint to "attack the barbarians such as Yiieh, but always to let the Chinese princes alone. " Ts'i, Lu, Ts'in, andYiieh on different occasions between that date and the fourthcentury B. C. Received similar donations, usually, evidently, morepropitiatory than patronizing. In 472 the barbarous King of Yiiehwas even nominated Protector along with his present of meat; thiswas after his total destruction of Wu, when he was marching northto threaten North China. Presents of private family sacrificialmeat are still in vogue between friends in China. 

Fasting and purification were necessary before undertaking solemnsacrifice of any kind. Thus the King of Ts'u in 690 B. C. Did thisbefore announcing a proposed war to his ancestors; and an envoystarting from Ts'u to Lu in 618 reported the circumstance to hisown particular ancestors, who may or may not have been (as manyhigh officers were) of the reigning caste. On another occasion theruler of Lu was assassinated whilst purifying himself in theenclosure dedicated to the god of the soil, previous tosacrificing to the _manes_ of an individual who had oncesaved his life. Practically all this is maintained in modernChinese usage. 

A curious distinction is mentioned in connection with officialmourning tidings in the highly ritual state of Lu. If the deceasedwere of a totally different family name, the Marquess of Lu weptoutside his capital, turning towards deceased's native place, orplace of death; if of the same name, then in the ancestral temple:if the deceased was a descendant of the same founder, then in thefounder's temple; if of the same family branch, then in thepaternal temple. All these refinements are naturally tedious andobscure to us Westerners; but it is only by collating specificfacts that we can arrive at any general principle or rule. 

[Illustration: MAP

1. Ts'u's five capitals, in order of date, are marked. In 504 B. C. The king had to leave the Yang-tsz for good in order to escape Wuattacks. In 278 B. C. Ts'in captured No. 4, and then the ancientCh'ta capital (No. 5, already annexed by Ts'u) became the Ts'ucapital (see maps showing Ch'en's position). Ts'u was now a HwaiRiver power instead of being a Han River and Yang-tsz power. Shuhand Pa are modern Sz Ch'wan, both inaccessible from the Hansystem. The Han system to its north was separated from the Weisystem and the country of Ts'in by a common watershed. 

2. Wu seems to have been the only power besides Ts'u possessingany knowledge of the Yang-tsz River, and Wu was originally partof, or vassal to Ts'u. 3. Pa had relations with Ts'u so early as600 B. C. Later Pa princesses married Ts'u kings. ]

CHAPTER XIII

ANCIENT DOCUMENTS FOUND

The reign of the Tsin marquess (628-635), second of the FiveProtectors, only lasted eight years, and nothing is recorded tohave happened during this period at all commensurate with hispicturesque figure in history while yet a mere wanderer. But it isvery interesting to note that the Bamboo Annals or Books, i. E. TheHistory of Tsin from 784 B. C. , and incidentally also of China from1500 years before that date, are one of the corroborativeauthorities we now possess upon the accuracy of Confucius' historyfrom 722 B. C. , as expanded by his three commentators; and it issatisfactory to know that the oldest of the three commentaries, that usually called the Tso _Chwan_, or "Commentary of TsoK'iu-ming, " a junior contemporary of Confucius, and officialhistoriographer at the Lu Court, is the most accurate as well asthe most interesting of the three. These Bamboo Books were onlydiscovered in the year 281 A. D. , after having been buried in atomb ever since the year 299 B. C. The character in which they werewritten, upon slips of bamboo, had already become so obsolete thatthe sustained work of antiquarians was absolutely necessary inorder to reduce it to the current script of the day; or, in otherwords, of to-day. Another interesting fact is, that whilst theChou dynasty, and consequently Confucius of Lu (which state wasintimately connected by blood with the Chou family), hadintroduced a new calendar, making the year begin one (Shang) ortwo (Hia) months sooner than before, Tsin had continued to compute(see page 27) the year according to the system of the Hia dynasty:in other words, the intercalary moons, or massed fractions of timeperiodically introduced in order to bring the solar and lunaryears into line, had during the millennium so accumulated (at therate apparently of, roughly, sixty days in 360, 000, or, say, threehalf-seconds a day) that the Chou dynasty found it necessary tocall the Hia eleventh moon the first and the Hia first moon thethird of the year. A parallel distinction is observable in moderntimes when the Russian year (until a few years ago twelve dayslater than ours), was declared thirteen days later; and when weourselves in 1900 (and in three-fourths of all future years makingup a net hundred), omit the intercalary day of the 29th February, which otherwise occurs every fourth year of even numbers divisibleby four. Thus the very discrepancies in the dates of the BambooBooks (where the later editors, in attempting to accommodate alldates to later calendars, have accidentally left a Tsin dateunchanged) and in the dates of Confucius' expanded history, pointed out and explained as they are by the Chinese commentatorsthemselves, are at once a guarantee of fact, and of good faith inrecording that fact. 

But the neighbour and brother-in-law of the Tsin marquess (himselfthree parts Turkish), the Earl of Ts'in, who reigned from 659 to621 B. C. , and during that reign quietly laid the foundations of apowerful state which was destined to achieve the future conquestof all China, was himself a remarkable man; and there is somereason to believe that he, even at this period, also possessed aspecial calendar of his own, as his successors certainly did 400years later, when they imposed their own calendar reckoning uponChina. We have already seen (page 52) what powerful influence heexercised in bringing the semi-Tartar Tsin brethren to the Tsinthrone in turn. He had invited several distinguished men from theneighbouring petty, but very ancient, Chinese principalities tosettle in his capital as advisers; he was too far off to attendthe durbars held by the, First Protector, but he sent one of theseChinese advisers as his representative, He is usually himselfcounted as one of the Five Protectors; but, although he wascertainly very influential, and for that reason was certainly oneof the Five Tyrants, or Five Predominating Powers, it is certainthat he never succeeded in obtaining the Emperor's formal sanctionto act as such over the orthodox principalities, nor did he everpreside at a durbar of Chinese federal princes. Long and bloodywars with his neighbour of Tsin were the chief feature of hisreign so far as orthodox China was concerned; but his chief glorylies in his great Tartar conquests, and in his enormous extensionsto the west. These extensions, however, must not be exaggerated, and there is no reason to suppose that they ever reached fartherthan Kwa Chou and Tun-hwang (long. 95ø, lat. 40ø), two veryancient places which still appear under those names on the mostmodern maps of China, and from which roads (recently examined byMajor Bruce) branch off to Turkestan and Lob Nor respectively. 

Most Emperors and vassal princes are spoken of in history by theirposthumous names, that is by the names voted to them after death, with the view of tersely expressing by that name the essentialfeatures (good or bad) of the deceased's personal character; justas we say in Europe, officially or unofficially, Louis leBienaimé, Albert the Good, or Charles the Fat. The posthumous nameof this Ts'in earl was "the Duke Muh" (no matter whether duke, marquess, earl, viscount, or baron when living, it was customaryto say "duke" when the ruler was dead), and the posthumous name ofthe Emperor who died in 947 B. C. Was "the King Muh"; for, asalready stated, the Chou dynasty of Sons of Heaven were called"King, " and not "Emperor" though their supreme position was asfully imperial as that of previous dynastic monarchs, and theywere, in fact, "Emperors" as we now understand that word inEurope. At the same time that the Bamboo Annals were unearthed, there were also found copies of some of the old "classics" or"Scripture, " and a hitherto unknown book called "the Story of theSon of Heaven Muh, " all, of course, written in the same ancientscript. This Son of Heaven (a term applied to all the Emperors ofChina, no matter whether they styled themselves Emperor, King, orAugust Emperor) was supposed to have travelled far west, and tohave had interviews with a foreign prince, who, as his land too, was transcribed as _Siwangmu_. The subject will be touchedupon more in detail in another chapter; but, for the present, itwill be useful to say that, in the opinion of one very learnedsinologist, all evidence points clearly to this expedition havingbeen undertaken by Duke Muh of Ts'in, installed as he was in theold appanage of the emperors lost to the Tartars (as we haveexplained) in 771, and made over at the same time by the Emperorinvolved to the ancestors of Duke Muh. This view of the case issupported by the fact that in 664 B. C. Ts'in and Tsin, for someunknown reason, forced the Tartars of Kwa Chou to migrate intoChina, which migration was subsequently alluded to by a Tartarchief (when attending a Chinese durbar in 559 B. C. ) as a well-known historical fact. It was undoubtedly the practice of semi-Chinese states, such as Ts'u, Wu, Yueh, and Shuh (the last is themodern Sz Ch'wan province, and its history was only discoveredlong after Confucius' time), to call themselves "Kings, ""Emperors, " and "Sons of Heaven, " in their own country (just asthe tributary King of Annam always did until the French assumed aprotectorate over him; and just as the tributary Japanese didbefore they officially announced the fact to China in the seventhcentury A. D. ); and there are many indications that Ts'in did, orat least might have done and would like to have done, the samething. Hence, when the story of Muh was discovered, the literarymanipulators--even if they did not really believe that itpositively must refer to the Emperor Muh-might well have honestlydoubted whether the story referred to Ts'in or to the Emperor; ormight well have decided to incorporate it with orthodox history, as a strengthening factor in support of the theory of one singleand indivisible imperial dignity; just as, again, in the seventhcentury and eighth century A. D. , the Japanese manipulators oftheir traditional history incorporated hundreds, not to saythousands of Chinese historical facts and speeches, and workedthem into their own historical episodes and into their ownemperors' mouths, for the honour and glory of Dai Nippon (GreatJapan). 

After the death of the Second Protector in 628 B. C. , there was acontinuous struggle between Tsin and Ts'in on the one hand, andbetween Tsin and Ts'u on the other. Meanwhile Ts'i had all its ownwork cut out in order to keep the Tartars off the right bank ofthe Yellow River in its lower course, and in order to protect theorthodox Chinese states, Lu, Sung, Wei, etc. , from their attacks;but Ts'i never again after this date put in a formal claim to beProtector, although in 610 she led a coalition of princes againstan offending member, and thus practically acted as Protector. 

In addition to the Chinese adviser at the disposal of Ts'in, inthe year 626 the King (or a king) of the Tartars supplied Duke Muhwith a very able Tartar adviser of Tsin descent; i. E. Hisancestors had in past times migrated to Tartarland, though hehimself still "spoke the Tsin dialect, " and must have hadconsiderable literary capacity, as he was an author. Ts'in wasnow, in addition to being, if only informally, a federal Chinesestate, also supreme suzerain over all the Tartar principalitieswithin reach; well supplied, moreover, with expert advisers forboth classes of work. All this is important in view of the pre-eminency of Ts'in when the time came, 400 years later, to abolishthe meticulous feudal system altogether. 

CHAPTER XIV

MORE ON PROTECTORS

The Five Tyrants, or Protectors, are usually considered to be thefive personages we have mentioned; to wit, in order of succession, the Marquess of Ts'i (679-643), under whose reign the greateconomist, statesman, and philosopher Kwan-tsz raised this fareastern part of China to a hitherto unheard-of pitch of materialprosperity; the Marquess of Tsin (632-628), a romantic prince, more Turkish than Chinese, who was the first vassal prince openlyto treat the Emperor as a puppet; the Duke of Sung (died 637), representing the imperial Shang dynasty ejected by the Chou familyin 1122, whose ridiculous chivalry failed, however, to secure himthe effective support of the other Chinese princes; the Earl ofTs'in (died 621) who was, as we see, quietly creating a greatTartar dominion, and assimilating it to Chinese ways in the west;and the King of Ts'u (died 591), who, besides taking his placeamongst the recognized federal princes, and annexing innumerablepetty Chinese principalities in the Han River and Hwai Riverbasins, had been for several generations quietly extending hisdominions at the expense of what we now call the provinces of SzCh'wan, Kiang Si, Hu Kwang-perhaps even Yun Nan and Kwei Chou;Certainly Kiang Su and Cheh Kiang, and possibly in a loose way thecoast regions of modern Fuh Kien and the Two Kwang; but it cannotbe too often repeated that if any thing intimate was known of theYang-tsz basin, it was only Ts'u (in its double character ofindependent local empire as well as Chinese federal prince) thatknew, or could have known, any thing about it; just as, if anything specific was known of the Far West, Turkestan, the Tarimvalley, and the Desert, it was only Ts'in (in its double characterof independent Tartar empire as well as Chinese federal prince)that knew, or could know, any thing about them. Ts'i and Tsin werealso Tartar powers, at least in the sense that they knew how tokeep off the particular Tartars known to them, and how to makefriendly alliances with them, thus availing themselves, on the onehand, of Tartar virility, and faithful on the other to orthodoxChinese culture. So that, with the exception of the pedantic Dukeof Sung, who was summarily snuffed out after a year or two ofbrief light by the lusty King of Ts'u, all the nominal FiveProtectors of China were either half-barbarian rulers or hadpassed through the crucible of barbarian ordeals. Finally, sovague were the claims and services of Sung, Ts'u, and Ts'in, froma protector point of view, that for the purposes of this work, weonly really recognize two, the First Protector (of Ts'i) and, after a struggle, the Second Protector (of Tsin): at most athird, --Ts'u. 

But although the Chinese historians thus loosely confine the Five-Protector period to less than a century of time, it is a fact thatTs'u and Tsin went on obstinately struggling for the hegemony, orfor practical predominance, for at least another 200 years;besides, Ts'in, Ts'u, and Sung were never formally nominated bythe Emperor as Protectors, nor were they ever accepted as such bythe Chinese federal princes in the permanent and definite way thatTs'i and Tsin had been and were accepted. Moreover, the barbarianstates of Wu and Yüeh each in turn acted very effectively asProtector, and are never included in the Five-Great-Power series. The fact is, the Chinese have never grasped the idea of principlesin history: their annals are mere diaries of events; and when oncean apparently definite "period" is named by an annalist, they goon using it, quite regardless of its inconsistency when confrontedwith facts adverse to a logical acceptance of it. 

The situation was this: Tsin and Ts'u were at perpetualloggerheads about the small Chinese states that lay between them, more especially about the state of Cheng, which, though small, wasof quite recent imperial stock, and was, moreover, well suppliedwith brains. Tsin and Ts'in were at perpetual loggerheads aboutthe old Tsin possessions on the west bank of the Yellow River, which, running from the north to the south, lay between them; andabout their rival claims to influence the various nomadic Tartartribes living along both the banks, Tsin and Ts'i were oftenengaged in disputes about Lu, Wei, and other orthodox statessituated in the Lower Yellow River valley running from the west tothe east and north-east; also in questions concerning easternbarbarian states inhabiting the whole coast region, and concerningthe petty Chinese states which had degenerated, and whose mannerssavoured of barbarian ways. Thus Ts'in and Ts'u, and also to someextent Ts'i and Ts'u, had a regular tendency to ally themselvesagainst Tsin's flanks, and it was therefore always Tsin's policyas the "middle man" to obstruct communications between Ts'in andTs'u, and between Ts'i and Ts'u. In 580 Tsin devised a means ofplaying off a similar flanking game upon Ts'u: negotiations wereopened with Wu, which completely barbarous state only begins toappear in history at all at about this period, all the kingshaving manifestly phonetic barbarian names, which mean absolutelynothing (beyond conveying the sound) as expressed in Chinese, Wuwas taught the art of war, as we have seen, by (page 34) a Ts'utraitor who had fled to Tsin and taken service there; and the Kingof Wu soon made things so uncomfortable for Ts'u that the latterin turn tried by every means to block the way between Tsin and Wu. Within a single generation Wu was so civilized that one of theroyal princes was sent the rounds of the Chinese states as specialambassador, charged, under the convenient cloak of seeking forcivilization, ritual, and music, with the duty of acquiringpolitical and strategical knowledge. This prince so favourablyimpressed the orthodox statesmen of Ts'i, Lu, Tsin, and Wei (theruling family of this state, like that of Sung, was, until itrevolted in 1106 B. C. Against the new Chou dynasty, of Shangdynasty origin, and the Yellow River ran through it northwards), that he was everywhere deferentially received _as_ an equal:his tomb is still in existence, about ten miles from the treaty-port of Chinkiang, and the inscription upon it, in ancientcharacters, was written by Confucius himself, who, though a boy ofeight when the Wu prince visited Lu in 544, may well have seen theprince in the flesh elsewhere, for the latter lived to prevent awar with Ts'u in 485; i. E. He lived to within six years ofConfucius' death: he is known, too, to have visited Tsin on aspying mission in 515 B. C. The original descent of the firstvoluntarily barbarous Wu princes from the same grandfather as theChou emperors would afford ample basis for the full recognition ofa Wu prince by the orthodox as their equal, especially when hismanners were softened by rites and music. It was like an orientalprince being feted and invested in Europe, so long as he shouldconform to the conventional dress and mannerisms of "society. "

Just as Wu had been quietly submissive to Ts'u until theopportunity came to revolt, so did the still more barbarous stateof Yueh, lying to the south-east of and tributary to Wu as hermesne lord, eagerly seize the opportunity of attacking Wu when thecommon suzerain, Ts'u, required it. The wars of Wu and Yueh arealmost entirely naval, and, so far as the last-named state isconcerned, it is never reported as having used war-chariots atall. Wu adopted the Chinese chariot as rapidly as it had re-adopted the Chinese civilization, abandoned by the first colonistprinces in 1200 B. C. ; but of course these chariots were only forwar in China, on the flat Chinese plains; they were totallyimpracticable in mountainous countries, except along the mainroutes, and useless (as Major Bruce shows) in regions cut up bygulleys; even now no one ever sees a two-wheeled vehicle in theShanghai-Ningpo region. It must, therefore, always be rememberedthat Wu, though barbarous in its population, was, in its origin asan organized system of rule, a colony created by certain ancestorsof the founder of the Chou dynasty, who had voluntarily gone offto carve out an appanage in the Jungle; i. E. In the vague unknowndominion later called Ts'u, of which dominion all coast regionswere a part, so far as they could be reduced to submission. Thisgave the Kings of Wu, though barbarian, a pretext for claimingequality with, and even seniority over Tsin, the first Chou-bornprince of which was junior in descent to most of the otherenfeoffed vassals of the imperial clan-name. In 502 Wu armies eventhreatened the northern state of Ts'i, and asserted in Chinagenerally a brief authority akin to that of Protector. Ts'i wasobliged to buy itself off by marrying a princess of the blood tothe heir-apparent of Wu, an act which two centuries later excitedthe disgust of the philosopher Mencius. The great Ts'i statesmanand writer Yen-tsz, whom we have already mentioned more than once, died in 500, and earlier in that year Confucius had become chiefcounsellor of Lu, which state, on account of Confucius' skill as adiplomat, nearly obtained the Protectorate. It was owing to thefear of this that the assassination of the Lu prince was attemptedthat year, as narrated in Chapter IX. In order to understand howWu succeeded in reaching Lu and Ts'i, it must be recollected thatthe river Sz, which still runs from east to west past Confucius'sbirthplace, and now simply feeds the Grand Canal, then flowedsouth-east along the line of the present canal and entered theHwai River near Sü-chou. Moreover, there was at times boat-communication between the Sz and the Yellow River, though theprecise channel is not now known. Consequently, the Wu fleets hadno difficulty in sailing northwards first by sea and then up theHwai and Sz Rivers. Besides, in 485, the King of Wu began what wenow call the Grand Canal by joining as a beginning the Yang-tszRiver with the Hwai River, and then carrying the canal beyond theHwai to the state of Sung, which state was then disputing with Luthe possession of territory on the east bank of the Sz, whilstTs'u was pushing her annexations up to the west bank of the sameriver. There were in all twelve minor orthodox states between theSz and the Hwai. In 482 the all-powerful King of Wu held a genuinedurbar as Protector, at a place in modern Ho Nan province, northof the Yellow River as it now runs, but at that time a gooddistance to the south-east of it. This is one of the mostcelebrated meetings in Chinese history, partly because Wusuccessfully asserted political pre-eminence over Tsin; partlybecause Confucius falsifies the true facts out of shame (as wehave seen he did when Ts'u similarly seized the first place overTsin); and partly owing to the shrewd diplomacy of the King of Wu, who had learnt by express messenger that the King of Ytieh wasmarching on his capital, and who had the difficult double task toaccomplish of carrying out a "bluff, " and operating a retreatwithout showing his weak hand to either side, or losing his armyexposed between two foes. 

In 473, after long and desperate fighting, Wu was, however, atlast annihilated by Yiieh, which state was now unanimously votedProtector, _Vae victis!_ The Yueh capital was promptly removedfrom near the modern Shao-hing (west of Ningpo) far away northto what is now practically the German colony of Kiao Chou; but, though a maritime power of very great-strength, Yiieh never succeededin establishing any real land influence in the Hwai Valley. During hershort protectorate she rectified the River Sz question by forcingSung to make over to Lu the land on the east bank of the River Sz. 

CHAPTER XV

STATE INTERCOURSE

Whatever may be the reason why details of interstate movement arelacking up to 842 B. C. , it is certain that, from the date of theEmperor's flight eastwards in 771, the utmost activity prevailedbetween state and state within the narrow area to which, as wehave seen, the federated Chinese empire was confined. Confucius'history, covering the 250-year period subsequent to 722, consistslargely of statements that this duke visited that country, orreturned from it, or drew up a treaty with it, or negotiated amarriage with it. "Society, " in a political sense, consisted ofthe four great powers, Ts'in, Tsin, Ts'i, and Ts'u, surroundingthe purely Chinese enclave; and of the innumerable petty Chinesestates, mostly of noble and ancient lineage, only half a dozen ofthem of any size, which formed the enclave in question, and weresurrounded by Ts'in, Tsin, Ts'i, and Ts'u, to the west, north, east, and south. Secondary states in extent and in military power, like Lu, CHÊNG, and Wei, whilst having orthodox and in some casesbarbarian sub-vassals of their own, were themselves, if notvassals to, at all events under the predominant influence of, oneor the other of the four great powers. Thus Lu was at first nearlyalways a handmaid of Ts'i, but later fell under the influence ofTsin, Ts'u, and Wu; Cheng always coquetted between Tsin and Ts'u, not out of love for either, but in order to protect her ownindependence; and so on with the rest. If we inquire what a reallysmall state meant in those days, the answer is that the modernwalled city, with its district of several hundred square mileslying around it, was (and usually still is) the equivalent of theancient principality; and proof of that lies in the fact that oneof the literary designations of what we now term a "districtmagistrate" is still "city marquess. " Another proof is that inancient times "your state" was a recognized way of saying "yourcapital town"; and "my poor town" was the polite way of saying"our country"; both expressions still used in elegant diplomaticcomposition. 

This being so, and it having besides been the practice for avisiting duke always to take along with him a "minister inattendance, " small wonder that prominent Chinese statesmen fromthe orthodox states were all personal friends, or at leastcorrespondents and acquaintances, who had thus frequentopportunity of comparing political notes. To this day there are noserious dialect differences whatever in the ancient central areadescribed in the first chapter, nor is there any reason to supposethat the statesmen and scholars who thus often met in conclave hadany difficulty in making themselves mutually understood. The"dialects"' of which we hear so much in modern times (which, nonethe less, are all of them pure Chinese, except that the syllablesdiffer, just as _coeur, cuore, and _corazon, coraçao_, differ from_cor_), all belong to the southern coasts, which were practicallyunknown to imperial China in Confucius' time. The Chinese word whichwe translate "mandarin" also means "public" or "common, " and"mandarin dialect" really means "current" or "common speech, "such as is, and was, spoken with no very serious modifications allover the enclave; and also in those parts of Ts'in, Tsin, Ts'i, andTs'u, which immediately impinged upon the enclave, in the ratioof their proximity. Finally, Shen Si, Shan Si, Shan Tung, and HuKwang are still called Ts'in, Tsin, Ts'i, and Ts'u in high-class officialcorrespondence; and so with all other place-names. China has neverlost touch with antiquity. 

There is record for nearly every thing: the only difficulty is toseparate what is relevant from what is irrelevant in the mass ofconfused _data_. 

Another matter must be considered. Although the Chinese never hada caste system in the Hindoo sense, there is, as we have statedonce before, every reason to believe that the ruling classes andthe educated classes were nearly all nobles, in the sense thatthey were all lineal or branch descendants, whether by first-class wife or by concubine, of either the ruling dynastic familyor of some previous imperial dynastic family. Some families wereby custom destined for hereditary ministers, others for hereditaryenvoys, others again for hereditary soldiers; not, it is true, bystrict rule, but because the ancient social idea favoured thedescent of office, or land, or trade, or craft from father to son. This, indeed, was part of the celebrated Kwan-tsz's economicphilosophy. Thus generation after generation of statesmen andscholars kept in steady touch with one another, exactly as ourmodern scientists of the first rank, each as a link, form anunbroken intimate chain from Newton down to Lord Kelvin, outsidewhich pale the ordinary layman stands a comparative stranger tothe _arcana_ within. 

Kwan-tsz, the statesman-philosopher of Ts'i, and in a sense thefounder of Chinese economic science, was himself a scion of theimperial Chou clan; every writer on political economy subsequentto 643 B. C. Quotes his writings, precisely as every Europeanphilosophical writer cites Bacon. Quite a galaxy of brilliantstatesmen and writers, a century after Kwan-tsz, shed lustre uponthe Confucian age (550-480), and nearly all of them were personalfriends either of Confucius or of each other, or of both. ThusTsz-ch'an of CHÊNG, senior to Confucius, but beloved and admiredby him, was son of a reigning duke, and a prince of the ducalCHÊNG family, which again was descended from a son of the Emperorwho fled in 842 B. C. 

If Tsz-ch'an had written works on philosophy and politics, it ispossible that he might have been China's greatest man in the placeof Confucius; for he based his ideas of government, as didConfucius, who probably copied much from him, entirely upon"fitting conduct, " or "natural propriety"; in addition to which hewas a great lawyer, entirely free from superstition and hypocrisy;a kind, just, and considerate ruler; a consummate diplomat; and abold, original statesman, economist, and administrator. Theanecdotes and sayings of Tsz-ch'an are as numerous and aspractical as those about Julius Caesar or Marcus Aurelius. 

Another great pillar of the state praised by Confucius was ShuhHiang of Tsin, whose reputation as a sort of Chinese Cicero is notfar below that of Tsz-ch'an. He belonged to one of the greatprivate families of Tsin, of whom it was said in Ts'u that "any ofthem could bring 100 war-chariots into the field. " Nothing couldbe more interesting than the interviews and letters (see AppendixNo. 1) between these two friends and their colleagues of Ts'i, Ts'u, Lu, and Sung. 

Yen-tsz of Ts'i almost ranks with Kwan-tsz as an administrator, philosopher, economist, author, and statesman. Confucius has agood word for him too, though Yen-tsz's own opinion of Confucius'merits was by no means so high. The two men had to "spar" witheach other behind their respective rulers like Bismarck andGortschakoff did. Yen-tsz's interview with Shuh Hiang, when thepair discussed the vices of their respective dukes, is almost asamusing as a "patter" scene in the pantomime, a sort of by-playwhich takes place whilst the curtain is down in preparation forthe next formal act (see Appendix No. 2). 

[Illustration: K'ung Ling-i, the hereditary _Yen-sheng Kung, _or "Propagating Holiness Duke"; 76th in descent from K'ung K'iu, _alias_ K'ung Chung-ni, the original philosopher, 551--479B. C. 

This portrait was presented to "the priest P'eng" (Father Tschepe, S. J. ), on the occasion of his visit last autumn (7th moon, 33rdyear). ]

Confucius himself had descended in the direct line from the ducalfamily of Sung; but Sung, like the other states, was cursed withthe "great family" nuisance, and one of his ancestors, havingincurred a grandee's hostility, had met with his death in a palaceintrigue, in consequence of which the Confucian family, despairingof justice, had migrated to Lu. When we read of Confucius'extensive wanderings (which are treated of more at length in asubsequent chapter), the matter takes a very different complexionfrom what is usually supposed, especially if it be recollectedwhat a limited area was really covered. He never got even so faras Tsin, though part of Tsin touched the Lu frontier, and it isdoubtful if he was ever 300 miles, as the crow flies, from his ownhouse in Lu; true, he visited the fringe of Ts'u, but it must beremembered that the place he visited was only in modern Ho Nanprovince, and was one of the recent conquests of Ts'u, belongingto the Hwai River system. As we explained in the last chapter, Ts'u's policy then was to work up eastwards to the river Sz; thatis, to the Grand Canal of to-day. Confucius, it is plain, was nomere pedant; for we have seen how, in the year 500, when he firstenjoyed high political power, he displayed conspicuously greatstrategical and diplomatic ability in defeating the treacherousschemes of the ruler of Ts'i, who had been endeavouring to filchLu territory, and who was dreadfully afraid lest Lu should, through Wu's favour, acquire the hegemony or protectorship. Hecould even be humorous, for when the barbarian King of Wu put in ademand for a "handsome hat, " Confucius contemptuously observedthat the gorgeousness of a hat's trimmings appealed to thisignorant monarch more than the emblem of rank distinguishing onehat from another. 

Sung provided one distinguished statesman in Hiang Suh, whose fameis bound up with a kind of Hague Disarmament or Peace Conference, which he successfully engineered in 546 B. C. (see Appendix No. 3). In the year 558 he had been sent on a marriage mission to Lu. Ki-chah of Wu, who died at the ripe age of 90, was quite entitled tobe king of that country, but he repeatedly waived his claims infavour of his brothers. K'ü-pêh-yüh of Wei, is mentioned in theBook of Rites, and in many other works. With him Confucius lodgedon the two occasions of long sojourn in Wei: he is the manmentioned in Chapter XII who gave his authoritative "ritual"opinion about traitors. Ts'in never seems to have produced anative literary statesman on its own soil. During this 500-yearperiod of isolated development, and also during the later periodof conquest in the third century B. C. , all its statesmen wereborrowed from Tsin, or from some orthodox state of China proper;in military genius, however, Ts'in was unrivalled, and a specialchapter will be devoted to her huge _battues_. The literaryreputation of Ts'u was high at a comparatively early date, andeven now the "Elegies of Ts'u" include some of the very finest ofthe Chinese poems and _belles lettres_; but in Confucius'time no Ts'u man, except possibly Lao-tsz, had any reputation atall; and Lao-tsz, being a mere archive keeper, not entrusted withany influential office, naturally lacked opportunity to emergefrom the chrysalis stage. Moreover, the imperial dynasty, whichLao-tsz served, had no political influence at all: it was anironical saying of the times; "the best civilians are Ts'u's, butthey all serve other states, " (meaning that the Ts'u rule was toocapricious to attract talent). Hence, apart from the fact thatConfucius doubted the wisdom of Lao-tsz's novel philosophy, Confucius had no occasion whatever to mention the secluded, self-contained old man in his political history, or, rather, in hisbald annals of royal-movements. 

CHAPTER XVI

LAND AND PEOPLE

What sort of folk were the masses of China, upon whom the rulingclasses depended, then as now, for their support? In the year 594B. C. The model state of Lu for the first time imposed a tax of tenper cent, upon each Chinese "acre" of land, being about one-sixthof an English acre: as the tax was one-tenth, it matters not whatsize the acre was. Each cultivator under the old system had anallotment of 100 such acres for himself, his parents, his wife, and his children; and in the centre of this allotment were 10acres of "public land, " the produce of which, being the result ofhis labour, went to the State; there was no further taxation. A"mile, " being about one-third of an English mile, and, therefore, in square measure one-ninth of an English square mile, consistedof 300 fathoms (taking the fathom roughly), and its superficiescontained 900 "acres" of which 80 were public under the abovearrangement, 820 remaining for the eight families owning this"well-field"--so called because the ideograph for a "well"represents nine squares: a four-sided square in the centre, fourthree-sided squares impinging on it; and four two-sided squares atthe corners; i. E. 100 "acres" each, plus 2-1/2 "acres" each for"homestead and onions"; or 20 of these last in all. Ninecultivators in one "well, " multiplied by four, formed a township, and four townships formed a "cuirass" of 144 armed warriors; butthis was under a modified system introduced four years later(590). It will be observed that the arithmetic seems confused, ifnot faulty; but that does not seriously affect the genuineness ofthe picture, and may be ignored as mere detail. 

The ancient classification of people was into four groups. Thescholar people employed themselves in studying _tao_ and thesciences, from which we plainly see that the doctrine of_tao, _ or "the way, " existed long before Lao-tsz, in Confucius'time, superadded a mystic cosmogony upon it, and made of it a socialistor radical instead of an imperialist or conservative doctrine. The secondclass were the trading people, who dealt in "produce from the fourquarters"; there is evidence that this meant chiefly cattle, grain, silk, horses, leather, and gems. The third class were the cultivators, andin those days tea and cotton, amongst other important products ofto-day, were totally unknown. The fourth class consisted of handicraftsmen, who naturally made all things they could sell, or knew how to make. 

Another classification of men is the following, which was given tothe King of Ts'u by a sage adviser, presumably an importation fromorthodox China. He divided people into ten classes, each inferiorclass owing obedience to its superior, and the highest of allowing obedience only to the gods or spirits. First, the Emperor;secondly, the "inner" dukes, or grandees of estates within theimperial domain: these grandees were dukes proper, not dukes byposthumous courtesy like the vassal princes after decease, and theEmperor used to send them on service, when required, to the vassalstates; they were, in fact, like the "princes of the Church" orcardinals, who surround the Pope. Thirdly, "the marquesses, " thatis the semi-independent vassal states, no matter whether duke, marquess, earl, viscount, or baron; this term seems also toinclude the reigning lords of very small states which did notpossess even the rank of baron, and which were usually attached toa larger state as clients, under protectorate; in fact, therecognized stereotyped way of saying "the vassal rulers" was "themarquesses. " Then came what we should call the "middle classes, "or bourgeoisie, followed by the artisans and cultivators: it willbe noticed that the artisans are here given rank over thecultivators, which is not in accord with either very ancient orvery modern practice; this, indeed, places cultivators before bothtraders and artisans. Lastly came the police, the carriers ofburdens, the eunuchs, and the slaves. By "police" are meant therunners attached to public offices, whose work too often involves"squeezing" and terrorizing, torturing, flogging, etc. To thepresent day police, barbers, and slaves require three generationsof purifying, or living down, before their descendants can enterfor the public examinations; or, to use the official expression, their "three generations" must be "clear"; at least so it wasuntil the old Confucian examination system was abolished as a testfor official capacity a few years ago. Of eunuchs we shall havemore to say shortly; but very little indeed is heard of privateslaves, who probably then, as now, were indistinguishable from theordinary people, and were treated kindly. The callous Greek andstill more brutal Roman system, not to mention the infinitely morecowardly and shocking African slavery abuses of eighteenth-century Europe and nineteenth-century America, have never beenknown in China: no such thing as a slave revolt has ever beenheard of there. 

In the year 548 the kingdom of Ts'u ordered a cadastral survey, and also a general stock-taking of arms, chariots, and horses. Records were made of the extent and value of the land in eachparish, the extent of the mountains and forests, and the resourcesthey might furnish. Observation was also made of lakes and marshessuitable for sport, and it was forbidden to fill these in. Notewas taken of such hills and mounds as might be available fortombs--a detail which shows that modern graves in China differlittle if at all from the ancient ones; in fact in Canton "myhill, " or "mountain, " is synonymous with "my cemetery. " In orderto fix the taxes at a just figure, stock was taken of the salt-flats, the unproductive lands, and the tracts liable to periodicalinundation. Areas rescued from the waters were protected by dykes, and subdivided for allotment by sloping banks, but withoutintroducing the rigid nine-square system. Good lands, however, were divided according to the method introduced by the Choudynasty; that is to say, six feet formed a "fathom, " 100 fathomsan "acre, " 100 "acres" the allotment of one family; these Englishterms are, of course, only approximately correct. Nine familiesstill formed a hamlet or "well, " and they cultivated together 1000"acres, " the central hundred going to pay the imposts. Taxes, direct and indirect, were fixed with exactitude, and also thenumber of war-chariots that each parish had to furnish; the numberof horses; their value, age, and colour; the number of armouredtroopers and foot soldiers, with a return of their cuirasses andshields. Regarding this colour classification, of the horses, itmay be mentioned that the Tartars, in the second century B. C. , were in the habit of equipping whole regiments of cavalry onmounts of the same colour, and it is, therefore, possible thatthis practice may have been imitated in South China; but Ts'unever once herself engaged in warfare with the Tartars; at allevents with Tartars other than Tartars brought into Chinesesettlements. 

Long before this, the philosopher-statesman Kwan-tsz of Ts'i hadso developed the agriculture, fisheries, trade, and salt gabelle, and had governed the country in such a way that his State, hitherto of minor importance, soon took the lead amongst theChinese powers for wealth and for military influence. Hisclassification of the people was into scholars, artisans, traders, and agriculturalists. He is generally credited with havingintroduced the "Babylonian woman" into the Ts'i metropolis, inorder that traders, having sold their goods there, might leave asmuch as possible of their money behind in the houses of pleasure. There are many accounts of the luxury of this populous city, where"every woman possessed one long and one short needle, " and where apremium levied upon currency, fish, and salt was applied to therelief of the poor and (!) to the rewarding of virtue. Kwan-tszalso maintained a standing army, or perhaps a militia force, of30, 000 men; but he was careful so to husband his strength thatTs'i should not have the external appearance of dominating; hisaim was that she should rather hold her power in reserve, and onlyuse it indirectly: as we have seen, his master was, in consequenceof Kwan-tsz's able administration, raised to the high position ofthe first of the Five Protectors. 

From this it will be plain that there was considerable commercialactivity in China even before the time of Confucius: there wasquite a string of fairs or market towns extending from theimperial reserve eastwards along the Yellow River to Choh-thou(still so called, south of Peking), which was then the mostnorthernly of them: apparently each considerable state possessedone of these fairs. The headwaters of the River Hwai system wereserved by the great mart (now called Yii Chou) belonging to thestate of Cheng. As with our own histories, Chinese annals consistchiefly of the record of what kings and grandees did, and mentionof the people is only occasional; and, even then, only inconnection with the policy of their leaders. 

As soon as the second of the Protectors, the Marquess of Tsin, wasseated on his ancestral throne (637), his first act was to reducethe tolls and make the roads safer; to facilitate trade, and toencourage agriculture. Also to "make friends of the eleven greatfamilies" (already mentioned twice in preceding pages), whosedevelopment, however, in time led to the collapse of this princelypower, and to its division between three of the "great families. "A century after this, a minister of the Ts'u state praised veryhighly the efficiency of the Tsin administration. "The commonpeople are devoted to agriculture; the merchants, artisans, andmenials are all dutiful. " For the conveyance of grain between theTs'in and the Tsin capitals, both carts and boats were requisitioned, from which we must assume that there were practicable roads of somesort for two-wheeled vehicles. In the year 546, when some importantreserves were made by Tsin at the Peace Conference, an expressmessenger was sent from Sung to the Ts'u capital to take the king'spleasure: this means an overland journey from the sources of the Hwaito the modern treaty port of Sha-shr above Hankow. 

It may be added that, five centuries before Kwan-tsz existed, thefounder of the Ts'i state, as a vassal to the new Chou dynasty, had already distinguished himself by encouraging trade, manufactures, fisheries, and the salt production; so that Kwan-tszwas an improver rather than an inventor. 

Thus we see that, from very early times, China was by no means asleepy country of ignorant husbandmen, but was a place full ofmultifarious activities; and that her local rulers, at least fromthe time when the patriarchal power of the Emperors decayed in771, were often men of considerable sagacity, quite alive to thenecessity of developing their resources and encouraging theirpeople: this helps us to understand their restlessness under theyoke of "ritual. "

CHAPTER XVII

EDUCATION AND LITERARY

There is singularly little mention of writing or education inancient times, and it seems likely that written records were atfirst confined to castings or engravings upon metal, and carvingsupon stone. In the days when the written character was cumbrous, there would be no great encouragement to use it for dailyhousehold purposes. It is a striking fact, not only that writingsupon soft clay, afterwards baked, were not only non-existent inChina, but have never once been mentioned or conceived of as beinga possibility. This fact effectually disposes of the allegationthat Persian and Babylonian literary civilization made its way toChina, for it is unreasonable to suppose that an invention so wellsuited to the clayey soil (of _loess_ mud with cementing properties)in which the Chinese princes dwelt could have been ignored by them, if ever the slightest inkling of it had been obtained. 

In 770 B. C. , when the Emperor, having moved his capital to theeast, ceded his ancestral lands in the west to Ts'in on conditionthat Ts'in should recover them permanently from the Tartars, thedocument of cession was engraved upon a metal vase. Fifteenhundred years before this, the Nine Tripods of the founder of theHia dynasty, representing tributes of metal brought to the Emperorby outlying tribes, were inscribed with records of the variousproductions of China: these tripods were ever afterwards regardedas an attribute of imperial authority; and even Ts'u, when itbegan to presume upon the Chou Emperor's weakness, put in a claim(probably based upon his ancestors' own ancient Chinese descent, as explained in Chapter IV. ) to possess them. 

In distributing the fiefs amongst relatives and friends, the firstChou emperors "composed orders" conferring rights upon their newvassals; but it is not stated what written form these orders took. Written prayers for the recovery of the first Emperor's health arementioned, but here again we are ignorant of the material on whichthe prayers were written by the precentor. Four hundred yearslater, in 65, when Ts'in had assisted to the throne his neighbourthe Marquess of Tsin, the latter gave a promise in writing toTs'in that he would cede to her all the territory lying to thewest of the Yellow River. The next ruler of Tsin, the celebratedwanderer who afterwards became the second Protector, is distinctlystated to have had an adviser who taught him to read; it is addedthat the same marquess also consulted this adviser about asuitable teacher for his son and heir. About the same time one ofthe Marquess's friends, objecting to take office, took to flight:his friends, as a protest, hung up "a writing" at the palace gate. In 584 a Ts'u refugee in Tsin sends a writing to the leadinggeneral of Ts'u, threatening to be a thorn in his side. It ispresumed that in all these cases the writing was on wood. The textof a declaration of war against Ts'u by Ts'in in 313 B. C. , at atime when these two powers had ceased to be allies, and werecompeting for empire, refers to an agreement made three centuriesearlier between the King of Ts'u and the Earl of Ts'in; thisdeclaration was carved upon several stone tablets; but it does notappear upon what material the older agreement was carved. In 538, at a durbar held by Ts'u, Hiang Suh, the learned man of Sung, whohas already been mentioned in Chapter XV. As the inventor of PeaceConferences in 546, and as one of the Confucian group of friends, remarked: "What I know of the diplomatic forms to be observed isonly obtained from books. " A few years later, when the populationof one of the small orthodox Chinese states was moved forpolitical convenience by Ts'u away to another district, they wereallowed to take with them "their maps, cadastral survey, andcensus records. "

There is an interesting statement in the _Kwoh Yü_, anancillary history of these times, but touching more upon personalmatters, usually considered to have been written by the same manthat first expanded Confucius' annals, to the effect that in 489B. C. (when Confucius was wandering about on his travels, adisappointed and disgusted man) the King of Wu inflicted acrushing defeat upon Ts'i at a spot not far from the Lu frontier, and that he captured "the national books, 800 leather chariots, and 3000 cuirasses and shields. " If this translation be perfectlyaccurate, it is interesting as showing that Ts'i did possess_Kwoh-shu_, or "a State library, " or archives. But unfortunatelytwo other histories mention the capture of a Ts'i general named KwohHia, _alias_ Kwoh Hwei-tsz, so that there seems to be a doubtwhether, in transcribing ancient texts, one character (_shu_) maynot have been substituted for the other (_hia_). Two years laterthe barbarian king in question entered Lu, and made a treaty with thatstate upon equal terms. 

Shortly after this date, the Chinese adviser who brought about theconquest of Wu by the equally barbarous Yiieh, had occasion tosend a "closed letter" to a man living in Ts'u. When we come tolater times, subsequent to the death of Confucius, we find writtencommunications more commonly spoken of. Thus, in 313, Ts'i, enraged at the supposed faithlessness of Ts'u, "broke in two theTs'u tally" and attached herself to Ts'in instead. This can onlyrefer to a wooden "indenture" of which each party preserved acopy, each fitting 'in, "dog's teeth like, " as the Chinese stillsay, closely to the other. A few years later we find letters fromTs'i to Ts'u, holding forth the tempting project of a joint attackupon Ts'in; and also a letter from Ts'in to Ts'u, alluding to theescape of a hostage and the cause of a war. In the year 227, whenTs'in was rapidly conquering the whole empire, the northernmoststate of Yen (Peking plain), dreading annexation, conceived theplan of assassinating the King of Ts'in; and, in order to give theassassin a plausible ground for gaining admittance to the tyrant'spresence, sent a map of Yen, so that the roads available fortroops might be explained to the ambitious conqueror, who wouldfall into the trap. He barely escaped. 

All these matters put together point to the clear conclusion thatsuch states as Ts'in, Tsin, Ts'i, Yen, and Ts'u (none of whichbelonged, so far as the bulk of their population was concerned, tothe purely Chinese group concentrated in the limited areadescribed in the first chapter) were able to communicate by letterfreely with each other: _á fortiori_, therefore, must theorthodox states, whose civilization they had all borrowed orshared, have been able to communicate with them, and with eachother. Besides, there is the question of the innumerable treatiesmade at the durbars, and evidently equally legible by all thedozen or so of representatives present; and the written prayers, already instanced, which were probably offered to the gods at mostsacrifices. A special chapter will be devoted to treaties. 

In the year 523 the following passage occurs, or rather it occursin one of the expanded Confucian histories having retrospectivereference to matters of 523 B. C:--"It is the father's fault if, atthe binding up of the hair (eight years of age), boys do not go tothe teacher, though it may be the mother's fault if, before thatage, they do not escape the dangers of fire and water: it is theirown fault if, having gone to the teacher, they make no progress:it is their friends' fault if they make progress but get no reputefor it: it is the executive's fault if they obtain repute but norecommendation to office: it is the prince's fault if they arerecommended for office but not appointed. " Here we have in effectthe nucleus at least of the examination system as it was until ayear or two ago, together with an inferential statement thateducation was only meant for the governing classes. 

It is rather remarkable that the invention of the "greater seal"character in 827 B. C. Practically coincides with the first signsof imperial decadence; this is only another piece of evidence infavour of the proposition that enlightenment and patriarchal rulecould not exist comfortably together. When Ts'in conquered thewhole of modern China 600 years later, unified weights andmeasures, the breadth of axles, and written script, and remediedother irregularities that had hitherto prevailed in the rivalstates, it is evident that the need of a more intelligible scriptwas then found quite as urgent as the need of roads suitable forall carts, and of measures by which those carts could bringdefinite quantities of metal and grain tribute to the capital. Accordingly the First August Emperor's prime minister did at onceset to work to invent the "lesser seal" character, in which (solate as A. D. 200) the first Chinese dictionary was written; this"lesser seal" is still fairly readable after a little practice, but for daily use it has long been and is impracticable andobsolete. If we reflect how difficult it is for us to decipher theold engrossed charters and written letters of the English kings, we may all the more easily imagine how even a slight change in theform of "letters, " or strokes, will make easy reading of Chineseimpossible. It is a mistake to suppose that the Chinese have to"spell their way" laboriously through the written character sofamiliar to them: it is just as easy to "skim over" a Chinesenewspaper in a few minutes as it is to "take in" the leadingfeatures of the _Times_ in the same limited time; and volumesof Chinese history or literature in general can be "gutted" quiteeasily, owing to the facility with which the so-called pictographs, once familiar, lend themselves to "skipping. "

The Bamboo Books, dug up in A. D. 281, the copies of the classicsconcealed in the walls of Confucius' house, the copy of Lao-tsz'sphilosophical work recorded to have been in the possession of aChinese empress in 150 B. C. --all these were written in the"greater seal, " and the painstaking industry of Chinesespecialists was already necessary when the Christian era began, inorder to reduce the ancient characters to more modern forms. Sincethen the written character has been much clarified and simplified, and it is just as easy to express sentiments in written Chinese asin any other language; but, of course, when totally new ideas areintroduced, totally new characters must be invented; andinventions, both of individual characters and of expressions, aregoing on now. 

CHAPTER XVIII

TREATIES AND VOWS

Treaties were always very solemn functions, invariably accompaniedby the sacrifice of a victim. A part of the victim, or of itsblood, was thrown into a ditch, in order that the Spirit of theEarth might bear witness to the deed; the rest of the blood wasrubbed upon the lips of the parties concerned, and also scatteredupon the documents, by way of imprecation; sometimes, however, theimprecations, instead of being uttered, were specially written atthe end of the treaty. Just as we now say "the ink was scarcelydry before, etc. , etc. , " the Chinese used to say "the blood of thevictim was scarcely dry on their lips, before, etc. , etc. " Whenthe barbarian King of Wu succeeded for a short period in"durbaring" the federal Chinese princes, a dispute took place (asnarrated in Chapter XIV. ) between Tsin and Wu as to who should rubthe lips with blood first--in other words, have precedence. Inthe year 541 B. C. , sixty years before the above event, Tsin andTs'u had agreed to waive the ceremony of smearing the lips withblood, to choose a victim in common, and to lay the text of thetreaty upon the victim after a solemn reading of its contents. This modification was evidently made in consequence of thedisagreement between Tsin and Ts'u at the Peace Conference of 546, when a dispute had arisen (page 47), as to which should smear thelips first. This was the occasion on which the famous Tsinstatesman, Shuh Hiang, in the face of seventeen states'representatives, all present, had the courage to ignore Ts'u'streachery in concealing cuirasses under the soldiers' clothes. Hesaid: "Tsin holds her pre-eminent position as Protector by herinnate good qualities, which will always command the adhesion ofother states; why need we care if Ts'u smears first, or if sheinjures herself by being detected in treachery?" It has alreadybeen mentioned that Confucius glosses over or falsifies both theabove cases, and gives the victory in each instance to Tsin. Though these little historical peccadilloes on the part of thesaint _homme_ are considered even by orthodox critics to beobjectionable, it must be remembered that it was very risky workwriting history at all in those despotic times: even incomparatively democratic days (100 B. C. ), the "father of Chinesehistory" was castrated for criticizing the reigning Emperor in thecourse of issuing his great work; and so late as the fifth centuryA. D. An almost equally great historian was put to death "with histhree generations" for composing a "true history" of the Tartarsthen ruling as Emperors of North China; i. E. For disclosing theirobscure and barbarous origin, Moreover, foreigners who fix uponthese trifling specific and admitted discrepancies, in order todiscredit the general truth of all Chinese history, must rememberthat the Chinese critics, from the very beginning, have always, even when manifestly biased, been careful to expose errors; thevery discrepancies themselves, indeed, tend to prove thesubstantial truth of the events recorded; and the fact thatadmittedly erroneous texts still stand unaltered proves thereverent care of the Chinese as a nation to preserve theirdefective annals, with all faults, in their original condition. 

At this treaty conference of 546 B. C. , held at the Sung capital, the host alone had no vote, being held superior (as host) to all;and, further, out of respect for his independence, the treaty hadto be signed outside his gates: the existence of the Emperor wastotally ignored. 

A generation before this (579) another important treaty betweenthe two great rivals, Tsin and Ts'u, had been signed by the highcontracting parties outside the walls of Sung. The articlesprovided for community of interest in success or failure; mutualaid in every thing, more especially in war; free use of roads solong as relations remained peaceful; joint action in face ofmenace from other powers; punishment of those neglecting to cometo court. The imprecation ran: "Of him who breaks this, let thearmies be dispersed and the kingdom be lost; moreover, let thespirits chastise him. " Although both orthodox powers professedtheir anxiety to "protect" the imperial throne, yet, seeing thatthe Emperor was quietly shelved in all these conventions, thereference to "court duty" probably refers to the duty of Cheng andthe other small orthodox states to render homage to Tsin or Ts'u(as the case might be) as settled by this and previous treaties. In fact, at the Peace Conference of 546, it was agreed between thetwo mesne lords that the vassals of Ts'u should pay their respectsto Tsin, and _vice versa_. But, during the negotiations, azealous Tsin representative went on to propose that the informalallies of the chief contracting powers should also be dragged in:"If Ts'in will pay us a visit, I will try and induce Ts'i to visitT'su. " These two powers had _ententes_, Ts'i with Tsin, andTs'u with Ts'in, but recognized no one's hegemony over them. Itwas this surprise sprung upon the Ts'u delegates that necessitatedan express messenger to the king, as recounted at the end ofChapter XVI. The King of Ts'u sent word: "Let Ts'in and Ts'ialone; let the others visit our respective capitals. " Accordinglyit was understood that Tsin and Ts'u should both be Protectors, but that neither Ts'in nor Ts'i should recognize their status tothe point of subordinating themselves to the joint hegemons. Thiswas Ts'u's first appearance as effective hegemon, but her official_debut_ alone did not take place till 538. Ts'i and Ts'in hadboth approved, in principle, the terms of peace, but Ts'in sent norepresentative, whilst Ts'i sent two. It is very remarkable thatSz-ma Ts'ien (the great historian of 100 B. C. , who was castrated)does not mention this important meeting in his great work, eitherunder the heading of Ts'i, or of Tsin, or under the headings ofSung and Ts'u. It seems, however, really to have had good effectfor several generations; but there was some thing behind it whichshows that love for humanity was not the leading motive of thechief parties. Two years later it was that the philosophicalbrother of the King of Wu went his rounds among the Chineseprinces, and it is evident that Ts'u only desired peace with NorthChina whilst she tackled this formidable new enemy on the coast. Tsin, on the other hand, was in trouble with the "six greatfamilies" (the survivors of the "eleven great families"conciliated by the Second Protector), who were graduallyundermining the princely authority in Tsin to their own privateaggrandisement. In 572 B. C. , when the legitimate ruler of Tsin, who had been superseded by irregular successors, was fetched backfrom the Emperor's court, to which he had gone for a quiet asylum, he drew up a treaty of conditions with his own ministers, andimmolated a chicken as sanction; this idea is still occasionallyperpetuated in British courts of justice, where Chinese, probablywithout knowing it, draw upon ancient history when asked by thecourt how they are accustomed to sanction an oath; cocks are oftenalso carried about by modern Chinese boatmen for purposes ofsacrifice. In the year 504, after Wu had captured the Ts'ucapital, one of the petty orthodox Chinese states taken by Ts'u--the first to be so taken by barbarians--in 684, but left by Ts'uinternally independent, declined to render any assistance to Wu, unless she could prove her competence to hold permanently the Ts'uterritory thus conquered. The King of Ts'u was so grateful forthis that he drew some blood from the breast of his own half-brother, and on the spot made a treaty with the vassal prince. It662, even in a love vow, the ruler of Lu cut his own arm andexchanged drops of blood with his lady-love. In 481 the people ofWei (the small orthodox state on the middle Yellow River betweenTsin and Lu) forced one of their politicians to swear allegianceto the desired successor under the sanction of a sacrificial pig. 

The great Kwan-tsz insisted on his prince carrying out a treatywhich had been extorted in times of stress; but, as a rule, themost opportunistic principles were laid down, even by Confuciushimself when he was placed under personal stress: "Treatiesobtained by force are of no value, as the spirits could not thenhave really been present. " In 589 Ts'u invaded the state of Wei, just mentioned, and menaced the adjoining state of Lu, compellingthe execution of a treaty. Confucius, who once broke a treatyhimself, naturally retrospectively considered this ducal treaty ofno effect, and he even goes so far as to avoid mentioning in hisannals some of the important persons who were present; heespecially "burkes" two Chinese ruling princes, who were shamelessenough to ride in the same chariot with the King of Ts'u, underwhose predominancy they were, and who were therefore themselvesunder a kind of stress. In 482 one of Confucius' pupils made thefollowing casuistical reply to the government of Wu on theirapplication for renewal of a treaty with her: "It is only fidelitythat gives solidity to treaties; they are determined by mutualconsent, and it is with sacrifices that they are laid before ourancestors; the written words give expression to them, and thespirits guarantee them. A treaty once concluded cannot be changed:otherwise it were vain to make a new one. Remember the proverb:"What needs warming up more may just as well be eaten cold. " Theordinary rough-and-ready form of oath or vow between individualswas: "If I break this, may I be as this river"; or, "may the rivergod be witness. " There were many other similar forms, and it wasoften customary to throw something valuable into the river as asymbol. 

CHAPTER XIX

CONFUCIUS AND LITERATURE

Let us return for a moment to the history of China's development. Confucius was born in the autumn of 551, B. C. , and he died in 479. If we survey the condition of the empire during these seventyyears, we may begin to understand better the secret of histeachings, and of his influence in later times. When he was a boyof seven or eight years, the presence in Lu of Ki-chah, thelearned and virtuous brother of the barbarian King of Wu, musthave opened his eyes widely to the ominous rise, of a democraticand mixed China. Lu, like Tsin, was now beginning to suffer fromthe "powerful family" plague; in other words, the story of KingJohn and his barons was being rehearsed in China. Tsin and Ts'uhad patched up ancient enmities at the Peace Conference; Tsinduring the next twenty years administered snub after snub to theobsequious ruler of Lu, who was always turned back at the YellowRiver whenever he started west to pay his respects. Lu, on theother hand, declined to attend the Ts'u durbar of 538, held byTs'u alone only after the approval of Tsin had been obtained. In522 the philosopher Yen-tsz, of Ts'i, accompanied his own marquessto Lu in order to study the rites there: this fact alone provesthat Ts'i, though orthodox and advanced, had not the same loftyspiritual status that was the pride of Lu. In 517 the Marquess ofLu was driven from his throne, and Ts'i took the opportunity toinvade Lu under pretext of assisting him; however, the fugitivepreferred Tsin as a refuge, and for many years was quartered at atown near the common frontier. But the powerful families (allbranches of the same family as the duke himself) proved too strongfor him; they bribed the Tsin statesmen, and the Lu ruler died inexile in the year 510. In the year 500 Confucius became chiefcounsellor to the new marquess, and by his energetic action droveinto exile in Tsin a very formidable agitator belonging to one ofthe powerful family cliques. In 488 the King of Wu, after marchingon Ts'i, summoned Lu to furnish "one hundred sets of victims" as amark of compliancy; the king and the marquess had an interview;the next year the king came in person, and a treaty was made withhim under the very walls of K'üh-fu, the Lu capital (this shamefulfact is concealed by Confucius, who simply says: "Wu made war onus"). In 486 Lu somewhat basely joined Wu in an attack uponorthodox Ts'i. In 484-483 Confucius, who had meanwhile beentravelling abroad for some years in disgust, was urgently sentfor; four years later he died, a broken and disappointed man. 

Now, it is one thing to be told in general terms that Confuciusrepresented conservative forces, disapproved of the quarrelsomewars of his day, and wished in theory to restore the good old"rules of propriety"; but quite another thing to understand in ahuman, matter-of-fact sort of way what he really did in definitesets of circumstances, and what practical objects he had in view. The average European reader, not having specific facts and placesunder his eye, can only conceive from this rough generalization, and from the usual anecdotal tit-bits told about him, thatConfucius was an exceedingly timid, prudent, benevolent, andobsequious old gentleman who, as indeed his rival Lao-tsz hintedto him, was something like a superior dancing-master or courtusher, But when the disjointed apothegms of his "Analects" (puttogether, not by himself, but by his disciples) are placedalongside the real human actions baldly touched upon in his own"Springs and Autumns, " and as expanded by his three commentators, one of them, at least, being a contemporary of his own, thingsassume quite a different complexion, Moreover, this last-mentionedor earliest in date of the expanders (see p. 91) also composed achatty, anecdotal, and intimately descriptive account of Lu, Ts'i, Tsin, CHÊNG, Ts'u, Wu, and Yiieh (of no other states except quiteincidentally); and we have also the Bamboo Books dug up in 281A. D. , being the Annals of Tsin and a sketch of general historydown to 299 B. C. Finally, the "father of history, " in about goB. C. , published, or issued ready for publication, a _resumé_of all the above (except what was in the Bamboo Books, which werethen, of course, unknown to him); so that we are able to comparedates, errors, misprints, concealments, and so on; not to mentionthe advantage of reading all that the successive generations ofcommentators have had to say. 

The matter may be compendiously stated as follows. Withoutattempting to go backward beyond the conquest by the Chouprincipality and the founding of a Chou dynasty in 122 B. C. (though there is really no reason to doubt the substantialaccuracy of the vague "history" of patriarchal times, at least sofar back beyond that as to cover the 1000 years or more of the twoprevious dynasties' reigns), we may state that, whilst in generalthe principles and ritual of the two previous dynasties weremaintained, a good many new ideas were introduced at this Chouconquest, and amongst other things, a compendious and all-pervading practical ritual government, which not only marked offthe distinctions between classes, and laid down ceremonious rulesfor ancestral sacrifice, social deportment, family duties, cultivation, finance, punishment, and so on, but endeavoured tobring all human actions whatsoever into practical harmony withsupposed natural laws; that is to say, to make them as regular, ascomprehensible, as beneficent, and as workable, as the perfectlymanifest but totally unexplained celestial movements were; as werethe rotation of seasons, the balancing of forces, the growth andwaning of matter, male and female reproduction, light anddarkness; and, in short, to make human actions as harmonious aswere all the forces of nature, which never fail or go wrong exceptunder (presumed) provocation, human or other. The Emperor, asVicar of God, was the ultimate judge of what was _tao_, orthe "right way. "

Now this simple faith, when the whole of the Chinese Empireconsisted of about 50, 000 square miles of level plain, inhabitedprobably by not more than 2, 000, 000 or 3, 000, 000 homogeneouspeople, was admirably suited for the patriarchal rule of a centralchief (the King or Emperor), receiving simple tribute of metals, hemp, cattle, sacrificial supplies, etc. ; entertaining hisrelatives and princely friends when they came to do annual homageand to share in periodical sacrifice; declaring the penal laws(there were no other laws) for all his vassals; compassionatingand conciliating the border tribes living beyond those vassals. But this peaceful bucolic life, in the course of time and nature, naturally produced a gradual increase in the population; theChinese cultivators spread themselves over the expanse of_loess_ formed by the Yellow River and Desert deposits and byaeons of decayed vegetation in the low-lying lands; no othernation or tribe within their ken having the faintest notion ofwritten character, there was consequently no political cohesion ofany sort amongst the non-Chinese tribes; the position was akin tothat of the European powers grafting themselves for centuries uponthe still primitive African tribes, comparatively few of whichhave seen fit to turn the art of writing to the practical purposeof keeping records and cementing their own power. Wherever aChinese adventurer went, there he became founder of a state; tothis day we see enterprising Chinamen founding petty "dynasties"in the Siamese Malay Peninsula; or, for instance, an Englishmanlike Rajah Brooke founding a private dynasty in Borneo. 

Some of these frontier tribes, notably the Tartars, were ofaltogether too tough a material to be assimilated. They evenendeavoured to check the Chinese advance beyond the Yellow River, and carried fire and sword themselves into the federal conclave. Where resistance was _nil_ or slight, as, for instance, amongsome of the barbarians to the east, there the Chinese adventurers, either adopting native ways, or persuading the autochthones toadopt their ways, by levelling up or levelling down, developedstrong cohesive power; besides (owing to the difficulties ofinter-communication) creating a feeling of independence and adisinclination to obey the central power. The emperors who used inthe good old days to summon the vassals--a matter of a week or twoin that small area--to chastise the wicked tribes on theirfrontiers, gradually found themselves unable to cope with the moredistant Tartar hordes, the eastern barbarians of the coast, theAnnamese, Shans, and other unidentified tribes south of the Yang-tsz, as they had so easily done with nearer tribes when theChinese had not pushed out so far. Moreover, new-Chinese, Chinese-veneered, and half-Chinese states, recognizing their ownresponsibilities, now interposed themselves as "buffers" orbarriers between the Emperor and the unadulterated barbarians;these hybrid states themselves were quite as formidable to theimperial power as the displaced barbarians had formerly been. Hence, as we have seen, the pitiful flight from his metropolis ofone Emperor after the other; the rise of great and wealthy personsoutside the former limited sacred circle; the pretence ofprotecting the Emperor, advanced by these rising powers, partly inorder to gain prestige by using his imperial name in support oftheir local ambitions, and partly because--as during the MiddleAges in the case of the Papacy--no one cared to brave the moralodium of annihilating a venerable spiritual power, even thoughgradually shorn of its temporal rights and influence. 

Lu was almost on a par with the imperial capital in all thatconcerns learning, ritual, music, sacrifice, deportment, andspiritual prestige. Confucius, in his zeal for the recovery ofimperial rights, was really no more of a stickler for mere formthan were Tsz-ch'an of Cheng, Ki-chah of Wu, Hiang Suh of Sung, Shuh Hiang of Tsin, and others already enumerated; the onlydistinguishing feature in his case was that he was not a high orinfluential official in his earlier days; besides, he was a Sungman by descent, and all the great families were of the Lu princelycaste. Thus, for want of better means to assert his own views, hetook to teaching and reading, to collecting historical facts, topointing morals and adorning tales. As a youth he was so clever, that one of the Lu grandees, on his death-bed, foretold hisgreatness. It was a great bitterness for him to see his successiveprincely masters first the humble servants of Ts'i, then buffetedbetween Tsin and Ts'u, finally invaded and humiliated by barbarianWu, only to receive the final touches of charity at the hands ofsavage Yiieh. His first act, when he at last obtained high office, was to checkmate Ts'i, the man behind the ruler of which jealousstate feared that Lu might, under Confucius' able rule, succeed inobtaining the Protectorate, and thus defeat his own insidiousdesign to dethrone the legitimate Ts'i house. The wily Marquess ofTs'i thereupon--of course at the instigation of the intriguing"great families"--tried another tack, and succeeded at last incorrupting the vacillating Lu prince with presents of horses, racing chariots, and dancing women. Then it was (497) thatConfucius set out disheartened on his travels. Recalled thirteenyears later, he soon afterwards began to devote his remainingpowers to the Annals so frequently referred to above, and it waswhilst engaged in finishing this task that he had presentiments ofhis coming end; he does not appear to have been able to exercisemuch political or advisory power after his return to Lu. 

During his thirteen years of travel (a more detailed account ofwhich will be given in a subsequent chapter), he found time torevise and edit the books which appear to have formed the commonstock-in-trade for all China; one of his ideas was to eliminatefrom these all sentiments of an anti-imperial nature. They werenot then called "classics, " but simply "The Book" (of History), "The Poems" (still known by heart all over China), "The Rites" (asimproved by the Chou family), "The Changes" (a sort of cosmogonycombined with soothsaying), and "Music. "

CHAPTER XX

LAW

Let us now consider the notions of law as they existed in theprimitive Chinese mind. As all government was supposed to be basedon the natural laws of the universe, of which universal law ororder of things, the Emperor, as "Son of Heaven, " was (subject tohis own obedience to it) the supreme mouthpiece or expression, there lay upon him no duty to define that manifest law; when itwas broken, it was for him to say that it was broken, and topunish the breach. Nature's bounty is the spring, and thereforerewards are conferred in spring; nature's fall is in the autumn, which is the time for decreeing punishments; these are carried outin winter, when death steals over nature. A generous tableaccompanies the dispensing of rewards, a frugal table and no musicaccompanies the allotment of punishments; hence the imperialfeasts and fasts. Thus punishment rather than command is what wasfirst understood by Law, and it is interesting to observe that"making war" and "putting to death" head the list of imperialchastisements, war being thus regarded as the Emperor's rod in theshape of a posse of punitory police, rather than as an expressionof statecraft, ambitious greed, or vainglorious self-assertion. Then followed, in order of severity, castration, cutting off thefeet or the knee-cap, branding, and flogging. The Emperor, or hisvassals, or the executive officers of each in the ruler's name, declared the law, _i. E. _ they declared the punishment in eachcase of breach as it occurred. Thus from the very beginning thelegislative, judicial, and executive functions have never beenclearly separated in the Chinese system of thought; new words havehad to be coined within the last two years in order to expressthis distinction for purposes of law reform. Mercantile Law, Family Law, Fishery Laws--in a word, all the mass of what we callCommercial and Civil Jurisprudence, --no more concerned theGovernment, so far as individual rights were concerned, thanAgricultural Custom, Bankers' Custom, Butchers' Weights, and suchlike petty matters; whenever these, or analogous matters, weretouched by the State, it was for commonwealth purposes, and notfor the maintenance of private rights. Each paterfamilias wasabsolutely master of his own family; merchants managed their ownbusiness freely; and so on with the rest. It was only when publicsafety, Government interests, or the general weal was involvedthat punishment-law stepped in and said, --always with _tao_, "propriety, " or nature's law in ultimate view: "you merchants maynot wear silk clothes"; "you usurers must not ruin the agriculturalists";"you butchers must not irritate the gods of grain by killing cattle":--these are mere examples taken at random from much later times. 

The Emperor Muh, whose energies we have already seen displayed inTartar conquests and exploring excursions nearly a millenniumbefore our era, was the first of the Chou dynasty to decide thatlaw reform was necessary in order to maintain order among the"hundred families" (still one of the expressions meaning "theChinese people"). A full translation of this code is given in Dr. Legge's Chinese classics, where a special chapter of The Book isdevoted to it: in charging his officer to prepare it, the Emperoronly uses the words "revise the punishments, " and the code itselfis only known as the "Punishments" (of the marquess who drew itup); although it also prescribes many judicial forms, and laysdown precepts which are by no means all castigatory. The mere factof its doing so is illustrative of reformed ideas in the embryo. There is good ground to suppose that the Chinese Emperor's "laws, "such as they were at any given time, were solemnly and periodicallyproclaimed, in each vassal kingdom; but, subject to these general imperialdirections, the _themis_, _diké_ or inspired decision of themagistrate, was the sole deciding factor; and, of course, the ruler'sarbitrary pleasure, whether that ruler were supreme or vassal, oftenran riot when he found himself strong enough to be unjust. For instance, in 894 B. C. , the Emperor boiled alive one of the Ts'i rulers, an act thatwas revenged by Ts'i 200 years later, as has been mentioned in previouschapters. 

In 796 B. C. A ruler of Lu was selected, or rather recommended tothe Emperor for selection, in preference to his elder brother, because "when he inflicted chastisement he never failed toascertain the exact instructions left by the ancient emperors. "This same Emperor had already, in 817, nominated one youngerbrother to the throne of Lu, because he was considered the mostattractive in appearance on an occasion when the brethren didhomage at the imperial court. For this caprice the Emperor'scounsellor had censured him, saying: "If orders be not executed, there is no government; if they be executed, but contrary toestablished rule, the people begin to despise their superiors. "

In 746 B. C. The state of Ts'in, which had just then recentlyemerged from Tartar barbarism, and had settled down permanently inthe old imperial domain, first introduced the "three stock" law, under which the three generations, or the three family connectionsof a criminal were executed for his crime as well as himself. In596 and 550 Tsin (which thus seems to have taken the hint fromTs'in) exterminated the families of two political refugees who hadfled to the Tartars and to Ts'i respectively. Even in Ts'u therelatives of the man who first taught war to Wu were massacred in585, and any one succouring the fugitive King of Ts'u wasthreatened with "three clan penalties"; this last case was in theyear 529. The laws of Ts'u seem to have been particularly harsh;in 55 the premier was cut into four for corruption, and onequarter was sent in each direction, as a warning to the localdistricts. About 650 B. C. A distinguished Lu statesman, namedTsang Wen-chung, seems to have drawn up a special code, for one ofConfucius' pupils (two centuries later) denounced it as being toosevere when compared with Tsz-ch'an's mild laws--to be soonmentioned. Confucius himself also described the man as being "tooshowy. " This Lu statesman, about twenty years later, made somesignificant and informing observations to the ruler of Lu whenreport came that Tsin (the Second Protector) was endeavouring toget the Emperor to poison a federal refugee from Wei, about whosesuccession the powers were at the moment quarrelling. He said:"There are only five recognized punishments: warlike arms, theaxe, the knife or the saw, the branding instruments, the whip orthe bastinado; there are no surreptitious ones like this nowproposed. " The result was that Lu, being of the same clan as theEmperor, easily succeeded in bribing the imperial officials to letthe refugee prince go. The grateful prince eagerly offered TsangW&n-chung a reward; but the statesman declined to receive it, onthe ground that "a subject's sayings are not supposed to be knownbeyond his own master's frontier. " About, a century later adistinguished Tsin statesman, asking what "immortality" meant, wastold: "When a man dies, but when his words live; like the words ofthis distinguished man, Tsang W&n-chung, of Lu state. " This sameTsin statesman is said to have engraved some laws on iron (513), an act highly disapproved by Confucius. It is only by thus piecingtogether fragmentary allusions that we can arrive at theconclusion that "there were judges in those days. " Mention hasbeen several times made in previous chapters of Tsz-ch'an, whoseconsummate diplomacy maintained the independence and even thefederal influence of the otherwise obscure state of Cheng during awhole generation. In the year 536 B. C. He decided to cast the lawsin metal for the information of the people: this course wasbitterly distasteful to his colleague, Shuh Hiang of Tsin (seeAppendix I. ), and possibly the Tsin "laws on iron" just mentionedwere suggested by this experiment, for it must be remembered thatTsin, Lu, Wei, and Cheng were all of the same imperial clan. Confucius, who had otherwise a genuine admiration for Tsz-ch'an, disapproved of this particular feature in his career. In a minordegree the same question of definition and publication has alsocaused differences of opinion between English lawyers, so far asthe so-called "judge-made law" is concerned; it is stillconsidered to be better practice to have it declared ascircumstances arise, than to have it set forth beforehand in acode. The arguments are the same; in both cases the judges professto "interpret" the law as it already exists; that is, the Chinesejudge interprets the law of nature, and the English judge thecommon and statute laws; but neither wishes to hamper himself bytrying to publish in advance a scheme contrived to fit all futurehypothetical cases. 

About 680 B. C. The King of Ts'u is recorded to have passed a lawagainst harbouring criminals, under which the harbourer was liableto the same penalty as the thief; and at the same time referenceis made by his advisers to an ancient law or command of theimperial dynasty, made before it came to power in 1122 B. C. -"Ifany of your men takes to flight, let every effort be made to findhim. " Thus it would seem that other ruling classes, besides thoseof the Chou clan, accepted the general imperial laws, Chou-ordained or otherwise. Although it is thus manifest that thevassal states, at least after imperial decadence set in, in 771B. C. , drew up and published laws of their own, yet, at the greatdurbar of princes held by the First Protector in 651 B. C. , it isrecorded that the "Son of Heaven's Prohibitions" were read overthe sacrificial victim. They are quite patriarchal in theirlaconic style, and for that reason recall that of the Roman TwelveTables. They run: "Do not block springs!" "Do not hoard grain!""Do not displace legitimate heirs!" "Do not make wives of yourconcubines!" "Do not let women meddle with State affairs!" Fromthe Chinese point of view, all these are merely assertions of whatis Nature's law. In the year 640, the state of Lu applied the term"Law Gate" to the South Gate, "because both Emperor and vassalprinces face south when they rule, and because that is, accordingly, the gate through which all commands and laws dopass. " It is always possible, however, that this "facing south" ofthe ancient ruler points to the direction whence some of hispeople came, and towards which, as their guide and leader, he hadto look in order to govern them. 

In the year 594 there is an instance cited where two dignitarieswere killed by direct specific order of the Emperor. In explainingthis exceptional case, the commentator says: "The lord of allbelow Heaven is Heaven, and Heaven's continuer or successor is thePrince; whilst that which the Prince holds fast is the Sanction, which no subject can resist. "

Not very long after Confucius' death in 479 B. C. , the powerful andorthodox state of Tsin, which had so long held its own againstTs'in, Ts'i, and Ts'u, tottered visibly under the disintegratingeffects of the "great family" intrigues: of the six great familieswhich had, as representatives of the earlier eleven, latterlymonopolized power, three only survived internecine conflicts, andat last the surviving three split up into the independent statesof Han, Wei, and Chao, those names being eponymous, as being theirsub-fiefs, and, therefore, their "surnames, " or family names. Inthe year 403 the Emperor formally recognized them as separate, independent vassaldoms. Wei is otherwise known as Liang, owing tothe capital city having borne that name, and the kings of Liangare celebrated for their conversations with the peripateticphilosopher, Mencius, in the fourth century B. C. In order todistinguish this state from that of Wei (imperial clan) adjoiningLu and Sung, we shall henceforth call it Ngwei, as, in fact, itoriginally was pronounced, and as it still is in some moderndialects. The first of the Ngwei sovereigns had in his employ astatesman named Li K'wei, who introduced, for taxation purposes, anew system of land laws, and also new penal laws. These last werein six books, or main heads, and, it is said, represented all thatwas best in the laws of the different feudal states, mostly inreference to robbery: the minor offences were roguery, gettingover city walls, gambling, borrowing, dishonesty, lewdness, extravagance, and transgressing the ruler's commands--their exactterms are now unknown. This code was afterwards styled the "LawClassic, " and its influence can be plainly traced, dynasty bydynasty, down to modern times; in fact, until a year or two ago, the principles of Chinese law have never radically changed; eachsuccessive ruling family has simply taken what it found; modifyingwhat existed, in its own supposed interest, according to time, place, and circumstance. Li K'wei's land laws singularly resembledthose recommended to the Manchu Government by Sir Robert Hart fouryears ago. 

CHAPTER XXI

PUBLIC WORKS

It is difficult to guess how much truth there is in the ancienttraditions that the water-courses of the empire were improvedthrough gigantic engineering works undertaken by the ancientEmperors of China. There is one gorge, well known to travellers, above Ich'ang, on the River Yang-tsz, on the way to Ch'ung-k'ing, where the precipitous rocks on each side have the appearance andhardness of iron, and for a mile or more--perhaps several miles--stand perpendicularly like walls on both sides of the rapid Yang-tsz River: the most curious feature about them is that from belowthe water-level, right up to the top, or as far as the eye canreach, the stone looks as though it had been chipped away withpowerful cheese-scoops: it seems almost impossible that anyoperation of nature can have fashioned rocks in this way; on theother hand, what tools of sufficient hardness, driven by whatgreat force, could hollow out a passage of such length, at such adepth, and such a height? It is certain that after Ts'in conqueredthe hitherto almost unknown kingdoms of Pa and Shuh (Eastern andWestern Sz Ch'wan) a Chinese engineer named Li Ping worked wondersin the canalization of the so-called CH'ÊNg-tu plain, or the richlevel region lying around the capital city of Sz Ch'wan province, which was so long as Shuh endured also the metropolis of Shuh. Theconsular officers of his Britannic Majesty have made a specialstudy of these sluices, which are still in full working order, andthey seem almost unchanged in principle from the period (280 B. C. )when Li Ping lived. The Chinese still regard this branch of theGreat River as the source; or at least they did so until theJesuit surveys of two centuries ago proved otherwise; it was quitenatural that they should do so in ancient times, for the trueupper course, and also Yiin Nan and Tibet through which thatcourse runs, were totally unknown to them, and unheard of by name;even now the so-called Lolo country of Sz Ch'wan and Yiin Nan ismostly unexplored, and the mountain Lolos are quite independent ofChina. The fact that they have whitish skins and a written scriptof their own (manifestly inspired by the form of Chinesecharacters) makes them a specially interesting people. Li Ping'sengineering feats also included the region around Ya-thou and Kia-ting, as marked on the modern maps. 

The founder of the Hia dynasty (2205 B. C. ) is supposed to haveliberated the stagnant waters of the Yellow River and sent them tothe sea; as this is precisely what all succeeding dynasties havetried to do, and have been obliged to try, and what in our owntimes the late Li Hung-chang was ordered to do just before hisdeath, there seems no good reason for suspecting the accuracy ofthe tradition; the more especially as we see that the founder ofthe Chou dynasty sent his chief political adviser and his two mostdistinguished relatives to settle along this troublesome river'slower course, as rulers of Ts'i, Yen, and Lu; the otherconsiderable vassals were all ranged along the middle course. 

The original Chinese founder of the barbarian colony of Wubelonged, as already explained, to the same clan or family as thefounder of the Chou dynasty, and in one respect even tookancestral or spiritual precedence of him, because the emigrant hadvoluntarily retired into obscurity with his brother in order tomake way for a third and more brilliant younger brother, whosegrandson it was that afterwards, in 1122 B. C. , conquered China, and turned the Chou principality, hitherto vassal to the Shangdynasty, into the Chou dynasty, to which the surviving Shangprinces then became vassals in the Sung state and elsewhere. Eventhough the founder of Wu may have adopted barbarian ways, such astattooing, hair-cutting, and the like, he must have possessedconsiderable administrative power, for he made a canal (runningpast his capital) for a distance of thirty English miles along thenew "British" railway from Wu-sih to Ch'ang-shuh, as marked onpresent maps; his idea was to facilitate boat-travelling, and toassist cultivators with water supplies for irrigation. 

In the year 485 B. C. The King of Wu, who was then in the hey-dayof his success, and by way of becoming Protector of China, erecteda wall and fortifications round the well-known modern city ofYangchow (where Marco Polo 1700 years later acted as governor); henext proceeded for the first time in history to establish watercommunication between the Yang-tsz River and the River Hwai; thiscanal was then (483-481) continued farther north, so as to givecommunication with the southern and central parts of modern ShanTung province. 

His object was to facilitate the conveyance of stores for hisarmies, then engaged in bringing pressure upon Ts'i (North ShanTung) and Lu (South Shan Tung). He succeeded in getting his boatsto the River Tsi, running past Tsi-nan Fu, and to the River I, running past I-thou Fu, thus dominating the whole Shan Tungregion; for these two were then the only navigable rivers in ShanTung besides the Sz. The River Tsi is now taken possession of bythe Yellow River, which, as we have shown, then ran a parallelcourse much to the westward of it; and the River I then ran southinto the River Sz, which, as already explained, has in its lowercourse, in comparatively modern times, been taken possession ofpermanently by the Grand Canal; but the upper course of the Sz, now, as then, ran past Confucius' town, the Lu metropolis, ofK'üh-fu. In 483 B. C. The same king cast his faithful adviser (ofTs'u origin) into the canal by which the waters of lake T'ai Hunow run to modern Soochow, and thence to Hangchow. Ever since thatdate the unfortunate man in question has been a popular "god ofthe waters" in those parts. It follows, therefore, that the Wufounder's modest canal must have been from time to time extended, at least in an easterly direction. It was only after the conquestof China by Ts'in, 250 years later, that the First August Emperorextended this system of canals northwards and westwards, fromCh'ang-thou Fu to Tan-yang and Chinkiang, as marked on the modernmaps. Thus the barbarian kings of Wu have found the true alignmentof our "British", railway for us; and, so far as the northerncanal is concerned, have really achieved the task for which creditis usually given to Kublai Khan, the Mongol patron of Marco Polo. Kublai merely improved the old work. The ancient Wu capital was 10English miles south-east of Wu-sih, and 17 miles north of Soochow, to which place the capital was transferred in the year 513 B. C. , as it was more suitable than the old capital for the arsenals andship-building yards then, for the first time, being built on anextensive scale by the King of Wu. 

The first bridge over the Yellow River was constructed by thekingdom of Ts'in in 257 B. C. , on what is still the high-roadbetween T'ung-thou Fu and P'u-chou Fu. Previous to that datearmies had to cross the Yellow River at the fords; and, as aninstance of this, it may be stated that the founder of the Choudynasty in 1122 B. C. Summoned his vassals to meet him at the Fordof Mêng, a place still so marked on the maps, and lying on thehigh-road between the two modern cities of Ho-nan Fu and Hwai-k'ing Fu; thus there was no excuse for the feudal princes failingto arrive at the rendezvous. It was not far from the same place, but on the north bank of the river, that Tsin in 632 B. C. Held thegreat durbar as Second Protector, on the notorious occasion whenthe puppet Emperor was "sent for" by the Tsin dictator. To concealthis outrage on "the rites, " Confucius says: "The Son of Heavenwent in camp north of the river. " To go on hunt, or in camp, isstill a vague historical expression for "go on fief inspection, "and it was so used in 1858, when the Manchu Emperor Hien-fêng tookrefuge from the allied troops at Jêhol in Tartary. 

The first thing Ts'in did when it united the empire in 221 B. C. Was to occupy all the fords and narrow passes, and to put them inworking order for the passage of armies. As even now the lowerYellow River is only navigable for large craft for 20 miles fromits mouth (now in Shan Tung), it is easy to imagine how many fordsthere must have been in its shallow waters, and also how it cameto pass that boats were so little used to convey large bodies oftroops with their stores. 

The great wall of China of 217 B. C. Was by no means the first ofits kind. A century before that date Ts'in built a long wall tokeep off the Tartars; and, half a century before that again, Ngwei(one of the three powerful families of Tsin, all made independentprinces in 403) had built a wall to keep off its western neighbourTs'in; both these walls seem to have been in the north part of themodern Shen Si region, and they were possibly portions of thelater continuous great wall of the August Emperor, which occupiedthe forced energies of 700, 000 men. There is a statement that thesame Emperor set 700, 000 eunuchs to work on the palaces and thetomb he was constructing for himself at his new metropolis (movedsince 350 B. C. To the city of Hien-yang, north of the river Wei, opposite the present Si-ngan Fu). This probably means, not thateunuchs were common in those times as palace _employés_, butthat castration still was the usual punishment inflictedthroughout China for grave offences not calling for the penalty ofdeath, or for the more serious forms of maiming, such as foot-chopping or knee-slicing; and that all the prisoners of thatdegree were told off to do productive work: although humiliatinglydeformed, they were still available for the common purposes ofnative life, and their defenceless and forlorn plight wouldprobably make it an easier matter to handle them in gangs than tohandle sound males; and if they died off under the rough treatmentof task-masters, they would have no families to mourn or avengethem in accordance with family duty; for a eunuch has no name andno family. The palaces in question were joined by a magnificentbridge on the high-road between Hien-yang and Si-ngan. This veryyear a German firm has contracted to build an iron bridge over theYellow River at Lan-thou Fu, where crossed by Major Bruce. 

CHAPTER XXII

CITIES AND TOWNS

There are singularly few descriptions of cities in ancient Chinesehistory, but here again we may safely assume that most of themwere in principle, if only on a small scale, very much what theyare now, mere inartistic, badly built collections of hovels. Sõul, the quaint capital of Corea, as it appeared in its virgincondition to its European discoverers twenty-five years ago, probably then closely resembled an ancient vassal Chinese prince'scapital of the very best kind. Modern trade is responsible for thewealthy commercial streets now to be found in all large Chinesecities; but a small _hien_ city in the interior--and it mustbe remembered that a _hien_ circuit or district correspondsto an old marquisate or feudal principality of the vassal unittype--is often a poor, dusty, dirty, depressing, ramshackleagglomeration of villages or hamlets, surrounded by a disproportionatelypretentious wall, the cubic contents of which wall alone would morethan suffice to build in superior style the whole mud city within; for halfthe area of the interior is apt to be waste land or stagnant puddles: itwas so even in Peking forty years ago, and possibly is so still exceptin the "Legation quarter. "

In 745 B. C. , when the Tsin marquess foolishly divided hispatrimony with a collateral branch, the capital town of thissubdivided state is stated to have been a greater place than theold capital. They are both of them still in existence asinsignificant towns, situated quite close together on the samebranch of the River Fên (the only navigable river) in South ShanSi; marked with their old names, too; that is to say, K'iih-wuhand Yih-CH'ÊNg. It was only after the younger branch annexed theelder in 679 that Tsin became powerful and began to expand; and itwas only when a policy of "home rule" and disintegration set in, involving the splitting up of Tsin's orthodox power into threeroyal states of doubtful orthodoxy, that China fell a prey toTs'in ambition. _Absit_ omen to us. 

In 560, when the deformed philosopher Yen-tsz visited Ts'u, andentertained that semi-barbarous court with his witticisms, he tookthe opportunity boastfully to enlarge upon the magnificence ofLin-tsz (still so marked), the capital of Ts'i. "It is, " said he, "surrounded by a hundred villages; the parasols of the walkersobscure the sky, whose perspiration runs in such streams as tocause rain; their shoulders and heels touch together, so closelyare they packed. " The assembled Ts'u court, with mouths open, butinclined for sport at the cost of their visitor, said: "If it issuch a grand place, why do they select you?" Yen-tsz played atrump card when he replied: "Because I am such a mean-lookingfellow, "--meaning, as explained in Chapter IX. , that "any pitifulrascal is good enough to send to Ts'u. " Exaggerations apart, however, there is every reason to believe that the statesman-philosopher Kwan-tsz, a century before that date, had reallyorganized a magnificent city. A full description of how hereconstructed the economic life of both city and people is givenin the _Kwoh-yü_ (see Chapter XVII. ), the authenticity ofwhich work, though not free from question, is, after all, onlysubject to the same class of criticism as Rénan lavishes upon oneor two of the Gospels, the general tenor of which, be says, mustnone the less be accepted, with all faults, as the _bonâfide_attempt of some one, more or less contemporary, to represent whatwas then generally supposed to be the truth. 

Ts'u itself must have had something considerable to show in theway of public buildings, for in the year 542 B. C. After paying avisit to that country in accordance with the provisions of thePeace Conference of 546, the ruler of Lu built himself a palace inimitation of one he saw there. The original capital of Wu (seeChapter VII. ) was a poor place, and is described as havingconsisted of low houses in narrow streets, with a vulgar palace;this was in 523. In 513 a new king moved to the site now occupiedby Soochow, and he seems to have made of it the magnificent cityit has remained ever since--the place, of course it will beremembered, where General Gordon and Li Hung-chang had theircelebrated quarrel about decapitating surrendered rebels. Therewere eight gates, besides eight water-gates for boats; it waseight English miles in circuit, and contained the palace, severaltowers (pagodas, being Buddhist, were then naturally unknown), kiosks, ponds, and duck preserves. The extensive arsenal and ship-yard was quite separate from the main town. No city in theorthodox part of China is so closely described as this one, nor isit likely that there were many of them so vast in extent. 

Judging by the frequency with which Ts'in moved its capitals (butalways within a limited area in the Wei valley, between that riverand its tributary the K'ien), they cannot have been very importantor substantial places; in fact, there are no descriptions of earlyTs'in economic life at all; and, for all we know to the contrary, the headquarters of Duke Muh, when he entered upon his reforms inthe seventh century B. C. , may have resembled a Tartar encampment. The _Kwoh-yü_ has no chapter devoted to Ts'in, which (as indeedstated) for 500 years lived a quite isolated life of its own. In latertimes, especially after the reforms introduced by the celebratedChinese princely adventurer, Wei Yang, during the period 360--340, the land administration was reconstituted, the capital was finally movedto Hien-yang, and every effort was made to develop all the resourcesof the country. Ts'in then possessed 41 _hien, _ those with apopulation of under 10, 000 having a governor with a lower title thanthe governors of the larger towns, Probably the total population ofTs'in by this time reached 3, 000, 000. A century later, when the FirstAugust Emperor was conquering China, armies of half a million menon each side were not at all uncommon. When his conquests werecomplete, he set about building palaces on both banks of the Wei inmost lavish style, as narrated in the last chapter. It is said of him that, "as he conquered each vassal prince, he had a sketch made of hispalace buildings, " and, with these before him as models, he linedthe river with rows of beautiful edifices, --evidently, from thedescription given, much resembling those lying along the GoldenHorn at Constantinople; if not in quality, at least in generalspectacular arrangement. 

As to the minor orthodox states grouped along the Yellow River, they seem to have shifted their capitals on very slightprovocation; scarcely one of them remained from first to last inthe same place. To take one as an instance, the state of Hu, anorthodox state belonging to the same clan name as Ts'i. Thehistory of this petty principality or barony is only exactly knownfrom the time when Confucius' history begins, and it wascontinually being oppressed by Cheng and Ts'u, its more powerfulneighbours; in 576, 533, 524 and onwards from that, there wereincessant removals, so that even the native commentators say: "itwas just like shifting a village, so superficial an affair wasit. " The accepted belles _lettres_ style (see p. 78) of saying"my country" is still the ancient _pi-yih_ or "unworthy village":the Empress of China once (about 190 B. C. ) used this expression, even after the whole of China had been united, in order to rejectpolitely the offer of marriage conveyed to her by a powerful Tartarking. The expression is particularly interesting, inasmuch as it recalls, as we have already pointed out, a time when the "country" of eachfeudal chief was simply his mud village and the few square miles offields around it, which were naturally divided off from the next chief'sterritory by hills and streams. On the Burmo-Chinese frontier there areat this moment many Kakhyen "kings" of this kind, each of them rulingover his mountain or valley, and supreme in his own domain. 

That there were walled cities in China (apart from the Emperor's, which, of course, would be "the city" par _excellence_) isplain from the language used at durbars, which were always held"outside the walls. " In the _loess_ plains there could nothave been any stone whatever for building purposes, and there islittle, if any, specific mention of brick. Probably the walls wereof adobe, i. E. Of mud, beaten down between two rigid planks, removed higher as the wall dries below. This is the way most ofthe houses are still built in modern Peking, and perhaps also inmost parts of China, at least where stone (or brick) is notcheaper; the "barbarian" parts of China are still the best built;for instance, CH'ÊNg-tu in Sz Ch'wan, Canton in the south. Hankow(Ts'u) is a comparatively poor place; Peking the dingiest of all. Chinkiang is a purely _loess_ country. 

At the time of the unification of China, during the middle of thethird century B. C. , the Ts'in armies found it necessary to floodTa-liang or "Great Liang, " the capital of Ngwei (otherwise calledLiang), corresponding to the modern K'ai-fêng Fu, the Jewishcentre in Ho Nan province: the waters of the Yellow River wereallowed to flood the country (this was again done by the Tai-p'ingrebels fifty years ago, when the Jews suffered like other people, and lost their synagogue), the walls of which collapsed. It isevident that the ancient city walls could not have been suchsolid, brick-faced walls as we now see round Peking and Nanking, but simply mud ramparts. 

CHAPTER XXIII

BREAK-UP OF CHINA

We must turn to unorthodox China once more, and see how it faredafter Confucius' death. After only a short century of internationalexistence, the vigorous state of Wu perished once for all in theyear 473 B. C. , and the remains of the ruling caste escapedeastwards in boats. When for the first time embassies betweenthe Japanese and the Chinese became fairly regular, in thesecond and third centuries of our era, there began to bepersistent statements made in standard Chinese history that thethen ruling powers in Japan considered themselves in some waylineally connected with a Chinese Emperor of 2100 B. C. , and withhis descendants, their ancestors, who, it was said, escaped fromWu to China. This is the reason why, in Chapter VII. , we havesuggested, not that the population of Japan came from China, butthat some of the semi-barbarous descendants of those ancientChinese princes who first colonized the then purely barbarous Wu, finding their power destroyed in 473 B. C. By the neighbouringbarbarous power of Yüeh, settled in Japan, and continued theircivilizing mission in quite a new sphere. Many years ago Iendeavoured, in various papers published in China and Japan, toshow that, apart from Chinese words adopted into Japanese eversince A. D. 1 from the two separate sources of North China by landand Central China by sea, there is clear reason to detect, in thesupposed pure Japanese language, as it was anterior to thoseimportations, an admixture of Chinese words adopted much earlierthan A. D. 1, and incorporated into the current tongue at a timewhen there was no means or thought of "nailing the sounds down" byany phonetic system of writing. There is much other very soundChinese historical evidence in favour of the migration view, andit has been best summarized in an excellent little work in German, by Rev. A. Tschepe, S. J. , published in the interior of Shan Tungprovince only last year. 

The ancient native names for Wu and Yiieh, according to the clumsyConfucian way of writing them, were something like _Keu-ngu_and _O-viet_ (see Chapter VII. ); but it is quite hopeless toattempt reconstruction of the exact sounds intended then to beexpressed by syllables which, in Chinese itself, have quitechanged in power. The power of Yüeh was supreme after 473; itsking was voted Protector by the federal princes, and in 472 heheld a grand durbar at the "Lang-ya Terrace, " which place is nolonger exactly identifiable, but is probably nothing more than theGerman settlement at Kiao Chou; in 468 he transferred his capitalthither, and it remained there for over a century, till 379: buthis power, it seems, was almost purely maritime, and he neversucceeded in obtaining a sure footing north of or even in the Hwaivalley, the greater part of which he subsequently returned toTs'u. It must be remembered that the Hwai then had a free courseto the sea, and of a part of it, the now extinct Sui valley, theYellow River took possession for several centuries up to 1851 A. D. He also returned to Sung the territory Wu had taken from her, andmade over to Lu 100 _li_ square (30 miles) to the east of theRiver Sz; to understand this it must be remembered, at the cost ofa little iteration, that Sung and Lu were the two chief powers ofthe middle and lower Sz valley, which is now entirely monopolizedby the Grand Canal. 

[Illustration: MAP

1. The dotted lines mark the boundaries of modern Shen Si, ShanSi, Chih Li, Ho Nan, Shan Tung, An Hwei, and Kiang Su. 

2. The names Chao, Ngwei, and Han show how Tsin was split up intothree in 403 B. C. 

3. The crosses (in the line of each name) show the successivecapitals as Ts'in encroached from the west, the _last_ capital ineach case having a circle round the cross. ]

The imperial dynasty went from bad to worse; in 440 there werefamily intrigues, assassinations, and divisions. The imperialmetropolis, which was towards the end about all the Emperors hadleft to them, was divided into two, each half ruled by an Easternand a Western Emperor respectively; unfortunately, no literaturehas survived which might depict for us the life of the inhabitantsduring those wretched days. Meanwhile, the ambitious greatfamilies of Tsin very nearly fell under the dictatorship of one oftheir number; in 452 he was himself annihilated by a combinationof the others, and the upshot of it was that next year the threefamilies that had crushed the dictator and, emerged victorious, divided up the realm of Tsin into three separate and practicallyindependent states, called respectively Wei or Ngwei (the Shan Siparts), Han (the Ho Nan parts), and Chao (the Chih Li parts). Theother ancient and more orthodox state of Wei, occupying the YellowRiver valley to the west of Sung and Lu, was now a mere vassal tothese three Tsin powers, which had not quite yet declaredthemselves independent, and which had for the present left the oldTsin capital to the direct administration of the legitimateprince. It was only in the year 403 that the Emperor's administrationformally declared them to be feudal princes. This year is really thenext great turning-point in Chinese history, in order of date, after theflight of the Emperors from their old capital in 771 B. C. ; and it is, infact, with this year that the great modern historical work of Sz-maKwang begins; it was published A. D. 1084, and brings Chineseevents down to a century previous to that date. 

As to the state of Ts'i, it also had fallen into evil ways. Soearly as 539 B. C. , when the two philosophers Yen-tsz and ShuhHiang had confided to each other their mutual sorrows (seeAppendix No. 2), the former had predicted that the powerful localfamily of T'ien or Ch'en was slowly but surely undermining thelegitimate princely house, and would certainly end by seizing thethrone; one of the methods adopted by the supplanting family wasto lend money to the people on very favourable terms, and so tomanipulate the grain measures that the taxes due to the princewere made lighter to bear; in this ingenious and indirect way, allthe odium of taxation was thrown upon the extravagant princes whohabitually squandered their resources, whilst the credit forgenerosity was turned towards this powerful tax-farming family, which thus took care of its own financial interests, and at thesame time secured the affections of the people. In 481 theambitious T'ien Hêng, _alias_ CH'ÊN Ch'ang, then acting ashereditary _maire du palais_ to the legitimate house, assassinatedthe ruling prince, an act so shocking from the orthodox point of view thatConfucius was quite heartbroken on learning of it, notwithstanding that hisown prince had narrowly escaped assassination at the hands of themurdered man's grandfather. It was not until the year 391, however, thatthe T'ien, or CH'ÊN, family, after setting up and deposing princes attheir pleasure for nearly a century, at last openly threw off themask and usurped the Ts'i throne: their title was officiallyrecognized by the Son of Heaven in the year 378. 

As to Ts'in ambitions, for a couple of centuries past there hadbeen no further advance of conquest, at least in China. Thehitherto almost unheard of state of Shuh (Sz Ch'wan) now begins tocome prominently forward, and to contest with Ts'in mastery of theupper course of the Yang-tsz River. After being for 260 years inunchallenged possession of all territory west of the Yellow River, Ts'in once more lost this to Tsin (_i. E. _ to Ngwei) in 385. It was not until the other state of Wei, lower down the YellowRiver, lost its individuality as an independent country that thecelebrated Prince Wei Yang (see Chapter XXII. ), having no careerat home, offered his services to Ts'in, and that this latterstate, availing itself to the full of his knowledge, suddenly shotforth in the light of real progress. We have seen in Chapter XX. That an eminent lawyer and statesman of Ngwei, Ts'in's immediaterival on the east, had inaugurated a new legal code and aneconomic land system. This man's work had fallen under thecognizance of Wei Yang, who carried it with him to Ts'in, where itwas immediately utilized to such advantage that Ts'in a centurylater was enabled to organize her resources thoroughly, and thusconquered the whole empire, We have now arrived at what is usually called the Six KingdomPeriod, or, if we include Ts'in, against whose menacing power thesix states were often in alliance, the period of the SevenKingdoms. These were the three equally powerful states of Ngwei, Han, and Chao (this last very Tartar in spirit, owing to itshaving absorbed nearly all the Turko-Tartar tribes west of theYellow River mouth); the northernmost state of Yen, which seems inthe same way to have absorbed or to have exercised a strongcontrolling influence over the Manchu-Corean group of tribesextending from the Liao River to the Chao frontier; Ts'u, whichnow had the whole south of China entirely to itself, and managedeven to amalgamate the coast states of Yiich in 334; and finally Ts'i. In other words, the orthodox Chinese princes, whose comparativelypetty principalities in modern Ho Nan province had for several centuriesformed a sort of cock-pit in which Ts'in, Tsin, Ts'i, and Ts'u fought outtheir rivalries, had totally disappeared as independent and even asinfluential powers, and had been either absorbed by those four greatpowers (of which Tsin and Ts'i were in reconstituted form), or hadbecome mere obedient vassals to one or the other of them. In formertimes Tsin had been kinsman and defender; but now Tsin, broken upinto three of strange clans, herself afforded an easy prey to Ts'inambition; the orthodox states were in the defenceless position of theGreek states after Alexander had exhausted Macedon in his Persianwars, and when their last hope, Pyrrhus, had taught the Romans the artof war: they had only escaped Persia to fall into the jaws ofRome. 

In the middle of the fourth century B. C. All six powers began tostyle themselves _wang_, or "king, " which, as explained before, was the title borne by the Emperors of the Chou dynasty. Military, political, and literary activities were very great after this at thedifferent emulous royal courts, and, however much the literarypedants of the day may have bewailed the decay of the goodold times, there can be no doubt that life was now much morevaried, more occupied, and more interesting than in the sleepy, respectable, patriarchal days of old. The "Fighting State" Period, as expounded in the _Chan-Kwoh Ts'eh, _ or "Fighting StateRecords, " is the true period of Chinese chivalry, or knight-errantry. 

CHAPTER XXIV

KINGS AND NOBLES

The emperors of the dynasty of Chou, which came formally intopower in 1122 B. C. , we have seen took no other title than that ofwang, which is usually considered by Europeans to mean "king"; inmodern times it is applied to the rulers of (what until recentlywere) tributary states, such as Loochoo, Annam, and Corea; toforeign rulers (unless they insist on a higher title); and toManchu and Mongol princes of the blood, and mediatized princes. Confucius in his history at first always alludes to the Emperorwhilst living as _t'ien-wang_, or "the heavenly king"; it isnot until in speaking of the year 583 that he uses the old term_t'ien-tsz_, or "Son of Heaven, " in alluding to the reigningEmperor. After an emperor's death he is spoken of by hisposthumous name; as, for instance, Wu Wang, the "Warrior King, "and so on: these posthumous names were only introduced (as aregular system) by the Chou dynasty. 

The monarchs of the two dynasties Hia (2205-1767) and Shang (1766-1123) which preceded that of Chou, and also the somewhat mythicalrulers who preceded those two dynasties, were called _Ti_, aword commonly translated by Western nations as "Emperor. " For manygenerations past the Japanese, in order better to assert _vis-á-vis_ of China their international rank, have accordingly madeuse of the hybrid expression "_Ti_-state, " by which they seekto convey the European idea of an "empire, " or a state ruled overby a monarch in some way superior to a mere king, which is thehighest title China has ever willingly accorded to a foreignprince; this royal functionary in her eyes is, or was, almostsynonymous with "tributary prince. " Curiously enough, this "dog-Chinese" (Japanese) expression is now being reimported intoChinese political literature, together with many other excruciatingcombinations, a few of European, but mostly of Japanese manufacture, intended to represent such Western ideas as "executive and legislative, ""constitutional, " "ministerial responsibility, " "party, " "political view, "and so on. But we ourselves must not forget, in dealing with the particularword "imperial, " that the Romans first extended the military title ofimperator to the permanent holder of the "command, " simply becausethe ancient and haughty word of "king" was, after the expulsion ofthe kings, viewed with such jealousy by the people of Rome thateven of Caesar it is said that he did thrice refuse the title, Sothe ancient Chinese Ti, standing alone, was at first applied bothto Shang Ti or "God" and to his Vicar on Earth, the Ti or SupremeRuler of the Chinese world. Even Lao-tsz (sixth century B. C. ), inhis revolutionary philosophy, considers the "king" or "emperor" asone of the moral forces of nature, on a par with "heaven, ""earth, " and "Tao (or Providence). " When we reflect what petty"worlds" the Assyrian, Egyptian, and Greek worlds were, we canhardly blame the Chinese, who had probably been settled in Ho Nanjust as long as the Western ruling races had been in Assyria andEgypt respectively, for imagining that they, the sole recorders ofevents amongst surrounding inferiors, were the world; and that theincoherent tribes rushing aimlessly from all sides to attack them, were the unreclaimed fringe of the world. 

It does not appear clearly why the Chou dynasty took the new titleof wang, which does not seem to occur in any titular senseprevious to their accession: the Chinese attempts to furnishetymological explanation are too crude to be worth discussing. Nofeudal Chinese prince presumed to use it during the Chou_régime_ and if the semi-barbarous rulers of Ts'u, Wu, andYiieh did so in their own dominions (as the Hwang Ti, or "augustemperor, " of Annam was in recent times tacitly allowed to do), their federal title in orthodox China never went beyond that ofviscount. When in the fourth century B. C. All the powers styledthemselves _wang_, and were recognized as such by the insignificantemperors, the situation was very much the same as that produced inEurope when first local Caesars, who, to begin with, had been"associates" of the Augustus (or two rival Augusti), asserted theirindependence of the feeble central Augustus, and then set themselvesup as Augusti pure and simple, until at last the only "Roman Emperor"left in Rome was the Emperor of Germany. 

It is not explained precisely on what grounds, when the first Chouemperors distributed their fiefs, some of the feudal rulers, asexplained in Chapter VII. , were made dukes; others marquesses, earls, viscounts, and barons. Of course these translated terms aremere makeshifts, simply because the Chinese had five ranks, and sohave we. In creating their new nobility, the Japanese have againmade use of the five old Chinese titles, except that for somereason they call Duke Ito and Duke Yamagata "Prince" in English. The size of the fiefs had something to do with it in China; thepedigree of the feoffees probably more; imperial clandom perhapsmost of all. The sole state ruled by a duke in his own intrinsicright from the first was Sung, a small principality on thenorthernmost head-waters of the River Hwai, corresponding to themodern Kwei-t&h Fu: probably it was because this duke fulfilledthe sacrificial and continuity duties of the destroyed dynasty ofShang that he received extraordinary rank; just as, in very muchlater days, the Confucius family was the only non-Manchu topossess "ducal" rank, or, as the Japanese seem to hold in Germanstyle, "princely" rank. But it must be remembered that the Chouemperors had imperial dukes within their own appanage, preciselyas cardinals, or "princes of the Church, " are as common aroundRome as they are scarce among the spiritually "feudal" princes ofEurope; for feudal they once practically were. 

Confucius' petty state of Lu was founded by the Duke of Chou, brother of the founder posthumously called the Wu Wang, or the"Warrior King": for many generations those Dukes of Lu seem tohave resided at or near the metropolis, and to have assisted theEmperors with their advice as counsellors on the spot, as well asto have visited at intervals and ruled their own distant state, which was separated from Sung by the River Sz and by the marsh orlakes through which that river ran. Yet Lu as a state had only therank of a marquisate ruled by a marquess. 

Another close and influential relative of the founder or "WarriorKing" was the Duke of Shao, who was infeoffed in Yen (the Pekingplain), and whose descendants, like those of the Duke of Chou, seem to have done double duty at the metropolis and in their ownfeudal appanage. Confucius' history scarcely records anything ofan international kind about Yen, which was a petty, feeble region, dovetailed in between Tsin and Ts'i, quite isolated, and occupiedin civilizing some of the various Tartar and Corean barbarians;but it must have gradually increased in wealth and resources likeall the other Chinese states; for, as we have seen in the lastchapter, the Earls of Yen blossomed out into Kings at thebeginning of the fourth century B. C. , and the philosopher Mencius, when advising the King of Ts'i, even strongly recommended him tomake war on the rising Yen power. The founder of Ts'i was thechief adviser of the Chou founder, but was not of his family name;his ancestors--also the ancestors later on claimed by certainTartar rulers of China--go back to one of the ultra-mythicalEmperors of China; his descendants bore, under the Chou dynasty, the dignity of marquess, and reigned without a break until, asalready related, the T'ien or Ch'en family, emanating from theorthodox state of Ch'en, usurped the throne. Ts'i was always apowerful and highly civilized state; on one occasion, in 589 B. C. , as mentioned in Chapter VI. , its capital was desecrated by Tsin;and on another, a century later, the overbearing King of Wuinvaded the country. After the title of king was taken in 378B. C. , the court of Ts'i became quite a fashionable centre, and thegay resort of literary men, scientists, and philosophers of allkinds, Taoists included. 

Tsin, like Ts'i, was of marquess rank, and though its rulingfamily was occasionally largely impregnated with Tartar blood bymarriage, it was not much more so than the imperial family itselfhad sometimes been, The Chinese have never objected to Tartars_quâ_ Tartars, except as persons who "let their hair fly, ""button their coats on the wrong side, " and do not practise theorthodox rites; so soon as these defects are remedied, they areeligible for citizenship on equal terms. There has never been anyrace question or colour question in China, perhaps because theskin is yellow in whichever direction you turn; but it isdifficult to conceive of the African races being clothed withChinese citizenship. 

Wei was a small state lying between the Yellow River as it now isand the same river as it then was: it was given to a brother ofthe founder of the Chou dynasty, and his subjects, like those ofthe Sung duke, consisted largely of the remains of the Shangdynasty; from which circumstance we may conclude that the so-called "dynasties, " including that of Chou, were simply differentruling clans of one and the same people, very much like thedifferent Jewish tribes, of which the tribe of Levi was the most"spiritual": that peculiarity may account for the universalunreadiness to cut off sacrifices and destroy tombs, an outrage weonly hear of between barbarians, as, for instance, when Wu sackedthe capital of Ts'u. We have seen in Chapter XII. That a reigningduke even respected at least some of the sacrificial rights of atraitor subject. 

The important state of CHÊNG, lying to the eastward of theimperial reserve, was only founded in the ninth century B. C. Byone of the then Emperor's sons; to get across to each other, thegreat states north and south of the orthodox nucleus had usuallyto "beg road" of CHÊNG, which territory, therefore, became afavourite fighting-ground; the rulers were earls. Ts'ao (earls)and Ts'ai (marquesses) were small states to the north and south ofCHÊNG, both of the imperial family name. The state of CH'ÊN wasruled by the descendants of the Emperor Shun, the monarch whopreceded the Hia dynasty, and who, as stated before, is supposedto have been buried in the (modern) province of Hu Nan, south ofthe Yang-tsz River: they were marquesses. These three last-namedstates were always bones of contention between Tsin and Ts'u, onthe one hand, and between Ts'i and Ts'u on the other. Theremaining feudal states are scarcely worth special mention asactive participators in the story of how China fought her way fromfeudalism to centralization; most of their rulers were viscountsor barons in status, and seem to have owed, or at least beenobliged to pay, more duty to the nearest great feudatory thandirect to the Emperor. 

No matter what the rank of the ruler, so soon as he had beensupplied with a posthumous name (expressing, in guarded style, hispersonal character) he was known to history as "the Duke So-and-So. " Even one of the Rings of Ts'u, is courteously called "theDuke Chwang" after his death, because as a federal prince he haddone honour to the courtesy title of viscount. Princes or rulersnot enjoying any of the five ranks were, if orthodox sovereignprinces over never so small a tract, still called posthumously, "the Duke X. "

Hence Western writers, in describing Confucius' master and therulers of other feudal states, often speak of "the Duke of Lu, " or"of Tsin"; but this is only an accurate form of speech when takensubject to the above reserves. 

CHAPTER XXV

VASSALS AND EMPEROR

The relations which existed between Emperor and feudal princes arebest seen and understood from specific cases involving mutualrelations. The Chou dynasty had about 1800 nominal vassals in all, of whom 400 were already waiting at the ford of the Yellow Riverfor the rendezvous appointed by the conquering "Warrior King";thus the great majority must already have existed as such beforethe Chou family took power; in other words, they were the vassalsof the Shang dynasty, and perhaps, of the distant Hia dynasty too. The new Emperor enfeoffed fifteen "brother" states, and forty morehaving the same clan-name as himself: these fifty-five werepresumably all new states, enjoying mesne-lord or semi-suzerainprivileges over the host of insignificant principalities; and itmight as well be mentioned here that this imperial clan name of_Ki_ was that of all the ultra-ancient emperors, from 2700B. C. Down to the beginning of the Hia dynasty in 2205 B. C. Fiefswere conferred by the Chou conqueror upon all deserving ministersand advisers as well as upon kinsmen. The more distant princesthey enfeoffed possessed, in addition to their distant satrapies, a village in the neighbourhood of the imperial court, where theyresided, as at an hotel or town house, during court functions;more especially in the spring, when, if the world was at peace, they were supposed to pay their formal respects to the Emperor. The tribute brought by the different feudal states was, perhapseuphemistically, associated with offerings due to the gods, apparently on the same ground that the Emperor was vaguelyassociated with God. The Protectors, when the Emperors degenerated, made a great show always of chastising or threatening the othervassals on account of their neglect to honour the Emperor. Thus in 656 the First Protector (Ts'i) made war upon Ts'u for notsending the usual tribute of sedge to the Emperor, for use inclarifying the sacrificial wine. Previously, in 663, after assisting thestate of Yen against the Tartars, Ts'i had requested Yen "to goon paying tribute, as was done during the reigns of the two firstChou Emperors, and to continue the wise government of theDuke of Shao. " In 581, when Wu's pretensions were rising in amenacing degree, the King of Wu said: "The Emperor complains to methat not a single _Ki_ (_i. E. _ not a single closely-relatedstate) will come to his assistance or send him tribute, and thushis Majesty has nothing to offer to the Emperor Above, or to theGhosts and Spirits. "

Land thus received in vassalage from the Emperor could not, orought not to, be alienated without imperial sanction. Thus in 711B. C. Two states (both of the _Ki_ surname, and thus both suchas ought to have known better) effected an exchange of territory;one giving away his accommodation village, or hotel, at thecapital; and the other giving in exchange a place where theEmperor used to stop on his way to Ts'i when he visited MountT'ai-shan, then, as now, the sacred resort of pilgrims in ShanTung. Even the Emperor could not give away a fief in joke. This, indeed, was how the second Chou Emperor conferred the (extinct orforfeited) fief of Tsin upon a relative. But just as

_Une reine d'Espagne ne regarde pas par la fenêtre, _

so an Emperor of China cannot jest in vain. An attentive scribestanding by said: "When the Son of Heaven speaks, the clerk takesdown his words in writing; they are sung to music, and the ritesare fulfilled. " When, in 665 B. C. , Ts'i had driven back theTartars on behalf of Yen, the Prince of Yen accompanied the Princeof Ts'i back into Ts'i territory. The Prince of Ts'i at once cededto Yen the territory trodden by the Prince of Yen, on the groundthat "only the Emperor can, when accompanying a ruling prince, advance beyond the limits of his own domain. " This rule probablyrefers only to war, for feudal princes frequently visited eachother. The rule was that "the Emperor can never go out, " i. E. Hecan never leave or quit any part of China, for all China belongsto him. It is like our "the King can do no wrong. "

The Emperor could thus neither leave nor enter his own particularterritory, as all his vassals' territory is equally his. Hence his"mere motion" or pleasure makes an Empress, who needs no formalreception into his separate appanage by him. If the Emperor givesa daughter or a sister in marriage, he deputes a ruling prince ofthe Ki surname to "manage" the affair; hence to this day the onlyname for an imperial princess is "a publicly managed one. " Afeudal prince must go and welcome his wife, but the Emperor simplydeputes one of his appanage dukes to do it for him. In the sameway, these dukes are sent on mission to convey the Emperor'spleasure to vassals. Thus, in 651 B. C. , a duke was sent by theEmperor to assist Ts'in and Ts'i in setting one of the fourTartar-begotten brethren on the Tsin throne (see Chapter X. ). In649 two dukes (one being the hereditary Duke of Shao, supposed tobe descended from the same ancestor as the Earl reigning in thedistant state of Yen) were sent to confer the formal patent andsceptre of investiture on Tsin. The rule was that imperial envoyspassing through the vassal territory should be welcomed on thefrontier, fed, and housed; but in 716 the fact that Wei attackedan imperial envoy on his way to Lu proves how low the imperialpower had already sunk. 

The greater powers undoubtedly had, nearly all of them, clustersof vassals and clients, and it is presumed that the total of 1800, belonging, at least nominally, to the Emperor, covered all theseindirect vassals. Possibly, before the dawn of truly historicaltimes, they all went in person to the imperial court; but afterthe _débâcle_ of 771 B. C. , the Emperor seems to have beenleft severely alone by all the vassals who dared do so. So earlyas 704 B. C. A reunion of princelets vassal to Ts'u is mentioned;and in the year 622 Ts'u annexed a region styled "the six states, "admittedly descended from the most ancient ministerial stock, because they had presumed to ally themselves with the easternbarbarians; this was when Ts'u was working her way eastwards, downfrom the southernmost headwaters of the Hwai River, in the extremesouth of Ho Nan. It was in 684 that Ts'u first began to annex thepetty orthodox states in (modern) Hu Pêh province, and very soonnearly all those lying between the River Han and the River Yang-tsz were swallowed up by the semi-barbarian power. Ts'u's relationto China was very much like that of Macedon to Greece. Both of thelatter were more or less equally descended from the ancient andsomewhat nebulous Pelasgi; but Macedon, though imbued with aportion of Greek civilization, was more rude and warlike, with astrong barbarian strain in addition. Ts'u was never in any way"subject" to the Chou dynasty, except in so far as it may havesuited her to be so for some interested purpose of her own. In theyear 595 Ts'u even treated Sung and Cheng (two federal states ofthe highest possible orthodox imperial rank) as her own vassals, by marching armies through without asking their permission. As anillustration of what was the correct course to follow may be takenthe case of Tsin in 632, when a Tsin army was marching on apunitory expedition against the imperial clan state of Ts'ao; themost direct way ran through Wei, but this latter state declined toallow the Tsin army to pass; it was therefore obliged to cross theYellow River at a point south of Wei-hwei Fu (as marked on modernmaps), near the capital of Wei, past which the Yellow River thenran. 

Lu, though itself a small state, had, in 697, and again in 615, quite a large number of vassals of its own; several are plainlystyled "subordinate countries, " with viscounts and even earls torule them. Some of these sub-vassals to the feudal states seemfrom the first never to have had the right of direct communicationwith the Emperor at all; in such cases they were called fu-yung, or "adjunct-functions, " like the client colonies attached to thecolonial _municipia_ of the Romans. A fu-yung was only aboutfifteen English miles in extent (according to Mencius); and from850 B. C. To 771 BC. Even the great future state of Ts'in had onlybeen a _fu-yung_, --it is not said to what mesne lord. Sung isdistinctly stated to have had a number of these _fu-yung_. CH'ÊN is also credited with suzerainty over at least two sub-vassal states. In 661 Tsin annexed a number of orthodox pettystates, evidently with the view of ultimately seizing that part ofthe Emperor's appanage which lay north of the Yellow River (westHo Nan); it was afterwards obtained by "voluntary cession. " Theword "viscount, " besides being applied complimentarily tobarbarian "kings" when they showed themselves in China, hadanother special use. When an orthodox successor was in mourning, he was not entitled forthwith to use the hereditary rank allottedto his state; thus, until the funeral obsequies of theirpredecessors were over, the new rulers of Ch'en and Ts'ai werecalled "the viscount, " or "son" (same word). 

The Emperor used to call himself "I, the one Man, " like theSpanish "Yo, el Rey. " Feudal princes styled themselves to eachother, or to the ministers of each other, "The Scanty Man. "Ministers, speaking (to foreign ministers or princes) of their ownprince said, "The Scanty Prince"; of the prince's wife, "TheScanty Lesser Prince"; of their own ministers, "The ScantyMinister. " It was polite to avoid the second person in addressinga foreign prince, who was consequently often styled "yourgovernment" by foreign envoys particularly anxious not to offend. The diplomatic forms were all obsequiously polite; but the stockphrases, such as, "our vile village" (our country), "yourcondescending to instruct" (your words), "I dare not obey yourcommands" (we will not do what you ask), probably involved nothingmore in the way of humility than the terms of our own gingerlyworded diplomatic notes, each term of which may, nevertheless, offend if it be coarsely or carelessly expressed. 

In some cases a petty vassal was neither a sub-kingdom nor anadjunct-function to another greater vassal, but was simply apolitical hanger-on; like, for instance, Hawaii was to the UnitedStates, or Cuba now is; or like Monaco is to France, Nepaul toIndia. Thus Lu, through assiduously cultivating the good graces ofTs'i, became in 591 a sort of henchman to Ts'i; and, as we haveseen, at the Peace Conference of 546, the henchmen of the tworival Protectors agreed to pay "cross respects" to each other'sProtector. It seems to have been the rule that the offerings offeudal states to the Emperor should be voluntary, at least inform: for instance, in the year 697, the Emperor or his agentsbegged a gift of chariots from Lu, and in 618 again applied forsome supplies of gold; both these cases are censured by thehistorians as being undignified. On the other hand, the Emperor'scomplimentary presents to the vassals were highly valued. Thus inthe year 530, when Ts'u began to realize its own capacity forempire, a claim was put in for the Nine Tripods, and for a shareof the same honorific gifts that were bestowed by the foundersupon Ts'i, Tsin, Lu, and Wei at the beginning of the Chou dynasty. In the year 606 Ts'u had already "inquired" at the imperial courtabout these same Tripods, and 300 years later (281 B. C. ), whenstruggling with Ts'in for the mastery of China, Ts'u endeavouredto get the state of Han to support her demand for the Tripods, which eventually fell to Ts'in; it will be remembered that theDuke of Chou had taken them to the branch capital laid out by him, but which was not really occupied by the Emperor until 771 B. C. 

In 632, after the great Tsin victory over Ts'u, the Emperor"accepted some Ts'u prisoners, " conferred upon Tsin theProtectorate, ceded to Tsin that part of the imperial territoryreferred to on page 53, and presented to the Tsin ruler a chariot, a red bow with 1000 arrows, a black bow with 1000 arrows, a jar ofscented wine, a jade cup with handle, and 300 "tiger" body-guards. In 679, when Old Tsin had been amalgamated by New Tsin (both ofthem then tiny principalities), the Emperor had already acceptedvaluable loot from the capture of Old Tsin. In a word, the Emperornearly always sided with the strongest, accepted _faits accomplis_, and took what he could get. This has also been China's usual policyin later times. 

CHAPTER XXVI

FIGHTING STATE PERIOD

The period of political development covered by Confucius' history--the object of which history, it must be remembered, was to readto the restless age a series of solemn warnings--was immediatelysucceeded by the most active and bloodthirsty period in theChinese annals, that of the Fighting States, or the Six Countries;sometimes they (including Ts'in) were called the "Seven Males, "i. E. The Seven Great Masculine Powers. Tsin had been alreadypractically divided up between the three surviving great familiesof the original eleven in 424 B. C. ; but these three families ofNgwei, Han, and Chao were not recognized by the Emperor until 403;nor did they extinguish the legitimate ruler until 376, aboutthree years after the sacrifices of the legitimate Ts'i kings werestopped. Accordingly we hear the original name Tsin, or "the threeTsin, " still used concurrently with the names Han, Ngwei, andChao, as that of Ts'u's chief enemy in the north for some timeafter the division into three had taken place. 

Tsin's great rival to the west, Ts'in, now found occupation inextending her territory to the south-west at the expense of Shuh, a vast dominion corresponding to the modern Sz Ch'wan, up to thenalmost unheard of by orthodox China, but which, it then firsttranspired, had had three kings and ten "emperors" of its own, nine of these latter bearing the same appellation. Even now, therapids and gorges of the Yang-tsz River form the only greatcommercial avenue from China into Sz Ch'wan, and it is thereforenot hard to understand how in ancient times, the tribes of "cavebarbarians" (whose dwellings are still observable all over thathuge province) effectively blocked traffic along such subsidiarymountain-roads as may have existed then, as they exist now, forthe use of enterprising hawkers. 

The Chinese historians have no statistics, indulge in fen (few?)remarks about economic or popular development, describe no popularlife, and make no general reflections upon history; they confinethemselves to narrating the bald and usually unconnected factswhich took place on fixed dates, occasionally describing someparticularly heroic or daring individual act, or even sketchingthe personal appearance and striking conduct of an exceptionallyremarkable king, general, or other leading personality: hencethere is little to guide us to an intelligent survey of causes andeffects, of motives and consequences; it is only by carefullypiecing together and collating a jumble of isolated events that itis possible to obtain any general coup d'oeil at all: the wood isoften invisible on account of the trees. 

But there can be no doubt that populations had been rapidlyincreasing; that improved means had been found to conveyaccumulated stores and equipments; that generals had learnt how tohurl bodies of troops rapidly from one point to the other; andthat rulers knew the way either to interest large populations inwar, or to force them to take an active part in it. The marches, durbars, and gigantic canal works, undertaken by the barbarousKing of Wu, as described in Chapter XXI. , prove this in the caseof one country. Chinese states always became great in the sameway: first Kwan-tsz developed, on behalf of his master the FirstProtector, the commerce, the army, and the agriculture of Ts'i. Hewas imitated at the same time by Duke Muh of Ts'in and King Chwangof Ts'u, both of which rulers (seventh century B. C. ) set to workvigorously in developing their resources. Then Tsz-ch'an raisedCheng to a great pitch of diplomatic influence, if not also ofmilitary power. His friend Shuh Hiang did the same thing for Tsin;and both of them were models for Confucius in Lu, who had, moreover, to defend his own master's interests against the policyof the philosopher Yen-tsz of Ts'i. After his first defeat by theKing of Wu, the barbarian King of Yueh devoted himself for someyears to the most strenuous life, with the ultimate object ofamassing resources for the annihilation of Wu; the interestingsteps he took to increase the population will be described atlength in a later chapter. In 361, as we have explained in ChapterXXII. , a scion of Wei went as adviser to Ts'in, and within ageneration of his arrival the whole face of affairs was changed inthat western state hitherto so isolated; the new position, from amilitary point of view, was almost exactly that of Prussia duringthe period between the tyranny of the first Napoleon, togetherwith the humiliation experienced at his hands, and the patientgathering of force for the final explosion of 1870, involving thecrushing of the second (reigning) Napoleon. 

Very often the term "perpendicular and horizontal" period isapplied to the fourth century B. C. That is, Ts'u's object was toweld together a chain of north and south alliances, so as to bringthe power of Ts'i and Tsin to bear together with her own uponTs'in; and Ts'in's great object was, on the other hand, to make asimilar string of east and west alliances, so as to bring the sametwo powers to bear upon Ts'u. The object of both Ts'in and Ts'uwas to dictate terms to each unit of; and ultimately to possess, the whole Empire, merely utilizing the other powers as catspaws tohook the chestnuts out of the furnace. No other state had anyrival pretensions, for, by this time, Ts'in and Ts'u each reallydid possess one-third part of China as we now understand it, whilst the other third was divided between Ts'i and the threeTsin. In 343 B. C. The Chou Emperor declared Ts'in Protector, andfrom 292 to 288 B. C. , Tsin and Ts'i took for a few years theancient title of _Ti_ or "Emperor" of the West and East respectively:in the year 240 the Chou Emperor even proceeded to Ts'in to dohomage there. Tsin might have been in the running for universalempire had she held together instead of dividing herself intothree. Yen was altogether too far away north, --though, curiouslyenough, Yen (Peking) has been the political centre of NorthChina for 900 years past, --and Ts'i was too far away east. Moreover, Ts'i was discredited for having cut off the sacrificesof the legitimate house. Ts'u was now master of not only her oldvassals, Wu and Yiieh, but also of most of the totally unknownterritory down to the south sea, of which no one except the Ts'upeople at that time knew so much as the bare local names; it borethe same relation to Ts'u that the Scandinavian tribes did to theRomanized Germans. Ts'in had become not only owner of Sz Ch'wan--at first as suzerain protector, not as direct administrator--buthad extended her power down to the south-west towards Yiin Nan andTibet, and also far away to the north-west in Tartarland, but notfarther than to where the Great Wall now extends. It is in theyear 318 B. C. That we first hear the name Hiung-nu (ancestors ofthe Huns and Turks), a body of whom allied themselves in that yearwith the five other Chinese powers then in arms against themenacing attitude of Ts'in; something remarkable must have takenplace in Tartarland to account for this sudden change of name, Theonly remains of old federal China consisted of about ten pettystates such as Sung, Lu, etc. , all situated between the Rivers Szand Hwai, and all waiting, hands folded, to be swallowed up atleisure by this or that universal conqueror. 

Ts'in _s'en va t'en guerre_ seriously in the year 364, andbegan her slashing career by cutting off 60, 000 "Tsin" heads; (thelegitimate Tsin sacrifices had been cut off in 376, so this "Tsin"must mean "Ngwei, " or that part of old Tsin which was coterminouswith Ts'in); in 331, in a battle with Ngwei, 80, 000 more headswere taken off. 'In 318 the Hiung-nu combination just mentionedlost 82, 000 heads between them; in 314 Han lost 10, 000; in 312Ts'u lost 80, 000; in 307 Han lost 60, 000; and in 304 Ts'u lost80, 000. In the year 293 the celebrated Ts'in general, Pêh K'i, whohas left behind him a reputation as one of the greatestmanipulators of vast armies in Eastern history, cut off 240, 000Han heads in one single battle; in 275, 40, 000 Ngwei heads; and in264, 50, 000 Han heads. "_Enfin je vais me mesurer avec ceVilainton_" said the King of Chao, when his two western friendsof Han and Ngwei had been hammered out of existence. In the year260 the Chao forces came to terrible grief; General Pêh K'imanaged completely to surround their army of 400, 000 men heaccepted their surrender, guaranteed their safety, and thenproceeded methodically to massacre the whole of them to a man. In257 "Tsin" (presumably Han or Ngwei) lost 6, 000 killed and 20, 000drowned; in 256 Han lost 40, 000 heads, and in 247 her last 30, 000, whilst also in 256 Chao her last 90, 000. These terrible detailshave been put together from the isolated statements; but there canbe no mistake about them, for the historian Sz-ma Ts'ien, writingin 100 B. C. , says: "The allies with territory ten times the extentof the Ts'in dominions dashed a million men against her in vain;she always had her reserves in hand ready, and from first to lasta million corpses bit the dust. "

No such battles as these are even hinted at in more ancient times;nor, strange to say, are the ancient chariots now mentioned anymore. Ts'in had evidently been practising herself in fighting withthe Turks and Tartars for some generations, and had begun toperceive what was still only half understood in China, theadvantage of manoeuvring large bodies of horsemen; but, curiouslyenough, nothing is said of horses either; yet all these battlesseem to have been fought on the flat lands of old federal China, suitable for either chariots or horses. The first specific mentionof cavalry manoeuvres on a large scale was in the year 198 B. C. When the new Han Emperor of China in person, with a stragglingarmy of 320, 000 men, mostly infantry, was surrounded by fourbodies of horsemen led by the Supreme Khan, in white, grey, black, and chestnut divisions, numbering 300, 000 cavalry in all: his namewas Megh-dun (? the Turkish Baghatur). 

Whilst all this was going on, Mencius, the Confucian philosopher, and the two celebrated diplomatists (of Taoist principles), SuTs'in and Chang I, were flying to and fro all over orthodox Chinawith a view of offering sage political advice; this was the time_par excellence_ when the rival Taoist and Confucian prophetswere howling in the wilderness of war and greed: but Ts'in carednot much for talkers: generals did her practical business better:in 308 she began to cast covetous eyes on the Emperor's poorremaining appanage. In 301 she was called upon to quell a revoltin Shuh; then she materially reduced the pretensions of her greatrival Ts'u; and finally rested a while, whilst gathering morestrength for the supreme effort-the conquest of China. 

CHAPTER XXVII

FOREIGN BLOOD

The history of China may be for our present purposes accordinglysummed up as follows. The pure Chinese race from time immemorialhad been confined to the flat lands of the Yellow River, and itsone tributary on the south, the River Loh, the Tartars possessingmost of the left bank from the Desert to the sea. However, fromthe beginning of really historical times the Chinese had been inunmistakable part-possession of the valleys of the Yellow River'stwo great tributaries towards the west and north, the Wei (in ShenSi) and the Fen (in Shan Si). Little, if any, Chinese colonizingwas done much before the Ts'in conquests in any other parts ofTartarland; none in Sz Ch'wan that we know of; little, if any, along the coasts, except perhaps from Ts'i and Lu (in Shan Tung), both of which states seem to have always been open to the sea, though many barbarian coast tribes still required gathering intothe Chinese fold. The advance of Chinese civilization had beenfirst down the Yellow River; then down the River Han towards theMiddle Yang-tsz; and lastly, down the canals and the Hwai networkof streams to the Shanghai coast. Old colonies of Chinese had, many centuries before the conquest of China by the Chou dynasty, evidently set out to subdue or to conciliate the southern tribes:these adventurous leaders had naturally taken Chinese ideas withthem, but had usually found it easier for their _own_ safetyand success to adopt barbarian customs in whole or in part. Thesemixed or semi-Chinese states of the navigable Yang-tsz Valley, from the Ich'ang gorges to the sea, had generally developed inisolation and obscurity, and only appeared in force as formidablecompetitors with orthodox Chinese when the imperial power began tocollapse after 771 B. C. The isolation of half-Roman Britain forseveral centuries after the first Roman conquest, and thedeparture of the last Roman legions, may be fitly compared withthe position of the half-Chinese states. Ts'u, Wu, and Yüeh allhad pedigrees, more or less genuine, vying in antiquity with thepedigree of the imperial Chou family; and therefore they did notsee why they also should not aspire to the overlordship when itappeared to be going a-begging. Even orthodox Tsin and Ts'i inthe north and north-east were in a sense colonial extensions, inasmuch as they were governed by new families appointed theretoby the Chou dynasty in 1122 B. C. , in place of the old races ofrulers, presumably more or less barbarian, who had previously to1122 B. C. Been vassal--in name at least--to the earlier imperialHia and Shang dynasties: but these two great states were neverconsidered barbarian under Chou sway; and, indeed, some of themost ancient mythological Chinese emperors anterior to the Hiadynasty had their capitals in Tsin and Lu, on the River Fên andthe River Sz. 

It is not easy to define the exact amount of "foreignness" inTs'u. One unmistakable non-Chinese expression is given; that is_kou-u-du_, or "suckled by a tigress. " Then, again, the syllable_ngao_ occurs phonetically in many titles and in native personalnames, such as _jo-ngao_, _tu-ngao_, _kia-ngao_, _mo-ngao_. There are no Ts'u songs in the Odes as edited by Confucius, andthe Ts'u music is historically spoken of as being "in the southernsound"; which may refer, it is true, to the accent, but also possiblyto a strange language. The Ts'u name for "Annals, " or history, wasquite different from the terms used in Tsin and Lu, respectively;and the Ts'u word for a peculiar form of lameness, or locomotorataxy, is said to differ from the expressions used in either Wei andTs'i. So far aspossible, all Ts'u dignities were kept in the royal family, and the king's uncle was usually premier. The premier of Ts'u wascalled _Zing-yin, _ a term unknown to federal China; and Ts'uconsidered the left-hand side more honourable than the right, which at that time was not the case in China proper, though it isnow. The "Borough-English" rule of succession in Ts'u was to giveit to one of the younger sons; this statement is repeated inpositive terms by Shuh Hiang, the luminous statesman of Tsin, andwill be further illustrated when we come to treat of that subjectspecially. The Lu rule was "son after father; or, if none, thenyounger after eldest brother; if the legitimate heir dies, thennext son by the same mother; failing which, the eldest son by anymother; if equal claims, then the wisest; if equally wise, castlots": Lu rules would probably hold good for all federal China, because the Duke of Chou, founder of Lu, was the chief moral forcein the original Chou administration. In the year 587 Lu, whencoquetting between Tsin and Ts'u, was at last persuaded not toabandon Tsin for Ts'u, "who is not of our family, and can neverhave any real affection. " Once in Tsin it was asked, about aprisoner: "Who is that southernhatted fellow?" It was explainedthat he was a Ts'u man. They then handed him a guitar, and madehim sing some "national songs. " In 597 a Ts'u envoy to the Tsinmilitary durbar said: "My prince is not formed for the fine anddelicate manners of the Chinese": here is distinct evidence ofsocial if not ethnological cleaving. The Ts'u men had beards, whilst those of Wu were not hirsute: this statement proves thatthe two barbarian populations differed between themselves. In 635the King of Ts'u spoke of himself as "the unvirtuous" and the"royal old man"--designations both appropriate only to barbariansunder Chinese ritual. In 880 B. C. , when the imperial power wasalready waning, and the first really historical King of Ts'u wasbeginning to bring under his authority the people between the Hanand the Yang-tsz, he said: "I am a barbarian savage, and do notconcern myself with Chinese titles, living or posthumous. " In 706, when the reigning king made his first conquest of a petty Chineseprincipality (North Hu Pêh), he said again: "I am a barbariansavage; all the vassals are in rebellion and attacking each other;I want with my poor armaments to see for myself how Chou governs, and to get a higher title. " On being refused, he said: "Do youforget my ancestor's services to the father of the Chou founder?"Later on, as has already been mentioned, he put in a claim for theNine Tripods because of the services his ancestor, "living in ragsin the Jungle, exposed to the weather, " had rendered to thefounder himself. In 637, when the future Second Protector andruler of Tsin visited Ts'u as a wanderer, the King of Ts'ureceived him with all the hospitalities "under the Chou rites, "which fact shows at least an effort to adopt Chinese civilization. In 634 Lu asked Ts'u's aid against Ts'i, a proceeding condemned bythe historical critics on the ground that Ts'u was a "barbariansavage" state. On the other hand, by the year 560 the dying Kingof Ts'u was eulogized as a man who had successfully subdued thebarbarian savages. But against this, again, in 544 the ruler of Luexpressed his content at having got safely back from his visit toTs'u, i. E. His visit to such an uncouth and distant court. ThusTs'u's emancipation from "savagery" was gradual and of uncertaindate. In 489 the King of Ts'u declined to sacrifice to the YellowRiver, on the ground that his ancestors had never presumed toconcern themselves with anything beyond the Han and Yang-tszvalleys. Even Confucius, (then on his wanderings in the pettystate of CH'ÊN) declared his admiration at this, and said: "TheKing of Ts'u is a sage, and understands the Great Way (_tao_). "On the other hand, only fifty years before this, when in 538 Ts'u, with Tsin's approval, first tried her hand at durbar work, the kingwas horrified to hear from a fussy chamberlain (evidently orthodox)that there were six different ways of receiving visitors according totheir rank; so that Ts'u's ritual decorum could not have been ofvery long standing. The following year (537) a Tsin princess isgiven in marriage to Ts'u-- a decidedly orthodox feather in Ts'u'scap. Confucius affects a particular style in his history when he speaksof barbarians; thus an orthodox prince "beats" a barbarian, but "battles"with an orthodox equal. However, in 525, Ts'u and Wu "battle" together, the commentator explaining that Ts'u is now "promoted" to battlerank, though the strict rule is that two barbarians, or China andone barbarian, "beat" rather than "battle. " In 591 Confucius hadalready announced the "end" of the King of Ts'u, not as such, butas federal viscount. Under ordinary circumstances "death" wouldhave been good enough: it is only in speaking of his own ruler'sdeath that the honorific word "collapse" is used. All these finedistinctions, and many others like them, hold good for modernChinese. These (apparently to us) childish gradations in merewording run throughout Confucius' book; but we must remember thathis necessarily timid object was to "talk at" the wicked, and to"hint" at retribution. Even a German recorder of events wouldshrink from applying the word _haben_ to the royal act of aHottentot King, for whom _hat_ is more than good enough, withoutthe _allergnädigst. _ And we all remember Bismarck's story of theway mouth-washes and finger-bowls were treated at Frankfurt by thoseabove and below the grade of serene highness. _Toutes les vices ettoutes les moeurs sont respectables. _

In 531 the barbarian King of Ts'u is honoured by being "named" forenticing and murdering a "ruler of the central kingdoms. " Thepedants are much exercised over this, but as the federal prince inquestion was a parricide, he had a _lupinum caput, _ and soeven a savage could without outraging orthodox feelings wreak thelaw on him. On the other hand, in 526, when Ts'u enticed andkilled a mere barbarian prince, the honour of "naming" waswithheld. This delicate question will be further elucidated in thechapter on "Names. "

It will be observed that none of the testimony brought forwardhere to show that Ts'u was, in some undefined way, a non-Chinesestate is either clear or conclusive: its cumulative effect, however, certainly leaves a very distinct impression that 'therewas a profound difference of some sort both in race and inmanners, though we are as yet quite unable to say whether the bulkof the Ts'u population was Annamese, Shan, or Siamese; Lolo orNosu; Miao-tsz, Tibetan, or what. There is really no use inattempting to advance one step beyond the point to which we arecarried by specific evidence, either in this or in other matters. It has been said that no great discovery was ever made withoutimagination, which may be true; but evidence and imagination mustbe kept rigidly separate. What we may reasonably hope is that, bygradually ascertaining and sifting definite facts and datatouching ancient Chinese history, we shall at least avoid comingto wrong positive conclusions, even if the right negative ones arepretty clearly indicated. It is better to leave unexplainedmatters in suspense than to base conclusions upon speculativesubstructures which will not carry the weight set upon them. 

CHAPTER XXVIII

BARBARIANS

The country of Wu is in many respects even more interestingethnologically than that of Ts'u. When, a generation or two beforethe then vassal Chou family conquered China, two of the sons ofthe ruler of that vassal principality decided to forego theirrights of succession, they settled amongst the Jungle savages, cuttheir hair, adopted the local raiment, and tattooed their bodies;or, rather, it is said the elder of the two covered his head andhis body decently, while the younger cut his hair, went naked, andtattooed his body. The words "Jungle savages" apply to the countrylater called Ts'u; but as Wu, when we first hear of her, was asubordinate country belonging to Ts'u; and as in any case the word"Wu" was unknown to orthodox China, not to say to extreme westernChina, in 1200 B. C. When the adventurous brothers migrated; thisparticular point need not trouble us so much as it seems to havepuzzled the Chinese critics. About 575 the first really historicalKing of Wu paid visits to the Emperor's court, to the court of hissuzerain the King of Ts'u, and to the court of Lu: probably theHwai system of rivers would carry him within measurable distanceof all three, for the headwaters almost touch the tributaries ofthe Han, and the then Ts'u capital (modern King-thou Fu) was intouch with the River Han. He observed when in Lu: "We only knowhow to knot our hair in Wu; what could we do with such fineclothes as you wear?" It was the policy of Tsin and of the otherminor federal princes to make use of Wu as a diversion against theadvance of Ts'u: it is evident that by this time Ts'u had begun tocount seriously as a Chinese federal state, for one of thepowerful private families behind the throne and against the thronein Lu expressed horror that "southern savages (i. E. Wu) shouldinvade China (i. E. Ts'u), " by taking from it part of modern AnHwei province: as, however, barbarian Ts'u had taken it first fromorthodox China, perhaps the mesne element of Ts'u was not in thestatesman's mind at all, but only the original element, --China. Animportant remark is made by one of the old historians to theeffect that the language and manners of Wu were the same as thoseof Yiieh. In 483, when Wu's pretensions as Protector were at theirgreatest, the people of Ts'i made use of ropes eight feet long inorder to bind certain Wu prisoners they had taken, "because theirheads were cropped so close": this statement hardly agrees withthat concerning "knotted hair, " unless the _toupet_ or chignonwas very short indeed. 'There are not many native Wu words quoted, beyond the bare name of the country itself, which is something like_Keu-gu, _ or _Kou-gu:_ an executioner's knife is mentioned underthe foreign name _chuh-lu, _ presented to persons expected to commitsuicide, after the Japanese _harakiri_ fashion. In 584 B. C. , when the firststeps were taken by orthodox China to utilize Wu politically, it wasfound necessary, as we have seen, to teach the Wu folk the useof war-chariots and bows and arrows: this important statementpoints distinctly to the previous utter isolation of Wu from thepale of Chinese civilization. In the year 502 Ts'i sent a princessas hostage to Wu, and ended by giving her in marriage to the Wuheir: (we have seen how Tsin anticipated Ts'i by twenty-five yearsin conferring a similar honour upon Ts'u). A century or morelater, when Mencius was advising the bellicose court of Ts'i, healluded with indignation to this "barbarous" act. In 544 the Wuprince Ki-chah had visited Lu and other orthodox states. 

[Illustration: Map of the Hwai system and Valley

1. The two lines indicated by. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. To the north are (1)the River Sz (now Grand Canal), from Confucius' birthplace, and(2) the River I (from modern I-shui city south of the Germancolony). After receiving the I, the Sz entered the Hwai as itemerged from Lake Hung-t&h; but this Hwai mouth no longer exists;the waters are dissipated in canals. 

The Wu fleets coasting up to the Hwai, were thus able to creepinto the heart of Shan Tung province, east and west. 

2. The Yang-tsz had three branches: (1) northern, much as now; (2)middle, branching at modern Wuhu, crossing the T'ai-hu Lake, andfollowing the Soochow Creek and Wusung River past Shanghai; (3)southern, carrying part of the Tai-hu waters by a forgotten route(probably the modern Grand Canal), to near Hangchow. 

3. The three crosses [Image: Circle with an 'X' in it] mark thecapitals of Wu (respectively near Wu-sih and Soochow) and Yiieh(near Shao-hing). The modern canal from Hangchow to Shan Tung isclearly indicated. Orthodox China knew absolutely nothing of ChehKiang, Fuh Kien, or Kiang Si provinces south of lat. 300. ]

In recognition of this civilized move on the part of an ancientfamily, Confucius in his history grants the rank of "viscount" tothe King of Wu, but he does not style Ki-chah by the complimentarytitle Ki _Kung-tsz_, or "Ki, the son of a reigning prince";that is, the king's title thus accorded retrospectively is only a"courtesy one, " and does not carry with it a posthumous name, andwith that name the posthumous title of _Kung_, or "duke"'applied to all civilized rulers. Yet it is evident that the rulingcaste of Wu considered itself superior to the surrounding tribes, for in the year 493 it was remarked: "We here in Wu are entirelysurrounded by savages"; and in 481 the Emperor himself sent amessage through Tsin to Wu, saying: "I know that you are busy withthe savages you have on hand at present. " In the year 482, whenthe orthodox princes of Sung, Wei, and Lu were holding off from analliance with Wu, the prince of Wei was detained by a Wu general, but escaped, and set to work to learn the language of Wu. Themotive is of no importance; but the clear statement about adifferent language, or at least a dialect so different that itrequired special study, is interesting. When Ki-chah was on histravels, he explained to his friends that the law of successionis: "By the rites to the eldest, as established by our ancestorsand by the customs of the country. " In 502 the King of Wu wasembarrassed about his successor, whose character did not commenditself to him, His counsellor (a refugee from Ts'u) said: "Orderin the state ceases if the succession be interrupted; by ancientlaw son should succeed father deceased. " Thus it seems that theancient Chou rules had been conveyed to Wu by the first colonistsin 1200 B. C. , and that the succession laws differed from those ofTs'u. Ki-chah's son died whilst he was on his travels, andConfucius is reported to have said: "He is a man who understandsthe rites; let us see what he does. " Ki-chah bared his left armand shoulder, marched thrice round the grave, and said: "Flesh andbone back to the earth, as is proper; as to the soul, let it goanywhere it chooses!" This language was approved by Confucius, whohimself always declined to dogmatize on death and spirits, maintaining that men knew too little of themselves, when living, to be justified in groping for facts about the dead. At firstsight it would appear strange that a barbarous country like Wushould suddenly produce a learned prince who at once captivated byhis culture Yen-tsz of Ts'i, Confucius of Lu, Tsz-ch'an of Cheng, K'u-peh-yu of Wei, Shuh Hiang of Tsin, and, in short, all thedistinguished statesmen of China; but if we reflect that, withinhalf a century, the greatest naval, military, and scientificgeniuses have been produced on Western lines in Japan (as we shallsoon see, in some way connected with Wu), at least we find goodmodern parallels for the phenomenon. 

When Wu, after a series of bloody wars with Ts'u and Yiieh, was in473 finally extinguished by the latter power, a portion of theKing of Wu's family escaped in boats in an easterly direction. Atthis time not only was Japan unknown to China under that name, butalso quite unheard of under any name whatever. It was not until150 years later that the powerful states of Yen and Ts'i, which, roughly speaking, divided with them the eastern part of the modernprovince of Chih Li, the northern part of Shan Tung, and the wholecoasts of the Gulf of "Pechelee, " began to talk vaguely of somemysterious and beautiful islands lying in the sea to the east. When the First August Emperor had conquered China, he made severaltours to the Shan Tung promontory, to the site of the former Yuehcapital (modern Kiao Chou), to the treaty-port of Chefoo (where heleft an inscription), to the Shan-hai Kwan Pass, and to theneighbourhood of Ningpo. He also had heard rumours of thesemysterious islands, and he therefore sent a physician of his staffwith a number of young people to make inquiry, and colonize theplace if possible. They brought back absurd stories of somemonstrous fish that had interfered with their landing, and theyreported that these fish could only be frightened away bytattooing the body as the natives did, The people of Wu, who weregreat fisherfolk and mariners, were also stated to have indulgedin universal tattooing because they wished to frighten dangerousfish away. The first mission from Japan, then a congeries of pettystates, totally unacquainted with writing or records, came toChina in the first century of our era; it was not sent by thecentral King, but only by one of the island princes. Laterembassies from and to Japan disclose the fact that the Japanesethemselves had traditions of their descent both from ancientChinese Emperors and from the founder of Wu, i. E. From the Chouprince who went there in 1200 B. C. ; of the medical mission sent bythe First August Emperor; of the flight from Wu in 473 B. C. Ofpart of the royal Wu family to Japan; and of other similarmatters--all apparently tending to show that the refugees from Wureally did reach Japan; that a very early shipping intercourse hadprobably existed between Japan, Ts'i, and Wu; and that, inaddition to the statements made by later Chinese historians to theeffect that the Japanese considered themselves in some wayhereditarily connected with Wu, the early Japanese traditions andhistories (genuine or concocted) themselves separately repeatedthe story. One of the later Chinese histories says of Wu: "Part ofthe king's family escaped and founded the kingdom of Wo" (theancient name for the Japanese race): the temptation to connectthis word with _Wu_ is obvious; but etymology will not toleratesuch an identification, either from a Chinese or a Japanese point ofview; the etymological "values" are _Ua_ and Gu respectively. 

As in the case of Ts'u, there is no really trustworthy evidence toshow of what race or races, and in what proportions, the bulk ofthe Wu population consisted; still less is there any specificevidence to show to what race the barbarian king who committedsuicide in 473 belonged; or if those of his family who escapedwere wholly or partly Chinese; or if any pure descent existed atall in royal circles, dating, that is to say, from the ancientcolonists of the imperial Chou family in 1200 B. C. 

So far as purely Chinese traditions and history go, the cumulativeevidence, such as it is, needs careful sifting, and is, perhaps, worth a more thorough examination; but as to the Japanesetraditions and early "history, " these, as the Japanese themselvesadmit, were only put together in written form retrospectively inthe eighth century A. D. , and throughout they show signs of havingbeen deliberately concocted on the Chinese lines; that is, Chinesehistorical incidents and phraseology are worked into the narrativeof supposed Japanese events, and Japanese emperors or empressesare (admittedly) fitted with posthumous names mostly copied fromimperial Chinese posthumous names. By themselves they are almostvalueless, so far as the fixing of specific dates and theidentification of political events are concerned; and even whentaken as ancillary to contemporary Chinese evidence, except in sofar as a few Chinese misprints or errors may be more clearlyindicated by comparison with them, they seem equally valuelesseither to confirm, to check, to modify, or to contradict theChinese accounts, which, indeed, are absolutely the soletrustworthy written evidence either we or the Japanese themselvespossess about the actual condition of the Japanese 2000 years ago. 

Meanwhile, as to Wu, all we can say with certainty is, that thereis a persistent rumour or tradition that some of its royalrefugees (themselves of unknown race) who escaped in boatseastward, may have escaped to Japan; may have succeeded in"imposing themselves" on the people, or a portion of the people(themselves a mixed race of uncertain _provenance_); and mayhave quietly and informally introduced Chinese words, ideas, andmethods, several centuries before known and formal intercoursebetween Japan and China took place. 

CHAPTER XXIX

CURIOUS CUSTOMS

In laying stress upon the barbarous, or semi-barbarous, quality ofthe states (all in our days considered pure Chinese), whichsurrounded the federal area at even so late a period as 771 B. C. , we wish to emphasize a point which has never yet been made quiteclear, perhaps not even made patent by their own critics to theChinese themselves; that is to say, the very small and modestbeginnings of the civilized patriarchal federation called theCentral Kingdom, or _Chu Hia_--"All the Hia"--just as we say, "All the Russias. "

In allotting precedence to the various states, the historicaleditors, of course, always put the Emperor first in order ofmention; then comes CHÊNG, the first ruler of which state was sonof an Emperor of the then ruling imperial house; next, the threeProtectors Ts'i, Tsin, and Sung; then follow the petty states ofWei, Ts'ai, Ts'ao, and T'êng, all of the imperial family name, or, as we say in English, "surname, " and all lying between the Hwaiand the Sz systems (T'êng was a "belonging state" of Lu). Thencome half a dozen petty orthodox states of less honourable familynames; next, three Eastern barbarian states, which had become"Central Kingdom, " or which, once genuine Chinese, had become halfbarbarian; and finally, Ts'u, Ts'in, Wu, and Yiieh, which werefrankly, if vaguely, "outer barbarian-Tartar. "

It has already been demonstrated that there is evidence, howeverimperfect, to show that the mass of the population of Ts'u and Wuwere of decidedly foreign origin. Even as to Ts'i, which wasalways treated as an orthodox principality, it is stated that thefounder sent there in or about 1100 B. C. "conformed to the mannersof the place, and encouraged manufactures, commerce, salt and fishindustries. " On the other hand, the son of the Duke of Chou (thefirst vassal prince appointed by his brother the Emperor) changedthe customs of Lu, modified the local rites, and induced thepeople to keep on their mourning attire for three full years. Itwas considered that the Ts'i policy was the wiser of the two, andit was foretold that Lu would always "look up to" Ts'i inconsequence of this superior judgment on the part of Ts'i. Onfrequent occasions the petty adjoining "Chinesified" states, ofwhich Lu was practically the mesne lord, are stated to have been"tainted with Eastern barbarian rites. " From and including modernSü-chou (North Kiang Su) and eastward, all were "Easternbarbarians"; in fact, the city just named (mentioned by the nameof _Sü_ in 1100 B. C. , and again about 950 B. C. , as revoltingagainst the Emperor) perpetuates the "Sü barbarians" country, which was for long a bone of contention between Ts'i and Ts'u, andafterwards Wu; and the name "Hwai savages" proves that the LowerHwai Valley was also independent. The Hwai savages, who appear inthe Tribute of Yü, founder of the Hia dynasty, 2205 B. C. , revolted1000 years later against the founders of the Chou dynasty. Theywere present at Ts'u's first durbar in 538 B. C. , and are mentionedas barbarians still resisting Chinese methods so late as A. D. 970. In Confucius' time the Lai barbarians (modern Lai-thou Fu in theGerman sphere) were employed by Ts'i, who had conquered them in567 B. C. , to try and effect the assassination of Confucius'master. Six hundred years before that, these same barbarians wereamong the first to give in their submission to the founder ofTs'i; and in 602 B. C. Both Ts'i and Lu had endeavoured to crushthem. 

As to the state of Ts'in, there is not a single instance given ofany literary conversation or correspondence held by an orthodoxhigh functionary with a Ts'in statesman. While it is not yet quiteclear that orthodox China can shake herself entirely free of thereproach of human sacrifices in all senses, it is quite certainthat Ts'in had a barbarous and exclusive notoriety in thisregard'; and, as the Hiung-nu Tartars also practised it, and Ts'inwas at least half Tartar in blood, it is probable that she derivedher sanguinary notions from this blood connection with the Turko-Scythian tribes. On the death of the Ts'in ruler in 678 B. C. , thefirst recorded human sacrifices were made, "sixty-six individualsfollowing the dead. " In 621, on the death of the celebrated DukeMuh, 177 persons lost their lives, and the people of Ts'in, inpity, "composed the Yellow Bird Ode" (of these popular Chineseodes more anon). This holocaust was given as one reason why Ts'incould never "rule in the East, " _i. E. _ assume the Protectorate overthe orthodox powers all lying to its east, on account of this cruel defectin its laws. In 387 B. C. , the new Earl of Ts'in (who succeeded a nephew, and therefore could, having no paternal duty to fulfil, introduce theinnovation more cheaply) abolished the principle of human sacrificesat the death of a ruler. Ten years later, the Emperor's astrologer paida visit to Ts'in;--evidence that the imperial civilizing influence wasstill, at least morally, active, This astrologer and historiographer, whose name was Tan, is interesting, inasmuch as he has beenconfused with Li Tan (the personal name of the philosopher Lao-tsz, who was also an imperial official employed in the historiographicaldepartment). It is added that, previous to this visit, for five hundredyears Ts'in and Chou had kept apart from each other. Notwithstandingthis prohibition of human sacrifices, when the First August Emperor ofUniversal China died in 210 B. C. , the old Ts'in custom was reintroduced, and all his women who had not given birth to children were buried withhim. Besides this, all the workmen who had made the secret door andpassage to his grave were cemented in alive, so that they might neverdisclose the secret of its approaches. 

It was only after gradually adopting Chinese civilization thatTs'in began to be a considerable power; thus, when Ki-chah of Wuwas entertained at Lu with specimens of the various styles ofmusic, he observed, on being regaled with Ts'in music: "Ah!civilized sounds; it has succeeded in refining itself; it is inoccupation of the old Chou appanage. " So late as 361 B. C. , whenNgwei (one of the three royal subdivisions of old Tsin) built awall to keep off Ts'in, both Ngwei and Ts'u (which by this timewas quite as good orthodox Chinese as any other state) treatedTs'in as though the latter were still barbarian, In 326 Ts'infirst introduced into her realm the well-known year-end sacrificesof the orthodox Chinese, which fact alone points to a longisolation of Ts'in before this date. 

The rule of succession in Ts'in seems to have been of the Tartarkind at one time. Duke Muh, in 660 B. C. , succeeded his brother, though that brother had seven sons of his own living: that brotheragain, had also succeeded a brother. 

As to Yüeh, there is no question as to its barbarism, though theone single king around whose name centres the whole glory of Yiieh(Kou-tsien, 496-475) seems to have been a man of great ability andsome fine feeling. The native name for Yiieh was _Yü-yüeh_, as stated in Chapter VII. ; and it seems likely that all the coastof China down to Tonquin, or Northern Annam, was then inhabited bycognate tribes, all having the syllable _Yüeh_, or _Viét_, intheir names. The great empire or kingdom of Yiieh, founded uponthe ruins of Wu, soon split up into the "Hundred Yiieh, " i. E. (probably)it relapsed into its native barbarism, and ceased to cohere as apolitical factor. "Southern Yüeh" (the Canton region) has undoubtedhistorical connections with the Tonquin part of Annam, and severalother of the subdivisions of Yiieh, corresponding to Foochow, Wênchow, etc. , show distinct traces of having belonged to the same race. But it isunsafe to say how the Chinese-transcribed name Yii-yiieh waspronounced; still more unsafe is it to argue that it must have been _U_or _O-viêt_ simply because the Annamese so pronounce the wordnow. We have seen that, according to one historical statement, theWu and Yiieh people spoke the same language; in which case themembers of the ruling Wu caste who fled to Japan in 473 B. C. Wereprobably not of the same race as the "savages around them. " As anact of bravado, in 481, the King of Wu made five condemnedcenturions cut their own throats before the Tsin envoy, in orderto show what effectively stern discipline he kept, In 484 the Kingof Yiieh had already committed a similar act of bravado; butneither of these barbarian states is distinctly recorded to haveindulged in human sacrifices at the death of a sovereign. Previousto the crushing of Wu by Yiieh, in 473 B. C. , Yiieh was nearlyannihilated by Wu, and on this occasion Kou-tsien's envoyadvanced crawling on his knees to beg for mercy; this is hardly anorthodox Chinese custom. However barbarous Yiieh may have been, its ruling house possessed traditions of descent, through aconcubine, from an emperor of the Hia dynasty; for which reasonthe founder was enfeoffed, near modern Shao-hing, west of Ningpo, in order to fulfil the sacrifices to the founder of the Hiadynasty, who was, and is, supposed to be buried there: like thefirst colonists who migrated to Wu, he cut his hair, tattooedhimself, opened up the jungle, and built a town. In 330 B. C. Kou-tsien's descendant spoke of "taking the road left to _Chu-hia_, " through modern Ho Nan province; that means taking thehigh-road to China proper. The term originated in times when Ts'uhad not yet become a recognized "Hia. " The fact that Yüeh, withits new capital then in Shan Tung, could never govern the Yang-tszand Hwai inland regions, seems to prove that her power was alwayspurely a water power, and that she was comparatively ignorant ofland campaigns. 

CHAPTER XXX

LITERARY RELATIONS

It is instructive to inquire what were the literary relationsbetween the distinguished statesmen and active princes who movedabout quite freely within the limited area so frequently alludedto in foregoing pages as being sacrosanct to civilization and therites. There seems good reason to suppose that the literaryactivity which so disgusted the destroyer of the books in 213 B. C. Did not really begin until after Confucius' death in 479;moreover, that the avalanche of philosophical works which drenchedthe royal courts of the Six Kingdoms was in part the consequenceof Confucius' own efforts in the literary line. In the pre-Confucian days there is little evidence of the existence of anyliterature at all beyond the Odes, the Changes, the Book, and theRites, which, after a lapse of 2500 years or more, are still the"Bible" of China. The Odes, of which 3000 were popularly knownprevious to Confucius' recension, seem to have been originallycomposed here and there, and passed from mouth to mouth, by thepeople of each orthodox state under impulse of strong passion, feeling, or suffering; or some of them may even have beencommitted to writing by learned folk in touch with the people. Naturally, those songs which specially treated of local matterswould be locally popular; but it would seem that a large number ofthem must have been generally known by heart by the whole educatedbody all over orthodox China, It will be remembered that in theyear 1900, an enterprising American newspaper correspondent tookadvantage of President Kruger's penchant for quoting Scripture, and telegraphed to him daily texts, selected as applicable to theevent, for which the replies to be sent were always prepaid. Forinstance, on news of a British victory, the American wouldtelegraph: "Victory stayeth not always with the righteous"; onwhich President Kruger would promptly rejoin: "Yet shall I smitehim, even unto the end. " This was the plan followed by Chineseenvoys, statesmen, and princes in their intercourse with eachother: no matter what event transpired, Ki-chah, or Tsz-ch'an, orShuh Hiang would illustrate it with an ode, or with a reference tothe "Book" (of history), or by an appeal to the Rites of Chou, orto some obscure astrological or cosmogonical development extractedfrom the mystic diagrams of "The Changes. " As often as not, thequotations given from the Odes and Book no longer exist in theeditions of those two classics which have come down to us. Thisfact is interesting as proving that the _Tso Chwan_--or Commentary ofConfucius' pupil Tso K'iu-ming on Confucius' own bare notes of history--must have been written before Confucius' expurgated Book of Odesreduced and fixed the number of selected songs; or, at all events, the records from which Tso K'iu-ming took his quotations must haveexisted before either he or Confucius composed their respective annalsand comments. In the times when a book the size of a three-volumenovel of to-day would mean a mule-load of bamboo splinters or woodentablets, it is absurd to suppose that generals in the field, or envoys onthe march, could carry their Odes bodily about with them: it is evenprobable that the four "scriptural" books in question wereexclusively committed to memory by the general public, and thatnot more than half a dozen varnish-written copies existed in anystate; possibly not more than one copy. In fact, the onlyavailable literary exhilaration then open to cultured friends wasto check the memory on visiting strange lands by comparing thetexts of Odes, Changes, or Book. A knowledge of the Rites wouldperhaps be confined to the ruling classes almost entirely, forwith them it lay to pronounce the religious, the ritual, thesocial, or the administrative sanction applicable to eachcontested set of circumstances. It is very much as though, --as wasindeed the case in Johnsonian times, --the French, English, andGerman wits of the day, and occasionally distinguished literaryspecimens of even more "barbarous" countries, should at a literaryconference indulge in quotations from Horace or Juvenal by way ofpassing the time: they would not select the Twelve Tables or theLaws of the Pr'tors as matter for the testing of learning. 

To take a few instances. In 559 the ruler of Wei had severelybeaten his court music-master for failing to teach a concubine howto play the lute. One day the prince invited to dinner somestatesmen, the father of one of whom had taken offence at theprince's rudeness; and he ordered the same musician to strike upthe last stanza of a certain ode hinting at treason, which themalicious performer did in such a way as to give further offenceto the father through his son, and to bring about the dethronementof the indiscreet prince. It gives us confidence in the truth ofthese anecdotes when we find that K'ü-pêh-yüh was consulted by theoffended father as to what course he ought to pursue. This Weistatesman, who has already been twice mentioned in connection withother matters, met Ki-chah of Wu when the latter visited thatstate in 544, and he was also an admired senior acquaintance ofConfucius himself, whom he twice lodged at his house for manymonths. Three chapters of the "Book" still remain, afterConfucius' manipulations of it, to prove how Wei was firstenfeoffed by the Duke of Chou, and one of the Odes actually singsthe praises of a Ts'i princess who married the prince of Wei in753 B. C. Thus we see that the ancient classics are intertwined andmutually corroborative. 

When the Second Protector (the last of the four Tartar-bornbrothers to succeed to the Tsin throne) was on his wanderings in644 B. C. , the Marquess of Ts'i gave him a daughter, of whom hebecame so enamoured that he seemed to be neglecting his politicalchances amid the pleasures of a foreign country, instead ofendeavouring to regain his rightful throne at home. This princessfirst of all quoted an ode from the group treating of CHÊNGaffairs, and secondly cited an apt saying from what she "hadheard" the great Ts'i philosopher Kwan-tsz had said, her objectbeing to promote her lively husband's political interests. Thisall took place a few years after Kwan-tsz's death, and 200 yearsafter the founding of CHÊNG state, and is therefore indirectconfirmation of the fact that Kwan-tsz was already a well-knownauthority, and that contemporary affairs were usually "sung of" inall the orthodox states. 

When the Duke of Sung, after the death in 628 B. C. Of thepicturesque personality just referred to, was ambitious to becomethe Third Protector of orthodox China and of the Emperor;Confucius' ancestor, then a Sung statesman, approved of thisambition, and proceeded to compose some complimentary sacrificialodes on the Shang dynasty (from which the Sung ducal family wasdescended): some learned critics make out that it was the music-master of the Emperor who really composed these odes for theancestor of Confucius. In any case, there the odes are still, inthe Book of Odes as revised by Confucius himself about 150 yearslater; and here accordingly--we have specific indirect evidence ofConfucius' own origin; of the "spiritual" power still possessed bythe Emperor's court; and of the "Poet Laureate"-like politicaluses to which odes were put in the international life of thetimes. This foolish Duke of Sung, who was so anxious to pose asProtector, was the one already mentioned in Chapters X. And XIV. , who would not attack an enemy whilst crossing a stream. 

Again, in the year 651, when one of the least popular of the fourTartar-born brethren was, with the assistance of the Ts'in ruler(who had been over-persuaded against his own better judgment), reigning in Tsin, the children of this latter state sang a balladin the streets, prophesying the ultimate success of the self-sacrificing elder brother, then still away on his wanderings inTartarland. This song was apparently never included among the 3000odes generally known in China; but it illustrates how such popularsongs and popular heroes were created and perpetuated. --It is, perhaps, time now that we should give the personal name of thispopular prince, of whom we have spoken so often, and who is aswell known to Chinese tradition as the severe Brutus 'is, or asthe ravishing Tarquin was, to old Roman history. His name wasCh'ung-êrh, or "the double-eared, " in allusion to some peculiarityin the lobes of his ears; besides which, two of his ribs werebelieved to be joined in one piece: his great success is perhapslargely owing to his robust and manly appearance, which certainlysecured for him the eager attentions of the ladies, whether Turksor Chinese. His Turkish wife had been as disinterestedlysolicitous for his success, before he went to Ts'i, as his Ts'iwife was when she induced him to leave that country. On arrival inTs'in, he was presented with five princesses, including one whohad already been given to his nephew and immediate predecessor inTsin. The "rites" were of course decidedly wrong here, but hisally Ts'in was at this time hesitating between Chinese and Tartarculture, and in any case he was probably persuaded in his mind tolet the rites go by the board for urgent political purposes. Onthis occasion his brother-in-law and faithful henchman duringnineteen years of wanderings, sang "the song of the fertilizedmillet" (still existing), meaning that Ch'ung-êrh was the gayyoung stalk fertilized by the presents and assistance of the rulerof Ts'in: he was, by the way, not so young, then well over sixty. He had married the younger of two Tartar sisters, and had givenher elder sister as wife to the henchman in question. (One accountreverses the order. )

 [Illustration: Original inscription on the Sacrificial Tripod, together with (1) transcription in modern Chinese character (tothe right), and (2) an account of its history (to the left). Takenfrom Dr. Bushell's "Chinese Art. "]

Ts'u seems to have possessed a knowledge of ancient history and ofliterature at a very early date. In 597 B. C. , after his victoryover Tsin, the King of Ts'u had, as previously narrated, declinedto rear a barrow over the corpses slain, and had said: "No! thewritten or pictograph character for 'soldierly' is made up of twoparts, one signifying 'stop, ' and the other 'weapons. '" By this hemeant to say what the great philosopher Lao-tsz, himself a Ts'uman, over and over again inculcated; namely, that the true soldierdoes not glory in war, but mournfully aims at victory with thesole view of attaining rightful ends. Not only was this half-barbarian king thus capable of making a pun which from thepictograph point of view still holds good to-day, but he goes onin the same speech to cite the "peace-loving war" of Wu Wang, orthe Martial King, founder of the Chou dynasty, and to cite severalstandard odes in allusion to it. 

These examples might be multiplied a hundredfold, For instance, inthe year 589 a Ts'u minister cites the Odes; in 575 a Tsin officerquotes the Book; in 569 another makes allusion to the ancientattempt made by the ruler of the then vassal Chou state, thefather of the imperial Chou founder, and who was at the same timeadviser at the imperial court, to reconcile the vassal princes tothe legitimate Shang dynasty Emperor (who had already imprisonedhim once out of pique at his remonstrances), before finallydeciding to dethrone him. In 546 a Sung envoy cites the Odes tothe Ts'u government, and also quotes from that section of the"Book" called the Book of the Hia Dynasty, In connection with theyear 582 an ode is cited for the benefit of the King of Ts'u, which is not in Confucius' collection. In 541 a Ts'u envoy, whowas being entertained in Tsin at a convivial wine party, indulgesin apt quotations from the Odes. 

There does not seem to be one single instance where any one inTs'in either sings an ode, quotes orthodox history, or in any waydisplays literary knowledge. Even the barbarian Kou-tsien, King ofYüeh, has wise saws and modern instances quoted to him in hisdistress. For instance, whilst hesitating about utterlyannihilating the Wu reigning family, he was advised: "If one willnot take gifts from Heaven, Heaven may send one misfortune. " Thisis a very hackneyed saying in ancient Chinese history, and is asmuch used to-day as it was 2500 years ago: it comes from the Bookof Chou (now partly lost). It will be remembered that thedistinguished Japanese statesman, Count Okuma, in his nownotorious speech before the Kobé Chamber of Commerce on the 20thOctober, 1907, used these identical words to point the moral ofIndian commerce. It is doubtful if any other really pregnantJapanese philosophical saying exists which cannot be similarlytraced to China. In any case, Count Okuma was only literallycarrying out in Kobé the policy of Tsin, Ts'u, Ts'i, and Weistatesmen of China 2500 years ago. 

If, as we have assumed, standard books were usually committed tomemory (and it must be remembered that the Odes, and much of theBook, the Changes, and the Rites are still so committed to memoryin our own times), and were practically confined to theheadquarters or the wealthy families of each state, the cognatequestion inevitably arises: What about the historical records? Ithas already been observed that Ts'in, the half-Tartar power in theextreme west, was the only state belonging to the recognizedfederal system (and that only since 771 B. C. ) of which nothingliterary is recorded, and which, though powerful enough to assistin making Emperors of Chou and rulers of Tsin, was never inConfucian times thought morally fit to act as Protector of theImperial Federal Union, _i. E. _ of _Chu Hia_, or "All the Chinas. "By a singular irony of fate, however, it so happens that a few Ts'ininscriptions are the only political ones remaining to us of ancientChinese documents. 

When the outlying semi-Chinese states surrounding the innerconclave of orthodox Chinese states, after four centuries offighting and intrigue for the Protectorate, or at least forpreponderance, at last, during the period 400-375 B. C. Became theSix Powers, all equally royal, none of them owing any real, scarcely even any nominal, allegiance to the once solitary King orEmperor, then it was that the idea began to enter the heads of theTs'in statesmen and the rulers of at least three of the Six RoyalPowers opposed to Ts'in that it would be a good thing to get ridof the old feudal vassal system root and branch. So unquestionablyis this period 400-375 B. C. Taken as one of the great pivot pointsin Chinese history, that the great historian Sz-ma Kwang beginshis renowned history, the _Tsz-chi Tung-kien_, published in1084 A. D. , with the words: "In 403 B. C. The states of Han, Ngwei, and Chao were recognized as vassal ruling princes by the Emperor. "Ts'in took to educating herself seriously for her great destiny, and at last, in 221 B. C. , after the wars already described inChapter XXVI. , succeeded in uniting all known China under onecentralized sway; rounding off the Tartars so as to make the GreatWall (rather than the Yellow River, as of old) their southernlimit; conquering the remains of the "Hundred Yüeh" (the vagueunknown South China which had hitherto been the special preserveof Ts'u;) and assimilating the ancient empire of Shuh (i. E. SzCh'wan, hitherto only vaguely known to orthodox China at all, andpolitically connected only with Ts'in). 

During this process of universal assimilation and annexation, thealmost supernaturally active First August Emperor made tour aftertour throughout his new dominions, showing a special predilectionfor the coasts, for Tartarland, and for the Lower Yang-tsz River;but not venturing far up or far south of that Great River; andeven when he did so venture a short distance, never leaving theold and well-known water routes: nor did he risk a land journey toSz Ch'wan, to which country there were at the time no roads of anykind at all possible for armies. It is well known that both he andthe legal, international, political, and diplomatical adventurerswho had been for a century or more from time to time at his courthad been strongly imbued with the somewhat revolutionary and thenfashionable democratic principles of the new Taoism, as defined bythe philosopher Lao-tsz; but he showed no particular hostility toorthodox literature until, whilst on his travels, deputations oflearned men, especially in the ritual centres of Lu and Ts'i, began to suggest to him the re-establishment of the old feudalsystem, and to "quote the ancient scriptures" to him by way ofprotesting mildly against his too drastic political changes. Ithas been explained in Chapter XIII. That in 626 B. C. , when hisgreat ancestor Duke Muh had availed himself of the advisoryservices of an educated Tartar (of Tsin descent), this Tartar hadmade use of the expression: "The King of the Tartars governs in asimple, ready way, without the aid of the Odes and the Book as inthe case of China. " Thus it was that, possibly with this ancientwarning in his mind, he conceived a sudden, violent, andpassionate hatred for didactic works generally, and two books inparticular-the very two, passages from which pedants, philosophers, ambassadors, and ministers had for centuries hurled at each other'sheads alike in convivial, argumentative, and solemn moments. Inother words, the Odes and the Book, together with Confucius'"Springs and Autumns, " with its censorious hints for rulers, and allthe other local Annals and Histories, were under anathema, Butmore detestable even than these were the new philosophicaltreatises of a polemical kind, which girded at monarchs throughtheir subtle choice of words and anecdotes, or which recalled thegood old times of the feudal emperors and their not very obsequiousvassals. His self-laudatory inscriptions upon stone, scattered aboutas he travelled from place to place, tell us plainly, in his own royalwords, that this hatred of presumptuous vassal claims was his primemotive in destroying all the pedants and books he could secure. Hedenounces the vassals of bygone times who ignored the SupremeEmperor, fought with each other, and had the insolence to "carve stoneand metal in order to record their own deeds. " The Changes are quotedin history often enough by statesmen, as well as the Odes and the Book;but, even if the First August Emperor did not entertain the suspicion thatthe first were (as, indeed, they are according to our Westernlights) all "hocus-pocus, " he was himself very credulous andsuperstitious, and the learned word-juggling of the Changes was inany case harmless to him; so that really his rage was confined tothe four or five books, known by heart throughout China, settingforth the ancient ritual system of previous dynasties, asperfected by the Chou government; the subordination of all otherkings (Ts'in included) to the Chou family; the wrath of Heaven, the divinity of the people, and so on. Things had been made worseduring the Fighting State Period (480-230) by the extraordinaryliterary activity prevailing at the different royal courts, whenthe old royal _tao_ had been interpreted in one way by Lao-tsz and his followers, in another by Confucius and his school; incountless others by the schools of Legists, Purists, Scholastics, Cosmogonists, Pessimists, Optimists, and so on. A clean sweep wasaccordingly made, so far as it was possible and practicable, ofall literature, with the exception (amongst old books) of theChanges, and of practical modern or ancient books on astronomy, medicine, and agriculture. At the same time copies of theproscribed Odes and Book were kept on record at court for the useof the learned in the service of the Emperor. All "histories, "except that of Ts'in, were utterly destroyed, and _á fortiori_ allargumentative works on history or on administrative policy of any kind. The old Tartar blood and Tartar sympathies of the First August Emperormust surely re-appear in a policy so incompatible with all orthodoxteaching? In one sense the blight upon Chinese civilization was akinto the blight cast upon that of Eastern Europe 500 years ago by the"unspeakable Turk. " The new ruler boldly said: "The world beginsafresh, with me. No posthumous condemnatory titles for me! Mysuccessor will be 'August Emperor Number Two, ' and so on for ever. "It was like the Vendémiaire in 1793. 

Thus, except in so far as Confucius may have borrowed from localhistories besides that of Lu in making up his "Springs andAutumns, " the Annals of Ts'in are the only annals of the feudalstates (except the Bamboo Books, or Annals of Tsin, dug up in A. D. 281) now left to us. That there were such annals in each state iscertain, for in 627 B. C. The "great historian" of Tsin is spokenof; and in 607 and 510 the names of the Tsin historians are given, in the first case apparently a Tartar. That there should be a TsinTartar versed in Chinese literature is not remarkable, for it wasshown at the close of Chapter XIII. How a learned Tsin Tartar hadacted as adviser to Duke Muh of Ts'in, and had left behind him awork in two chapters, which was still in existence in 50 B. C. Under the year 628 B. C. , one of the expanded versions ofConfucius' history explains how the anarchy which had then beenfor some time prevailing in Tsin led to certain Tsin events of theyear 630 being omitted by Confucius; this is a very importantstatement, for it infers that Confucius made use of the Tsinannals. It is recorded of Confucius that when reading the _Shi-ki_ ("Historical Annals"), he expressed very strong views whenhe came to the events of 632 and 598 B. C. , that is, to the placewhere the "ordering up" of the Emperor by Tsin is described, andto the noble action of the "sage" King of Ts'u; it is interestingto know that this old name, _Shi-ki_, was chosen by the author ofthe first real history of China published under that title about 90 B. C. , and that he was not the inventor of the name, which had already forcenturies been applied in a general sense to the historical annals eitherof Lu or of China generally. 

In 547 B. C. It is stated that the "great historian" of Ts'i madecertain remarks: we have already seen in the present chapter howthe Ts'i wife of the Second Protector was in 640 B. C. Perfectlywell acquainted with the historical and philosophical works ofKwan-tsz, the great administrative innovator of Ts'i under theFirst Protector. In the second century B. C. Kwan-tsz's work ofeighty-six chapters was placed at the head of the Taoist works (ofcourse before Taoism became Lao-tsz's speciality). It ismentioned, quite casually, in the year 538, in a politicalconversation which took place with the King of Ts'u, that theFirst Protector of Ts'i in the year 647 B. C. Had had to contendwith the serious rebellion of a subject (who is named). Allcircumstances point to the truth of this isolated, but otherwisemost specific statement; yet it is not mentioned elsewhere, --evidence, if it were wanted, that many historical works, fromwhich facts were borrowed as though the details were well known toall, must have disappeared entirely. 

As to Ts'u, its Annals were known by the curious name of "StinkingWood, " by which it is supposed that the evil recorded of men uponwooden tablets was meant. That Ts'u subsequently developed a highliterary capacity is evident, for the anniversary of the suicideof the celebrated Ts'u poet K'üh Yiian (envoy to Ts'i during thefierce diplomatic intrigues of 31 B. C. ) has been kept up as theannual "dragon festival" down to our own times, in memory of hissuicide by drowning in the Tung-t'ing Lake district; and his poemsare amongst the most beautiful in the Chinese language. In 656B. C. The dictatorial First Protector tried to play the _rôle_of the wolf, with Ts'u in the character of the lamb: he said: "Howis it you have not for so many generations past sent your tributeof sedge to the Emperor? How about the other Emperor who visited(modern) Hankow in 1003 B. C. And was never heard of again?" TheKing replied: "As to our failure to send tribute, we admit it; asto the supposed murder of the Emperor 350 years ago, you hadbetter ask the people of Hankow themselves what they know of it. "(Ts'u had hardly yet permanently advanced so far east. )

In 496 B. C. It is recorded of a scholar at the Emperor's courtthat, being anxious to see his own name in the "Springs andAutumns, " he suggested to the Emperor that for a long time nocomplimentary mission had been sent to Lu. The result was that hewas sent himself, and is thus immortalized: it does not followfrom this that the knowledge of Confucius' coming book hadpenetrated to the Chou court, because "Springs and Autumns" wasalready the accepted term in Lu for "Annals, " long beforeConfucius adopted the already existing general name for his ownparticular work. In 496 Confucius had left Lu in disgust, and hadgone to Wei--the capital of Wei was then on, or near, the thenYellow River (now the River Wei), between the two towns marked"Hwa" and "K'ai" on modern maps--where he collected materials forhis History; but he did not begin it until the year 481; soprobably the ambitious scholar simply hoped to appear in the"Springs and Autumns" of Lu, as they had already been calledbefore Confucius borrowed the name, just as Sz-ma Ts'ien borrowedthe name _Shi-ki_. 

As to Ts'in, Ts'in's own Annals tell us that "in 753 B. C. Historians were first established to keep record of events. " Henceeven the Ts'in records, the sole annals preserved from the flames, must be retrospective from that date. In any case they containnothing of historical importance farther back than 753 B. C. , except the wars with Tartars; the accompanying of the Emperor Muh, as charioteer, by a Ts'in prince on the occasion of his "going toexamine his fiefs in the west"; and the cession of the old Chouappanage to Ts'in in 771. By their baldness, and by the baldnessof the Bamboo Books, and of Confucius' own "Springs and Autumns, "we may fairly judge of the probable insufficiency and dryness ofthe Annals of Ts'u, Ts'i, Wei, CHÊNG, Sung, and other statesinterested in the welter of the Fighting State Period. EarlyChinese annals contain little more satisfying than the "generations ofAdam" in the fifth chapter of Genesis. 

CHAPTER XXXI

ORIGIN OF THE CHINESE

Having now derived some definite notions of how the Chineseadvanced from the patriarchal to the feudal, from the submissiveand monarchical to the emulous and democratic, finally to collapseunder the overpowering grasp of a single Dictator or Despot, whosecentralized system in the main, still survives; having also seenhow the nucleus of China proper was encompassed on three sides byTibetans, Tartars, Tunguses, Coreans, and by various ill-definedtribes to the south; let us see if there is any evidence whateverto show, or even to suggest to us, whence the orthodox Chineseoriginally came, and who they were. 

First and foremost, it seems primarily unnecessary to suggest atall that they came from anywhere; for, if the position be onceassumed as an axiom that all people must have immigrated from someplace to the place in which we first find them, or hear of them, then the double question arises: "Why should the persons we findin A. , and who, we think, may have come from B. , not have migratedfrom A. To B. Before they migrated back from B. To A. ?" Or: "Ifthe people we find at A. Must have come from B. , whence did thepeople at B. Come, before they went to A. ?" To put it in anotherway: given the existence 4000 or 5000 years ago of Chinese inChina, Egyptians in Egypt, and Babylonians in Babylonia--whyshould one group be assumed to be older than the other? The onlyground for suggesting that these groups had not each a separateevolution, is the assumption that man was "created" once for all, and created summarily; in which case it follows with mathematicalprecision that the ultimate ancestry of every man living extendsback to exactly the same date. That is to say, the highest and thelowest, the blackest and the whitest, only differ in this, thatsome men began to keep records earlier than others; for the manwho keeps no records loses track of his ancestors, and that isall. Not to mention other races, some of our own noblest Englishfamilies trace back their ancestry to a favoured or successfulperson, who was of no hereditary distinction before he distinguishedhimself; whilst on the other hand the tramp and the street-walkermay have as "royal" blood in their veins as any lineal princely personage. It is records, therefore, that differentiate "civilized" from uncivilizedpeople, blue blood from plebeian; and as we see millions of peopleliving without records to-day in various parts of the world, notwithstanding that for centuries, or even for millenniums, theyhave been surrounded by or in immediate contact with neighbourspossessing records, it seems to follow that a nation's greatness maybegin at any time, independently of the blueness of its blood, therobustness of its warriors, the beauty of its women; that is, wheneverit chooses to keep records, and thus to cultivate itself: for records arenothing more than the means of keeping experiences in stock, instead of having to repeat them every day; they are thusaccumulations of national wealth. It by no means follows thatbecause records can be traced back farther in the case of onenation than in the case of another, that the first nation is olderthan the other; for instance, although in the West our variousalphabets appear to refer themselves back to one same source, orto a few sources which probably all hark back ultimately to oneand the same, there seems no reason to believe that the Chinesedid not independently invent, develop, and perfect their ownscheme of written records: the mere fact that we learnt how towrite is some evidence in support of the proposition that theyalso, being men like ourselves, learnt how to write. 

There is no documentary evidence for the barest existence ofancient China, or of any part of it, which is not to be found inthe Chinese records, and in them alone; no nation anywhere nearChina has any record or tradition of either its own or of China'sexistence at a period earlier than the Chinese records indicate. Those records do not contain the faintest allusion to Egypt, Babylonia, India, or any other foreign country or place whateveroutside the extremely limited area of the Central Nucleus, and thelarger area occupied by the semi-Chinese colonial powerssurrounding it. Nor is there the faintest evidence that theBiblical "land of Sinim" had any reference to China, which seemsto have been as absolutely unknown to the West previous to, say, 250 B. C. , as America was unknown to Europe, or Europe to Americaprevious to 1400 A. D. If any ideas were derived from China by theWest, or from the West by China, the records of both China and theWest alike point, however, to one obvious connecting link, andthat is, the horse-riding nomads of the north, who are now, it istrue, in some parts a little more settled than they used to be, and who have been tamed in various degrees by dogmatic religionsunknown to them in ancient times, but who remain in many respectsnow very much what they were 3000 years ago. Of course pedlars, hawkers, and even long-course caravans travelled, whenever theroutes were free, from place to place in ancient times as they donow; but it is exceedingly improbable that there would be anythrough-travellers from Europe to China, except one or twooccasional waifs or adventurers buffeted through by chance. If 600years ago, Marco Polo's through-route adventures were regarded inEurope as almost incredible, notwithstanding the then recent andwell-trodden war-path of the Mongol armies, what chances are thereof through-travel 2000 years before that? And, even if a rare caseoccasionally occurred, what chances are there of any one recordingit?

The probability is, so far as sane experience takes us, that theChinese had been exactly where we first find them for manythousand years, or even for myriads of years, before their owntraditions begin. With the exception of the discovery of America, which brought a flood of strangers into a strange land, andspeedily exterminated the aborigines, there do not appear to beany authenticated instances in history of extensive and robustpopulations being entirely displaced like flocks of sheep byothers. Any one who travels widely in China can see for himselfthat, wherever unassimilated tribes live in complete or partialindependence, and, _á fortiori_, where the assimilation hasbeen carried out, all those tribes possess at least this point incommon with the original Chinese or the assimilated speakers ofChinese--that their language is monosyllabic, uninflected, notagglutinative, and tonic; i. E. That each word is "sung" in aparticular way, besides being pronounced in a particular way. Probably those tribes before they were absorbed, or, despite theirnot having yet been absorbed by the Chinese, had been there aslong as the Chinese had been in the contiguous Chinese parts. Itseems reasonable to suppose that the Chinese would absorb theirown race-classes more readily than they would absorb Tartars, Japanese, and Coreans, all of whom belong to the same dissyllabic, long-worded, agglutinative family. And so it is: the Chinesefollowed the lines of least resistance (after themselves becomingcultured) and worked their way down the rivers and otherwatercourses towards what we call South China. From the veryfirst, their passage northwards across the Yellow River wascontested by the Tartars, whom they have since partly driven back, and partly (with great effort) absorbed. They have never been ableto assimilate the Coreans, not to say the Japanese, though bothpeoples took very kindly to Chinese civilization after ourChristian era, when first friendly missions began to beinterchanged. Indo-China contains many more of the monosyllabicand tonic tribes than of others; if, indeed, there are any at allof the dissyllabic and non-tonal classes; and the Chinese have nodifficulty in merging themselves with Annamese, Tonquinese, Cambodgians, Siamese, Shans, Thos, Laos, Mons, and such likepeoples: but their own administrative base is too far north; theconditions of food and climate in Indo-China are not quitefavourable for the marching of armies, especially when it isremembered that the best troops used have always been Tartars, used to warm clothes and heating food. There have, besides, alwaysbeen rival Indian religion, rival Indian colonization, rivalIndian language, and rival Indian trade influence to contend with. No absorption of Indian races has ever been anywhere effected byChina. Tibetans never came into question in ancient times; if theywere known, it could only have been to Shuh (Sz Ch'wan) and Ts'inor early Chou (Shen Si). 

If it had not been the Chinese of Ho Nan who first used records, it is just as probable that the tonic and monosyllabic absorptionwhich, as things were and are, moved from north to south, mighthave moved from south to north. During the Chou dynasty (1122B. C. -222 B. C. ), when the extension of the Chinese race took place(which had probably already for long gone on) in the clear lightof history, it will be noticed that the rulers of all the greatcolony nations of the south--Ts'u, Wu, and Yüeh--had, in turn, toremind the Emperor of China of their perfect equality with him inspiritual claim and ancient descent; of their connection withdynasties precedent to his; of times when his ancestor was a merevassal like themselves. No Tartars of those times ever put forthclaims like these, though, it is true, in much later times some ofthe (non-Turkish) Tartar rulers of North China traced theirancestors back to the mythical Chinese emperors who reigned inShan Tung. Again, the founder of the Hia dynasty (2205 B. C. ) isrepeatedly said to have been buried at modern Shao-hing (betweenHangchow and Ningpo), and the King of Yüeh even sacrificed to himthere. So the Emperor Shun, the predecessor and patron of the samefounder, was traditionally buried near Ch'ang-sha in modern Hu Nanprovince. The First August Emperor included both these "lions" inhis pleasure tours among the great sights of China. No soundhistorical deduction, of course, can be drawn from thesetraditions, however persistent: if false, they were, at any rate, open to the criticism of a revolutionary and all-powerful Emperorover 2000 years ago, and to a second, almost equally powerful, whovisited both places a century later; the suggestion inevitablyfollows from the existence of these traditions in the south thateither the cultured Chinese whom we first find in Ho Nan had movednorthwards from Hu Nan, Kiang Si, and the lake districtsgenerally, before they spread themselves backwards; or that theuncultured Chinese had moved north before the cultured Chinesemoved south; or that both north and south Chinese were at firstequally cultured, until within historical times the north Chinese(i. E. In Ho Nan, along the Yellow River) so perfected their systemof records that they carried all before them. After all there isno strain on the imagination in suggesting this, for early Westerncivilization grew up in the same way. 

There is not the smallest hint of any immigration of Chinese fromthe Tarim Valley, from any part of Tartary, from India, Tibet, Burma, the Sea, or the South Sea Islands: in fact, there is nohint of immigration from anywhere even in China itself, except asabove hypothetically described. There the Chinese are, and therethey were; and there is an end to the question, so far asdocumentary evidence goes. Of course, the persistent Tarim Valleyscheme proposed is only a means to get in the thin end of thewedge, in order to drive home the thick end in the shape of adefinite start from the Tower of Babel, and an ultimate referenceto the Garden of Eden. If there are still people who believe ittheir duty on Scriptural principle to accept this naïve Westernorigin of the Chinese, there is no reason why religious belief orimagination should not be perfectly respected, and even find aworking compromise with the principle of strict adherence to humanevidence. If supernatural agencies be once admitted (as thelimited human intellect understands Nature), there seems to be nomore reason for accepting the creation of a complete whale(already a hundred years old, according to the growth period oflater whales), than for accepting the creation of complete menwith 1000 years' history behind them instead of 100; or that ofthe earth with 20, 000, or even 20, 000, 000 years' history behindit, and even before it; for as the first whale, or pair of whales, must set the standard of natural history for all future whales, sothe man created with history behind him may equally well havehistory created in front of him. "Nature, " according to theimperfect human understanding, is no more outraged in one casethan in the other, nor can mere time or size count as anythingtowards increasing our wonder when we tell ourselves whatsupernatural things unseen powers superior to ourselves may havedone. This amounts to the same thing as saying that dogmaticbelief, personal religious conviction, agnosticism, superstition, and imagination are all on equal terms, and are equallyrespectable factors when confronted with human historicalevidence, so long as they are kept rigidly apart from the latter, As an eminent Catholic has recently said: "The Church has no morereason to be afraid of modern science than it was of ancientscience. " In other words, however pious and religious a man may be(as we understand the words in Europe), there is no reason why, asa recreation apart from his faith, he should not rigidly adhere tothe human evidence of history so far as it goes. On the otherhand, however sceptical and discriminating a man may be, from thepoint of view of imperfect human knowledge, in the admittance ofhumanly proved fact, there is no reason why, from the emotionaland imaginative side of his existence, he should not rigidlysubscribe to dogma or personal conviction, whether the abstractidea of virtue, the concrete idea of love for some cherished humanbeing, or the yearning for some supernatural state of sinlessnessbe concerned. A distinguished financier, for instance, may regalehis imagination with socialistic dreams of a perfect Utopia; but, when the weekly household bills are presented to him, he dealswith overcharges in pence like any other practical individual. 

From one point of view, the Chinese, already provided with theirtonic language at the Confusion of Tongues, marched to the YellowRiver, where we find them. From the other, there is no evidencewhatever to connect the Chinese with any people other than thosewe find near them now, and which have from the earliest times beennear them; no evidence that their language, their civilization, their manners, ever received anything from, or gave anything to, India, Babylonia, Persia, Egypt, or Greece, except so far as hasbeen suggested above, or will be suggested below. 

CHAPTER XXXII

THE CALENDAR

Allusion has already been made to the eclipses mentioned inConfucius' history as a means by which the probability of hisgeneral truth as a historian may in a certain measure be gauged. Afew words upon the Chinese calendar, as it is and was, maytherefore not be amiss. The Chinese month has from first to lastbeen uncompromisingly lunar; that is to say, the first day of eachmonth, or "moon" as it may strictly and properly be called, alwaysfalls within the day (beginning at midnight) during which the newmoon occurs. Of course, Peking is the administrative centre now, and therefore the observations are taken there with reference tothe Peking meridian. As Confucius took his facts and recordsmainly from the Lu archives, and (we must suppose) noted celestialmovements from what was seen by the Lu astronomers, it has alwaysbeen presumed that the eclipses mentioned by him were observedfrom Lu too; that is, from a station over four degrees oflongitude and one of latitude removed from the imperial capital asit then was (modern Ho-nan Fu). It was the duty of all sovereignprinces to proclaim the first day of the moon at their ancestraltemple; and even if the Chinese of those days had discovered thedifference in "time" between east and west, these princes musteach of them have proclaimed the day during which the new moonoccurred as it occurred to themselves, in their own State, and notas it occurred to the Emperor's astronomers. On the other hand, when eclipses were observed from the comparatively small territoryof Lu, it must have occurred, at least occasionally, that visitorsfrom other states had either the same eclipse or other eclipses toreport. If the Emperor's astronomer reported eclipses in Ho-nan-Fu on a given day, it is difficult to see how Lu, which was acentre almost of equal standing with the imperial capital fororthodoxy in rites and records, could have entirely ignored suchreports. 

But the Chinese year has always been luni-solar. From the earliesttimes they had observed the twelve ecliptical "mansions" andzodiacal signs, and also that the time occupied by the sun intravelling through a mansion was rather longer than one lunation, or the time intervening between two new moons. Their object hasaccordingly always been to bring the lunar and solar years intomanageable combination, so that the equinoxes, solstices, and"seasons" might occur with as much regularity as possible in thesame months, and so that the husbandman might know when to sow hisgrain. Formerly they regulated this discrepancy according to themean movements of the sun and moon; but, ever since the Jesuitsfirst instructed them more accurately, they have regulated the twoyears, that is, the solar year and the twelve lunations, accordingto the true movements, and with reference to the meridian ofPeking. If the moons were each exactly 29 1/2 days in length, instead of being 44 minutes 2. 87 seconds longer, it would havebeen a simple matter to halve the ordinary lunar year, and makesix months "large" (30 days) and six "small" (29 days); but theextra 44 minutes and a fraction accumulate, and the result is thatthere must always be a larger number of "great" months than"small" in the year. The way the Chinese arranged this was to calla month "great" (30 days) if the interval between mid-night(beginning of the new-moon day) and the hour of the _next_new moon was full 30 days or over in duration; if less than 30days, then the month was a "small" one (29 days). Not more thantwo long months ever followed in succession, and two short monthsnever did so. 

But, in any case, even twelve regular moons of 291/2 days onlymake 354 days, whereas a solar year is about 3651/4 days, whilstthe sun's time in passing through a "mansion" (one-twelfth of thesolar year) is about 301/2 days. Thus there was a "superfluity"of about ten days in every lunar year, or about one lunation inevery third year; not to mention that a "mansion" was about a daylonger than a lunation, and that therefore the husbandman wasliable to be thrown out of his reckoning. In order to remedy this, the Chinese intercalated a month once in about thirty-three moons, and called the intercalary month by the same name as the onepreceding it, both with regard to the common numbers 1-12, andwith regard to the two endless cycles of twelve signs and sixtysigns, by which moons are calculated for ever, in the past and inthe future. Regarding the difficulty of seasons, the solar yearwas divided into twenty-four "joints, " and each "joint" was abouthalf a "mansion" (the difference rarely exceeding one hour). However, the spring equinox is always the sixth "joint, " and isthe middle of spring season: this and the other "joints" being allabout 151/4 days in length, the Chinese seasons can be symmetricallydivided with relation to both equinoxes and both solstices; for theintercalary moon (judiciously made unobtrusive, and kept out of vulgarsight as far as possible) settles the lunar year difficulty; and theseasons conform, as of course they should do, to the heat of thesun, which is a much more natural and practical arrangement thanour own arbitrarily assorted and unequal months. 

The endless sixty-year cycle of years is usually referred back tofor a beginning to either 2697 or 2637 B. C. ; but, apart from thefact that there is little or no accurate knowledge anterior to 842B. C. , it is of no importance when it began, so long as sixty pairsof equinoxes and solstices are calculated backwards indefinitely. It goes back, in any case, to a date beyond which the memory ofChinese man runneth not to the contrary; it is unbroken andcontinuous; we are free to take up any date we like at sixty-yearintervals, and say "here I agree to begin": we cannot deny that1908 is the cycle year it purports to be; and even if we did, batches of sixty years backwards from any other cyclic year called1908, would always have a fixed relation to the other 4604 yearsrecorded; nor, having accepted 1908, can we deny 1808, 1708, andso on, as far back as we like, in order to test how any givenevent, eclipse or other, coincides relatively with our own date:it is not a question of beginning, but of counting back, andstopping. We find Confucius of Lu (Chou clan state) using thecalendar of the Chou dynasty (1122 B. C. -249 B. C. ); whose founderhad said: "In future we make the eleventh month the beginning ofthe year instead of the twelfth month. " The previous dynasty ofShang (1766-1123) had similarly said: "In future we make thetwelfth month begin the year instead of the first. " The previousdynasty of Hia (2205-1767) and the individual emperors before hadall said (or taken for granted): "The year begins in the firstmonth, " from which we may naturally conclude that there could nothave been an earlier calendar, as no "sage" could reasonably beginanywhere but at the beginning. At the same time, it must beexplained that the astronomical order of the months, counting thefirst as being that when the sun enters Capricorn, is differentfrom the civil order. Thus the Hia, Shang, and Chou first civilmonths were the third, second, and first astronomical months, representing the sun's entry into Pisces, _Aquarius_, and_Capricorn_, respectively. When the First August Emperorconquered the whole of China, and proceeded to unify cart-axles, weights and measures, written characters, and many otherdiscrepant popular arrangements, he said: "Let the tenth month bein future the first in the year instead of the eleventh. " That isto say, he took as civil first month the twelfth astronomicalmonth, or that in which the sun enters _Sagittarius_. Thus wesee that in 2000 years the calendar had got about 90 days out ofgear; or, roughly, about an hour a year. 

All the above may, perhaps, be understood more clearly byconsidering the following unmistakably genuine statement made bythe Emperor in 104 B. C. , a hundred years after the Ts'in dynastyhad been destroyed; after he had contemplated the tombs of theancient monarchs as explained in the last chapter; after the Westof Asia had been discovered; and when it is _possible_ (thoughthere is no record of it) that Persians, Indians, Greeks, etc. , may haveintervened in discussion upon the calendar. He says: "After theEmperors Yu and Li (the two who fled from their metropolis in 771 B. C. And 842 B. C. Respectively, as related), the Chou dynasty went wrong, and those who were doubly subjects began to wield power; astrologersceased to keep reckoning of seasons; the princes no longer proclaimedthe first day of each moon. Hereditary astronomers got scattered; someremained in All the Hia (orthodox China); others betook themselves tothe various barbarians. In the twenty-sixth year of the Emperor Siang (626B. C. ) there was an intercalary third month, which arrangement the'Springs and Autumns' condemns (it should have been at the end ofthe year). .. The First August Emperor took the tenth month as thebeginning of the year. .. The present Emperor (of the Han dynasty)appointed two astronomers, the second of whom (a native of East SzCh'wan) advanced the calculations and improved the calendar. Thenit was found that the measures of the Sun and the Mansions agreedwith the principles adopted by the Hia dynasty. .. The first cyclicday and also the first lunar day of the eleventh moon has now beenproved to be the winter solstice. I change the seventh year (of mypresent reign-period), and I make of it the first year of the newreign-period, to be called 'Great Beginning. '"--Accordingly whathad up to that date been the seventh year (of a reign-periodbearing another name) now became a year of 442 days; that is tosay, the three months postponed in turn by the Hia, Shang, andChou dynasties were taken up again, and accordingly that onecorrecting year consisted of fifteen months. With slight changes, always adopted only to be again rejected after a few years oftrial, this has been the basis of all later calendars; and forthis reason Confucius' birthday is kept on the twenty-seventh dayof the eighth moon instead of during the tenth moon, as it wouldhave been according to Chou dates. 

The above examination into the calendar question tends to showstill more clearly the good faith of the historians and theadministration; it also illustrates the continuity and painstakingaccuracy of the Chinese records, whatever other defects they mayotherwise disclose. 

CHAPTER XXXIII

NAMES

One of the difficulties of Chinese ancient history is theunravelling of proper names; but, as with other difficulties, thisone is owing rather to the novelty and strangeness of the subject, to the unfamiliarity of scene and of atmosphere, than to anyinherent want of clearness in the matter itself. In readingScottish history, no one is much disconcerted to find a man calledupon the same page (as an imaginary instance), Old John, JohnMcQuhirt, the Master of Weel, the McQuhirt, the Laird o' Airton, the Laird of the Isle, and the Earl of Airton and Weel; there aremany such instances to be found in Boswell's account of theJohnsonian trip to the Hebrides; but the puzzled Englishman has atleast his own language and a fairly familiar ground to deal with. When, however, we come to unpronounceable Chinese names of strangeindividuals, moving about amid hitherto unheard-of surroundings2500 years ago, with a suspicion of uncertainty added about thegenuineness and good faith of the whole story, things are apt toseem hopelessly involved, even where the best of good-will tounderstand is present. Thus Confucius may be called K'ung-tsz, K'ung Fu-tsz, or Chung-ni, besides other personal applicationsunder the influence of _tabu_ rules, Tsz-ch'an may be spokenof as Kung-sun K'iao, or (if he himself speaks) simply as K'iao. And so on with nearly all prominent individuals. In those timesthe family names, or "surnames" as we say in English, were notused with the regularity that prevails in China now, when everyone of standing has a fixed family name, such as Li or Yiian, followed by an official personal name, like Hung-chang or Shï-k'ai. In old times the clan or tribe counted first; for instancethe imperial clan of _Ki_ included princes of several vassalstates. But, after five generations, it was expected that anygiven family unit should detach itself. Thus, in 710 B. C. , Confucius' ancestor, son of the composer of odes mentioned on page175, took, or was given by the ruler of his native state, Sung, the detached family name of K'ung-fu (Father K'ung), "Father"being the social application, and K'ung the surname, which thencebecame the family name of a new branch. The old original clan-names were little used by any one in a current sense, just as theEnglish family name of Guelph is kept in the dim background so faras current use goes. Nor were the personal names, even of Chineseemperors and kings, so grave and decorous in style as they havealways been in later times. For instance, "Black Buttocks, " "BlackArm, " "Double Ears";--such names (decidedly Turkish in style) arenot only used of Tsin princes with an admixture of Tartar bloodnearly always coursing more or less in their veins, but also insuch states as the orthodox Lu. The name "Black Arm, " forinstance, is used both by Lu and by Ts'u princes; also by a Ts'uprivate individual; whilst an orthodox Duke of Sung bears thepurely Turkish name of T'ouman, which (and exactly the samepictograph characters, too) was also the name of the firsthistorical Hiung-nu (later Turkish) Khan several centuries later. The name _Luh-fu_ or "Emoluments Father, " belonging to theson of the last Emperor of the Shang dynasty in 1123 B. C. , wasalso the personal name of one of the rulers of Ts'i many centurieslater. In the same way we find identical personal names in CH'ÊNand Lu, and also in Ts'u and Lu princes. Eunuchs were notconsidered to possess family names, or even official personalnames. If there had been then, as now, a celibate priestly caste, no doubt then, as now, priests would also have been relieved oftheir family name rights. 

It seems quite clear that many if not most family names began inChina with the name of places, somewhat after the Scotch style:even in Lancashire the title of the old lord of the manor is oftenthe family surname of many of the village folk around. Take theChinese imperial domain for instance; in the year 558 one Liu Hiagoes to meet his master the new Emperor. His name (Hia) andsurname (Liu) would serve just as well for current use to-day, asfor example with the late viceroy Liu K'un-yih; but we are toldLiu Hia was so "named" by the historian in full because his rankwas not that of first-class statesman, and it is explained thatLiu was the name of his tenancy in the imperial appanage. At a Lufuneral in 626 B. C. The Emperor's representative to the vassalstate is spoken of complimentarily by his social appellation inview of his possessing first-class ministerial rank: he cannot bespoken of by his detached clan-name, or family name, "because hehas not yet received a town in fee. " A few years later, anotherimperial messenger is spoken of as King-shuh (Glory Uncle), "Glory" being the name of his manor or fee, and "Uncle" his socialappellation. In 436 B. C. The Emperor sent a present of sacrificialmeat to Lu by X. As X is thus "named, " he must be of "scholar"rank, as an imperial "minister" (it is explained) could not bethus named. The ruler alone has the right to "affront a man" atall times with his personal name, but even a son in speaking ofhis own father to the Emperor may "affront" his father, becauseboth his father and himself are on equal subject footing beforethe Emperor. To "name" a man in history is not always like"naming" a member in the House of Commons. For instance, the Kingof Ts'u, as mentioned in Chapter XXVII. , was named for killing aChinese in 531, but not for killing a barbarian prince in 526 B. C. It was partly by these delicate shades of naming or not naming, titling or not titling, that Confucius hinted at his opinions inhis history: in the Ts'u case, it seems to have been an honour to"name" a barbarian. Wei Yang, Kung-sun Yang, or Shang Kiin, orShang Yang, the important personage who carried a new civilizationto Ts'in, and practically "created" that power about 350 B. C. , was, personally, simply named Yang, or "Bellyband. " As he cameoriginally from the orthodox state or principality of Wei, hemight be called Wei Yang, just as we might say Alexander of Fife. As he received from Ts'in, as a reward for his services, the pettyprincipality of Shang (taken in war by Ts'in from Ts'u), he mightbe called the prince or laird (_kün_) of Shang (of. Lochiel), or Shang Kün. As he was the grandson (sun) of a deceased earl(called _kung_, or "duke, " as a posthumous compliment), hewas entitled to take the family name of Kung-sun, just as we say"Fitzgeorge" or "Fitzwilliam. " Finally, he was Yang (= John) ofShang (= Lochiel). In speaking of this man to an educated Chinese, it does not in the least matter which of the four names be used. In the same way, Tsz-ch'an (being a duke's grandson) was Kung-sunK'iao. The word _tsz_, or "son, " _after_ a family name, as forinstance in K'ung-tsz (Confucius), is defined as having the effect of"gracefully alluding to a male. " It seems really to be the same in effectas the Latin _us_, as in Celsius, Brutus, Thompsonius, etc. Whenit _precedes_, not the family name or the _tabu_'d personalname, but the current or acquaintance name, then it seems to havethe effect of Don or _Dom_, used with the most attenuatedhonorificity; or the effect of "Mr. " _Fu-tsz_ means "The Master. "

As to _tabus_, the following are curious specific instances. King, or "Jungle, " was the earliest name for Ts'u, or "Brushwood, "the uncleared region south of the River Han, along the banks ofthe Yang-tsz; and it afterwards became a powerful state. But oneof the most powerful kings of Ts'in (249-244) was called Tsz-ts'u, or "Don Brushwood, " so his successor the First August Emperor (whowas really a bastard, and not of genuine Ts'in blood at all)_tabu'd_ the word Ts'u, and ordered historians to use the oldname King instead. In the same way the philosopher Chwang Chou, orChwang-tsz, was spoken of by the Han historians as Yen Chou, because _chwang_ was an imperial personal name. Both wordsmean "severe": it is as though private Romans and public scribeshad been commanded to call themselves and to write _Austerus_, instead of _Severus_, out of respect for the Emperor SeptimiusSeverus. The business-like First August Emperor, himself, evidentlyhad no hand in the pedantic King and Ts'u _tabu_ business, for one of his first general orders when he became Supreme Emperorin 221 B. C. , was to proclaim that "in ancient times there were noposthumous names, and they are hereby suppressed. I am Emperorthe First. My successor will simply be Emperor the Second, and soon for ever. " There is no clear record of posthumous names and titlesanterior to the Chou dynasty; the first certain instance is the father ofthe founder, whose personal name was Ch'ang, and who had beengenerally known as the "Earl of the West. " His son, the founder, madehim W&n Wang, or the "Civilian King, " posthumously. In the same way theDuke of Chou, a son of the Civilian King, made his brother thefounder, personally called _Fah_, Wu Wang, or the "WarriorKing. " The same Duke of Chou (the first ruler of Lu, andConfucius' model in all things) was the virtual founder of theChou administrative system in general, and also of the posthumousname rules which were "intended to punish the bad and encouragethe good"; but counsellors have naturally always been verygingerly and roundabout in wounding royal family feeling byselecting too harsh a "punishing" name. 

Not only royal and princely personages had posthumous names. In817 and 796 B. C. , each, we find a counsellor of the Emperor spokenof both by the real and the posthumous name. In 542 B. C. Aconcubine of one of the Lu rulers is spoken of by her clan-nameand her posthumous name. In 560 B. C. The dying King of Ts'umodestly alludes to the choice of an inferior posthumous namebefitting him and his poor talents, for use at the times ofbiennial sacrifice to his manes, and adds: "I am now going to takemy place _á la_ suite, in company with my ancestors in thetemple. "

Persons of the same clan-name could not properly intermarry. Thusthe Emperor Muh, who is supposed to have travelled to Turkestan inthe tenth century B. C. , had a mysterious _liaison_ during hisexpedition with a beauteous Miss _Ki_ (_i. E. _ a girl of his ownclan), who died on the way. The only way tolerant posterity can makea shift to defend this "incest, " is by supposing that in those times thenames of relatives were "arranged differently. " However, the merefact that the funeral ceremonies were carried out with full imperialChou ritual, and that incest is mentioned at all, seems to militate againstthe view (noticed in Chapter XIII. ) that it was Duke Muh of Ts'in who(400 years later) undertook this journey, for he did not belong tothe _Ki_ family at all. Curiously enough, it fell to the lotof the son and successor of the Emperor Muh to have to punish anddestroy a petty vassal state whose ruler had committed theincestuous act of marrying three sisters of his own clan-name. In483 B. C. The ruler of Lu also committed an indiscretion bymarrying a _Ki_ girl. As her clan-name must, according torule, be mentioned at her burial, she was not formally buried atall, but the whole affair was hushed up, and she was called by thefancy name of Mêng-tsz (exactly the same characters as "Mencius"), Another instance serves to illustrate the above-mentioned imperialjourney west, and the fief questions jointly. When the Emperor Muhwent west, he was served as charioteer by one of the ancestors ofthe future Ts'in principality, who for his services was enfeoffedat Chao (north of Shan Si province). Chao was one of the threestates into which Tsin broke up in 403 B. C. , and was very Tartarin its sympathies. Thus, as both Ts'in and Chao bore the sameoriginal clan-name of Ying, granted to the Ts'in family aspossessions of the Ts'in fief (Eastern Kan Suh province) by theearly Chou emperors in 870 B. C. , Ts'in is often spoken of ashaving the sub-clan-name of Chao. These facts, again, all militateagainst the theory that it was Duke Muh of Ts'in who made thevoyage of discovery usually attributed to the Chou Emperor Muh;for Duke Muh's lineal ancestor, ancestor also of the originalTs'in Ying, himself acted as guide in Tartary to the Emperor Muh. The First August Emperor, who was, as already stated, really abastard, was borne by the concubine of a Chao merchant, who madeover the concubine whilst _enceinte_ to his (the Emperor's)father, when that father was a royal Ts'in hostage dwelling in thestate of Chao; hence the Emperor is often called Chao CHÊNG(_CHÊNG_ being his personal name). He had thus a double claimto the family name of Chao, first because--granting hislegitimacy--his Ts'in ancestor (also the ancestor of all the Chaofamily) was, during the ninth century B. C. , enfeoffed in Chao; andsecondly because, when Chao became an independent kingdom, he was, during the third century B. C. , himself born in Chao to a Chao manof a Chao woman. 

A great deal more might of course be said upon the subject ofnames, and of their effect in sometimes obscuring, sometimeselucidating, historical facts; but these few remarks will perhapssuffice, at least, to suggest the importance of scrutinizingclosely the possible bearing of each name upon the politicalevents connected with it. 

CHAPTER XXXIV

EUNUCHS, HUMAN SACRIFICES, FOOD

Mention has been made of eunuchs, a class which seems to haveoriginated with the law's severity rather than from a callousdesire of the rich to secure a craven and helpless medium andmeans for pandering to and enjoying the pleasures of the haremwithout fear of sexual intrigue. Criminals whose feet were cut offwere usually employed as park-keepers simply because there couldbe no inclination on their part to gad about and chase the game. Those who lost their noses were employed as isolated frontierpickets, where no boys could jeer at them, and where they couldbetter survive their misfortune in quiet resignation. Thosebranded in the face were made gate-keepers, so that theirlivelihood was perpetually marked out for them. It is sufficientlyobvious why the castrated were specially charged with the duty ofserving females in a menial capacity. One name for eunuch is"cleanse man, " and it is explained by a very old commentator thatthe duty of these functionaries was to sweep and cleanse thecourt; but it is perhaps as likely that the original idea wasreally "purified man, " or man deprived of incentive to certainevils. It is often said disparagingly of the Chou dynasty thatthey introduced the effeminate Persian custom of keeping eunuchs;but the Chou family, which was in full career before Zoroasterexisted, is perhaps entitled to a much greater antiquity incivilization than Persia--Cyrus himself was a contemporary of Lao-tsz and Confucius--and probably the castrated were only utilizedas menials because they already were eunuchs by law, and were notmade eunuchs against the spirit of natural law simply in orderthat their services as menials should be conveniently rendered. 

In 655 B. C. The Tsin ruler despatched a eunuch to try andassassinate his half-brother (the future Second Protector ofChina) when in Tartar exile. When the Second Protector in 636 atlast came to his rights as ruler of Tsin, the same eunuch offeredto commit an assassination in his interest; arguing, by way ofjustifying his previous attempt, that a servant's duty was toserve his _de facto_ master for the time being, and not toquestion de _jure_ claims, which were a matter beyond thecompetence of a menial. In 548 the ruler of Ts'i was assassinatedby a eunuch who would not even grant his master permission tocommit suicide decently in the ancestral hall; (see p. 62). A yearlater, the succeeding ruler under urgent circumstances secured theservices of a eunuch as coachman. In contrast to these traitors, in 481 a faithful eunuch tries to save the ruler of Ts'i fromassassination by one of the supplanting great families: this wasthe case that so horrified Confucius that he died soon after, indespair of ever seeing "divine right" regain the upper hand inChina. In 544 B. C. The ruler of Wei was assassinated by a eunuchdoor-keeper. In 537 the King of Ts'u conceived the idea ofcastrating and cutting the feet off the two Tsin envoys for use asa palace gate-keeper and for service in his harem; but he wasprudently dissuaded by his chief counsellor from incurring therisks consequent upon such an international outrage; (see p. 46). Three centuries later, in the year 239, the First August Emperor's(real) father, for his own spying purposes, got a sham eunuchappointed to a post in the service of the ex-concubine made over, as explained in the last chapter, to the First Emperor's father;by the dowager-queen, as she then was, the supposed eunuch hadtwo sons. When subsequently this dangerous person revolted, theFirst August Emperor's own real eunuchs took part in opposing hismurderous designs. --It must be mentioned that this objectionablefather of the Emperor was himself a very distinguished mannotwithstanding, and has left a valuable historical andphilosophical work of twenty-six chapters behind him, put togetherunder his direction by a number of clever writers. It is usuallyconsidered a Taoist work, because it savours in parts of Lao-tsz'sdoctrine; but, like the works of Hwai-nan-tsz (an imperial princeof the Han dynasty 150 years later) it was classified in 50 B. C. As a "miscellany. "--Finally, a eunuch played an important part aswitness when the Second August Emperor was assassinated. Thus allthe states--those around the original nucleus of Old China atleast--employed eunuchs in the royal harems, even if the vassalprinces of orthodox China as a general rule did not. 

It is much the same thing with another disagreeable feature in themanners of those times--human sacrifices. Many instances havealready been given of such practices in the state of Ts'in. Thetomb of the King of Ts'u who died in 591--of that king whose deathConfucius condescended to record, decently and in ritual terms, because of his many good qualities--which tomb appears to be stillin existence near King-chou Fu, is surrounded by ten other smallertombs, supposed so be those of the persons who "followed him tothe grave. " At all events, when in the year 529 a later king ofTs'u hanged himself, a faithful follower buried two of his owndaughters with the royal body. In A. D. 312 the tomb of the firstProtector, who died in 643 B. C. , was opened under circumstances sographically described that there can scarcely be a doubt of thesubstantial truth: the stench was so great that dogs had to besent in first to test the effects of the poisoned atmosphere; somany bones were found lying about that there can be little doubtmany women and concubines were buried with him. It is often saidby modern writers that it was a general custom to do so all overancient China, and possibly the fact that in the second centuryB. C. A humane Chinese emperor (of Taoist principles) ordered thediscontinuance of the practice may be thought to give colour tothis supposition. But it must be remembered that the great houseof Han had only then recently overthrown the dynasty of Ts'in, andhad incorporated nearly the whole of China as we now view it: theEmperor would naturally therefore be referring to Ts'i, Ts'in, Ts'u, and possibly also to Wu and Yüeh, three of which states had, as we see, once practised this cruel custom. 

Wine, or rather spirit, was known everywhere; in Confucian timesthe Far West had not yet been discovered, and there were neithergrapes nor any names for grapes; no grape wine, nor any otherfruit wine. Even now, though the Peking grapes are as good asEnglish grapes, no one nearer than Shan Shi makes wine from them. Spirits seem to have been served from remote times at the imperialand princely feasts. Here, once more, as with the two viciouspractices described, the drunkards appear to be found more amongthose peoples surrounding orthodox China than in the ancientnucleus. In 694 B. C. , when the ruler of Lu was on a visit to hisbrother-in-law, the ruler of Ts'i, whose sister he had married, brother and sister had incestuous intercourse; which beingdetected, the ruler of Ts'i made his Lu brother-in-law drunk, andsuborned a powerful ruffian to squeeze his ribs as he was assistedinto his chariot. Thus the Duke Hwan of Lu perished. In 640 B. C. , as we have seen, when the future Second Protector was dallyingwith his Ts'i wife, it was found by his henchman necessary to makehim drunk in order to get him away. In 574 a Ts'u general wasfound drunk when sent for by his king to explain a defeat by Tsintroops. In 560 the Ts'i envoy--the philosopher Yen-tsz--wasentertained by the Ts'u court at a wine. In 531 the ruler of Ts'ufirst made drunk, and then killed, one of the petty rulers oforthodox China. In 537 it had already been explained to the Kingof Ts'u that on the occasions of the triennial visits of vassalsto the Emperor (probably only theoretical visits at that date)wine was served at long tables in full cups, but was only drunk atthe proper ritualistic moment. Two years after that the King ofTs'u was described as being at his wine, and therefore in theproper frame of mind to listen to representations. 

In 541 the Ts'u envoy was entertained at a _punch d'honneur_by the Tsin statesmen, one of whom seized the occasion to chantone of the Odes warning people against drunkenness. It is wellknown that Confucius enjoyed his dram; indeed, it is said of him:"As to wine, he had no measure, but he did not fuddle himself. " Inthe year 506 the ruler of Ts'in is described as being a heavydrinker. In 489 a Ts'i councillor is described as being drunk. Afew years later the ruler of Ts'i and his wife are seen drinkingtogether on the verandah, and some prisoners escape owing to thegaoler having been judiciously plied with drink. 

Meat seems to have been much more generally consumed in old China(by those who could afford it) than in modern times; and, as wemight expect, among the Tartar infected people, horse-flesh inparticular. In the second century B. C. The question of eatinghorse-liver is compared by a witty Emperor with the danger ofrevolutionary talk. He said: "We may like it, but it isdangerous. " (Last year, when in Neu Brandenburg, I came across aman whose brother was a horse-butcher in Pomerania, and, remembering this imperial remark, I asked about horse-liver. Theman said he always had a feast of horse-liver when he visited hisbrother, and that he much preferred it to cows' liver, or to anyother part of the horse; but, he added, "you must be careful abouteating it in summer. ") In 645 Duke Muh of Ts'in was rescued fromthe Tsin troops by what was described to him as a body-guard ofhorse-flesh eaters. It appeared, when he sought for explanation, that the same Ts'in ruler had, some time before, been robbed of ahorse by some "wild men, " who proceeded to cut it up and eat it. They were arrested; but the magnanimous duke said: "I am toldhorse-flesh needs spirits to make it digest well, " and, instead ofpunishing them, he gave them a keg of liquor, adding: "no sagewould ever injure men on account of a mere beast. ", He hadforgotten the circumstance, but it now transpired that these menhad, out of gratitude, since then enlisted as soldiers. This storyis the more interesting as it proves how incompletely civilizedthe neighbourhood of Ts'in then was. --Bears' paws are often spokenof as a favourite dish. In 626 the King of Ts'u, about to bemurdered by his son and successor, said: "At least, let me have abear's paw supper before I die. " But it takes many hours to cookthis dish to a turn, and the son easily saw through the paternalmanoeuvre, pleaded only to gain time. It may be here mentioned, too, that Ts'u made regular use of elephants in battle, whichcircumstance is another piece of testimony in favour of theAnnamese connection of Ts'u. In the _Rites of Chou_, supposedto be the work of the Duke of Chou, mention is made of ivory asone of the products of the "Jungle province, " as then called. Inmodern times Annam has regularly supplied the Peking Governmentwith elephants, the skin of which is eaten as a tonic. After theannihilation of Wu by Yiieh, the cunning Chinese adviser of Yiiehdecided to retire with his fortune to Ts'i, on the ground that the"good sleuth-hound, when there is no more work for him, is apt tofind his way to the cooking-pot. " Dogs (fed up for the purpose)are still eaten in some parts of China, and (as we shall soon see)they were eaten in ancient Yiieh. 

CHAPTER XXXV

KNOWLEDGE OF THE WEST

The question of the expedition of the Emperor Muh to the West inthe year 984 B. C. , or during that year and the two following, isworthy of further consideration for many reasons; and after allthat has been said about the rise of the Chou dynasty, the decayof the patriarchal system, the emulous ambitions of the vassals, the destruction of the feudal Empire, and the substitution of acentralized administration under a new dynasty of numbered AugustEmperors, it will now be comparatively easier to understand. 

We have seen that, if any local annals besides those of Lu havebeen in part preserved, those of Ts'in at least were deliberatelyintended by the First August Emperor to be wholly preserved, andmust therefore hold first rank among all the restored vassalannals published by Sz-ma Ts'ien in or about 90 B. C. ; and it mustbe remembered that the original Lu annals have perished equallywith those of Ts'i, Sung, and other important states; it is onlyConfucius' "Springs and Autumns, "--evidently composed from the Luarchives, --that have survived. Well, the Ts'in Annals, as given bySz-ma Ts'ien, record that one of the early Ts'in ancestors "was infavour with the Emperor Muh on account of his admirable skill inmanipulating horses" [names of four particularly fine horsesgiven]. The Emperor "went west to examine his fiefs"; he was so"charmed with his experiences that he forgot the administrativeduties which should have called him back. " Meanwhile, a revoltbroke out in East (uncivilized) China, and the manipulator ofhorses was sent by the Emperor back to China at express speed, inorder to stave off trouble till the Emperor could get backhimself. It is also stated of him that, in spite of remonstrances, he made extensive war upon the Tartars, and that, in consequence, his uncivilized vassals ceased to present themselves at court. Noother mention is made of this expedition by Sz-ma Ts'ien in theimperial annals, and, so (apart from the fictitious importanceafterwards given to the expedition, and especially by Europeaninvestigators in quite recent times), there is really no reason toattach any more political weight to it than to the otherinnumerable exploring expeditions of emperors into the almostunknown regions surrounding the nucleus of orthodox China so oftendefined in these chapters. We have already (page 184) cited thecase in which the father and predecessor of King Muh had venturedon a tour of inspection as far as modern Hankow on the Yang-tszRiver, or, as some say, as far as some place on the River Han, where he was murdered; in 656 the First Protector raked up thisaffair against Ts'u, whose capital was very near King-thou Fu, above Hankow. Finally, scant though Sz-ma Ts'ien's two referencesto this affair may be, they at least agree with each other, i. E. The Emperor did actually go to Tartar regions, and a revolt ofnon-Chinese tribes did actually break out in the immediate sequel. 

But in A. D. 281 a certain tomb at a place once belonging to Wei, but later attached to the kingdom of Ngwei formerly part of Tsin, was desecrated by thieves, and, amongst other books written inancient characters found therein (unfortunately all more or lessinjured by the rummaging thieves), were two of paramount interest. One was an account of, and was entirely devoted to, the EmperorMuh's voyage to the West; the other was the Annals of Ngwei (i. E. Of that third part of old Tsin which in 403 B. C. Was formallyrecognized by the Emperor as the separate state of Ngwei), including those of old Tsin, and also what may be termed thegeneral history of China, narrated incidentally. These Annals ofTsin or Ngwei are usually styled the Bamboo Books, because theywere written in ink on bamboo tablets strung together at one endlike a fan or a narrow Venetian blind. They also speak shortly ofthe Emperor Muh's expedition, and thus they also are useful forcomparing hiatuses, names, faults, and dates; both in generalhistory, and in the account of King Muh's expedition. Since thediscovery of these old documents (which had been buried for well-nigh 600 years, and of which no other record whatever had beenpreserved either in writing or by tradition), Chinese literarywonder-mongers have exercised their wits upon the task ofidentifying the unheard-of places mentioned; the more so in thatone place, and one king bearing the same foreign name as theplace--_Siwangmu_--was so written phonetically that it mightmean "Western-King-Mother. " They endeavoured to show how this andother places _might_ have lain in relation to the genuineplaces discovered by Chinese generals after these ancientdocuments were buried, seven centuries after the events recordedtherein. Then came the foreigner with his Jewish Creation, Confusion of Tongues, Accadian and Babylonian origin of allscience, etc. , etc. Of course Marco Polo's adventures at oncesuggested to the European, thus biased, that 3000 years ago theEmperor Muh _might_ have found his way to Persia, and _might_have been this or that Babylonian, Egyptian, or Persian hero; in fact, Professor Forke of Berlin even takes his Chinese majesty as far as Africa, and introduces him to the Queen of Sheba (= Western-King-Mother). 

The distinguished Professor Edouard Chavannes of Paris hasrecently attempted to show, not only that the Emperor Muh nevergot beyond the Tarim (which, indeed, is absolutely certain fromthe text itself), but that it was not the Emperor Muh at all whowent, but the semi-Turkish Duke Muh of Ts'in, in the seventhcentury B. C. , who made the expedition. 

To begin with, let us see what the expedition purports to be. Inthe first place, the thieves used as torches, or otherwisedestroyed, the first few pages of the bamboo sheaf book, and we donot know, consequently, whence the Emperor started: there is muchindirect evidence, however, to show that he started from someplace on the headwaters of the Han River, in what must then havebeen his own territory (South Shen Si); especially as his threeexpeditions all ended there. It is certain, however, that he hadnot travelled many days on his first journey before he reached atribe of Tartars very frequently mentioned in all histories, andbearing the same name as the Tartars whom Sz-ma Ts'ien says theEmperor Muh _did_ conquer. He crossed the Yellow River on the169th day, came to two rivers, the Redwater (222nd day), and theBlackwater (248th day), which rivers in after ages have beenfrequently mentioned in connection with Tibetan, Turkish, andOuigour wars, and are apparently in the Si-ning and Kan-chou Fu, or possibly Kwa Chou regions (_cf_. P. 68); but first he passed, after the 170th day, a place called "Piled Stones, " a name whichhas never been lost to history, and which corresponds to Nien-po, between Lan-thou Fu and Si-ning, as marked on modern maps. In other words, he went by the only high-road there was in existence, and ever since then has continued in existence (just traversed by Bruce), leading to the Lob Nor region; whence again he branched off, presumably to Turfan, or to Harashar; thence to Urumtsi, and possiblyKuché, as they are respectively now called; but on the whole it is notlikely that he got beyond Harashar and Urumtsi. Even 800 years later, when the Chinese had thoroughly explored all the west up to the HinduKush, their expeditions had all to proceed from Lob Nor to Khoten, orfrom Lob Nor (or near it) _viâ_ Harashar and Kuché along theTarim Valley: it was not for long after the discovery of these routes thatthe later Chinese discovered the northerly Hami route, and the possibilityof avoiding Lob Nor altogether. His charioteer is said in thisaccount to have been a man (named) whose name is exactly the name, written in exactly the same way, as the name of the ancestor ofTs'in, who, Sz-ma Ts'ien tells us, actually was the charioteer ofthe Emperor when he marched forth against the Tartars, and whohurried back to China when the revolts broke out owing to theEmperor's absence. As the Emperor received, from various princes, presents of wine, silk, and rice, it is almost certain that hemust have avoided bleak, out-of-the-way places, and have made forthe productive regions of Harashar, Turfan, and possibly Kuché, any or all three of these. With a little more care and patience wemay yet succeed in identifying, and by the same names, severalmore of the places mentioned by the old chronicler. In about tenmonths (286 days from the first day already mentioned, and 17 daysout from "Piled Stones") he reached _Siwangmu_. This is notat all unlikely to be Urumtsi, or a place near it, possibly Ku-CH'ÊNg or Gutchen, because _Siwangmu_ (also the name of theking of that place), gave him a feast on a certain lake, whichlake, written in exactly the same way, became the name of a quitenew district in 653 A. D. , when it was abolished; and that districtwas at or near Urumtsi; the presumption being that, in the seventhcentury A. D. , it was so named on account of old traditions, thenwell known. Roughly speaking, it took the Emperor 300 days to go, and a second 300 to get back; stoppages, feasts, functions, allincluded. The total distance travelled, as specified from chiefstation to chief station, is 13, 300 _li_ (say 4000 miles) to_Siwangmu_ and to the hunting grounds near but beyond it. When 200 days out he came to the place where his feet were washedwith kumiss; this place is frequently mentioned in history; evenConfucius names it, as one of the northernmost conquests of theChou dynasty. The only doubt is whether it is near Lan-thou Fu inKan Suh province, or near the northern bend of the Yellow River. The journey back was hurried and shorter (as we might well supposefrom Sz-ma Ts'ien's accounts above given), that is to say, only10, 000 _li_. But the total for the whole double journey of660 days in all, including all by-trips, excursions, and hunts, was 38, 000 _li_, or about 12, 000 miles--say 20 miles a day. Ihave myself travelled several thousand miles in China and Tartary, always at the maximum rate of 30 miles a day; more usually 20, allowing for delays, bad roads, and accidents. In Dr. Legge'stranslation of the "Book of Odes, " p. 281, there is a song about agreat expedition against the Tartars in 827 B. C. , one line ofwhich is precisely, as translated by Dr. Legge: "and we marchedthirty _li_ every day, "-which means only ten miles. 

This is the chief journey; and whether the Chou Emperor in 984B. C. , or the Ts'in Duke in 650 B. C. , made it, there are really nodifficulties, no contradictions. Four important places at leastare named which are known by exactly the same names, and arefrequently mentioned, in very much later history. The Emperor hadhundreds of carts or chariots with him, and we have seen thatthese were a special feature of orthodox China. He came across ahuge moulting-ground of birds in the desert regions, and the laterChinese very frequently speak of it in Tartar-land. Being caughtin the waterless desert, he had to cut the throats of some of hisbest horses and drink their warm blood: two friends of my own, travelling through Siberia and Mongolia, were only too glad, whennearly starving from cold, to cut a sheep's throat and drink itswarm blood from the newly-gashed throat itself. Fattening uphorses for food is mentioned, and washing the feet with kumiss--both incidents purely Tartar. "Cattle, " distinct from horses andoxen, are alluded to--probably camels, for which no Chinese wordexisted until about the time of our era. 

The second and third journeys, which occupied another 600 daysbetween them, both ended at, and therefore it is assumed began at, the same place as the first journey's terminus; that is, at aplace marked on modern maps as Pao-CH'ÊNg, on the Upper Han River. In later times it belonged to the semi-Chinese kingdoms of Shuhand Ts'u in turn. One of these narratives is taken up with adescription of the Emperor's infatuation for a clever wizard froma far country, and of his liaison with a girl bearing his ownclan-name, who died about two months before he reached home, andwas buried on the road with great pomp. These two later journeyshave no geographical value at all; but as the Emperor in each caseagain crossed the Yellow River, it is plain that he was amusinghimself somewhere along the main Tartar roads, as in the firstcase. 

It may be added that the Taoist author Lieh-tsz, in his thirdchapter, repeats the story of the magician, who, he says, camefrom the "Extreme West Country. " He also explains that it wasthrough listening to this man's wonderful tales that the Emperor"neglected state affairs, and abandoned himself to the delights oftravel, "--thus anticipating by three centuries the language of Sz-ma Ts'ien in 90 B. C. The story of the particular tribe of Tartars(named with the same sounds, but not with the same characters) whowashed the Emperor's feet with kumiss is also told by Lieh-tsz. The position of the Redwater River is defined, to which textualremarks the commentators add more about the River Blackwater. Curiously enough, in himself commenting upon the Emperor Muh'sconversations with the chieftain of _Siwangmu_, Lieh-tsz mentionsthe traditional departure, west, of the philosopher Lao-tsz, his ownmaster. 

Now, although there is considerable doubt as to the authorship, date, and genuineness of Lieh-tsz's book, which at any rate waswell known to Chinese bibliophiles long before our era, the factthat it mentions and repeats even part of the Emperor Muh'stravels 600 years before the ancient book describing those travelswas found, proves that the manipulators of the ancient book thusfound did not invent the whole story after our era. It also seemsto prove that in Lieh-tsz's time (i. E. Immediately afterConfucius) the story was already known (and probably the book oftravels too), Confucius himself having mentioned one of the tribesvisited by the Emperor. The Bamboo Books bring history down to 299B. C. , and were found, together with the travels of the EmperorMuh, in A. D. 281. The Bamboo Books not only support part of thestory of the Emperor Muh's travels, but their accuracy in dateshas been shown by Professor Chavannes to strengthen thecredibility of Confucius' own history: a reference to ChapterXXXII. On the Calendar will explain what is meant by "accuracy indates. " Finally, we have Sz-ma Ts'ien's history of go B. C. , citing the Chou Annals and the Ts'in Annals, or what survived ofthem after incessant wars between 400 and 200 B. C. , and after thedestruction of literature in 213 B. C. 

This point settled, the next thing is to consider ProfessorChavannes' reasons for supposing that Duke Muh of Ts'in (650 B. C. )and not the Emperor Muh of Chou (984 B. C. ) was the realtraveller:--

1. He shows that the ruling princes of Ts'in and Chao hailed fromthe same ancestors, were contiguous states, and, besides beinglargely Tartar themselves, ruled all the Tartars along the(present) Great Wall line: also that the naming of individualhorses and other features of the Emperor's travels recallsfeatures equally prominent in later Turkish history. This is allundoubtedly true: compare page 206. 

2. He shows that the Duke Muh's chief claim to glory was hissuccesses against the Tartars of the West. This is also quitecertain. 3. He thinks that in 984 B. C. The literary capacity ofChina was not equal to the composition of such a sustained work asthe Travels. 

4. He also thinks that the real Chinese found in Ts'in thetraditions relating to Duke Muh, and then, for the glory of China, appropriated them to the Emperor Muh, and foisted them uponorthodox history. 

There is a great deal to be said for this view, which has, besides, many other minor points of detail in its favour. But itmay be answered:--

1. Chou itself was in the eyes of China proper, once a "barbarian"tribe of the west, as the founder of the Chou dynasty in 1122 B. C. Himself showed when he addressed his neighbours and allies, theeight other states of the west, and exhorted them, as equals, toassist him in the conquest of China. It was only in 771 B. C. Thatthe original Chou appanage (since 1122 the western half of theimperial appanage) had been ceded to Ts'in, which in 984 was apetty state, still of the "adjunct-function" (_cf. _ page 144)type, and not "sovereign. " In 984 there was no intermediatesovereign "power" between the Emperor and the Tartars, with whom, in fact, he had been directly engaged in war independently ofTs'in. He was as much under Tartar social influences as was Ts'in:in fact, the Chou principality, under the Shang dynasty, was asort of first edition of Ts'in principality under the Choudynasty. Just as in 1122 B. C. Chou ousted Shang as the imperialhouse, so in 221 B. C. Ts'in definitely replaced Chou. 

2. If Duke Muh distinguished himself by Tartar conquests, so didthe Emperor Muh before him, and the authorities are all agreed onthis point. 

3. If in 984 B. C. The long-standing orthodox Chinese literarycapacity was unequal to this effort, how is it that semi-barbarousTs'in, the least literary of all the states (not only Chinese, butalso half-Chinese), into which state records had only beenintroduced at all in 753 B. C. , was able to compose such a book;or, if not to write the book, then to dictate so sustained andconnected a story? Besides, the Emperor Muh left severalinscriptions carved on stone during the progress of his travels. 

4. The instances M. Chavannes cites of the tombs of Yü and Shun inSouth China, as being parallel instances of appropriation byorthodox Chinese of semi-Chinese traditions have already been putto quite another use above, as tending to show, on the contrary, that those two Emperors either came from the south, or hadancestral traditions in the south; (see pp. 138, 191). 

5. Finally, about a third of the Travels is taken up with adescription of the incestuous intrigue with Lady _Ki_, and ofher sumptuous ritual funeral. Why should Duke Muh trouble himselfabout the rites due to members of the Ki family, to which theEmperor belonged, but he himself did not? Why should the warlikeDuke Muh (who had just then been recommended by an adviser (an ex-Chinese, since become a Tartar) to adopt simple Tartar waysinstead of worrying himself with the Odes and the Book "as _theChinese did_") waste his time in pomp and ritual? ( see p. 180). Again, when, as the Travels tell us, various vassal rulersfrom orthodox China (even so far as Shan Tung in the extreme east)arrived to pay their respects to the Emperor as their liege-lord, how is it possible to suppose that these orthodox counts andbarons would come to pay court to a semi-barbarian count (for thatwas all he was) like Duke Muh (as he is posthumously called), oneof their equals, a man who took no part in the durbar affairs, andwho, on account of his human sacrifices, was not even thought fitto become an emergency Protector of China? What could the semi-Tartar ruler of Ts'in have known of all these wearisomerefinements in pomp, mourning, and music? Once more, the place theEmperor started from and came back to, though part of _his_appanage in 984 B. C. And possessing an ancestral Chou temple, wasnot part of the Ts'in dominions in 650 B. C. , and never possessed aTs'in temple: if not independent, it was at that time a bone ofcontention between Ts'in and Ts'u, and by no means a safe placefor equipping pleasure expeditions. Finally, if it is marvellousthat the Chou Annals of Sz-ma Ts'ien do not give full details ofthe voyage, is it not at least equally marvellous that the Ts'inAnnals should not mention it in 650 B. C. , when M. Chavannessupposes it took place, whilst they do so mention it under 984B. C. , when he thinks it did not take place? All accounts agreethat the ancestor of Ts'in (named) was there with the Emperor ascharioteer; he was, as we have seen, equally ancestor of Chao, andthe Chao Annals of Sz-ma Ts'ien say exactly what the Ts'in Annalssay. 

Hence we may gratefully accept Professor Chavannes' mostilluminating proofs, so far as they tend to show that the Travelsof the Emperor Muh are genuine history for a tour no farther thanthe middle Tarim Valley; but, so far as Duke Muh of Ts'in isconcerned, he must be eliminated from all consideration of thematter, and we must ascribe the tour, as the Chinese do, to theEmperor Muh. Lastly, are there any _proved_ instances of suchradical tamperings with history by the Chinese annalists as M. Chavannes suggests? I do not know of any; and such superficialtamperings as there are the Chinese critics always expose, _coûte_que _coûte_, even though Confucius himself be the tamperer. 

CHAPTER XXXVI

ANCIENT JAPAN

The development of China is not only elucidated by documents andevents probably antecedent to the strictly historical period, suchas the supposed voyage of an Emperor to the Far West, but it isalso made easier to understand when we consider its possibleindirect effects upon Japan. The barbarian kingdom of Wu does notreally appear in Chinese history at all, even by name, until theyear 585 B. C. It was found then that it had traditions of its own, and a line of kings extending back to the beginning of the Choudynasty (1122 B. C. ), and even farther beyond. In 585 B. C. The newKing, Shou-mêng, hitherto an unknown and obscure vassal of Ts'u, altogether beyond the ken of orthodox China, felt quite strongenough, as we have seen in Chapter VII. , to strike out anindependent line of his own. It is a singular thing that, when theJapanese set about constructing a nomenclature (on Chineseposthumous lines) for their newly discovered back history in theeighth century A. D. , they should have fixed upon exactly this year585 B. C. For the death of their supposed first Mikado Jimmu (i. E. _Shên-wu_, the "divinely martial"). The next three Kings ofWu, all of whom, like himself, bore dissyllabic and meaninglessbarbarian names, were sons of Shou-mêng, and a fourth son was thecultured Ki-chah, who visited orthodox China several times, bothas a spy and in order to improve himself. Then follow two sons ofthe last and first, respectively, of the said three brothers. Thesecond of these royal cousins was killed in battle, and his sonFu-ch'ai vowed a terrible, vengeance against Ts'u, whose capitalhe subsequently took and sacked in 506 B. C. Now appears upon thescene his own vassal, Yiieh, and at first Wu gets the best of itin battle. Bloodthirsty wars follow between the two, full ofpicturesque and convincing detail, until at last the King ofYiieh, in turn, has the King of Wu at his mercy; but he was, though a barbarian, magnanimously disposed, and accordingly heoffered Fu-ch'ai the island of Chusan (so well known to us onaccount of our troops having occupied it in 1840) and threehundred married families to keep him company. But Fu-ch'ai was tooproud to accept this Elba, the more especially so because he hadit on his conscience that he had been acting throughout againstthe earnest advice of his faithful minister (a Ts'u renegade), whom he had put to death for his frankness. This adviser as heperished had cried out: "Don't forget to pluck my eyes out andstick them on the east gate, so that I may witness the entry ofthe Yiieh troops!" He therefore committed suicide, first veilinghis face because, as he said: "I have no face to offer my adviserwhen I meet him in the next world; if, on the other hand, the deadhave no knowledge, then it does not matter what I do. " After thebeginning of our Christian era, when the direct communicationbetween Japan (overland _viâ_ Corea) and China (also by seato Wu) was first officially noticed by the historians, it wasrecorded by the Chinese annalists that part of Fu-ch'ai's personalfollowing had escaped in ships towards the east, and had founded astate in Japan. But it must not be forgotten that then (473 B. C. )orthodox China had never yet heard of Japan in any form, though ofcourse it is possible that the maritime states of Wu and Yiieh mayhave had junk intercourse with many islands in the Pacific. 

We have already ventured upon a few remarks upon this subject inChapter XXIII. , but so much is apt to be made out of slighthistorical materials-such, for instance, as the pleasureexpedition of a Chinese emperor in 984 B. C. To the Tarim Valley--that it may be useful to suggest the true proportions, and themodest possible bearing of this "Japanese" migration--assuming theslender record of it to be true; and the basis of truth is by nomeans a broad one; still less is it capable of sustaining a heavysuperstructure. 

Any one visiting Japan will notice that there are several distincttypes of men in that country, the squat and vulgar, the oval-facedand refined, and many variations of these two; just as, inEngland, we have the Norman, Saxon, Irish, and Scotch types offace, with many other _nuances_. It is also clear from thekitchen-midden and other prehistoric remains; from the presence, even now, in Japan of the bearded Ainus (a word meaning in theirown language "men"); and from the numerous accounts of Ainu-Japanese wars in both Chinese and Japanese history, that therewere (as there still are) manners, and possibly yet other men, inancient Japan, both very different from the manners and appearanceof the cultured and gifted race, viewed as a homogeneous whole, weare now so proud to have as our political allies. But that bringsus no nearer a historical solution, It is a persistent way withall ethnologists to search out whence this or that race came. Ofcourse all races move and mingle, and must always have moved andmingled, when by so doing they could better their circumstances oflife; but even if movement has taken place in Japan as it haselsewhere, there is no reason why, if comparatively uncivilizedJapanese displaced Ainus, Ainus should not have, before that, displaced quite uncivilized Japanese; or, if other races came overthe seas to displace the people already there, the natives alreadythere should not have, later on, ejected these new-comers by searoutes. 

In other words, it is quite futile (unless we can lay hands ondefinite objects, or definite facts recorded--even definitetraditions) to try and account for hypothetical movements inprehistoric times. We are totally ignorant of early Teutonic, Hungarian, and Celtic movements-though, thanks solely to Chineserecords, we are pretty certain, within defined limits, about earlyTurkish movements. How much more, then, must we be ignorant aboutthe Japanese movements? If "people" must have come from somewhere, whence did these arrivals start, and why should they not go back;or why not meet other movers going to the place whence theythemselves started? If we are to accept the only historicalrecords or quasi-records we possess at all, that is, the Chineserecords, then we must accept them for what they are worth on theface of them, and neither add to nor mutilate them; imperfectthings that do exist are necessarily better than imaginary thingsthat might have existed in their place. A few hundred families atmost, we are told, escaped; and if it be true that they wentintentionally to Japan, it is probable that the expert Wu sailors(none existed elsewhere in China) had already for long known theway thither, or to Quelpaert and Tsushima, which practically meansto both Corea and Japan; in fact, if they sailed east from Ningpo, there is no other place to knock up against, even if the specialintention were not there. Everything tends to show that Fu-ch'ai, though perhaps a barbarian in 473 B. C. , was of orthodox if remotepedigree dating from 1200 B. C. , and that the ruling class of Wuwas very different from the "barbarians" by whom (as we arespecifically told) Wu was surrounded; the situation was like thatof the Egyptians and Phoenicians, like Cecrops and Cadmus, amongstthe earliest barbarous Greeks. It amounts, then, to this, that, just as Chinese colonies and adventurers emerged under the stressof increased population, or under the impulses of curiosity, tyranny, and ambition, to found states in Ts'u, Ts'in, Tsin, Ts'i, Lu, Wu, Yüeh, and other places round the central nucleus, so (theybeing the sole possessors of that magic _POWER_, "records")other parties would from time to time sally forth either from thesame orthodox centre, or from the semi-orthodox places surroundingthat centre, to still remoter spots, such as, for instance, Corea, Japan, Formosa, Annam, Burma, Tibet, and Yiin Nan. Fu-ch'ai'ssurviving friends had indeed a very lively stimulus indeed-thefear of instant death-to drive them tumultuously over the seas;and doubtless, as they must have been perfectly harmless aftertossing about hungry in open boats for weeks together, they wouldbe as welcome to the Japanese king, or to the petty chief orchiefs who received the waifs, as in our own times was the honestsailor Will Adams when he drifted friendless to Japan, and whosestatue now adorns a great Japanese city as that of a man who was, in a humble way, also a "civilizer" of Japan (600 A. D. ). Doubtless, many Wu words, or Chinese words as then pronounced inWu, had already been brought over by fishermen; but here at lastwas a great haul of (possibly) books and the way to interpretthem; at least there was a great haul of the best class of the Wuruling folk. It is true that the first Japanese envoys who came toChina made as much of their Wu "origin" as they could; firstly, because it probably paid them as traders to do so; secondly, because it necessarily gave them a respectable status in China;and, thirdly, because they were, in the first century of our era, gradually beginning to understand the mystic power of the Chinesewritten character, and they would therefore naturally take anintense interest in all records, rumours, traditions, and fablesabout themselves, which they would embellish and "confirm"whenever it suited their interests to do so. Which of us does notbegin to furbish up his pedigree when he is made a peer of therealm?

As to the bulk of the Japanese race, be it mixed or unmixed, it issurely in the main to be found now where it always was, or closeby? It is no more depreciating to early Japan to give her adynasty of Chinese adventurers, or perhaps to give her onlyhereditary Chinese advisers and scribes, than it is derogatory tothe states of Europe to possess dynasties which belong by theirorigin, as a general rule, to almost any place but the countriesthey now govern as sovereigns. As to the ancient chiefs or kingsof Japan, some of their genuine native names may have beenpreserved in the memories of men; whether they were or not, theywere, even without records, as "ancient" chiefs as the bestrecorded chiefs of Egypt, Babylonia, or China; and it must beremembered that Egyptian and Babylonian records were non-existentto us for all practical purposes during many thousands of years, until we recently discovered how to read them: that is to say, what was once no history at all--the present condition of theprehistoric races of High Asia--suddenly becomes history when wefind the records and know how to read them. 

When, a few centuries later on, the Japanese had begun thoroughlyto understand Chinese books, they decided to have an historicaloutfit of their own; they took what vague traditions they had, and, in the absence of any long-forgotten genuine records, orvisible remains having part of the effect of records, simplyfitted on to their heroes, real or imaginary, the Chineseposthumous system, and a selection of the historical factsrecorded about the Chinese. Even the Emperor Muh in China was notso named until he died. If a man can be given a complimentarytitle three years after death (that was the Chinese rule atfirst), why not give it him 300 years after his death? The king orchief hitherto known, whether accurately or not, whether honestlyor not, as X, had most certainly existed; that is, the tenthgreat-grandfather of the reigning prince; the ninth, eighth, andso on; must positively have been there at some remote period ofthe past. By calling him Jimmu (a Chinese emperor had already beenposthumously so called) he is none the less there than he wasbefore he was called Jimmu, and his new title therefore does notmake him less of an entity than he was before. And so on with allthe other Japanese emperors who, in the eighth century A. D. , weresimilarly provided with imaginary names. Possibly this is how theJapanese argued with themselves when they set about the task. Thesituation is a curious one, and perhaps unique in the world; butit does not matter much (as suggested in Chapter XXXI. ) so long aswe keep imagination separate from real evidence. 

CHAPTER XXXVII

ETHICS

We propose to say a few words now about peculiar customs which hadvogue all over or in certain parts of China; of course some ofthem may be traced back to the "Rites of Chou, " and to what isprescribed therein; but general administrative schemes representingin general terms things as they ought to be, or as the Chou federaland feudal oligarchy would have liked them to be, do not give ussuch a life-like picture of ancient China as specific accounts ofdefinite events which really did happen. Take, for instance, thepeculiar formalities connected with abject surrender. 

After a great defeat in 699 B. C. , just when Ts'u was beginning toemerge from its narrow confines between the Han and Yang-tszRivers, the defeated Ts'u generals had themselves bound infetters, or with ropes, in order to await their king's pleasure. In 654, when Ts'u had one of the small orthodox states (in the HoNan nucleus) at its mercy, the baron presented himself with hishands tied behind, a piece of jade in his mouth, followed by hissuite in mourning, carrying his coffin. It is evident that at thisdate Ts'u was still "barbarous, " for the king had to ask what itall meant. It was explained to him that, when the Chou founderconquered China, and mutilated the last Shang dynasty emperor, that emperor's elder brother by an inferior mother had presentedhimself before the founder half naked, with his hands tied behindhis back, his left hand leading a ram (or goat), and his rightcarrying sedge for wrapping round the sacrificial victim; he wasenfeoffed as Duke of Sung. In 537 the same thing happened to alater King of Ts'u in connection with another petty principality, and the king had to be reminded of the 654 precedent. Thus theremust have been records of some kind in Ts'u at an early date. In645 B. C. , when the ruler of Ts'in took prisoner his brother-in-law, the ruler of Tsin, and was seriously contemplating theannexation of Tsin, together with the duty of discharging Tsinsacrifices, his own sister, with bare feet, wearing mourning, andbound with a mourning belt, intercedes successfully for herhusband. In 597 B. C. The ruler of the important orthodox state ofCheng went through the form of dragging along, with the upper partof his own body uncovered, a ram or goat into the presence of theKing of Ts'u. In 511, when the ruler of Lu had to fly the countryand throw himself upon the generosity of Tsin, in order to escapefrom the dangerous machinations of the intriguing great familiesof Lu, the six Tsin statesmen (who were themselves at that moment, as heads of great private clans, gradually undermining their ownprince's rights) sent for the arch-intriguer, and called upon himto explain his conduct. At that time Lu was coquetting between itstwo powerful neighbours, Tsin and Ts'i. The conspirator dulypresented himself before the Areopagus of Tsin grandees, barefootand attired in common cloth (_i. E. _ not of silk, but of hemp), in orderto explain to them the circumstances of the duke's exile: it ischaracteristic of the times, and also of the frankness of history, tofind it added that he succeeded in bribing the grandees to give anunjust decision. When the Kings of Yüeh and Wu were in turn ateach other's mercy, in 494 and 473 respectively, their envoys, inoffering submission, in each case advanced to the conqueror "walkingon the knees, " with bust bared: this knee-walking suggests Annamese, Siamese, and possibly Japanese forms rather than Chinese. The Wuservants at dinner are said to have "waited" on their knees. The thirdand last August Emperor in 207 submitted to the conquering Handynasty seated in an unadorned chariot, drawn by a white horse(with signs of mourning), carrying his seal-sash round his neck(figurative of hanging or strangling himself), and offered the seals ofthe Son of Heaven to the Prince of Han. 

Something has already been said about the rules of succession inTs'u and Ts'in. When the Duke of Sung just mentioned died, in 1078B. C. , he was succeeded by his younger brother because his own sonwas dead; this was in accordance with the Shang dynasty's rituallaws. Even the Warrior King himself, founder of the Chou dynasty, was not the eldest son of his father, the (posthumously) CivilianKing; the latter had set aside the elder of the two sons; and itwill be remembered that, several generations before that, two ofthe royal Chou brothers had voluntarily retired to colonize the WuJungle country, in order that their younger brother, father of thefuture Civilian King, might succeed to the then extremely limitedvassal state of Chou. Later on, in 729, a Duke of Sung on hisdeath-bed bequeathed the succession to his younger brother insteadof to his own son, on the ground that the rule is, "son to father, younger to elder brother"--a "universal rule" approved by Menciusin later times. The younger brother in this case thrice refusedthe kingly crown, but at last accepted, and Confucius in hishistory censures the act, which, it is considered, contributed toSung's ultimate downfall. (It must be remembered that Confucius'ancestors were themselves of royal Sung extraction. ) In 652 theyounger brother by the superior spouse wished, at his father'sdeath-bed, to cede his right to the succession of Sung to hiselder brother by an inferior wife; the dying father commended thespirit, but forbade the proposed sacrifice of prior right, and theelder therefore served the younger as counsellor. In 493 a Duke ofSung, irritated on account of his eldest son having left thecountry, nominated a younger son as successor, and after his deathhis wife confirmed by decree her late husband's nomination; butthe younger brother firmly declined, on the ground that the ruleof succession was a fixed one, and that he was unworthy to performthe sacrifices to the gods of the land and grain. It is a curiouscoincidence that the question of status in wives affects thepresent rulers of both China and Japan. Though the dowager wasEmpress-Mother, she always ceded the pas to the senior dowager, who had no children. And as to the Mikado's mother, who died lastOctober, she was, it seems, never officially considered as anEmpress. 

In 817 B. C. The Emperor himself is censured by history for having, "contrary to rule, " wished to set up as ruler of Lu a second sonin preference to the elder son; he repeated the act in 796, as hasalready been explained in Chapter XX. , when a few other instanceswere cited to illustrate the general rule in China. At this timethe waning power of the emperors still evidently flickered. In608, through the meddlesome political interference of Ts'i, aconcubine's son succeeded to the Lu throne in preference to thelegitimate wife's son; curiously enough, the legitimate wife was aTs'i princess. The result of this irregularity was that the "threepowerful families" of Lu (themselves descendants of the rulingfamily) grew restless, and the state began to decline. On thedeath of a King of Ts'u in 516, it was proposed to put on thethrone, instead of the king's young son, the king's youngerbrother by an inferior mother, on the ground that the mother ofthe young son in question was the wife obtained from Ts'in by theking for marriage to his eldest son (who had since joined theking's enemies), which young lady the king had subsequentlydecided to marry himself. Even under this irregular andcomplicated family tangle, the proposed succession was disapprovedby the counsellors, on the ground that irregular successionsinvariably produced trouble in the state. In the year 450 B. C. Theruler of Ts'i insisted, against advice, on the succession of ayounger son by a favourite concubine in preference to his eldersons by superior mothers, including the first and most dignifiedspouse. But here, again, the powerful families intervened; one ofthe elder sons, who had fled to Lu, was brought back secretly in asack; the wrongful successor was murdered, and the "powerfulfamily" which took the lead in state affairs soon afterwards, tothe horror of Confucius, by intrigue and by further assassination, secured the Ts'i throne for itself. It will thus be noticed thatall the great states except Ts'in had their full share ofsuccession troubles. 

There were several customs practised in warfare which are worthyof short notice. In 633 B. C. A Ts'u general, in the interests ofdiscipline, flogged several military men, and "had the ears ofothers pierced by arrows, according to military regulation. " In639 this same king had sent as a present to some princesses ofother states, who had congratulated him on his victory over Sung, "a pile of the enemy's left ears. " As the historians express theirdisgust at this indelicate act, it was presumably not an orthodoxpractice, at all events in this particular form. In 607 there werecaptured from Sung 450 war-chariots and 250 soldiers; the latterhad their left ears cut off; in this case the victors were CHÊNGtroops, acting under Ts'u's orders, and it is presumed that CHÊNGofficers cut off the ears under Ts'u's commands. A few years latertwo or three Ts'u generals were discussing what the ancients didwhen they challenged for a battle; it was decided that the best"form" was to rush up to the entrenchments, cut off an enemy'sleft ear, carry him away in your chariot, and rush back to yourown camp. As there is a special Chinese character or pictographfor "ears cut off in battle, " it thus appears that to a certainextent even the orthodox Chinese practised the "scalping" art, which was doubtless intended to furnish easy proof of claims forreward based upon prowess; in fact, even in modern officialChinese, a decapitated head is called a "head-step, " an expressionevidently dating from the time when a step in rank was given foreach head or group of heads taken. 

Rulers, whether the Emperor or vassals, faced south in theexercise of their sovereign powers. Thus, when the Duke of Chou, after the death of his brother the Martial King, acted as Regentpending the minority of the Martial King's son, his own nephew, hefaced south; but he faced north once more when he resumed hisstatus of subject. It has already been mentioned, in Chapter XX. , that in 640 B. C. The state of Lu made the south gate of the Lucapital the Law Gate, because it was by the south gates that allrulers' commands emanated. In 546 a counsellor of Ts'u explainedto the king how, since Tsin influence had predominated in theorthodox state of CHÊNG, this last had ceased to "face southtowards its former protector. " Thus, though the Emperor facessouth towards the sun, and his subjects in turn face north in hishonour, those subjects face their other protector in whateverdirection he may lie, supposing the Emperor's protection to beinadequate. It is evidently the same principle as "bowing towardsthe east, " and "turning towards Mecca, " both of which formalitiesmust be modified according to place. In 315 B. C. , when Yen (thePeking plain) had become one of the six independent kingdoms, ausurper (to whom the King of Yen had foolishly committed fullpowers) "turned south" to perform acts of sovereignty in theking's name. In 700 B. C. , in the orthodox state of Wei, we hear of"princes of the left and right, " which is explained to mean "sonsof mothers whose official place is left or right of the principalspouse. " Right used to be more honourable than left in China, butleft now takes precedence of right. Thus the provinces of ShanTung and Shan Si are also called "Left of the Mountains" and"Right of the Mountains, " because the Emperor faces south. Notwithstanding, the ancient phraseology sometimes survives; forinstance, "stands right of him" means "is better than he is, " and"to left him" means "to prove him wrong or worse. " All _yamêns_in China face south; there are rare exceptions, usually owing tobuilding difficulties. Once, in the province of Kwei Chou, I wasofficially invited by the mandarin to take my seat on his right instead ofon his left, because, as he explained, his _yamên_ door did notface south, but _west_; and, he added, it was more honourablefor me, as an official guest, to sit north, facing west, than to sitsouth, facing west. In Canton, the Viceroy used out of courtesy to sitsouth, facing north, and make his own interpreter sit north, facing south;the consul sat east, facing west, and the consul's interpreter sat west, facing east. But the consul could not have presumed to occupy thenorth seat thus given to an inferior on the principle of de _minimis_non _curat lex_; nor was the Viceroy willing to assert his "command"to a guest. In 436 the armies of Yiieh marching north through Ho Nancalled the Chinese places lying to their west the "left" towns; but thatwas perhaps because Yiieh came marching from the south. In 221 B. C. , when for the first time South China to the sea became part of the imperialdominions, the Emperor's territory was described as extendingsouthward to the "north-facing houses. " Hong Kong and Canton arejust on the tropical line; but the island of Hainan, and alsoTonquin, are actually in the tropics. Whether the houses there doreally face north--which I have never noticed--or whether theexpression is merely symbolical, I cannot say; but the idea is "tothe regions where, when the sun is on the tropic, you have to turnnorth to see him. "

A point of honour in China was not to make war on an enemy who wasin mourning, but this rule seems to have been honoured in thebreach as much as in the observance thereof. Two centuries beforethe Chou dynasty came into power, an emperor of the Shang dynastydistinguished himself by not speaking at all during the threeyears he occupied the mourning hut near the grave. As we haveseen, the first rulers of Lu (as a Chou fief) modified existingcustoms, and introduced the three years' mourning rule there. Inconnection with a Sung funeral in 651 B. C. , it is explained thatthe bier lay between the two front pillars, and not, as with theChou dynasty, on the top of the west side steps; it will beremembered that Sung represented the sacrifices of the extinctShang dynasty. That same year the future Second Protector (then arefugee among the Tartars) declined to put in a claim to the Tsinsuccession against his brothers "because he had not been inmourning whilst a fugitive. " In 642 Sung and her allies made waron Ts'i, which was then mourning for the First Protector; by ajust Nemesis the Tartars came to the rescue and saved Ts'i. In627, after the Second Protector's death, Ts'in declared war, whilst Tsin was mourning, upon a petty orthodox principalitybelonging to the same clan as Tsin and the Emperor, and belongingalso to the Tsin vassal system. This so enraged the new ruler ofTsin that he dyed his white mourning clothes black, so as toavenge the insult, and yet not to outrage the rites: moreover, white was unlucky in warfare: victorious over Ts'in, he thenproceeded to mourn for his father, and ever after that black wasadopted, by way of memento, as the national colour of Tsin. In 626and 622 the Emperor sent high officers to represent him at Lufunerals, and to carry gems to place in deceased's mouth, "to showthat he (the Emperor) had not the heart to leave the deceasedunsupplied with food. " In 581 the ruler of Lu, being on a visit toTsin, was forcibly detained by Tsin, in order to swell theimportance of a Tsin ruler's funeral. Lu (like the petty orthodoxstates of Wei, Sung, CHÊNG, etc. , further south) was nearly alwaysunder the rival political constraint of either Ts'i, Tsin, orTs'u; and this factor must accordingly also be taken into accountin explaining Confucius' longing for the good old days of imperialpredominance. In 572 Tsin attacked Cheng, though of the same clanas itself, whilst in mourning; but in 567 semi-barbarian Ts'u seta good example to orthodox Tsin by withdrawing its troops out ofdeference to a later official mourning then in force in Cheng: in564 the King of Ts'u withdrew his armies home altogether onaccount of the mourning due to his own deceased mother. In 560barbarian Wu attacked Ts'u whilst in mourning for the above king(the one who first conquered the Canton region for Ts'u); but, here again, by a just Nemesis, Wu's army was cut to pieces, andWu's own ally, Tsin, censured her for having done such an improperthing. In 544 the prime minister of Tsin mourned for his Ts'u co-signatory of the celebrated Peace Conference Treaty of 546; andthis graceful act is explained to be in accordance with the rites. In 544 Ts'u herself was in mourning, and in accordance with theterms of the Peace Conference Treaty, under which the Tsin vassalsand the Ts'u vassals were to pay their respects to Ts'u and Tsinrespectively--Ts'in and Ts'i, as great powers, being excused, or, rather, discreetly left alone--Ts'u put great pressure on Lu tosecure the personal presence of the Lu ruler at the Ts'u funeral. The orthodox duke did not at all like this "truckling to abarbarian"; but one of his counsellors suggested behaving beforethe corpse as he would behave to a vassal of his own: this wasdone, and the unsophisticated Ts'u was none the wiser at the time, though, later on, the king discovered the pious fraud. In 514 B. C. Wu wished to attack Ts'u while, mourning, and the virtuous Ki-chah was promptly sent by Wu to sound Tsin about the _facheusesituation. _ At a Lu funeral in 509, it was explained that thenew duke could only mount the throne after the burial was over; itwas added "even the Son of Heaven's commands do not run in Luduring this critical period; _á fortiori_ is the duke notcapable of transacting his own subjects' business. " But longbefore this, when the First Protector died, in 643, his body layfor sixty-seven days in the coffin unattended, whilst his fivesons were wrangling about the succession; in fact, the worms wereobserved crawling out of the coffin. These painful details have apowerful historical interest, for when (as mentioned on p. 209)his tomb was opened nearly 1000 years later, dogs had to be sentin ahead to test the air, as the stench was so great. In 492 anunpopular prince of Wei was in Tsin, which state had an interestin placing him on the throne. There happened to be in Tsin at thatmoment a scoundrel who had fled to Tsin from Lu, because he hadfound Confucius too strong for him in Lu; and this man suggestedto Tsin that it would be a good plan to send seventy Wei men backto Wei in mourning clothes and sash, so as to make the Wei peoplethink that the prince was dead, and thus gain an opportunity to"run him in" by surprise, and set him up as ruler. In 489, whenthe King of Ts'u died in the field of battle, his three brothers, all of whom had declined his offer of the throne, but one of whomhad at last accepted in order to give the dying man peace, decidedto conceal the king's death from the army whilst they sent for hisson by a Yiieh mother, pleading that the king had been non_compos mentis_ when he proposed an irregular succession, andthat the promise made to him was, therefore, of no avail. In 485Lu and Wu joined in an attack upon Ts'i during the latter'smourning--a particularly disgraceful political combination: nowonder Confucius was hastily sent for from the state of CH'ÊN, whither he had previously retired in disgust at the corruption ofhis native land. In 481 a conspiracy which was going on in Ts'iwas delayed because one of the chief actors, being in mourning, could not attend to public business of any kind. In 332 B. C. Ts'itook ten towns from Yen by successfully attacking her whilst inmourning; one of the travelling diplomats and intriguers so commonin China at that period insisted upon the towns being restored. This was at the exact moment when the philosopher Mencius, whoseems to have also been a great political _dilettante_, wascirculating to and fro between such monarchs as the Kings of Ts'iand Ngwei, alias _Liang_, as is fully explained in the stillextant book of Mencius. 

All the above quaint instances, novel though they may be indetail, strongly recall to us in principle our own "rules" ofinternational law, which are always liable to unexpected"construction" according to the exigencies of war and the powerwielded by the "constructor. " Inter _arma leges silent_. Asusual in these ritual matters, Ts'in is distinguished by totalabsence of mention. 

CHAPTER XXXVIII

WOMEN AND MORALS

So far as it is possible to judge from the concrete instances inwhich women are mentioned, it appears that in ancient Chinesetimes their confinement and seclusion was neither nominally noractively so strict as it has been in later days, and they seem tohave been much more companionable to men than they have been eversince the ridiculous foot-squeezing fashion came into vogue over athousand years ago. When the Martial King addressed his semi-barbarous western allies, as he prepared his march upon the lastShang Emperor in 1122 B. C. , he observed: "The ancient proverb saysthe hen crows not in the morn; when she does, the house willfall"--in allusion to the interference of the debauched Emperor'sfavourite concubine in public affairs; and we have seen, under theheading of Law in Chapter XX. , how one of the imperial statutes, proclaimed or read regularly in the vassal kingdoms, prohibitedthe meddling of women in public business. But, in spite of this, so far as promoting the succession rights and political interestsof their own children goes, wives and concubines certainly exertedconsiderable influence, whether legitimate or not, in all thestates. The murder of an Emperor and flight of his successor in771 B. C. Was in its inception owing to the intrigues of womenabout Court. A few years only after that event, we find theorthodox ruler of Wei marrying a beautiful Ts'i princess (herbeauty is a matter of history, and is celebrated in the Odes, which are themselves a popular form of history); and then, becauseshe had no children, further marrying a princess of Ch'en. Thisprincess unfortunately lost her offspring; but her sister alsoenjoyed the prince's favour, and her son was, after her death, given in adoption to the first childless Ts'i wife. This sonsucceeded to the Wei throne, but was ultimately murdered by ayounger brother born of a concubine, who was next succeeded bystill another younger brother, whose queen had also been one ofhis father's concubines. Thus in the most orthodox states (Wei wasof the imperial clan), the rites often seem not to have countedfor much in practice. --This book, it must here be repeated, dealswith specific recorded facts, and not with civilization as it_ought_ to have been under the Rites of _Chou. _--So, even incomparatively modern China, 1500 years later, the third emperor of theT'ang dynasty married his father's concubine, and she ultimatelyreigned as empress in her own right, which is in itself an outrageupon the "rites. "

In 694 B. C. The ruler of Lu (also of the imperial clan) married aTs'i princess, who, as has been stated in Chapter XXXIV. , not onlyhad incestuous relations with her brother of Ts'i, but led thatbrother to procure the murder of her husband. In connection withthis woman's further visit to Ts'i two years later, the rule iscited: "Women, when once married, should not recross thefrontier. " The same rule is quoted in 655 when a Lu princess, whohad married a petty mesne-vassal of Lu in 670, recrossed the Lufrontier in order to visit her son in Lu. 

The Second Protector, during his wanderings, we know, marriedfirst a Tartar wife and then a Ts'i wife, both of whom showeddisinterested affection for him, and genuine regard for his rightsto the Tsin succession, Yet the ruler of Ts'in supplied him withfive more royal girls, of whom one had already been married to theSecond Protector's predecessor and nephew, the Marquess of Tsin. It is but fair to the memory of this uxorious Tsin ruler to saythat he only took her over under protest, and under the immediatestress of political urgencies; he ultimately made her hisprincipal spouse at the expressed desire of his ally the Ts'inruler. He must have later married a daughter of the Emperor too, for, after the succession of a son and grandson, another of hissons named "Black Buttocks, " being the youngest, and also "son ofa Chou mother, " came to the throne. Thus in those troublous timesthe honour of imperial princesses evidently did not count for verymuch at the great vassal courts. The readiness of Ts'in to inducethe Tsin ruler to take over his nephew's wife (being a Ts'inprincess) accentuates the semi-Tartar civilization of Ts'in atleast, if not of Tsin too; for both Hiung-nu (200 B. C. ) and Turks(A. D. 500) had a fixed rule that a Khan successor should take overall his predecessor's women, with the single exception of his ownnatural mother. In the year 630 the King of Ts'u married orcarried off two CHÊNG sisters (of the imperial clan). The ruler ofCHÊNG had been insolent to the future Second Protector during hiswanderings in the year 637, and, in order to avoid thatProtector's vengeance, had been subsequently obliged to throwhimself under Ts'u protection. "This ignoring of the rites by theKing of Ts'u will result in his failing to secure the Protectorship, " itwas said. However, these princesses, though of the imperial _Ki_clan by marriage into it, were really daughters of a CHÊNG ruler bytwo separate Ts'i and Ts'u wives: moreover, previous to the accessionof the Hia dynasty (in 2205 B. C. ), a Chinese elective Emperor hadmarried the two daughters of his predecessor, whose own son wasunworthy to succeed: and, generally, apart from this precedent, therule against marrying two sisters, even if it existed, seems to have beenloosely applied (_cf. _ Chapter XXXIII. ). 

In connection with the Cheng succession in 629, it is mentionedthat "the wife's sons being all dead, X, being wisest of thesecondary wives' or concubines' sons, is most eligible"(_cf. _ Chapter XXXVII. ). 

Great political complications arose in connection with a cleverand beautiful princess of Cheng who had had various _liaisons_with high personages in the state of Ch'en and elsewhere; in the endshe was carried off in 589 by a treacherous Ts'u statesman to Tsin;and indirectly this adventure led to his being charged by Tsin with amission to Wu; to the subsequent entry of Wu into the conclave offederal princes; and to the ultimate sacking of the Ts'u capital bythe King of Wu in 506: it is easy to read between the lines thatthe Kings of Ts'u were considered unusually arbitrary and tyrannicalrulers; over and over again we find that their most capable statesmentook service with powers inimical to Ts'u. In 581 the ruler of Cheng, being forcibly detained in Tsin whilst on a political visit there, wastemporarily replaced in Cheng by his elder brother, born of aninferior wife. 

A marriage between the two states of Sung and Lu having beenarranged, the imperial clan states of Lu and Wei had certainduties to perform at the wedding, which took place in 583; and itis recorded that the latter sent "handmaids" The explanation givenis a little involved, but it seems to throw some light on themarriage of sisters question. It seems that the legitimate spouseand her "left and right handmaids" were each entitled to three"cousins or younger sisters" of the same clan-name as themselves, "thus making a total of nine girls, the idea being to broaden thebase of succession. " Not content with this, Lu sent a specialenvoy to Sung the next year to "lecture" the princess. It isexplained that "women at home are under the power of their father;married, under that of their husbands. " Tsin also sent handmaidsthis year. It is further explained that "handmaids are a triflingmatter, and they are only mentioned in this Lu princess casebecause her marriage turned out so badly. " The following year Ts'idespatched handmaids, but, "being of a different clan-name, Ts'iwas not ritual in doing so. "

The precise functions of these paranymphs, or under-studies ofwives, together with the rules governing their selection, aredoubtless clearly enough described in the Rites of _Chou_;but we are only dealing here with concrete facts as recorded. 

In 526 B. C. , when Ts'in gave a princess in marriage to the Ts'uheir, the Ts'u king decided to keep her for himself (see p. 234). Only a few years before that, Ts'u had given a princess of her ownin marriage to the heir-apparent of one of the petty orthodoxstates (imperial clan), and the reigning father had had improperrelations with her, which in the end led to his murder by his son;thus Ts'u, however delinquent, had already been given a badexample by the imperial clan. 

After his humiliating defeat by the King of Wu in 494 B. C. , theKing of Yiieh introduced a veritable _Lex Julia_ into hisdominions, in order to increase the population more quickly, andto prepare for his great revenge. Robust men were forbidden tomarry old women, and old men to marry robust women. Parents werepunished if girls were not married by the time they wereseventeen, and if boys were not married by twenty. _Enceinte_women had to be placed under the care of public midwives. Forevery boy born, a royal bounty of two pots of wine and a dog weregiven: for every girl born, two pots of wine and a sucking-pig;--the dog, it is explained, being figurative of outdoor, the pig ofinternal economy. Triplets were to be suckled at the publicexpense; twins to be fed, when big enough, at the public expense. The chief wife's son must be mourned, with absence from officialduty, for three years; other sons for two; and both kinds of sonwere to be equally buried with weeping and wailing. Orphans, andthe sons of sick or poor widows, were to receive officialemployment. Distinguished sons were to have their apartmentscleansed for them, and had to be well fed and handsomely clothed. Learned men from other states were to be officially welcomed inthe ancestral temple. With reference to this curious law, which istotally un-Chinese in its startling originality, it may bementioned that it seems to have gradually led to that laxity ofmorals in ancient Yiieh which is still proverbial in those parts;for, when the First August Emperor was touring over his new empirein 212 B. C. , he left an inscription (still on record) at the oldYiieh capital, denouncing the "pig-like adultery" of the region, and, more especially, the remarrying of widows already inpossession of children. Only a few years ago, proclamationsappeared in this region denouncing the pernicious custom offorcing widows to remarry. Although Kwan-tsz is supposed to have"invented" the Babylonian woman for Ts'i, nothing is said in anyancient Chinese history about common prostitution; nor is femaleinfanticide ever mentioned. In 502 B. C. The Lu revolutionary, already mentioned in Chapter XXXVII. , who was driven to Tsin byConfucius' astute measures, had, before leaving Lu, formed a plotto murder all the sons, by wives, of the three "powerful families"who were intriguing against the ducal rights, and to put concubinesons-being creatures of his own-in their place; thus thesuccession principles applied not only to ruling families, butalso to private houses; though, as a matter of fact, these threewere all, in their origin, descended from previous ruling dukes. As explained in Chapters XII. And XXXIII. , after five generationsa fresh "family" is supposed to spring out of the common clan. 

In spite of Wu's barbarism, the fact of its belonging, by remoteorigin, to the imperial clan (through its first: ruler havingmagnanimously migrated from Chou before Chou conquered China in1122), made it technically incest for Lu to intermarry with Wu;thus, when in 482 B. C. , a Wu princess (evidently forced forpolitical purposes upon Lu) died, her husband, the ruler of Lu, was obliged to refrain from a public burial, as has been explainedin Chapter XXXIII. On Names. 

CHAPTER XXXIX

GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE

It will have been noticed that, even in strictly historical timessubsequent to 842 B. C. , orthodox China was, _mutatis mutandis_, like orthodox Greece, a petty territory surrounded by a fringe oflittle-known regions, such as Macedonia, Asia Minor, Phoenicia, Egypt, and Italy; not to say distant Marseilles, and the Pillars ofHercules-all places at best very little visited except by navigators, and even then only by a few specially enterprising navigators ordesperate adventurers; though later on Greek influence and Greekcolonies soon began to replace the Phoenician, and to exhibit surroundingcountries in a more correct and definite light. 

As touches the surrounding regions of ancient China, and theknowledge of it possessed by the orthodox nucleus, such traditionsas there are all point to acquaintance with the south and eastrather than with the north and west. Persons who are persistentlybent on bringing the earliest Chinese from the Tower of Babel byway of the Tarim Valley, are eager to seize upon the faintesttradition, or what seems to them an apparent tradition, in supportof these preconceived views; ignoring the obviously just argumentthat, if we are to pay any attention to mere traditions at all, wemust in common fairness give priority in value to such traditionsas there are, rather than such traditions as are not, but only asmight be. For instance, there was a Chinese tradition that thefounder of the Hia dynasty (2205 B. C. ) was, in a sense, somehowconnected with the barbarous kingdom of Yiieh, inasmuch as thegreat-great-grandson of the founder of the Hia empire a centurylater enfeoffed a son by a concubine in that remote region. Theearliest Chinese mention of Japan is that it lay to the east ofYiieh, and that the Japanese used to come and trade with Yiieh. Ifthe Japanese traditions, on the other hand, as first put intoindependent writing in the eighth century A. D. , are worthanything, then the Japanese pretend that their ancestors werepresent at a durbar held by the above-mentioned great-great-grandson of the Hia founder; and they also firmly derive theirruling houses (both king and princes) from the kingdom of Wu. Wehave seen in former chapters that both Wu and Yiieh, the mostancient capitals of which were within 200 miles of each other, spoke one language, and that both were derived (_i. E. _, theadministrative caste was derived) from two separate Chineseimperial dynasties. Now, the founder of the Hia dynasty iscelebrated above all things for his travels in, and his geographyof China, usually called the "Tribute of Yii" (his name), --a stillexisting work, the real origin of which may be obscure, but whichhas come down to us in the Book (of History). This geography isnot only accurate, but it even now throws great light upon theoriginal direction of river-courses which have since changed; inthis work there is not the faintest tradition or indirect mentionof any Chinese having ever migrated into China from the west. 

There is no foundation, however, for the supposition, favoured bysome European writers, that the Nine Tripods (frequently mentionedabove) contained upon their surface "maps" of the empire; theymerely contained a summary, or a collection of pictures, symbolizing the various tribute nations. On the other hand, thereis no trace in the "Tribute of Yii" of any knowledge of Chinasouth of the Yarig-tsz River, south of its mouths, and south ofits connection with the lakes of Hu Nan. The "province" of YangChou is vaguely said to extend from the Hwai River "south to thesea. " The "Blackwater" is the only river mentioned which exhibitsany knowledge of the west (i. E. Of the west half of modern Kan Suhprovince), and this "Blackwater" was crossed in 984 B. C. By theEmperor Muh. 

Then there is the tradition of Vii's predecessor, the EmperorShun, who, as mentioned in the last chapter, married the twodaughters of the Emperor Yao, and is buried at a point just southof the Lake Tung-t'ing, in the modern province of Hu Nan: it iscertain that in 219 B. C. , when the First August Emperor was ontour, the mountain where the grave lay was pointed out to him at adistance, if he did not actually go up to it. Again, thegrandfather of the Warrior King who founded the Chou dynasty in1122 B. C. Was, as already repeatedly pointed out, only a youngerbrother, his two elder brothers having migrated to the Jungle, and, proceeding thence eastward, founded a colony in Wu (half-waybetween Nanking and Shanghai). Both Wu and Yiieh, for very manycenturies after that, were extremely petty states of only 50 or 60miles in extent, and for all practical purposes of history may beconsidered to have been one and the same region, to wit, the flat, canal-cut territory through which the much-disputed Shanghai-Hangchow railway is to run. After the death of the Martial King, when his brother the Duke of Chou was Regent for his son, the dukeincurred the suspicion of other brethren and relatives as to hismotives, and had to retire for some time to Ts'u, or, as it wasthen called, the Jungle country, for two years. There is atradition that a mission from one of the southern Yiieh statesfound its way to the Duke of Chou, who is supposed to have fittedup for the envoys a cart with a compass attached to it, in orderto keep the cart's head steadily south. This tradition, which onlyappears as a _tradition_ in one of the dynastic histories ofthe fifth century A. D. , is not given at all in the earlierstandard history, and it is by no means proved that theundoubtedly early Chinese knowledge of the loadstone extended tothe making of compasses. Yet, as Rénan has justly pointed out ineffect, in his masterly evidences of Gospel truth, a weaktradition is better worth considering than no tradition at all. Besides, there is some slight indirect confirmation of this, forin 880 B. C. Or thereabout, a King of Ts'u gave one of his youngersons a Yiieh kingdom bearing almost the same double name as thatYüeh kingdom from which the envoys in 1080 B. C. Came to the Dukeof Chou; in each case the first part of the double name was Yiieh, and the second part only differed slightly. Again, in or about820, some of the sons of the king exiled themselves to a placevaguely defined as "somewhere south of the Han River, " which canscarcely mean anything other than "the country of the Shan orSiamese races, " who lived then in and around Yiin Nan, and some ofwhom are still known by the vague name used as here in 820 B. C. The vagueness of habitat simply means that all south of the Hanand Yang-tsz was _terra_ incognita to China proper. There isanother tradition, unsupported by standard history, to the effectthat the Martial King enfeoffed a faithful minister of the emperorand dynasty he had just supplanted as a vassal in Corea. Here, again, if the emperor's own grandfather, or grand-uncles andtrusted friends, could find their way to Wu, and, later, to Japan, not to mention Shan Tung and the Peking plain, it is reasonable topermit a respected adherent of the dethroned monarch to find hisway to Corea, the more in that the centre of administrativegravity of Corea was then Liao Tung and South Manchuria--at theutmost the north part of modern Corea--rather than the Coreanpeninsula. 

In the year 649 the First Protector began to boast of having doneas much as any of the' three dynasties, Hia, Shang, and Chou, during the 1500 years before him; he then defines the area of hisglory, which is circumscribed by (at the very utmost) the westpart of Shan Si, the south part of Ho Nan, the north part of thePeking plain, and the Gulf of "Pechelee. " The Second Protector, when he safely reached his ancestral throne after nineteen yearsof wanderings as Pretender, said to his faithful Tartar henchmanand father-in-law: "I have made the tour of the whole world (orwhole empire) with you. " As a matter of fact, he had been with theTartars, certainly in central, and possibly also in northern ShanSi; in Ts'i, which means the northern part of Shan Tung andsouthern part of Chih Li; thence across the four small orthodoxstates of Sung, Wei, Ts'ao, and CHÊNG (which simply means up theYellow River valley into Ho Nan), to Ts'u; and thence Ts'infetched him to put him on the Tsin throne. The Emperor was alreadyan obscure figure-head beneath all political notice, and no otherparts of what we now call China were known to the Protector, evenby name. As we shall see in a later chapter, Confucius covered thesame ground, except that he never went to Tsin or to Tartarland. The first bare mention of Yiieh is in 670 B. C. , when the new Kingof Ts'u, who had assassinated his elder brother, and who thereforewished to make amends for this crime and for his father's rudeconquests, and to consolidate his position by putting himself ongood behaviour to federal China, made dutiful advances to Lu andto the Emperor (these two minor powers then best representing theold ritual civilization). The Emperor replied: "Go on conqueringthe barbarians and Yiieh, but let the Hia (i. E. Orthodox Chinese)states alone. " In 601 Ts'u and Wu came to a friendly understandingabout their mutual frontiers, and Yiieh was also admitted to theconclave or _entente_; but this was a local act, and had nothingwhatever to do with China proper, which first hears of Yiieh as anindependent or semi-independent power in 536, when the Kingof Ts'u, with a string of conquered orthodox Chinese princesin train as his allies, and also a Yiieh contingent, makes war onWu. In later days there is evidence showing that there was notmuch general knowledge of China as a whole, and that interstateintercourse was chiefly confined to next-door neighbours. Forinstance, when Tsin boldly marched an army upon Ts'i in 589 B. C. , it was considered a remarkable thing that Tsin chariots shouldactually gaze upon the sea. In 560, when the Ts'i minister andphilosopher, Yen-tsz, was in Ts'u as envoy, and the Ts'u courtierswere playing tricks upon him (as previously narrated in ChapterIX. ) he said: "I have heard it stated that when once you get southof the Hwai River the oranges are good. In the same way, wenortherners produce but sorry rogues; the genuine article reachesits perfection in Ts'u. " Thus, even at this date, the Yang-tsz wasregarded much as the Romans of the Empire regarded the Danube--asa sort of vague barrier between _civis_ and _barbarus_. Inno sense was the Ts'u capital--at no time were the bulk of theTs'u dominions--south of that Great River; nor, in fact, were thecapitals of Wu and Yiieh south of it either, for one of the threemouths (the northernmost was as now), corresponded to the SoochowCreek and the Wusung River, as they pass through the Shanghaisettlement of to-day; whilst the other ancient mouth entered thesea at modern Hangchow. We have given various other evidence aboveto show that, even earlier than this, the Yang-tsz was anunexplored region, known, and that only imperfectly and locally, to the Ts'u government alone. In the year 656 B. C. The FirstProtector called Ts'u to book because, in 1003 B. C. , the Emperorhad made a tour to the Great River and had never returned (seeChapter XX-XV. ). Again, when the imperial power collapsed in 771B. C. , the first Earl of CHÊNG (a relative of the Emperor)consulted the imperial astrologer as to where he had betterestablish his new fief: his own idea was to settle southwards onthe borders of the Yang-tsz; but he was dissuaded from this stepon the ground that the Ts'u power would grow accordingly as theChou power declined, and thus CHÊNG would all the easier fall aprey to Ts'u in the future if she migrated now so far south. Theastrologer makes another observation which supports the view thatTs'u and orthodox China were originally of the same prehistoricstock. He says: "When the remote ancestor of Ts'u did good serviceto the Emperor (2400 B. C. ), his renown was great, yet hisdescendants never became so flourishing as those of the Choufamily. " In 597 B. C. , when the Earl of CHÊNG really was at themercy of Ts'u, he said: "If you choose to send me south of theYang-tsz towards the South Sea, I shall not have the right toobject"; meaning, "no exile, however remote, is too severe for mydeserts. " In 549, when the Tsin generals were marching againstTs'u, they were particularly anxious to find good CHÊNG guides whoknew the routes well. Finally, in 541, a Tsin statesman made thefollowing observations to a prince (afterwards king) of Ts'u, whowas then on a mission to Tsin, by way of illustrating for hisvisitor the conquests and distant expeditions of ancient times:--

"The Emperor Shun (who married Yao's two daughters, and employedthe founder of the Hia dynasty as his minister) was obliged toimprison the prince of the Three Miao (in Hu Nan; the savages ofHu Nan and Kwei Chou provinces are still called _Miao_); theHia dynasty had to deal with quarrels in (modern) Shan Tung andShen Si; the Shang dynasty had to do the same in (modern) KiangSu; the early Chou monarchs the same in (modern) North Kiang Suand South Shan Tung: but, now that there are no able emperors, allthe vassals are at loggerheads. Wu and P'uh (the supposed Shan orSiamese region above referred to) are giving you trouble; but itis no one's concern but yours. "

From all this it is quite plain, though the Chinese historians andphilosophers never seem to have discerned it clearly themselves, that the cultivated or orthodox Chinese, that is, the group ofclosely related monosyllabic and tonic tribes which alonepossessed the art of writing, and thus inevitably took the leadand gradually civilized the rest, covered but a very small area ofground even at the time of Confucius' death in 479 B. C. , and werecompletely ignorant of everything but the bare names of all theregions surrounding this orthodox nucleus, which nucleus wastherefore rightly called the "Central State, " as China is, byextension, now still called. 

[Illustration: MAP

1. Si-ngan Fu (and Hien-yang opposite, on the north bank of theRiver Wei), marked with circles in a lozenge, were the capitals ofChina, off and on, from 220 B. C. For over a thousand years. Theancient capital of the Chou dynasty, forsaken in 771 B. C. , ismarked with a cross in a circle and is west of Si-ngan. In 771B. C. The Emperor fled east to his "east capital" (founded 300years before that date), which then became the sole metropolis, called _Loh_ (from the river on which it stands); it is alsomarked with a cross inside a circle and is practically the modernHo-nan Fu; it has, off and on, been the capital of all China, alternately with Si-ngan Fu, in later times. 

2. The ford where the first Chou Emperor (122 B. C. ) made anappointment with all his vassals is marked by two dotted linesacross the Yellow River. 

3. The two dots in a half-circle mark the spot whither Tsin"summoned" the Emperor to the durbar of 632 B. C. After this, Tsinobtained from the Emperor cession of the strip between the YellowRiver and the Ts'in River (nothing to do with Ts'in state). 

4. There is a second River Loh separating Ts'in state from Tsinstate. The territory between this River Loh and the Yellow Riverwas alternately held by Tsin and Ts'in. 

5. The territory between the more southerly River Loh and theYellow River and River I was the shorn imperial appanage afterTs'in had in 771 B. C. Obtained the west half; after Tsin in 632had obtained the remaining north half; and after Ts'u had nibbledaway the petty orthodox vassals south of latitude 34". ]

CHAPTER XL

TOMBS AND REMAINS

The Chinese, with the single exception of their Great Wall, havealways been flimsy builders, and there is accordingly very littleleft in the way of monuments to prove the antiquity of theircivilization. Mention has already been made of the tombs of theEmperors Shun and Yii (2200 B. C. ). The tomb of another Hia dynastyemperor (1837 B. C. ) lay twenty miles north of Yung-ning in HoNan, ' where Ts'in, in 627 B. C. , was annihilated by Tsin (see p. 30). The tomb (long. 115ø, lat. 33ø) of the King of Ts'u who diedin 689 B. C. Was pillaged about 500 years later, but landslipsdefeated the thieves' objects. The First Protector's tomb, sevenmiles south of his capital in Shan Tung--the town still marked onthe maps as Lin-tsz--was desecrated in A. D. 312. A small pond ofmercury was found inside, besides arms, valuables, and the bonesof those buried with him. The palace of the Ts'u king of 617B. C. , --son of the one whose death that year was respectfullychronicled by Confucius--is still the yam&. Or _protorium_ ofthe district magistrate at King-thou Fu, and can perhaps even yetbe seen from any passing steamers that circulate above the treaty-port of Sha-shf. There is a doubt about the date of this king'stomb (d. 593); some place it near the palace, others over 100miles north, near the modern city of Siang-yang. It is possiblethat, after the sacking of the capital by Wu, in 506, the bodiesof former kings were at once removed to the new temporary capital(far to the north) to which the old name was given. For instance, it is certain that the king who died in 545 was buried quite closeto the capital (King-thou Fu). Ki-chah's tomb, with Confucius'inscription upon it in ancient character, is still shown at aplace ten miles west of Kiang-yin (where the modern forts are, below Nanking) and twenty miles east of Ch'ang-chou; probably thenew "British" railway passes quite close to the place, as do thesteamers: for the past 400 years sacrifices have been annuallyoffered to Ki-chah's memory: as Confucius never visited Wu, theinscription, if genuine, must have been sent thither. The tomb ofKi-chah's nephew, King of Wu, is still to be seen outside one ofthe gates of Soochow; or, rather, the temple built on the site isthere, for the tomb itself was desecrated and pillaged by thearmies of Yueh, when they sacked the capital in 482. There was, originally, a triple copper coffin, a small pond, and some waterbirds made of gold (probably symbolic of sport), arms, valuables, etc. ; but nothing is said of human beings having been sacrificed. It was said (2000 years ago) that elephants had been employed incarrying the earth and building materials for this tomb. In 506the vengeful Ts'u officer who had fled to Wu, and had incited theKing of Wu to do all he could to ruin Ts'u, actually opened theroyal grave, in or near the capital, and flogged the corpse of thedead king who had so grievously offended him and his family. 

In the year 501 the original bow and sceptre given by the warriorking to his brother, the Duke of Chou, founder of the State of Lu, was stolen from its resting-place, but was luckily recovered thefollowing year. Incidentally this statement is of value; for whenthe King of Ts'u, as narrated above, was making his demands uponthe Emperor, one of his grievances was that he possessed no relicsof the founder such as the presents which had been made by him toTs'i, Lu, Yen, Tsin, and other favoured states of no greaterstatus than his own. The above are only a few instances out ofmany which show how, from age to age, the Chinese have seen withtheir own eyes things which in the vista of the distance now seemto us uncertain and incredible. As usual, Ts'in gives us nothingin the way of antiquity; another proof that, until she conceivedthe idea of conquering China, she was totally unknown (internally)to orthodox China. Confucius' own house, temple, grave, and parkform an absolutely unbroken link with the past. There are remainsand the relics of the Duke of Chou in the immediate neighbourhood, and it must not be forgotten that the Duke of Chou and his ritualsystem were Confucius' models: as Confucius insisted, "I am only atransmitter of antiquity. " Moderns, and especially foreigners, have forgotten or reck nothing about the Duke of Chou; yet hisremains and temples were just as much a matter of visible historyto Confucius as Confucius' grounds are to us. Each successivegeneration in China alludes to existing antiquities, or tocontemporaneous objects which have since become antiquities, withthe quiet confidence of those who actually possess, and who doubtnot of their possessions. The very _lacunae_ are pointed outby themselves--no scepticism of ours is required; for whenever anyhistorian, or any less formal writer, has outstepped the bounds oftruth or probability, the critics are immediately there, and theyalways frankly say what they believe. In a word, the Chinesedocuments, be they iron, stone, wood, silk, paper, buildings, orgraves; and their traditions, are the sole evidence we possess:Chinese critics were the sole critics of that evidence; and theyare the sole light by which we foreigners can become critics. Thegreat Chinese defect in criticism is the failure to work outgeneral principles, and to criticize constructively as well asanalytically. Their history is a rule of thumb, hand to mouth, diary sort of arrangement, like a vast museum of genuine butunclassified and unticketed objects. But there is no good reasonwhatever for our doubting the genuineness of either traditions ordocuments beyond the point of scepticism to which native Chinesedoubts go, for it must be remembered that no foreigner possessesone tenth of the mass of Chinese learning that the professionalliteratus easily assimilates. All we can do is to re-group, andextract principles. 

CHAPTER XLI

THE TARTARS

It is important to insist on the very close relations that existedbetween the Chinese and the Tartars from the very earliest times. All that we are told for certain is that they were north and westof the older dynasties, and especially in occupation of the UpperWei River, on the lower part of which the old metropolis of Si-ngan Fu lies; which means that they were exactly where we findthem in Confucian times, and where we find them now, except thatthey have been pushed a little further back, and that Chinesecolonists have appropriated most of the oases. The Chou ancestorwho died in 1231, _i. E. _ the father of the founders of Wu, and the great-grandfather of the founder of the Chou dynasty(1122), had to abandon to the encroaching Tartars his appanage onthe Upper King River (a northern tributary of the Wei, which runsalmost parallel with it, and joins it at Si-ngan Fu), and wasobliged to move southwards to the Upper Wei River. For nearly 1000years previous to this, his ancestors, who had originally beenforced to fly to the Tartars in order to avoid the misgovernmentof the third Hia emperor, had lived among and had, whilstcontinuing the Chinese art of cultivating, partly become Tartars;for in 1231 B. C. The migrating host is said to have renouncedTartar manners, and to have devoted themselves seriously tobuilding and cultivating; from which it necessarily follows thatTartar manners must for some time have been definitely adopted bythe Chou family. The grandson of the migrator, the father of theChou founder, had various little wars with a tribe called the DogTartars. Over 1000 years after that first flight to Tartardom, wehave seen that the Emperor Muh, great-grandson of the Choufounder, not only had brushes with the Tartars, but extended histours amongst them to the Lower Tarim Valley, Turfan, Harashar, and possibly even as far as Urumtsi and Kuché; but certainly nofarther. Two hundred years later, again, the then ruling Emperorwas defeated by the Tartars in (modern) Central Shan Si province, and the descendant in the sixth generation of the Ts'in Jehu whohad conducted the Emperor Muh's chariot into Tartarland, only justsucceeded in saving the Emperor's life; but this family of Chao, which was thus (_cf. _ p. 206) of one and the same descentwith the Ts'in family, subsequently found its account inabandoning the imperial interest altogether, and in serving therising principality of Tsin (Shan Si), where it became one of the"six families, " three of which six in 403 B. C. Were ultimatelyrecognized by the Emperor as independent rulers. As we have saidover and over again, in 772 B. C. The Chou Emperor, through femaleintrigues, got into trouble with the Tartars, and was killed: hissuccessor had to move the metropolis east to (modern) Ho-nan Fu, thus abandoning the western part of his patrimony--the semi-Tartarhalf--to Ts'in. Thus Ts'in in 771 B. C. Was to the Chou Emperorswhat Chou, previous to 1200 B. C. , had been to the Shang Emperors. 

We now come to strictly historical times, and we shall have nodifficulty in showing that even then--h _fortiori_ in timesnot strictly historical--the various Tartar tribes were still inpractical possession of the whole north bank of the Yellow River, all the way from the Desert to the sea. In fact, in 494 B. C. , whenthe King of Wu sent a giant's bone to Lu for further explanation, Confucius said that the "Long Tartars" (who had frequent fightswith Lu in the seventh century B. C. ) used to extend south-eastinto (modern) Kiang Su, almost as far as the mouth of the Yang-tszRiver: he also says that, had it not been for the energy of theFirst Protector and his statesman adviser, the philosopher Kwan-tsz of Ts'i, orthodox China would certainly have becomeTartarized. It was Confucius also whose learning enabled him torecognize a (Manchu) arrow found in the body of a migrating goose. In the eighth and seventh centuries B. C. The Tartars made repeatedand obstinate attacks upon Yen (Peking plain), Ts'i (coast Chih Liand north Shan Tung), Wei (south Chih Li and north Ho Nan), Sung(extreme east Ho Nan), Ts'ao (central Ho Nan), and the Emperor'sterritory (west Ho Nan). This situation explains to us why theProtector system arose in China, in competition with the waningimperial power. Ts'in and Tsin, being already half Tartarthemselves, were always well able to cope with and even to annexthe Tartar tribes in their immediate vicinity; but orthodox Chinawas ever a prey to the more easterly Tartar attacks; and thus theEmperors, threatened by Ts'u to their south, and in a measure alsoby Ts'in and Tsin to their north and west, not only could not anylonger protect their orthodox vassals lying towards the east fromTartar attacks, but could not even protect themselves. 

It was Ts'i that drove back the Mongol-Manchu tribes and rescuedYen in 662; it was the Ts'i ruler who led a coalition of princesagainst other groups of Tartars and placed back on his ancestralthrone the ruler of Wei, who had been driven from his country byTartars in 658; it was the First Protector, ruler of Ts'i, whomanaged to pacify the more westerly Tartars we find persistentlymenacing the Emperor in 648; to whose rescue the Tartars came in642, when a coalition of orthodox Chinese princes shamelessly tookadvantage of the First Protector's death to attack Ts'i during themourning period. Now it was that the Second Protector, still arefugee among his Tartar relatives, started for Ts'i, his originalidea being to replace the philosopher Kwan-tsz as adviser to theFirst Protector; but, shortly after he reached Ts'i, the FirstProtector died, and it was only by stratagem that his friendssucceeded in rescuing the future Second Protector from the arms ofhis Ts'i Delilah and his _d'elices de_ Capue. His chief adviser, and at the same time his brother-in-law from a Tartar point of view, was the lineal descendant of the Chao man who had saved theEmperor in 800 B. C. He set out, _via_ the orthodox states, for his own country. These petty orthodox states, such as Wei, Cheng, and Ts'ao, which did not then see their way to profitpolitically by the Pretender's visit, paid the penalty of theirmeanness and their rudeness to him later on. Sung was polite, asat that time Sung and Ts'u were both aiming at the Protectorship. Ts'u's hospitality was bluff and good-natured, the King being toostrong to fear, and too unsophisticated to intrigue after Chinesefashion. Just then news coming from Ts'in that the Pretender'sbrothers had all resigned or died, and that his chance had nowcome, the Pretender hurried to Tsin, regained his throne, and wasacclaimed Protector of China exactly at the critical moment when astrong hand was urgently required to check the particularambitions of Ts'in, Ts'i, and Ts'u. Ts'u was too barbarous; Sungwas too pedantic; Tsin alone had unrivalled experience both ofTartars and Eastern barbarians, and also of Southern barbarians(Ts'u). Probably it was only the fact of the Tsin ruling familybearing the same clan-name as the Emperor that had decided Tsinthroughout to be orthodox Chinese instead of Tartar. The Tartarfamily into which the Second Protector had married as acomparatively young man was, however, also of the imperial clan-name, i. E. It was of orthodox Chinese origin, but (even like theChou imperial family at one time) it had adopted Tartar customs. Alarge number of the one thousand or more petty Chinese principalities, attached not directly to the Emperor, but to the greater vassalsas mesne lords, were in the same predicament; that is to say, they were of Chinese origin, but they had found that it paid thembest to adopt barbarian ways. It was exactly as though Scipioshould settle in Carthage, and become a Carthaginian: C'sarin Gaul, and adopt Gallic customs; and so on with other Romanadventurers who should find a comfortable _gîte_ in Persia, Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, or even in Britain and Germany. 

The main point upon which to fix the attention is this. TheChinese nucleus was very small, and only by rudely thrusting asideincompetent emperors and fussy ritual did it succeed inemancipating itself from Tartar bondage. That this is not anexaggerated view is additionally plain from the fact that Tartarshave, even since Confucian times, ruled more and longer than haveChinese over North China; the Mongols (1260-1368) were the firstTartars to rule over all China, and nominally over all West Asia;the Manchus (1643-1908) are the first Tartars to rule all China, all Manchuria, and all Mongolia, at all effectively; and they haveeven added parts of Turkestan, with Tibet, Nepaul, and othercountries over which the Peking imperial Mongol influence wasalways very shadowy. 

CHAPTER XLII

MUSIC

In these pictures of ancient Chinese life which we areendeavouring to present, the idea is to repeat from every point ofview the main characteristics of that life, so that a strange andunfamiliar subject, very loosely depicted in the straggling annalsof antiquity, may receive fresh rays of light from every possiblequarter, and thus stand out clearer as a connected whole. 

Take, for instance, the subject of music, which always played inChinese ceremonial a prominent part not easy for us now tounderstand. One of the chief sights of the modern Confucianresidence is the music-room, containing specimens of all theancient musical instruments, which, on occasion, are still playedupon in chorus; a picture of them has been published by FatherTschepe. (See page 128. ) According to the description given bythis European visitor, the music is of a most discordant and ear-splitting description: but that does not necessarily dispose ofthe question; for even parts of Wagner's Ring are a meaninglessclang to those who hear the music for the first time, and who areunable to read the score or to follow out the "classical" style. As we have said before, the ancient emperors, at their banquetsgiven to vassals and others, always had musical accompaniment. 

In 626 B. C. , when the ruler of Ts'in received a mission from "theTartar king" (probably a local king or chief), he was much struckwith the sagacity of the envoy sent to him. This envoy still spokethe Tsin language or dialect; but his parents, who were of Tsinorigin, had adopted Tartar manners. The envoy was also an author, and his work, in two sections, had survived at least up to thesecond century B. C. : he is classed amongst the "MiscellaneousWriters. " The subject of the conversation was the superiority ofsimple Tartar administration as compared with the intricate ritualof the Odes, the Book, the Rites, and the "Music" of orthodoxChina. The beginnings of Lao-tsz's Taoism seem to peep out fromthis Tartar's words, just as they do with other "Miscellaneous"authors. The wily Ts'in ruler, in order to secure this cleverenvoy for his own service, sent two bands of female musicians as apresent to the Tartar king, so as to make him less virile; 140years later the cunning ruler of Ts'i did much the same thing inorder to prevent the Duke of Lu from growing too strong; and theimmediate consequence was that Confucius left his fickle master indisgust. Ki-chah, Prince of Wu, was entertained whilst at Lu withspecimens of music from the different states. When he came to theTs'in music, he said: "Ha! ha! the words are Chinese! When Ts'inbecomes quite Chinese, it will have a great future. " This remarksuggests a Ts'in language or dialect different from that of Tsin, and also from that of more orthodox China. In 546 B. C. , when amission from Ts 'u to Tsin was accompanied by a high officer fromthe disputed orthodox state of Ts'ai lying between those two greatpowers, the theory of music as an adjunct to government wasdiscussed. Confucius' view a century later was that music bestreflected a nation's manners, and that in good old times authoritywas manifested quite as much in rites and ceremonies as in lawsand pronouncements. Previous to that, in 582, it had beendiscovered that Ts'u had a musical style of her own; and in 579, when the Tsin envoy was received there in state, among otherinstruments of music observed there were suspended bells. 

Thus both Ts'in and Ts'u at this date were still in the learningstage. Before ridiculing the idea that music could in any wayserve as a substitute for preaching or commanding, we must reflectupon the awe-inspiring contribution of music to our own religiousservices, not to mention the "speaking" effect of our Westernnocturnes, symphonies, and operatic music generally. 

In 562 B. C. , when a statesman of Tsin (whose fame in thisconnection endures to our own days) succeeded in establishing apermanent understanding with the Tartars, based upon joint tradingrights and reasonable mutual concessions, the principle ofinteresting the Tartars in cultivation, industry, and so on; as areward for his distinguished services, he was presented withcertain music, which meant that he had the political right to havecertain musical airs performed in his presence. This concessionceases to seem ridiculous or even strange to us if we reflect whatan honour it would have been to, say, the Duke of Wellington, orto Nelson, had the right to play "God Save the King" at dinnerbeen granted to his family band of musicians. Four centuriesbefore this, when the Emperor Muh made his tour amongst theTartars, he always commanded that one particular musical air(named) should be struck up by his musicians on certain occasions(always stated in the narrative). In Tsin, and probably elsewhere, music-masters seem to have combined soothsaying and philosophywith their functions; thus, in 558 the music-master of that statewas questioned on the arts of good government, to which hereplied: "Goodness and justice"--two special antipathies, by theway, of Lao-tsz the Taoist, who lived about this time as anarchive-keeper at the metropolis. In the year 555, either thissame man or another musical prophet in Tsin reassured his fellow-countrymen who were dreading a Ts'u invasion with the followingwords: "I have just been conducting a song consisting of north andsouth airs, and the latter sound as though the south would bedefeated. " But music also had its lighter uses, for we have seenin Chapter VI. How in 549 two Tsin generals took their ease in acomfortable cart, playing the banjo, whilst passing through Chengto attack Ts'u. Music was used at worship as well as at court; in527 the ruler of Lu, as a mark of respect for one of his deceasedministers, abandoned the playing of music, which otherwise wouldhave been a constituent part of the sacrifice or worship he had inhand at the moment. Even in modern China, music is prohibitedduring solemn periods of mourning, and officials are oftendegraded for attending theatrical performances on solemn fasts. In212 B. C. , when the First August Emperor was, like Saul orBelshazzar, beginning to grow sad at the contemplation of hislonely and unloved greatness, he was suddenly startled at the fallof a meteoric stone, bearing upon it what looked like a warninginscription. He at once ordered his learned men to compose somemusic treating of "true men" and immortals, in order to exorcisethe evil omen; it may be mentioned that this emperor's Taoistproclivities have apparently had the indirect result that the word"true man" has come century by century down to us, with themeaning of "Taoist priest, " or "Taoist inspired person. "

CHAPTER XLIII

WEALTH, SPORTS, ETC. 

A traveller in modern China may still wonder at the utter absenceof any sign of wealth or luxury except in the very largest towns. Fine clothes, jewels, concubines, rich food, aphrodisiacs, opium, land, cattle--these represent "wealth" as conceived by the Chineserich man's mind. In 655 Ts'in is said to have paid five ram-skinsto Ts'u in order to secure the services of a coveted adviser. Notmany years after that, when the future Second Protector was makinghis terms with the King of Ts'u, he remarked: "What can I do foryou in return? You already possess all the slaves, musicians, treasures, silks, feathers, ivory, and leather you can want. " In606 a magnificent turtle was sent as a new year's dinner presentfrom Ts'u to Cheng; in modern China this form of politeness wouldnever do at all, as the turtle has acquired an evil reputation asa term of abuse, akin to the Spanish use or abuse of the word"garlic": however, I myself once experienced, when inland, faraway from the sea, a curious compliment in the shape of a livecrab two inches long (sent to me as a great honour) in a smalljar. Of course chairs were unknown, and even the highest sat orsquatted on mats; not necessarily on the ground, but spread oncouches. Hence the word survives the object, just as with us("covers" at dinner are "provided" but never seen; thus in China ahost is "east mat" and a guest "west mat. ") In 626, when the rulerof Ts'in was talking politics with the Tartar envoy just mentionedabove, he allowed him, as a special favour, to sit alongside ofhis own mat (on the couch). These couches probably resembled themodern settee, sofa, _k'ang, _ or divan, such as all visitorsto China have seen and sat on. Tea was quite unknown in thosedays, and is not mentioned before the seventh century A. D. ; butpossibly wine may have been served, as tea is now, on a low tablebetween the two seats. "Tartar couches" (possibly Turkish divans)are frequently mentioned, even in the field of battle, and incomparatively modern times. In 300 B. C. Ts'u made a present to adistinguished renegade prince of the Ts'i house of an "elephantcouch, " by which is probably meant a couch inlaid with ivory, inthe present well-known Annamese style. 

In 589 B. C. , when Tsin troops reached the Ts'i capital and the sea(as already related in Chapters VI. And XXXIX. Under the heads ofArmies and Geographical Knowledge), T'si endeavoured to purchasepeace by offering to the victor the state treasure in the shape ofprecious utensils. In 551 a rich man of Ts'u was consideredinsolently showy because he possessed forty horses. In 545 theenvoy from Cheng, acting under the Peace Conference agreement sooften previously described and alluded to, brings presents of fursand silks to Ts'u; and in 537 Tsin speaks of such articles asoften being presented to Ts'u. In 494, when the King of Yiiehreceived his great defeat at the hands of the King of Wu, hisfirst desperate idea was to kill his wives and children, burn hisvaluables, and seek death at the head of his troops; but theinevitable wily Chinese adviser was at hand, and the King ended bytaking his mentor's advice and successfully bribing the Wu general(a Ts'u renegade) with presents of women and valuables. When thisshrewd Chinese adviser of the Yueh king had, by his sagaciouscounsels, at last secured the final defeat of Wu, he packed up hisportable valuables, pearls, and jades, collected his family andclients, and went away by sea, never to come back. As a matter offact, he settled in Ts'i, where he made an enormous fortune in thefish trade, and ultimately became the traditional Croesus ofChina, his name being quite as well known to modern Chinesethrough the Confucian historians, as the name of Croesus is tomodern Europeans through Herodotus. He had, between the twodefeats of Yiieh by Wu and Wu by Yiieh, served for several yearsas a spy in Wu, and the fact of his reaching Shan Tung by seaconfirms in principle the story of the family of his contemporary, the King of Wu, having similarly escaped to Japan. The place wherehe landed was probably the same as where the celebrated pilgrimFah Hien landed, after his Indian pilgrimage, in 415 A. D. , i. E. , at the German port of Ts'ing-tao. 

We do not hear much of gold in the earlier times, but in 237 B. C. , when Ts'in was straining every nerve to conquer China, the(future) First August Emperor was advised that "it would not costmore than 300, 000 pounds weight in gold to bribe the ministers ofall the states in league against Ts'in. " Yet in 643 B. C. , on thedeath of the First Protector, the orthodox state of Cheng (lyingbetween Ts'i and Tsin to the north and Ts'u to the south), wasbribed with "metal" of some sort--probably gold or silver--toabandon Ts'i. In 538 the celebrated Cheng statesman Tsz-ch'aninforms his Ts'u colleagues that the Tsin officers "think ofnothing but money. " What kind of money this was is doubtful, butit will be remembered that about this time the "powerful family"of Lu had succeeded in bribing the Tsin ministers, or the "sixgreat families" then managing Tsin, to deny justice to thefugitive Lu duke. In 513 B. C. The powerful Wu king who made(modern) Soochow his capital is said to have possessed both ironand gold mines, and it is stated that not even China proper couldturn out better weapons. Large "cash" are said to have been coinedby the Emperor who reigned from 540 to 520 B. C. ; and in 450 B. C. The King of Ts'u is reported to have "closed his _depot_ ofthe three moneys. " As only copper was coined, it is not easy tosay now what the other two "moneys" were. In 318 B. C. A bribe of"one hundred golds" was given by Yen to one of the well-knownpolitical diplomats or intriguers then forming leagues with oragainst Ts'in; it is not known for certain how much this was atthat particular time and place; but a century or two later itmeant, under the Ts'in dynasty, twenty-four ounces; during the Handynasty, conquerors of the Ts'in dynasty, it was only about halfthat. Cooks seem to have held official positions of considerabledignity. "Meat-eaters" in Confucian times was a term for"officials" or "the rich. " Thus when the haughty King of Wu wassuddenly recalled home, from his high-handed durbar with Tsin, Lu, and other orthodox states, to go and deal with his formidableenemy of Yueh, he turned quite pale. By dint of bold "bluff" hemanaged after all to gain most of his political points, and toretire from an awkward corner with honour; but Chinese spies hadtheir eyes on him none the less, and reported to the watchfulenemy that "meat-eaters are not usually blackfaced"--meaning thatthe King of Wu evidently had some very recent bad news on hismind, for "the well-fed do not usually look care-worn. "

Silk was universally known. When the Second Protector (to be) wasdallying with his lady-love in Ts'i, the maid of his mistresshappened to overhear important conversations from her post in amulberry tree; the presumption is that she was collecting leavesfor the silkworms. Again in 519, a century later, there was adispute on the Ts'u-Wu frontier (North An Hwei province), aboutthe possession of certain mulberry trees. Cotton (_Gossypium_)was unknown in China, and the poorer classes wore garments ofhempen materials; the cotton tree (_Bombyx_) was known inthe south, but then (as now) the catkins could not be woveninto cloth. It was never the custom of officers in China to wearswords, until in 409 B. C. Ts'in introduced the practice; but itprobably never extended to orthodox China, so far, at least, ascivilians' were concerned. The three dynasties of Hia, Shang, andChou had all made use of jade or malachite rings, tablets, sceptres, and so on, as marks of official rank. 

As to sports, hunting, and especially fowling, seem to have beenthe most popular pastimes. In 660 a prince of Wei (orthodox) issaid to have had a passion for egret fights. In 539 four-horsedchariots are mentioned as being used in a great Ts'u hunt south ofthe modern Teh-an in northern Hu Peh province, then mostly jungle:these hunts were used as a sort of training for war as well as forsport. The celebrated "stone drums" discovered in the seventhcentury A. D. Near the old Chou capital describe the war-hunts ofthe active emperor mentioned in Chapter XLI. As might be expected, Yen (Peking plain) would be well off for horses-to this daybrought by the Mongols in droves to Peking: in 539 it is said ofYen: "She was never a strong power, in spite of her numeroushorses. " In 534 a great hunt in Lu is described with much detail;here also chariots were used, and their shafts were reared inopposite rows with their tips meeting above, so as to form a"shaft gate, " on which, besides, a flag was kept flying. Theentrance to Chinese official _yamens_ is still called "theshaft gate";-in fact, the _ya_ was orginally a flag, and "_yamen_"simply means "flag gate. " In the Middle Ages the Turkish Khans'encampments were always spoken of as their ya--thus: "fromhence 1500 miles north-west to the Khan's _ya_. " Cockfightingwas a common sport in Ts'i and Lu. In 517 B. C. Two prominentLu functionaries had a quarrel because one had put metalspurs on his bird, whilst the other had scattered mustard in thefeathers of his fighting cock: owing to the ambiguity or doublemeaning of one of the pictographs employed, it is not quitecertain that "mustard in the wings" may not mean "a metal helmeton the head. " Lifting weights was (as now) a favourite exercise;in 307 a Ts'in prince died from the effects of a strain producedin trying to lift a heavy metal tripod. In Ts'i games at ball, including a kind of football, were played. As a rule, however, itis to be feared that the wealthy Chinese classes in ancient (as inmodern) times found their chief recreation in feasting, literarybouts, and female society. Curiously enough, nothing is said ofgambling. Women are depicted at their looms, or engaged upon thesilk industry; but it is singular how very little is said of homelife, of how the houses were constructed, of how the hours ofleisure were passed. In modern China the bulk of the male ruralpopulation rises with or before the dawn, and is engaged uponfield or garden work until the shades of evening fall in; there isno artificial light adequate for purposes of needlework or privatestudy; even the consolations of tobacco and tea--not to say opium, and now newspapers--were unknown in Confucian days. It ispresumed, therefore, that life was even more humdrum than it isnow, except that women at least had feet to walk upon. We gainsome glimpses of excessive taxation and popular misery, forcedlabour and the press-gang; of callous luxury on the part of therich, from the pages of Lao-tsz and Mencius; the Book of Odes alsotells us much about the pathetic sadness of the people under theirtaskmasters' hands. In all countries popular habits change slowly;in none more so than in China. We are driven, therefore, bycomparison with the life of to-day to conclude that life in thosetimes was sufficiently wretched, and it is therefore not to bewondered at that the miserable people readily sold their servicesto the first ambitious adventurer who could protect them, and feedthem from day to day. 

CHAPTER XLIV

CONFUCIUS

Confucius has hitherto appeared to many of us Westerners as astiff, incomprehensible individual, resting his claim toimmortality upon sententious nothingnesses directed to no obviouspractical purpose; but, from the slight sketches of the manners ofthe times in which he lived given above, it will be apparent thathe was a practical man with a definite object in view, and thatboth his barebones history and his jerky moral teachings were thebest he could do with sorry material, and in the face ofinveterate corruption and tyranny. It has been explained how theWarrior King who conquered China for the Chou family in 1122, about a dozen years later enfeoffed the elder brother of the lastShang dynasty emperor in the country of Sung, where he ruled thegreater part of what was left of the late dynasty's immediate_entourage_, and kept up the sacrifices. This is what Confuciusmeant when he said: "There remain not in K'i sufficient indicationsof what the institutions of the Hia dynasty were; but I have studiedin Sung what survives of the Shang dynasty institutions. In practiceI follow the Chou dynasty institutions, as I have studied them athome in Lu. " K'i was a very petty state of marquess rank situatednear Lu, to which, indeed, it was subordinate; but just as Sung had, as representatives of the Shang dynasty, the privilege of carrying outcertain imperial sacrifices, so had K'i, as representatives of the Hiadynasty (enfeoffed by Chou in 1122), an equal right to distinction. Confucius' ancestors were natives of Sung and scions of the ducalfamily reigning there; in fact, in 893 his ancestor ought to havesucceeded to the Sung throne: in 710 B. C. The last of theseancestors to hold high official rank in Sung was killed, togetherwith his princely master; and several generations after that thegreat-grandfather of Confucius, in order to avoid the secularspite of the powerful family who had so killed his ancestor, decided to migrate to Lu. In other words, he just crossed themodern Grand Canal (then the river Sz, which rose in Lu), andmoved a few days' journey north-east to the nearest civilizedstate of any standing. Confucius' father is no mythical personage, but a stout, common soldier, whose doughty deeds under threesuccessive dukes are mentioned in the Lu history quite in a casualand regular way. When still quite a child, Confucius disclosed acurious fancy for playing with sacrificial objects and practisingceremonies, just as English children in the nursery sometimes playat "being parson and sexton, " and at "having feasts. " When he grewup to manhood, a high officer of Lu foretold his future greatness, not only on account of his precociously grave demeanour, but alsobecause he was in direct descent from the Shang dynasty, andbecause the intrigues that had taken place in Sung had deprivedhim of his succession rights there also. This high officer's twosons, both frequently mentioned by various contemporary authors, and one of whom subsequently went with Confucius to visit Lao-tszat the imperial court, thereupon studied the rites under the manof whom their father had spoken so well. The only officialappointment in Lu that Confucius was able to obtain at this periodwas that of steward to one of the "powerful families" then engagedin the task, so congenial in those times all over China, ofundermining the ducal authority; this appointment was a kind ofstewardship, in which his duties consisted in tallying themeasures of grain and checking the heads of cattle. One of the twosons of the above-mentioned statesman who had foreseen Confucius'distinction, some time after this submitted a request to the rulerof Lu that he might proceed in company with Confucius to visit theimperial capital; and it is supposed by Sz-ma Ts'ien, thehistorian of 100 B. C. , that this was the occasion on which tookplace the philosopher's famous interview with Lao-tsz. In thisconnection there are two or three remarks to make. In the firstplace, it is recorded of nearly all the vassal states that theyeither did pay visits to, or wished to visit, the metropolis; andthat royal dukes and royal historians, either at vassal request orunder imperial instruction, took part in advising vassal states. In the second place, as Confucius then held no high office, hisvisit, being a private affair, would not be considered worthmentioning in the Lu annals, and it would therefore almost followas a matter of course that the young man who accompanied him, being of official status by birth, would count as the chiefpersonage. In the third place, there is no instance in theConfucian histories of a mere archive-keeper or a mere philosopherbeing mentioned on account of his importance in that capacity. Such men as Tsz-ch'an, Shuh Hiang, Ki-chah, and the otherdistinguished "ritualists" of the time, are not mentioned so muchon account of their abstract teachings as they are on account oftheir being able statesmen, competent to stave off the rising tideof revolutionary opinions. Even Confucius himself only appears incontemporary annals as an able administrator and diplomat; thereis no particular mention of his "school, " and, _a fortiori, _he himself does not mention Lao-tsz's "school, " even if Lao-tszhad one; for he disapproved of Lao-tsz's republican and democraticway of construing the ancient _tao. _ Finally, neither Confuciusnor Lao-tsz, however great their local reputations, wereyet universally "great"; they were consequently as little theobjects of hero-worship as was Shakespeare when he was at theheight of his activity; and of the living Shakespeare we know nextto nothing. At this time Lu was in a quandary, surrounded by therival great powers of Tsin, Ts'i, and Ts'u, all three of whichabsolutely ignored the Emperor, except so far as they mightsucceed in using him and his ritualistic prestige as a cat's-pawin their own selfish interests. When Confucius was thirty years ofage (522 B. C. ) the ruler of Ts'i, accompanied by his minister thephilosopher Yen-tsz, paid a visit to Lu, and had a discussion withConfucius upon the question: "How did Ts'in, from beginnings sosmall and obscure, reach her present commanding position?" Besidesthis, the Ts'i ruler and his henchman Yen-tsz both took theopportunity to study the rites at Lu. This fact seems to supportthe (later) statement that Confucius had himself been to study therites at the metropolis, and also to explain Confucius' ownconfession that he did not understand much about the Hia dynastyinstitutions that used to exist in K'i, --a state lying eastward ofTs'i. In 520 the last envoy ever sent from Lu to the Choumetropolis reported on his return that the imperial family was ina state of feud and anarchy: if, as it is stated, this was reallythe last envoy from Lu, then Confucius and his friend must havevisited Lao-tsz before the former reached the age of thirty. Tsinand Lu were both now in a revolutionary condition, and a strugglewith the "powerful families" was going on in each case; it wasalso beginning in Ts'i, and in principle seems to have beenexactly akin to our English struggle between King John and hisbarons (as champions of popular rights) against the greed of thetax-collector. To avoid home troubles, Confucius at the age ofthirty-five went to Ts'i, in order, if possible, to serve hisfriend the Marquess, who had a few years before consulted himabout the rise of Ts'in. There perhaps it was that he found anopportunity to study the music of the Hia dynasty at the pettystate of K'i, only one day's journey east of the Ts'i capital, onthe north-east frontier of Lu; and then it must have been that heformed his opinion about the surviving Hia rites. His advice tothe reigning prince of Ts'i was so highly appreciated that it wasproposed to confer an estate upon him. It is interesting to notethat the jealous Yen-tsz (who was much admired as a companionableman by Confucius) protested against this grant, on the ground that"men of his views are sophistical rhetoricians, intoxicated withthe exuberance of their own verbosity; incompetent to administerthe people; wasting time and money upon expensive funerals. Lifeis too short to waste in trying to get to the bottom of theseinane studies. " From this it will be seen that Lao-tsz was by nomeans alone in despising Confucius' conservative and ritualisticviews, though it is quite possible that Yen-tsz may still haverespected him as a man and a politician. Finally, Confucius, finding that the Ts'i ministers were all arrayed against him, andthat the Marquess fain confessed himself too old to fight hisbattles for him, quitted the country and returned home. His ownduke died in exile in 510 B. C. , power remaining in the intriguinghands of an influential private family; and for at least ten yearsConfucius held no office in his native land, but spent his time inediting the Odes, the Book, the Chou Rites, and the Music; by someit is even thought that he not only edited but composed the Book(of History), or put together afresh such parts of the old Book assuited his didactic purposes. Meanwhile the private familyintrigues went on more actively than ever; until at last, in 501, when Confucius was fifty years of age, the most formidableagitator of them all, finding his position untenable, escaped toTs'i; it even seems that Confucius placed, or thought of placing, his services at the disposal of one of these rebel subjects. Possibly it was in view of such contingencies that the reigningduke at last gave Confucius a post as governor of a town, wherehis administration was so admirable that he soon passed throughhigher posts to that of Chief Justice, or Minister of Justice. Confucius' views on law are well known. He totally disapproved ofTsz-ch'an's publication of the law in the orthodox state of Cheng, as explained in Chapter XX. , holding that the judge should always"declare" the law, and make the punishment fit the crime, insteadof giving the people opportunities to test how far they couldstrain the literal terms of the law. He also said: "I am likeothers in administering the law; I apply it to each case; it isnecessary to slay one in order not to have to slay more. Theancients understood prevention better than we do now; at presentall we can hope to do is to avoid punishing unjustly. The ancientsstrove to save a prisoner's life; now we can only do our best toprove his guilt. However, better let a guilty man go free thanslay an innocent one. "

Confucius' old friend the ruler of Ts'i was still alive (hereigned fifty-eight years, one of the longest reigns on record inChinese history), and he had just suffered serious humiliation atthe hands of the barbarous King of Wu, to whose heir-apparent hehad been obliged to send one of his daughters in marriage. TheProtectorate of China was going a-begging for want of a worthysovereign, and it looked at one time as though Confucius' sternand efficient administration would secure the coveted prize forLu. The Marquess of Ts'i therefore formed a treacherous plot toassassinate both master and man, and with this end in view sent anenvoy to propose a friendly conference. It was on this occasionthat Confucius uttered his famous saying (quoted, however, fromwhat "he had heard") that "they who discuss by diplomacy shouldalways have the support of a military backing. " A couple ofgenerals accordingly accompanied the party to the trysting-place;and it is presumed that the generals had a force of soldiers withthem, even though the indispensable common people be not worthmention in Chinese history. In conformity with practice, an altaror dai's was constructed; wine was offered, and the usual riteswere being fulfilled to the utmost, when suddenly a Ts'i officeradvanced rapidly and said: "I now propose to introduce someforeign musicians, " a band of whom at once entered the arena, withbrandished weapons, waving feathers, and noisy yells. Confuciussaw through this sinister manoeuvre at once, and, hastily mountingthe dais (except, out of respect, the last step), expostulated inthe plainest terms. The ruler of Ts'i was so ashamed of hisposition that he at once sent the dancers away. But a second groupof mountebanks were promptly introduced in spite of this check. Confucius was so angry, that he demanded their instant executionunder the law (presumably a general imperial law) "providing thepunishment of death for those who should excite animosity betweenprinces. " Heads and legs soon covered the ground; and Confuciusplayed his other cards so well that he secured, in the sequel, aformal treaty, actually surrendering to Lu certain territoriesthat had unlawfully been held for some years by Ts'i. On the otherhand, Lu had to promise to aid Ts'i with 22, 500 men in case Ts'ishould engage in any "foreign" war--probably alluding to Wu. Twoor three years after that stirring event there was civil war inLu, owing to Confucius having insisted on the "barons" dismantlingtheir private fortresses. 

At the age of fifty-six Confucius left his post as Minister ofJustice to take up that of First Counsellor: his first act was toput to death a grandee who was sowing disorder in the state. Itwas during these years of supreme administration that completeorder was restored throughout the country; thieves disappeared;"sucking-pigs and lambs were sold for honest prices"; and therewas general content and rejoicing throughout the land. All thismade the neighbouring people of Ts'i more and more uneasy, even tothe point of fearing annexation by Lu. The wily old Marquesstherefore, again at the instigation of the man who had planned theattempted assassination of 500 B. C. , made a selection of eighty ofthe most beautiful women Ts'i could produce, besides thirty four-horsed chariots of the most magnificent description. The reigningMarquess of Lu, as well as his "powerful family" friend againstwhom Confucius had once thought of taking arms (who, indeed, actedas intermediary) both fell into the trap: public duty andsacrifices were neglected; and the result was that Confucius atonce threw up his offices and left the country in disgust. Hisfirst visit was to Wei (imperial clan), the capital city of whichstate then stood on the Yellow River, in the extreme north-eastpart of modern Ho Nan province; and through this capital the riverthen ran: the metropolis of one of the very ancient emperorsprevious to the Hia dynasty had nearly 2000 years before been inthe immediate neighbourhood, as also had been the last capital ofthe Shang dynasty, of which, as we have seen, Confucius was adistant scion. After a few months' stay there, he was suspectedand calumniated; so he decided to move on, although the ruler ofWei had generously appropriated to him a salary (in grain)suitable to his high rank. He accordingly proceeded eastwards to atown belonging to Sung (in the extreme south of modern Chih Liprovince): here he had the misfortune to be mistaken for thedangerous individual who had fled from Lu to Ts'i in 501, inconsequence of which he returned to stay in Wei with his friendK'u-peh-yuh, who, as mentioned in Chapter XXVIII. , had beenvisited by Ki-chah of Wu in 544 B. C. Here, as a distinguishedtraveller, he was asked (practically commanded) by one of theruler's wives to pay her a visit; and, though the reluctant visitwas paid with all propriety and reserve, the fact that this womanwas at the time suspected of having committed incest with her ownbrother is considered by uncompromising native critics to leave aslight stain on Confucius' character. Worse still, the reigningprince took his wife out for a drive with a eunuch sitting in thesame carriage, ordering the sage to follow the party in aninferior carriage. This was too much for Confucius, who thenresumed his original journey through Sung, from which he hadturned back, and proceeded to the small state of Ts'ao (imperialclan; still called Ts'ao-thou, extreme south-west of modern ShanTung province). To-day he would have had to cross the YellowRiver, but of course none is here mentioned, as Confucius hadalready left it behind at the Wei capital: in fact, he had been onthe right bank ever since he left his own country. This was 495B. C. After a short stay in Ts'ao, the philosopher proceeded southtowards the capital of Sung (modern Kwei-teh Fu in the extremeeast of Ho Nan). For some reason the Minister of War there wishedto assassinate him--probably because the arch-intriguer whomConfucius had driven out of Lu in 501, and who had taken refugefirst in Ts'i and then in Sung, had calumniated him there. Confucius thereupon made his way westwards, over the variousheadwaters of the River Hwai, to Cheng (imperial clan), the statewhich had been for a generation so admirably administered by Tsz-ch'an: in fact, a man outside the city gate observed "how likeTsz-ch'an" the stranger looked. Some accounts make out that Tsz-ch'an was then only just dead, but the better opinion is that hehad already then been dead for twenty-seven years: in any case itis curious that Confucius, who was a very tall man, should twicebe mistaken for other persons. Thence Confucius turned back south-east to the orthodox state of Ch'en (modern Ch'en-chou Fu inEastern Ho Nan). This was one of the very oldest principalities inChina, dating from even before the Hia dynasty (2205 B. C. ); andthe Warrior King of Chou, after conquering the empire in 1122B. C. , had industriously sought out the most suitable linealdescendant to take over the ancient fee of his remote ancestor, and continue the sacrifices. 

Confucius remained in Ch'en over three years, and during that timethe barbarian King of Wu annexed several neighbouring towns, whilst Tsin and Ts'u ravaged the surrounding country in turn, intheir rival efforts to secure a predominant influence there. Hereit was, too, that a bird of prey, pierced with a strange arrow, fell near the prince's palace: from the wood used in making thearrow and the peculiar stone barb employed to tip it, Confuciuswas able to explain that the bird must have flown from (modern)Manchuria. (This annual flight of bustards and geese, to and fromthe Steppes, may be observed any winter to-day. ) He next turnednorth, and arrived once more at the spot in Sung he had visited in496: here he was arrested, but set free on his solemn promise thathe would not go to Wei, which state at the moment was consideringthe advisability of attacking that very Sung town. Confuciusdeliberately broke his plighted word, on the ground that "promisesextorted by violence are void, and are not recognized by thegods. " (These words, which, after all, are good English law, werequoted by the irate Chang Chf-tung when Russia "extorted" theLivadia Treaty from Ch'unghou. ) On his arrival in Wei, he advisedhis old friend, the Wei duke, to attack the Sung town he had justleft. But the duke thought it best to have the Yellow Riverbetween himself and the rival states of Ts'u and Tsin (thisspecific mention of the Yellow River as being west of a city inlong. 114ø 30' E. Is interesting). The latter state, Tsin, thenheld most of the left bank. Confucius even thought of acceptingthe invitation of a Tsin rebel to go and assist him: this was justat the moment when the "six families" were gradually breaking upthe once powerful northern orthodox state. He also hesitatedwhether he would not do better, as the prince of Wei would notemploy him, to proceed west to Tsin in order there to serve one ofthe contending six families: in fact he actually got as far as theYellow River (another proof that it must then have run on the westside of Wei-hwei Fu in Ho Nan); but turned back to Wei on hearingunfavourable news from the Tsin capital (in south Shan Si). As theWei prince treated him somewhat cavalierly during an interview, hedecided to go back once more due south to the ancient state ofCh'en. Here (492) he heard news of the destruction by fire of someof the Lu ancestral temples, and of the death of the "powerfulfamily" minister whose disgraceful conduct with the singing girlshad led to his departure from Lu in disgust. This minister was asort of hereditary _maire du palais_, an arrangement whichseems to have been customary in many states, and his last words tohis son were: "When you succeed me, send for Confucius: myadministration has failed: I did wrong in dismissing him. " The sonhad not the courage to ask Confucius himself, but he sent insteadfor one of the philosopher's disciples, and it was arranged withConfucius' friends that this disciple on taking office should sendfor Confucius himself, who really wished to be employed in Luagain. Meanwhile Confucius decided to visit the orthodox state ofTs'ai (imperial clan), lying to the south of Che'n: the capital ofthis state had been originally a town on the upper waters of theHwai River, right in the heart of modern Ho Nan province; but, under stress of the Tsin and T'su wars, it had twice moved itschief city eastwards, and owing to a Ts'u invasion, it was now(491) on the main Hwai River in modern An Hwei province, and wasat the moment under the political influence of Wu; it is notclear, however, whether Confucius visited the old or the newcapital. After a year's stay here, Confucius went furtherwestwards to a certain Ts'u town (near Nan-yang Fu in Ho Nan), passing, on his way, near the place in which Lao-tsz was born. Hesoon returned to Ts'ai, where he stayed three years. It will beobserved that ever since 700 B. C. It had been the deliberatepolicy of Ts'u to annex or overshadow as many of the orthodoxstates as possible, so that Ts'u's undoubtedly high literaryoutput, in later years, is easily accounted for: in other words, Ts'u's northern population was now already orthodox Chinese. Moreover, it must not be forgotten that, even before the Chouconquest, one of the early Ts'u rulers was an author himself, andhad been tutor to the father of the Chou founder: that means tosay Ts'u was possibly always as literary as China. 

Meanwhile Ts'u and semi-barbarian Wu were contesting possession ofCh'en, and the King of Ts'u tried to secure by presents theservices of Confucius, who had prudently transferred himself to asafe place in the open country lying between Ch'en and Ts'ai Theministers of these two orthodox states, fearing the results totheir own people should Confucius (as he seems in fact to havecontemplated) decide to accept the Ts'u offer, with a police forcesurrounded the Confucian party; they were only able to escape fromstarvation by sending word to the King, who at once sent adetachment to free the sage. He would have conferred a fief uponConfucius, but his ministers advised him of the danger of such aproceeding, seeing that the Chou dynasty conquered the empireafter beginning with a petty fief, and that the great kingdom ofTs'u itself had arrived at its present greatness after beginningwith a still smaller fief. Accordingly the sage decided to returnto Wei (489), where several of his disciples received officialposts, and where Confucius himself seems to have acted asunofficial adviser, especially in the matter of a contestedsuccession. All this competition for, or at least jealousy of, Confucius' services proves that his repute as an administrator(not necessarily as a philosopher) was already widely spread. Thefollowing year the King of Wu appeared before the Lu capital, andone of Confucius' former disciples holding office there (the onewho went in advance in 492) just succeeded in moderating thebarbarians' demands, which, however, only took the comparativelyharmless "spiritual" form of orthodox sacrificial victims. 

[Illustration: Map

1. The dotted line shows the present Grand Canal; the part betweenthe Yang-tsz and Hwai Rivers was made by the King of Wu. The partnorth of the Hwai is chiefly the channel of the River Sz, flowingfrom the Lu capital into the Hwai. 

2. The old Hwai embouchure, running from the Lake Hung-tseh to thesea, no longer exists; it dissipates itself in canals and saltflats. 

3. From 1852 the Yellow River has flowed north as depicted in theother maps. For several centuries previous to 1851 it flowed asshown by the long-link-and-dot line, and took possession of thenow extinct Hwai embouchure. 

4. The crosses mark capitals. Ts'ai (two marked) and Hii (onemarked) frequently shifted capitals. ]

In 484 Confucius was still in Wei, for in that year he is statedto have declined to discuss there a question connected with makingwar. In the year 484 or 483 the disciple sent by Confucius to Lu, as stated, in 492 conducted an expedition against Ts'i: this wasthe shameful period when orthodox Lu, in compulsory league withbarbarous Wu, was playing a double and treacherous game understress, and the question of recalling Confucius to save his nativecountry was on the _tapis_. Hearing of this, and despite theheavy bribes offered him to stay by the ruler of Wei, Confuciusstarted with alacrity for Lu, where he arrived safely afterfourteen years of wandering. He is often stated to have visitedover forty states in all; but it must be remembered that each ofthe important countries he visited had in turn a number ofsatellites of its own; as, for instance, the extremely ancient"marquess state" of Ki, or K'i, subordinate to Lu, which, thoughpossessing great spiritual authority, had no weight in lay policy. An interesting point to notice is that Confucius' travels almostexactly coincide with those of the Second Protector 150 yearsearlier (see Chapter XXXIX); both of them ignored the Emperor, andboth of them visited Ts'i, Ts'ao, Sung, and Cheng on their way tothe Ts'u frontiers; but Confucius was not able to get much fartherwest so as to reach the Ts'u capital; nor was he able to get toTsin; not to say the still more distant Ts'in. In other words, thelimited centre of orthodox China remained for many centuries thesame, and the vast regions surrounding it were still semi-barbarian in the fifth century B. C. Now it was that Confucius, seeing that the imperial power had diminished almost to nothing;that the Odes and Book, the Rites, and the Music no longerpossessed their former influence; employed himself in makingsystematic search for documents, in re-editing the Book (ofHistory), and in endeavouring to ascertain the exact ritual oradministration of the preceding dynasties. "Henceforth the Ritescould be understood and transmitted, "--from which we may assumethat, up to this time, they had been practically a monopoly of theprincely caste. He did not go further back into the mythicalperiod than the two emperors who preceded the Hia dynasty, nor didhe bring the Book farther down than to the time of Duke Muh ofTs'in, which practically means the time of the first Protectors. He really did for rites and history what he had blamed Tsz-ch'anfor doing with the law: he popularized it. He also attempted withpersistent study to master the Changes, to which incomprehensiblework he added features of his own--very little more understandablethan the original texts. As to the Odes, 3000 in number, he usedthe pruning knife much more vigorously, and nine-tenths of themwere rejected as unsuitable for the purposes of good didacticlessons or conservative precedents. If we substitute, as we areentitled to do, the vague word "religion" for the equally vagueword "rites" (which in fact were the only ancient Chinesereligion); if we substitute the empty Christian churches of to-day, and the too little scrupulous ambitions of rival EuropeanPowers, for the neglected _tao_ of the Chou ideal, and forthe savage rivalry of the great Chinese vassals; we obtain analmost precisely similar situation in modern Europe. If we canimagine a great Pope, or a great philosopher, taking advantage ofa turn in the European conscience to bring back the simple idealsof Christianity, we can easily imagine this European Confuciusbeing universally hailed in future times as the saviour of aparlous situation; which, in Europe now, as 2000 years ago inChina, entails on the people so much misery and suffering. Confucius was, in short, in a way, a Chinese Pius X. Declaimingagainst Modernism. 

Confucius' only certain original work was the "Springs andAutumns, " which is practically a continuation (with the necessaryintroductory years) of the ancient Book edited or, as some think, composed by him. He brought the former, this history of his, downfrom 722 to 481 B. C. And died in 479. His pupil Tso K'iu-ming, who was official historian to the Lu court, annotated andexpounded Confucius' bald annals, bringing the narrative down from481 to 468; and Tso's delightful work forms the chief, but by nomeans the sole, basis for what we have to say in the present bookof sketches. 

CHAPTER XLV

CONFUCIUS AND LAO-TSZ

Apart from the fact that reverence for rulers was the pivot of theChou religious system, or, what was then the same thing, administrative system; official historiographers, who were mereservants of the executive, had to be careful how they offended theexecutive power in those capricious days; all the more had aprivate author and a retired official like Confucius carefully tomind the conventions. For instance, two historians had been put todeath by a king-maker in Ts'i for recording the murder by him of aTs'i reigning prince; and Ts'i was but next door to Lu. Hence wefind the leading feature of his work is that he hints rather thancriticizes, suggests rather than condemns, conceals rather thanexposes, when it is a question of class honour or divine right;just as, with us, the Church prefers to hush up rather than topublish any unfortunate internal episode that would redound to itsdiscredit. So shocked was he at the assassination of the ruler ofTs'i by an usurping family in 481, that, even at his venerableage, he unsuccessfully counselled instant war against Ts'i. Hismotive was perhaps doubtful, for the next year we find a pupil ofhis, then in office, going as a member of the mission to the sameusurper in order to try and obtain a cession of territoryimproperly held. This pupil was one of the friends who assisted atthe arrangement made in Wei in 492. Confucius' failings--for afterall he was only a man, and never pretended to be a genius--in noway affect the truth of his writings, for they were detectedalmost from the very beginning, and have never been in the leastconcealed. Notable instances are the mission from Lu to Ts'u in634; Confucius conceals the fact that, not courtesy to barbarianTs'u, but a desire to obtain vengeance against orthodox Ts'i wasthe true motive. Again, in 632, when the _faineant_ Emperorwas "sent for" by the Second Protector to preside at a durbar;Confucius prefers to say: "His Majesty went to inspect his fiefsnorth of the river, " thus even avoiding so much as to name theexact place, not to say describe the circumstances. He punishesthe Emperor for an act of impropriety in 693 by recording him as"the King, " instead of "the Heavenly King. " On the other hand, in598, even the barbarian King of Ts'u was "a sage, " because, havingconquered the orthodox state of Ch'en, he magnanimously renouncedhis conquest. In 529 the infamous ruler of the orthodox state ofTs'ai is recorded as being "solemnly buried"; but the rule wasthat no "solemn funeral" should be accorded to (1) barbarians, (2)rulers who lose their crown, (3) murderers. Now, this ruler was amurderer; but it was a barbarian state (Ts'u) that killed him, which insult to civilization must be punished by making two blacksone white, _i. E. _ by giving the murdered murderer an orthodoxfuneral. Again, in 522, a high officer was "killed by robbers"; itis explained that there were no robbers at all, in fact, but thatthe mere killing of an officer by a common person needs theassumption of robbery. It is like the legal fiction of lunacy inmodern Chinese law to account for the heinous crime of parricide, and thus save the city from being razed to the ground. Once more, at the Peace Conference of 546, Ts'u undoubtedly "bluffed" Tsinout of her rightful precedence; but, Tsin being an orthodox state, Confucius makes Tsin the diplomatic victor. We have already seenthat he once deliberately broke his plighted word, meanly attackedthe men who spared him; and, out of servility, visited a woman ofnoble rank who was "no better than she ought to have been. " Thereis another little female indiscretion recorded against him. When, in 482, the Lu ruler's concubine, a Wu princess (imperial clanname), died, Confucius obsequiously went into mourning for an"incestuous" woman; but, seeing immediately afterwards that thepowerful family then at the helm did not condescend to do so, hesomewhat ignominiously took off his mourning in a hurry. Allthese, and numerous similar petty instances of timorousness, mayappear to us at a remote distance trifling and pusillanimous, asdo also many of the model personal characteristics and goody-goodyprivate actions of the sage; but if we make due allowance for thedifficulty of translating strange notions into a strange tongue, and for the natural absence of sympathy in trying to enter intoforeign feelings, we may concede that these petty details, quiteincidentally related, need in no way destroy the main features ofa great picture. Few heroes look the character except in theirnative clothes and surroundings; and, as Carlyle said, a nakedHouse of Lords would look much less dignified than a naked negroconference. 

As a philosopher, Confucius in his own time had scarcely thereputation of Tsz-ch'an of Cheng, who in many respects seems tohave been his model and guide. Much more is said of Tsz-ch'an'sphilosophy, of his careful definition of the ritual system, of hislegal acumen, of his paternal care for the people's welfare; but, like his contemporaries and friends of Ts'i, Tsin, Cheng, Sung, Wei; and even of Wu and Yueh; he was working for the immediategood of his own state in times of dire peril; whereas Confuciusfrom first to last was aiming at the restoration of religion(i. E. , of the imperial, ritualistic, feudal system); and for thisreason it was that, after the violent unification of the empire bythe First August Emperor in 221 B. C. , followed by his fall and therise of the Han dynasty in 202 B. C. , this latter house finallydecided to venerate, and all subsequent houses have continued tovenerate, Confucius' memory; because his system was, after Lao-tsz's system had been given a fair trial, at last found the bestsuited for peace and permanency. 

Not only is Lao-tsz not mentioned in the "Springs and Autumns" ofConfucius, as extended by his contemporary and latter commentators, but none other of the great writers and philosophers anteriorto and contemporary with Confucius are spoken of exceptstrictly in their capacity of administrators. Thus the Ts'iphilosopher Kwan-tsz of the First Protector's time, 650 B. C. ; theTs'i philosopher Yen-tsz of Confucius' time; and the othersmentioned in preceding chapters, notably in Chapter XV. (of whomeach orthodox state of political importance can boast at leastone); based their reputation on what they had achieved for thestate rather than what they had taught in the abstract; and theireconomical and historical books, which have all come down to us ina more or less complete and authentic state, are valued for theexpression they give to the definite theories by which theyarrived at practical results, rather than for the preaching of thecounsels of perfection, We have seen that Yen-tsz expressed rathera contempt for the (to him) out-of-date formalistic ideals ofConfucius, though Confucius himself had a high opinion of Yen-tsz. Lao-tsz is first mentioned by the writers of the various "schools"brought into existence by the collapse of Tsin in 452 B. C. , andits subdivision into three separate kingdoms, recognized as suchby the puppet Emperor in 403 B. C. The diplomatic activity was soonafter that quite extraordinary, and each of the seven royal courtsbecame a centre of revolutionary thought; that is, every literaryadventurer had his own views of what interpretation of ancientliterature was best suited to the times: it was Modernism with avengeance. There is ample evidence of Lao-tsz's influence upon theage, though Lao-tsz himself had been dead for a century or more inthe year 403. Lao-tsz is spoken of and written about in the fourthcentury B. C. As though it were perfectly well known who he was, and what his sentiments were; but as, up to Confucius' time, stateintercourse had been confined to traders, warriors, and officialsof the princely castes; and as books had been unwieldy objectsstored only in capitals and great centres; there is good reason toassume that philosophy had been taught almost entirely by word ofmouth, and that something must have occurred shortly after hisdeath to cheapen and facilitate the dissemination of literature. Probably this something was the gradual introduction of thepractice of writing on silk rolls and on silk "paper, " whichpractice is known to have been in vogue long before the discoveryof rubbish paper A. D. 100. Confucius himself evidently made use ofthe old-fashioned bamboo slips, strung together by cords like abundle of tickets; for we are told that he worked so hard inendeavouring to understand the "Changes, " that he "wore out threesets of leather bands"; and it will be remembered from ChapterXXXV. How the Bamboo Books buried in 299 B. C. , to be discoverednearly 600 years later, consisted of slips strung together in thisway. 

Confucius' movements during the fourteen years of his exile arevery clearly marked out, and there seems to be no doubt that hisvisit to the Emperor's court took place when he was a young man;firstly, because Lao-tsz ironically calls him a young man, andsecondly because he went to visit Lao-tsz with the son of thestatesman who on his death-bed foretold Confucius' futuredistinction; and there was no Lu mission to the imperial courtafter 520. In the second century B. C. , not only are there a dozenstatesmen specifically stated to have studied the works of Lao-tsz, but the Empress herself is said to have possessed his book;and a copy of it, distinctly said to be in ancient character, wasthen stored amongst other copies of the same book in the imperiallibrary. The two questions which the Chinese historians andliterary men of the fifth, fourth, third, and second centuriesB. C. Do not attempt to decide are: Why is the life of Lao-tsz notgiven to us earlier than 100 B. C. ? Why is that life so scant, andwhy does the writer of it allude to "other stories" current abouthim? Why is it that the book which Lao-tsz wrote at the request ofa friend is not alluded to by any writer previous to 100 B. C. ?

As not one single one of these numerous Taoists or students ofLao-tsz expresses the faintest doubt about Lao-tsz's existence, orabout the genuineness of his traditional teachings, it is evidentthat the meagreness of Lao-tsz's life, as told by the historian, is rather a guarantee of the truth of what he says than thereverse, so far as he knows the truth; otherwise he would havecertainly embellished. The essence of Lao-tsz's doctrine is itsdemocracy, its defence of popular rights, its allusion to kingsand governments as necessary evils, its disapproval of luxury andhoarding wealth; its enthusiasm for the simple life, for absenceof caste, for equality of opportunity, for socialism andinformality; all of which was, though extracted from the sameOdes, Book, Changes, and Rites, quite contrary in principle to the"back to the rites" doctrine of Confucius. Therefore, there couldbe no possible inducement for Confucius, the pruning editor of theOdes, Book, etc. , or for his admirers, to mention Lao-tsz ineither his original work, the "Springs and Autumns, " or in theother works (composed by his disciples) giving the original wordsand sentiments of Confucius. Besides, during the whole of Lao-tsz's life, the imperial court (where he served as a clerk) wastotally ignored by all the "powers" as a political force; the onlypersons mentioned in what survives of Chou history are thehistoriographers, the wizards, the ritual _clerks, _ the ducalenvoys, now sent by the Emperor to the vassals, now consulted bythe vassals upon matters of etiquette. Lao-tsz, being an obscureclerk in an obscure appanage, and holding no political office, hadno more title to be mentioned in history than any other servant or"harmless drudge. " That his doctrines were well known is notwonderful, for Tsz-ch'an, his contemporary, and this great man'scolleagues of the other states, also had doctrines of their ownwhich were widely discussed and, as we have seen, even Tsz-ch'anwas severely blamed for the unheard-of novelty of committing thelaws to writing, both by Confucius of Lu and by Shuh Hiang of Tsin(imperial clan states). It is reasonable to suppose, therefore, that the traditional story is true; namely, that Lao-tsz'sdoctrines were never taught in a school at all, and that he had nofollowers or admirers except the vassal envoys who used to come onspiritual business to the metropolis. We have seen how these menused to entertain each other over their wine by quoting the Odesand other ancient saws; when consulting the imperial library torectify their own dates, they would naturally meet the old recluseLao-tsz, and hear from his own mouth what he thought of the comingcollapse anticipated by all. He is said to have left orthodoxChina in disgust, and gone West--well, he must have passed throughTs'in if he went to the west. At the frontier pass (it is notknown precisely whether on the imperial frontier or on the Ts'infrontier) an acquaintance or correspondent on duty there invitedhim to put his thoughts into writing, which he did. Books beingextremely rare, copies would be slowly transmitted. This was about500 B. C. , between which time and 200 B. C. , when a copy of his bookis first reported to be actually held in the hand by a definiteperson, the great protecting powers, and later the seven kings, were all engaged in a bloodthirsty warfare, which ended in thealmost total destruction throughout the empire of the Odes, Rites, and the Book in 213 B. C. Remember, however, that the literaryempire practically meant parts of the modern provinces of Ho Nanand Shan Tung. The "Changes" were not destroyed; and as the FirstAugust Emperor himself, his illegitimate father, several of hisstatesmen, and his visitors the travelling diplomats, were alleither Taoists or imbued with Taoist doctrines (their sole policybeing to destroy the old ritual and feudal thrones), there isground to conjecture that Lao-tsz's book escaped too, and wasdeliberately suffered to escape. We know absolutely nothing ofthat; assuming the truth of the tradition that there was a book, we do not know what became of the first copy, nor how many copieswere made of it during the succeeding 300 years. No attemptwhatever has ever been made by the serious Chinese historiansthemselves to manufacture a story. It is, of course, unsatisfactorynot to know all the exact truth; but, for the matter of that, theexistence, identity, and authorship of Confucius' pupil and commentatorTso K'iu-ming, the official historian of Lu, is equally obscure; not tomention the history of the earliest Taoist critics who actually mentionLao-tsz, and quote the words of (if they do not mention) his book. When we read Renan's masterly examination into the origins of ourown Gospels, and when we reflect that even the origin of Shakespeare'splays, and the individuality of Shakespeare's person, are open toeverlasting discussion, we may not unreasonably leave Chinesecritics and Chinese historians to judge of the value of their ownnational evidence, and accept in general terms what they tell usof fact, however imperfect it may be in detail, without addinghypothetical facts or raising new critical difficulties of our own. No such foreign criticisms are or can be worth much unless theoriginal Chinese histories and the original Chinese philosophers havebeen carefully examined by the foreign critic in the original Chinese text. 

CHAPTER XLVI

ORACLES AND OMENS

Consulting the oracles seems to have been a universal practice, and there are numerous historical allusions, made by statesmen ofthe orthodox principalities, to supposed interpretations attachedto this or that combination of mystic signs or diagrams from the"Changes, " together with arguments as to their specific meaning oromen in given circumstances. Doubtless the Chinese of those dates, like our own searchers for religious "analogies" and mysteries, examined with perfect good faith combinations of the Diagramswhich to us appear arrant nonsense; and there can be no doubt ofConfucius' own individual zeal, though the fact that he thoughtfifty years' study at least would be necessary for fullcomprehension points to the tacit confession that he had totallyfailed to understand much of the mystery. The Changes are supposedto have been developed by the father of the Warrior King when(about 1160 B. C. ) he was in prison under the tyrannous suspicionsof the last Shang emperor; and we have seen that the ruler of Ts'u_was_ his tutor, at a time when Ts'u was not yet vassal toChou. Like the Odes, Book, and Rites, the Changes were Chouliterature, though possibly the unwritten traditions of earlierdynasties may have contributed to that literature; which, indeed, seems very likely, as Ts'u was already able to teach Chou. 

Another form of augury was the examination of the marks on thecarapax of a tortoise; thus the Martial King in 146 consulted, andfound unfavourable, such marks--this was before attacking the lastShang emperor; and it was only at the earnest instigation of hischief henchman (afterwards vassal king and founder of Ts'i) thathe was prevailed upon to proceed. Possibly he borrowed Easternideas from this founder of Ts'i too. Later on, the Martial King'syounger brother, the Duke of Chou, consulted the oracle along withthe same Ts'i adviser: this was done before the three ancestralaltars of their father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, inorder to ascertain if the Emperor (_i. E. _ the Martial King)would recover from a sickness. In 1109 the Martial King's son andsuccessor sent one of his uncles or near relatives to examine thesite of modern Ho-nan Fu, with a view to transferring themetropolis thither, and, the oracles being favourable, the NineTripods were removed to that place, and it was afterwards calledthe "Eastern Metropolis" (the original or western capital was notmoved for over 300 years after that). It was at the same timeforetold that there would be thirty more reigns, of 700 years inall: this was "Heaven's decree. " On the other hand, when the Dukeof Chou died during a tempest, the young Emperor was advised notto consult the oracles as to what the storm signified, because hisuncle's virtues were so manifest that Heaven itself had, by theagency of a tempest, spontaneously announced the fact. 

Astrology was another form of soothsaying. In 780 B. C. Theimperial astrologer (one of those two men, by the way, whomerroneous tradition 1000 years later confused with Lao-tsz)foretold the rise of Ts'i, Tsin, Ts'u, and Ts'in, upon the ruinsof the imperial power; in 773 the same astrologer repeated theprophecy to the imperial prince then recently enfeoffed by hisrelative the Emperor in the state of CHÊNG. In 705 the imperialastrologer, when passing through the orthodox state of CH'ÊN, foretold from the diagrams that a scion of the CH'ÊN house wouldobtain the throne of Ts'i (which actually took place when the_maire du palais, _ to the horror of Confucius, assassinatedthe last legitimate duke in 481 B. C. ); this particular prophecy isdoubly interesting, because the diagrams from the Changes, thuscited in detail in Confucius' history, correspond exactly with thediagrams of the Book of Changes as we have it now, since Confuciusmanipulated it--proof that no change has taken place in this partof the text at least. 

The ruler of Ts'in in the year 762, nine years after receiving thewestern half of the Chou imperial domain, and being recognized asa first-class vassal, consulted the oracle as to whither he shouldmove his own capital. In the year 677 the oracles once moredecided the then reigning ruler to shift his capital to (themodern) Feng-siang Fu in West Shen Si; the oracles added: "Andlater you will water your steeds in the Yellow River"; which cameto pass after the conquests and annexations of 643 B. C. , asalready related. In 374 B. C. The imperial astrologer (the secondman whom tradition, 300 years later this time, erroneouslyconfused with Lao-tsz) then on a visit to the now royal Ts'incourt said: "After 500 years of separation Ts'in is reunited toour imperial house; in 77 years more a domineering monarch willarise. " Seven years later the "raining down of metal" (probablysome natural phenomenon not clearly understood at the time) wasconsidered a good omen in connection with the new capital, nowplaced on the south bank of the River Wei. After Ts'in hadconquered China, there are numerous other instances of oracles, omens, and so forth, all supposed to have had politicalsignificance. 

In 645 the ruler of the neighbouring state of Tsin consults theoracles in order to ascertain who will be the most suitable warcharioteer. A few years before that the court diviner foretold thefuture success of the petty Ngwei sub-principality of Tsin, whichin 403 B. C. Actually became a separate vassal kingdom. In 575 Tsindared not, at the moment, accept the battle challenge of Tsu, because the particular day was a dies _nefas, _ being the lastday of the moon. Meanwhile the spies of the Ts'u army discernedthat the Tsin leaders were consulting the oracles before thetablets of their ancestors in the field tent. In 535 the Ts'inadministration consulted its own astrologer upon the point: "Willthe state of Ch'en survive?" The answer was: "When it securesTs'i, it will perish. " As just explained, a scion of the Ch'enhouse did practically obtain Ts'i in 481 B. C. , and the very nextyear Ch'en was annexed by Ts'u. In 510 the Tsin astrologerprophesied the destruction of Wu by Yiieh within forty years, andalso the predominancy of the Lu private family so intimatelyconnected with Confucius' troubles. There were not lackingsensible men, even in those days, who ridiculed the science ofastrology: for instance, Shuh Hiang of Tsin--the man who sostrongly disapproved Tsz-ch'an's written laws, and the man whodiscussed with the Ts'i envoy, the philosopher Yen-tsz, theworthlessness of their respective dukes--said on one occasion whenthe "course of the heavens towards north-west" was supposed toindicate a success for Tsin: "The course of the heavens, as thatof our success, lies in the qualities of the prince, and not inthe situation of the stars. "

Tsz-ch'an of Cheng himself pooh-poohed oracular warnings, and saidthat he preferred to do his best, and leave omens to do theirworst. On one occasion, outside the south gate of the Chengcapital, two snakes (one from the city, one from outside) wereobserved fighting; the one from the inside was defeated. Sureenough! the exiled duke six years after that returned to his own. So, in the state of Lu, the children sang: "When the thrushes comeand make their nests, the ruler will go to a place on the Tsinfrontier; when the thrushes settle here, the duke will be abroad"--in allusion to the future ejecting of the reigning prince by thepowerful family above referred to. And, again (480 B. C. ), in thestate of Sung, whose terrestrial position was supposed to be"invaded" by the then peculiar celestial position of the planetMars: it was suggested, however, to the ruling prince that hemight "pass on" the threatened disaster to his ministers, to hispeople, or to their harvests--a solution the duke declined toavail himself of. 'Yours are indeed the words of a sage, ' said theastrologer. 

We now come to the semi-civilized state of Ts'u, which seems tohave had its oracles with the best of them, at all events after560 B. C. At that date it was explained to the King that "theancient emperors would at times consult the oracles for five yearsbefore deciding upon an expedition, or fixing the date of it; theywere content to await patiently the decrees of Heaven. " In 537 theTs'u king, having a prince of Wu in his power, sent to ask himironically if he had duly consulted the oracles. "Yes, " said theprince, "every ruler has his tortoise, and it is easy todemonstrate by our oracles how injurious it will be for you if anyharm comes to me. " This presence of mind saved his life. In 528 aTs'u usurper invited a man who had once assisted him to name anypost he would like. The man chose that of diviner, which, itappears, was an office of the first rank. The father of this kinghad secretly arranged with a concubine, notwithstanding the Ts'urule (or possibly in accordance with it) that one of the youngestsons should succeed, to "sacrifice from a distance to the gods ingeneral, and ask of them which of five sons should sacrifice tothe spirits of the land"; then he buried a jade symbol of rule inthe ancestral temple, and ordered the five sons to enter afterproper purification; the three sons who happened to touch the spotreigned one after the other. In 489 the King of Ts'u, then engagedin assisting the orthodox state of Ch'en against the attacks ofWu, interrogated the imperial astrologer (who must have been thereon a visit): "What is the meaning of that halo, like a bird'swings, on each side of the sun?" The astrologer replied: "Itpresages calamity, but you can transfer it to your generals. " Thegenerals then offered to consult the gods themselves, and even tosacrifice their own persons if necessary; but the King declined(on the same ground as the Duke of Sung above mentioned) because"my generals are my own limbs. " It was then proposed to transferthe calamity to the Yellow River. "No, the Yellow River has neverplayed me false: ever since we received our fief, we have never atfull moon sacrificed beyond the River Han and Yang-tsz. " Confuciusregistered his approval of this answer. It will be remembered thatjust at this time Confucius was hanging about Ch'Ün and coquettingwith Ts'u, so that possibly this approval had something to do withhis own prospects. 

In recording these instances of prophecies and omens (which mightbe multiplied tenfold), it is desired to show how one main set ofideas pervaded the whole. We should not be too ready to ridiculethem, or to hint at "after the event. " Our own Scriptures are fullof similar prophecies, and what is good for us is good for theChinese. If the celestial movements can be foretold, why notcorresponding terrestrial movements, each corner of the earthbeing on the meridian of something? In the infancy of science, itis rather a question of good faith than of truth; and even thetruth, if we insist on expecting it, was rudely guessed at by suchgreat thinkers as Tsz-ch'an and Shuh Hiang. 

CHAPTER XLVII

RULERS AND PEOPLE

A feature of the times was the remarkably personal character ofthe wars, and the apparent utter indifference to humble popularinterests; _Quidquid delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi;_ stressis laid upon this point by the democratic philosopher Lao-tsz, who, however, in his book (be it genuine or not), is wise enough neverto name a person or place; probably that prudence saved it fromthe flames in 213 B. C. 

In 684 B. C. The ruler of Ts'ai (imperial clan) treated very rudelyhis own wife's sister, married to a petty prince (imperial clan)close by; the sister was simply passing through as a traveller;the result was that this petty prince, her husband, induced Ts'uto make war upon Ts'ai, whose reigning prince was captured, anddied a prisoner. In _657_ the ruler of Ts'ai had a sistermarried in Ts'i. The First Protector, offended at some act ofplayful disobedience, sent her back, but without actuallydivorcing her. Her brother was so angry that he found her anotherhusband. On this Ts'i declared war, and captured the brother, who, however, at the intercession of the other vassal princes, wasrestored to his kingdom. In 509 and 506 B. C. Ts'ai induces Tsin tomake war on Ts'u, and also assists Wu in her hostilities againstTs'u, because a Ts'u minister had detained the ruler of Ts'ai forrefusing to part with a handsome fur coat. It is like the stealingof the Golden Fleece by Jason, and similar Greek squabbles. In 675B. C. The Emperor, for the third time, had to fly from his capital, the immediate cause of the trouble being an attempt on his part toseize a vassal's rice-field for including in his own park--aChinese version of the Naboth's vineyard dispute. Nothing couldbetter prove the pettiness of the ancient state-horizon; no busilyactive great power could find time for such trifles. 

When the Second Protector came to the throne, the orthodox statesof Wei, Ts'ao, and Cheng (all of the imperial clan), which hadtreated him scurvily as a wanderer, had all three of them to paydearly for their meanness. In 632, when the Protector had securedthe Tsin throne, the ruler of Ts'ao was promptly captured, andpart of his territory was given to Sung (where the wanderer hadbeen well treated). The same year Tsin wished to assist Sung, andaccordingly asked right of way through the state of Wei, which wascurtly refused; the Tsin army therefore crossed the Yellow Riverto the south of Wei: as a punishment for this refusal, and alsofor the previous rude treatment, Wei also had to give part of herterritory to the favoured Sung. In 630 Tsin induced Ts'in to joinin an attack upon Cheng, the object being, of course, to revengesimilar personal rudenesses; however, Cheng diplomacy wassuccessful in inducing Ts'in to abandon Tsin in the nick of time:this was one of the very few cases in which Ts'in interfered, orwas about to interfere, in "orthodox" affairs. In 592 Tsin sent ahunchback envoy to Ts'i; it so happened that at the same time Lusent one who was lame, and Wei a third who was blind of one eye. The Ts'i ruler thereupon appointed an officer mutilated in someother way to do the duties of host to this sorry trio. The Tsinenvoy swore: "If I do not revenge this upon Ts'i, may the God ofthe Yellow River take note of it!" Reaching his own country, hetried to induce the ruler to make war on Ts'i; but the princesaid: "Your personal pique should hardly suffice for ground totrouble the whole country": and he refused. 

The principle of the divinity that doth hedge a king was earlyestablished, but there are certainly more numerous evidences ofroyal absolutism in Ts'u than in orthodox China, where responsibilityof rulers before Heaven and the People (symbolical of Heaven also)was an accepted axiom. For instance, in 522 B. C. , an officer, knowingthat the King of Ts'u was sending for him in order to kill him, said to hisbrother: "As the king orders it, one of us two must go, but you canavenge me later on. " When the next Ts'u king was a fugitive, and itwas a question in a subject's mind of killing him because his fatherhad taken a brother's life, it was objected: "No! if the king slays oneof his officers, who can avenge it? His commands emanate from Heaven. It is unpardonable to cut off the ancestral sacrifice of a whole housein this way. "

In still more ancient times, when the last Emperor of the Shangdynasty was being warned of the rising popular feeling in favourof the rising Chou power, he remarked: "Have I not Heaven'smandate? What can they do to me?" When the Martial King achievedhis conquest, he smeared the god of the soil with the sacrificialvictims' blood, and announced the crimes of the dead tyrant toHeaven. In the war of 589 between Tsin and Ts'i, the ruler ofTs'i, who had changed places with his charioteer in order toescape detection, was hotly pursued; but his chariot caught in atree. Seeing this, the Tsin captain prostrated himself before thechariot, and said: "My princely master's orders are to assist thestates of Lu and Wei" (i. E. Not to attack your person). Meanwhilethe disguised charioteer ordered the disguised king to fetch adrink of water, and the king thus escaped even the humiliation ofa favour from his generous victor. When in 548 a worthless Ts'iruler was assassinated, the philosopher Yen-tsz said: "When theruler dies or is exiled for the gods of the land and its harvests, one dies or is exiled with him; but if he dies or is exiled forprivate reasons, then only his personal friends die with him. " Hetherefore contented himself with wailing, and with laying his headon the royal body. The same Tsin captain who was so tender to theTs'i duke in 589 had an opportunity fourteen years later of takingprisoner the ruler of CHÊNG in battle; but he said: "Evil comethto him who toucheth a crowned head! I have already committedsacrilege once against the ruler of Ts'i; preserve me fromcommitting this crime a second time!" And he turned promptly back. During the same fight, the King of Ts'u's body-guard was attackedby the Tsin generalissimo, who, when he discerned the king in thecentre of the guards, got out of his chariot, doffed his helmet, and fled in horror, "such was his respect for the person ofroyalty. " It was a ritual rule in China for the distinguished mennot to remove the official head-covering in death; for instance, in 481, when one of Confucius' pupils was killed in war, his lastpatriotic act was to tie his hat-strings tighter. Though rulerswere supposed to owe duties to the gods in general, yet the powerof the gods was limited. Thus when Tsz-ch'an of CHÊNG was sent asenvoy to Tsin in 541, the sick Tsin ruler asked him: "How can thetwo gods who, they say, are responsible for my malady, beconjured?" Tsz-ch'an replied: "These particular gods cannot injureyou; we sacrifice to them in connection with natural phenomena, such as drought, flood, or other disaster; just as in matters ofsnow, hail, rain, or wind we sacrifice to the gods of the sun, moon, planets, and constellations. Your illness is the result ofdrink, over-feeding, women, passionate anger, excessive pleasure. "Shuh Hiang approved this common-sense view of the situation. 

ANCIENT CHINESE LAW

APPENDIX I

In the spring of the year 536 B. C. , Tsz-ch'an, one of the leadingstatesmen in the Chinese Federal Union, decided to publish forpopular information the Criminal Law which had hitherto beensimply "declared" by the various rulers and their officersaccording to the circumstances of each case. At this time thedifferent premiers and ministers used to visit each other freely, generally in the suite of the reigning prince who happened to beeither receiving or paying a visit from or to some other vassalprince. The Emperor himself, now shorn of his power, was only_primus inter pares_ amongst these princes. Shuh Hiang, oneof the ministers at the neighbouring court of Tsin, addressed thefollowing remarkable letter to the colleague above mentioned whohad introduced the legal innovation. It is published in_exteso_ in Confucius' own history of the times, as expandedby one of his pupils:--

"At first I used to regard you as a guide, but now all this is atan end. Our monarchs in past times were wont to decide matters byspecific ordinance, and had no prepared statutes, fearing lest thepeople should grow contentious. Yet even so it was impossible tosuppress wrong-doing; for which reason they employed justice as apreventive, administration to bring things into line, externalformality to secure respect, good faith as an abiding principle, and kindness in actual treatment. They appointed certain ranks andemoluments with a view to encouraging their officers to follow thecourse thus sketched out for them, and they fixed certain sternpunishments and fines in order to fill these officers with a dreadof arbitrariness, fearing that otherwise they might fail in theirduty. Thus admonition was given with every loyalty; fear wasinspired by personal example; instruction was conveyed as occasionrequired; employment in service was accompanied by suavity;contact with inferiors was marked by a respectful demeanour; theexecutive arm was firmly applied; and decisions were carried outwith virility. Yet, with all this, it was never too easy to securewise and saintly (vassal) princes, clever and discriminatingministers, loyal and trusty officials, or kind and affectionateinstructors. Under these circumstances, however, it was possibleto set the people going, and China was at least free fromrevolution and misery. 

"But when the people themselves become cognizant of a written law, they will cease to fear their superiors, and, moreover, they willacquire a contentious spirit. Having book to refer to, they willemploy every device to elude the letter of the law. This will notdo at all. It was only in times of anarchical rule that thefounders of the Hia and Shang dynasties (2200 B. C. And 1760 B. C. )found it necessary to issue (to their officers) the collections oflaws which still bear their two respective names; and it was alsoonly in anarchical times (1000 B. C. ) that one Emperor of ourpresent dynasty found it necessary to publish (for his officers)the so-called Nine Laws. In other words, the advent of written lawhas on all three occasions connoted a decay in government. You, sir, are the chief minister of _CHÊNG_ state (part of modernHo Nan); you made a few years ago some new regulations about theparcelling of land; next you placed the system of your taxation ona fresh basis; and you now proceed to embody the three specialcollections just cited in a new popular code, which you have hadcast in metal characters. If you are doing it with a view topacify the people, surely you will not find this an easy matter?The 'Book of Odes' says: 'King _Wên_ (the virtual founder, 2200 B. C. , of the then reigning Chou dynasty) took virtue as hisguide, and thus gradually pacified the four quarters of theworld. ' It also says: 'The methods of King _Wu_ (son of thevirtual founder) secured the confidence of all the othercountries. ' Where were the written laws in those times? Whenpeople begin to get the contentious spirit upon them, they willhave done with the principles of propriety, and only stickle forthe letter; they will haggle upon every tiny point accessible toknife's edge or awl's tip. We shall witness a flood of litigiousaccusations; bribery and corruption will be rampant. Do you thinkthe state of _Cheng_ will last out your life? I have heard itsaid: 'When a country is about to collapse, there are manyconflicting administrative changes. ' Will this apply to presentconditions?"

The reply returned was:-

"With regard to what my honourable friend has been pleased to say, I am afraid my humble capacities are not sufficiently great totake the interests of posterity; my action has been taken in theinterests of the state as I find it, and as I have to govern it. Though, therefore, I cannot accept tour commands, I shall becareful not to forget your kindness in proffering advice. "

Though the exact words of the above-mentioned Code in Brass havenot come down to us, they are (like the Twelve Tables of Rome, eighty years later in date, were in relation to Roman jurisprudence)the foundation of Chinese Criminal Law as it exists to-day, modified, of course, dynasty by dynasty. At this time Confucius was a mereyouth; but later on, as minister of a third vassal state, that of Lu, healso expressed his disapproval of a written code, much though herespected the author, whom he knew personally. Shuh Hiang's letteris of interest as showing the pitch of philosophy, common-sense, andinternational courtesy to which the statesmen of China had attained2400 years ago. 

APPENDIX II

In 539 B. C. The Ts'i statesman and philosopher Yen-tsz was sent ona mission to Tsin in order to negotiate a political marriage. Atthis period Han K'i, also called Han Süan-tsz, was the premier ofTsin, and he despatched the minister Shuh Hiang with a complimentarymessage to the Ts'i envoy, accepting the offer of a suitable wife. Atthis time the diplomatic relations of the Chinese states were particularlyinteresting, because, apart from the fact that intellectual premiers ruledall the great states, most of them were personal friends, acquaintances, or correspondents of Confucius, who has left on record his judgmentupon each. After the official marriage negotiations were over, ShuhHiang ordered refreshments, and he and Yen-tsz sat down to a nicequiet little chat by themselves. 

_Shuh Hiang_. How is Ts'i going on?

_Yen-tsz_. These are bad times. I don't know what I can sayabout Ts'i, except that it appears to be falling into the hands ofthe CH'ÊN family. The prince neglects his people, and consequentlythey turn to the CH'ÊN family for protection. In former times Ts'ihad three grain measures, each a four multiple of the other--etc. Four pints, sixteen pints, sixty-four pints--and finally there wasa large measure containing ten times the last, or 640 pints (orlitres); but the three measures of the CH'ÊN family have each beenraised by one unit, so that three successive fives multiplied byten give 800 pints, and their plan is to make loans of grain withtheir private 8oo-pint measure, and then to take back payments inthe prince's measure. The wood from the mountains is sold in themarket-place as cheaply as on the mountains; fish, salt, clams, and cockles are sold in the market-place as cheaply as on theshore. On the other hand, two-thirds of the produce of thepeople's labour go to the prince, whilst only one-third remainsfor the sustenance of the producers. The prince's stores rot away, whilst our old men die of starvation. False feet are cheaper thanshoes in the market-place (owing to the number of people punishedwith amputation of a foot); the people are smarting with a senseof wrong, and are longing for the advent (of the CH'ÊN family), whom they love as a parent, and towards whom they tend, just aswater runs downhill. Under these circumstances, even if they didnot want to gain the people over, how can they avoid it? The lastsurviving member of that branch of the CH'ÊN family who traced hisdescent to previous dynasties has still left his spirit in theland of Ts'i, though the representatives of the family arenominally subjects of Ts'i. 

_Shuh Hiang_. Yes. And even our ruling house of Tsin hasfallen on degenerate times. Armies are no longer equipped, and ourstatesmen are not ready for war. There is no one to lead thechariots, and our battalions have no competent commanders. Thecommon people are utterly exhausted, whilst the extravagance ofthe palace is unbounded. The starving folk line the roads, whilstmoney is squandered upon female favourites. The commands of theprince are received by the people as though they longed to escapethe clutches of a bandit. The representatives of the eight leadingfamilies who have served the state so long and faithfully arereduced to the most insignificant offices. Government isadministered in certain private interests, and the people have noone to whom to appeal. The ruler shows no sign of amendment, andendeavours to drown his cares in excessive indulgence. When didthe ruling house ever before reach the low depths of to-day? Thewarning oracle inscribed on the tripod says: "However early youmay get to zealous work, your descendants may be lazy. " How muchmore, in the case of a man who will not reform, is disaster likelyto be impending soon!

_Yen-tsz_. What do you propose to do?

_Shuh Hiang_. The ruling house of Tsin is about exhausted. Ihave heard it said that when a ruling house is about to fall, itsfamily members drop off first, like the branches and leaves of astricken tree; and the ruler himself, like the trunk, followssuit. Take my own stock, for instance, which formerly containedeleven family or clan names. The Sheepstongue (_cf_, EnglishSheepshanks) clan is my clan, and the only one now left; and Imyself have no son fit to be my heir. The ruling house isarbitrary and capricious, so that, even if I am fortunate enoughto die in my bed myself, I shall have no one to perform the_sacra_ for me. 

In 513 B. C. Two generals of the Tsin state carried their arms intothe Luh-hun reservation (in modern Ho Nan province), whither, in638 B. C. , the Tartar tribe of that name had been brought to settleby agreement between the two Chinese powers whose territories(Ts'in and Tsin) ran with the Tartars; "and then they drew uponTsin state for four cwt. Of iron, in order to cast a punishmenttripod upon which to inscribe the law-book composed by Fan Süan-tsz (a minister). " Confucius said:--

"It looks as though Tsin were about to perish, as it has made amistake in its calculations. The state of Tsin ought to govern itspeople by maintaining the ancient laws and ordinances received bytheir ancestor who was first enfeoffed there (in 1120 B. C. ), whenthe officers of state would each observe the same in their degree. Thus the people would know how to respect their superiors, and theruling classes would be in a position to maintain theirpatrimonies. The proper balance between superior classes andcommoners is what we call 'ordinance. ' The ruling prince W&n (whoassumed the Protectorship of China in 632 B. C. ) for this reasonestablished an official body of dignitaries, and organized theannual spring revision of the laws of his ancestors as RepresentativeFederal Prince. Now Tsin abandons this system, and makes a tripod, which tripod--will henceforth govern the people's acts. How can theynow respect their superiors (having book to go by)? How can thesuperiors maintain their patrimonies? If superiors and commonersconfuse degree, how can the state go on? Moreover, Süan-tsz'spunishments date from the spring revision (of 621 B. C. ), when confusionand change was going on in Tsin state; how can they take this as afit precedent?"

APPENDIX III

About twenty-five centuries ago--in 546 B. C. , to be precise--theChinese Powers had a "Hague Conference" with a view to thereduction of armaments. This is how Confucius' pupil, Tso K'iu-ming, tells the story in the "Tso Chwan, " or expanded version ofConfucius' "Springs and Autumns" (for convenience the names of theancient States are changed to those of the modern provincescorresponding with them):--

"A statesman of Ho Nan, being on friendly terms with hiscolleagues of Shan Si and Hu P&h, conceived the idea of making aname for himself by proposing a cessation of armaments. He wentfirst to Shan Si, and interviewed the Premier there; the Premierconsulted his colleagues in the Shan Si ministry, and one of themsaid: 'War is ruinous to the people, and a fearful waste ofwealth; it is the curse of the smaller Powers. Although the ideawill come to nothing, we must consent to a conference; otherwiseHu P&h will consent to it first, in order to gain favour with thePowers, and thus we shall lose the predominant position we nowoccupy. ' So Shan Si consented. 

"Then (the narrative continues) Hu Pêh was visited, and alsoconsented. Then Shan Tung (the German sphere now). Shan Tung didnot like the idea; but one of the Shan Tung Ministers said: 'ShanSi and Hu P&h have agreed, and we have no help for it. Besides, the world will say that there would be a cessation of armamentswere it not for our refusal, and thus our own people will voteagainst us. What is the use of that?' So Shan Tung consented. NextShen Si was notified. Shen Si also consented. Then the whole fourgreat Powers notified the minor States, and a great durbar (offourteen States) was held at a minor court in Ho Nan. "

The curious part of it all is that the representative of theEmperor (whose political position was not unlike that of the Popesin Europe since 1870) did not appear at the Conference at all, though all the Great Powers maintained the fiction of grantingprecedence to the Emperor and his nuncios, and even went throughthe form of accepting investiture from him and taking tributepresents to the Imperial Court-when it suited them. 

This celebrated Peace Conference closed the seventy-two years ofalmost incessant war that had been going on between Tsin and Ts'in(Shan Si and Shen Si), apart from the subsidiary war between Tsinand Ts'u (Hu Pêh). 

INDEX

Absorption, ChineseAccadian. See BabylonianAdams, WillAddress, forms ofAdvisers, ChineseAdvisers, TartarAfrican parallelsAgricultureAinus, peopleAlexander the GreatAlienation of fiefsAlliancesAlphabets, imperfection ofAltarsAltars, privateAmbassadors. See Envoys; MissionsAmerican parallelsAnalects of ConfuciusAncestral feelingAncestral sacrificesAncestral tabletsAncestral templesAnglo-Saxon civilizationAn Hwei, provinceAnnals (see History and Bamboo Books)Annam, King ofAnnamese raceAppanages, ducalAquariusArchivesArea of Ancient ChinaArmy organizationArmy provisionArmy, standingArrowsArsenalsAssassinations of princesAssyria. See BabyloniaAstrologyAstronomyAtlanticAugury. See OraclesAugustus, titleAugust Emperor (see First); Second); (Both); (Third)Authorities consultedAxes as emblemsAxles

Babel, Tower ofBabylonian civilization"Babylonian women, "Baghatur, the KhanBamboo BooksBanner garrisonsBanquets, imperialBarbarian influencesBarbarian kings (see King)BarbariansBarbarians, EasternBarbarous godsBarbarous vassalsBaronsBastardsBattles, giganticBeardsBears' pawsBells as music"Bible" of ChinaBismarckBlackwater, riverBlood-drawingBlood-drinkingBlood-smearingBoat travellingBoiling aliveBook of ChouBook of Hia"Book, The"Books, woodenBows and arrows"Boxer" troublesBridgesBritainBronze documentsBruce, MajorBrush for writingBuddhismBuffer statesBuilders, Chinese asBurials. See FuneralsBurma

Cadastral surveysCadizCæsar, titleCalendarsCambodgiaCamelsCanal, GrandCanals, earlyCantonCapitals, imperialCapitals, vassalCapricornCaravansCardinalsCarlyleCarthage. See Phoenicians"Cash"Caste, none in ChinaCaste, royalCaste, rulingCastrationCasuistryCattle tradeCavalryCave-dwellersCeltic migrationCeltic racesCentralizationCentral KingdomCeremonial. See RitesCessions of imperial territory_Chan-Kwoh Ts'êh_Ch'ang, personal nameChang, river_Ch'ang-chon Fu_Chang I, diplomatistCh'ang-sha, modernCh'ang-shuh, cityChanges, Book ofChao, stateCharacters. See WritingChariotsCharitiesCharlemagneChavannes, Professor EdouardChefoo, portChêh Kiang, provinceCh'ên Ch'ang (_tabu_ form of Ch'ên orT'ien H&g)Ch'ên family and stateCh'ên-chou FuChêng, imperial nameChêng, stateCh'éng-tu, city, Chih Li, province, China, ancient nucleus of, China, old name for, (_see_ Hia), China, south, China unified, Chinese advisers, Chinkiang, port, Chivalry, Choh Chou, locality, Chou, collapse of, house, See EmperorChou, Duke of, Chou dynasty, Chou dynasty, end of, Chou principality, Chou, Rites of, (see Rites), Christianity, Chronology, definite, Ch'ung-êrh, prince, Ch'unghou, Manchu envoy, Ch'ung-k'ing, modern, Church, the, Churches, none in China, Chusan Island, Chwang, King of Ts'u, Chwang-tsz, philosopher, Cities, Citizenship, Civilian King, Civilization, advance of, Clan, or gem, Clan, imperial, Classic of poetry, Classic, Law, Classics, Classification of the people, Clay documents, Clerks, See Archives and HistoriographersClerks or precentors, Clients, Coast provinces, Cochin China, Cockfighting, Coffins, Colonization, Chinese, Colours, Comets, Compass, the, Concubines, Conference, See PeaceConfucius, Confucius, his birthday, Confucius, his birthplace, Confucius, his family, Confucius, his History work, Confucius, his liquor, Confucius, his literary labours, Confucius, his tampering, Confucius, his wanderings, Confusion of Tongues, Conqueror (see Founder), Conquest of China, See ChinaConstantinople, Continuity of history, Cooks, Copper, Corea, Coreans, Corpse mutilation, Cosmogony, Cotton, Couches, Country, definition of, Counts, 29 (_see_ Earls), Court duty, Courtesans, Courtesy titles, Courts, vassal, Creation, the, Critics (_see_ Historical), Croesus, Cromwell, Oliver, Cuba, Cultivators, Customs, foreign, Cycles of time, Cyclic dates, Cyrus, Dancing women, Danube, the, Dates, definite, Dates, Julian and Gregorian, Dead, the, Democracy of Lao-tsz, Descent, rules of, Desert, Destruction of literature, Diagrams, Dialects, _Dies nefas, _Diplomatic adventurers, Diplomatic terms, Disciples of Confucius, (see Tso K'iu-ming), Divine right, Diviners, _See_ AstrologyDocuments, Documents in bronze, Documents in stone, Documents in wood, Documents on silk, Dogs, zog, Dog-flesh, Dog Tartars, Door-keepers, Dress, Drums, Drums, stone, Drunkenness, Duke Muh of Ts'in (_see_ Muh), Duke of Chou, Duke of Shao, Duke of Sung, Dukes, Dukes of Confucius, 35, 135Durbars, Dynasties, first (Hia), Dynasties, inter-related, Dynasties, second (Shang), Dynasties, third (Chou), Ears, amputation of, Ears, piercing of, Earls, See CountsEastern Barbarians, Eastern metropolis, Eclipses, Ecliptic, Eden, garden of, Education, 89, Egret fights, Egyptian civilization, Elephants, Embassies, Japanese, Emperor, Emperor Above, or God, Emperor and Tartar marriages, Emperor's appanage, Emperor, collapse of, Emperor, early burial places, Emperor, flights from his capital, Emperor killed by barbarians, Emperor killed by Tartars, Emperor, suzerain, Emperor, title of, Emperor's court, Emperors, dual, "Empire, " names for, Empire, struggle for, Empresses, Empresses--Dowager, Engineering, England, Envoys, Equinoxes, Etiquette, (_see_ Rites), Eunuchs, Europe and China, ancient, European critics, Euphrates, river, Evidence, historical, Exchange currency, Exogamy, Expanded Confucian histories, Explorations, Early Chinese, Expresses, Exterminating punishments, Facing north, south, east, and west, Fah Hien, pilgrim, Fah, personal name, Fairs, Families, branching off of, Families, great, Fan Süan-tsz, statesman, Fasting, Father of Chinese History, (_see_ Sz-ma Ts'ien), Feasts, Federal princes, Fên River, Fêng-siang Fu, Feudal system, Feudal system, destruction of, Fiefs, Fighting State Period, First August Emperor, Fish industry, Five Tyrants, Dictators, or Protectors, See ProtectorsFlags, use of, Flooding cities, Foochow, Food, Foot, length of, Football, Foot-squeezing, Fords, Foreign blood in China, Foreign critics, Foreign languages, Foreign princes, (see Barbarian), Foreign states (politically), Forke, Professor, Formosa, Founder of Chou dynasty, See Martial KingFour seasons, Fowling, French, the, Frontiers, Frontiers, changing, Fu-ch'ai, King of Wu, Fuh Kien, province, Funerals, _Fu-yung_ vassals, Games, Genesis, Geography, ancient, Germans, (_see_ Prussia), Germany, Emperors of, Ghosts, _See_ SpiritsGod, notions of, Gods, _See_ SpiritsGods of rivers, Gods of the harvest, Gods of the land, Gold, Golden Horn, Gordon, General, Gorges of Yang-tsz River, Gospels, the, Government, theory of, Grain trade, Grand Canal, Grants, _See_ FiefsGrapes, Great families, _See_ FamiliesGreat River, (see Yang-tsz), Great Wall, Greece, Greek civilization, Guelph, the name, Gulf of "Pechelee, "Gutchen, locality, Hauge Conference, Hainan Island, Hair, dressing the, Hami, locality, Han dynasty, Han Emperor, Han K'i, statesman, Han, Pass of, Han River, Han, State of, Han Süan-tsz, Handicraft, Handmaids, Hangchow, modern, Hankow, modern, Harashar, locality, Harems, _See_ EunuchsHats, rank in, Hawaii, Head-covering, Heaven, Heaven, Son of, _See Tenshi_Heaven, will of, Hegemons, Five. See ProtectorsHegemony, official, Heirs, Helmets, Hemp, Hereditary offices, Herodotus, "Hia, " meaning "Chinese, "Hia dynasty, Hiang Süh, statesman, Hen city, _Hien_, definition of, Hien-fêng, Emperor, Hien-yang, locality, Hindoo trading colonies, Hindu Kush, Historical critics, Historical manipulations, Historiographers, History, discrepancies in, History, earliest dated, History, early Chinese, History, medieval Chinese, "History, " names for, History, Japanese, History of Shuh, History of Sz Ch'wan, History of Tsin, History, romance of, Hiung-nu, Homage, Ho-nan Fu, Ho Nan Province, Hong Kong, "Horizontal and Perpendicular" Period, Horses, Horse-flesh, Hostages, House of Commons, House of Lords, Houses, Hü, state, Human origins, Human sacrifices, Hu Kwang, province, _See_ Hu PêhHu Nan, province, Hu Pfh, province, (_see_ Hu Kwang), Hundred Yüeh, Hungarian migration, Huns, See Hiung-nuHunts, Hwa, city, Hwai-k'ing Fu, Hwai-nan-tsz, author, Hwai River, Hwai savages, See Eastern BarbariansHwai valley, Hwsn, Duke of Lu, "I, " the words for, I, River, Ich'ang, modern, I-thou Fu, Imagination and fact, Immortality defined, Imperial clan, Imperial residences, Imperial domain, _See_ Dukes and Emperor_Imperator_, the title, Imprecation, Incest, India, Indo-China, Infanticide, Ink, Inscriptions, Intercalary months, International Law, Investiture, Iron trade, Irrigation, Islands, South Sea, Italy, See Roman civilizationIto, Prince or Duke, Ivory, Jade, Japan, Japanese, Japanese civilization, Japanese history, Japanese language, Japanese types, Jêhol, locality, Jesuits, Jews, Jimmu, Mikado, "Joints, " twenty-four, of time, Journey, in days, Judge-made law, _Julia, Lex_, Jungle (see Ts'u state), Jung-tsêh, city, Jurisprudence, K'AI, city, Kakhyens, Kan-thou Fu, K'ang-hi, Emperor, Kashgaria, Keugu, country, (see Wu), Khan, Supreme Tartar, Khoten, _Ki_ clan, K'i principality, Ki-chah, prince of Wu, Kia-ting Fu, Kiang Si, province, Kiang Su, province, Kiang-yin, locality, Kiao Chou, K'ien, River, _King_ (see Ts'u state), King, title of, King-thou Fu, King River, Kings, Tartar, Kitchen middens, Kou-tsien, King, Kruger, President, Kublai Khan, Kuché, locality, Ku-ch'êng, locality, Kumiss, _Kung-tsz_, or son of reigning prince, K'ü-pêh-yüh, Confucius' friend, K'üh-fu, city, K'üh Yüan, poet, Kwa Chou, locality, Kwan-tsz, philosopher, Kwan-tsz, his death, Kwei Chou, province, Kwei-têh Fu, Kwoh Hia, general, _Kwoh Yü_, history, Lai barbarians, Lai-chou Fu, Lakes of Hu Nan and Kiang Si, Lakes of Kiang Su, Lan-thou Fu, Land, belongs to Emperor, Land-owners, Language questions, Lang-ya, locality, Laos tribes, Lao-tsz, philosopher, Lao-tsz's book, Law, Law, natural, Leather chariots, Leather trade, Left and Right, Legal fictions, Legge, Dr. , Legists, _Lex Julia_, Li, Emperor, Li Hung-chang, Li K'wei, lawyer, Li Ping, engineer, Li Tan, See Lao-tszLiang, state, Liao River, Liao Tung, Lieh-tsz, Taoist author, Lin-tsz, city, Literary activity, Literary pedants, Literature, destruction of, Literature, early, Liu Hia, person, Liu K'un-yih, viceroy, Livadia, Treaty of, Loadstone, Lob Nor, Local customs, _Loess_ territory, Loh River, Loh-yang (see Ho-nan Fu and Capitals), Lolo, tribes, Long Tartars, Loss of rule, Lu, extinction of, Lu, Lu stripped of territory, Luh-fu, personal name, Lunations, Luni-solar years, Macedon, _Maire du palais_, Males, Seven, Manchu dynasty, Manchuria, Manchus, Manes, Maps, Marco Polo, Markets, Marquesses, Marriages, exogamic, Marriages, imperial, Marriages, Tartar, Marriages, vassal, Marseilles, Martial King, the; (see Founder and Warrior), Mats, Meat eating, Meat, gifts of sacrificial, Medicine, Memorizing books, Mencius, philosopher, Mêng, Ford, Merchants, logMercury, Meridians, Mesne-lords, Metals, Meteors, Metropolis, 279 (see Capitals), Miao-tsz tribes, Migrating birds, Migration, Mikado, _See_ JimmuMining, Ministers of State, Missions, (see Envoys; Embassies), Modern ideas, Modernism, Mon, people, Monaco, Money, Mongolia, Mongols, Monosyllabic language, Months and moons, Moon, proclaiming the, Moon, sacrifice at full, Morals, Mothers, quality of, See WivesMourning and War, Mourning customs, Muh (T'ien-tsz or) Emperor, Muh, Duke of Ts'in, Mulberry trees, _Municipia_, Music, Mustard, Mutilation, Mutilation of corpses, Names, ancient and modern place, Names, Chinese proper, Names, clan, Names, personal, Names, posthumous, Names, Tartar, "Naming" process, Nanking, modern, Nan-yang Fu, Napoleon, National colours, See FlagsNatural law, Nature, Naval fights, Navigable rivers, Navigation by sea, Needles, Nepaul, Ngwei, state, Nien-po, locality, Nine Tripods, Ningpo, modern, Nomad horsemen, Norman feudal system, Nose-cutting, Nosu. See LoloNucleus of old China (see China), Oaths, Odes, Odes, Book of, Okuma, Count, Omens, Opium, Oppolzer's dates, Oracles, consulting, Oranges, Orthodox Chinese, Orthodox courts, Ouigours, _Oviet_, See Yüeh

PA, state, Pagodas, Palaces, Pao-ch'êng, locality, Paper, invention of, Paranymphs, Pass, frontier, Paterfamilias, Patriarchal rule, Peace Conference, "Pechelee" Gulf, Pedantry, Pedigree, Pêh K'i, General, Peking, modern, Peking plain, Pelasgi, People, the, Period, Protector, "Perpendicular and Horizontal" Period, Persia, Persian civilization, Personal causes of war, Personal names, Philosophy, Phoenicians, Physicians, Pigs, "Piled Stones, " locality, Pilgrimages, Pillars of Hercules, P'ing-yang Fu, Pisces, Pivot points, historical, Ploughed fields, Ploughman Emperor, Poetry, See OdesPoetry, classic, See OdesPolice, Politeness, Political intrigue, Pope, comparison with the, Population, Population, non-Chinese, Posterity, importance of, Posthumous names, Posthumous titles, Powers, great, Prayer, Precedence, Premiers, _See_ MinistersPresage, See AstrologyPresents from Emperor, Priestly caste, no, Princesses, Principalities, (see Fiefs), Prisons, Prisoners of war, Proclaiming the law, Proclaiming the moon, Proclamation, Progress in China, Promontory, Shan Tung, Prophecy, (see Astrology and Oracles), Propriety, Prostitution, Protector, First, Protector, Protector, Third, Protectors, Joint, Protectors of China, Proverbs, Prussia, P'u-chou Fu, P'uh, barbarians, Punishment, Punishments, barbarous, Purification, Pyrrhus, Quelpaert, Island, Quicksilver, Race feeling, Racing, Railway, "British, "Ranks of nobility, Ranks, official, Records, (see History), Redwater, River, Regency, See Duke of ChouReign periods, Religion, none in ancient China, Religion of Confucius (so-called), Religious compromise, Remains, ancient, Rénan, Ernest, Residences at the metropolis, Revolutionary literature, Rice, Right and Left, Rites, See RitualRites, Book of, Rites of Chou, Ritual, Ritual chivalry, Ritual, Shinto, Rivers and migration, Rivers and navigation, Road, begging, Roads, Roman civilization, Royal caste, Rulers, divine right of, Rulers, tyranny of, Russia, Sacrifices, Sacrifices, drum, Sacrifices, family, Sacrifices, human, Sacrifices, spring and autumn, Sacrificial meat, _Saga_ literature, Sagittarius, Salary in grain, Salt flats, Salt trade, Sanctions, solemn, Savages, _See_ BarbariansScandinavia, Sceptres, Science and religion, Scottish parallels, Scripture, Scythians, See Turks and Hiung-nuSea, little known, Seal character, Seals, Seasons, Semi-mythical times, Septimius Severus, Settled communities, Seven States, Sha-Shï, modern, Shakespeare, Shan-hai Kiwan, Shan races, Shan Si, province, Shan Tung, province, Shang dynasty, Shang, principality, _Shang Ti_, title, _Shanghai_, modern, Shao, Duke of (in Yen), Shao-hing, modern, Sheba, Queen of, _Shên-wu_, Mikado (see Jimmu), Shen Si, province, _Shï-ki_, history, Shintö ritual, Shipbuilding, Shipping, early, Shou-mêng, King of Wu, Shrines, Shuh Hiang, statesman, Shuh, state, Shun, Emperor, Siam, Siang, Emperor, Siang-yang city, Siberia, Sin, idea of, Si-ngan Fu, Sinim, land of, Si-ning, locality, Silk, Silk industry, Silk, writing on, sisters as joint wives, _Siwangmu_, country and ruler, Six Kingdoms, Six states (south), slavery, smearing blood, smearing lips with blood, Solstices, Son of Heaven, Songs, 154 (_see_ Odes), Soochow city, Soochow Creek, Soothsayers, Soul, the, Söul (Corea), South, facing, South China, South Sea, South Sea Islands, Southern Yüeh, Sovereign quality, Spanish parallels, Spinning, Spirits, (see Wine), Spirits and ghosts, Spiritual power, Sport, Spring and Autumn Annals, Spring functions, Standards, See FlagsStates, size of, Statesmen, intimacy of, Statistics, absence of, Stone documents, Stone drums, Struggle for empire, Succession questions, Sii Chou, Suicide, Sultans of Turkey, Sun, facing the, Sun, movements of, Sung as Protector, Sung, state, Sung's diplomatic position, Supernatural agencies, Superstition, Surnames, Surveys, Su Ts'in, diplomatist, Swords, Sz, the River, Sz Ch'wan history, Sz Ch'wan, province, Sz-ma Kwang, Sz-ma Ts'ien, Tablets, ancestral, Tablets, documentary, See DocumentsTabu, T'ai Hu, lake, T'ai-p'ing rebels, T'ai-shan, mountain, Ta-liang, capital, Tan, historiographer, Tan-yang, locality, T'ang dynasty, _Tao_, or the way, Taoists, Tarim valley, Tartar advisers, "Tartar, " ambiguity of word, Tartar cart-houses, Tartar Emperors, Tartar Empire, Tartar-Generals, Tartar kings, Tartar pedigrees, Tartar treaties, Tartar wives, Tartars, Tartars annexed, Tartars kill Emperor, Tartars, Northern, Tartars, Western, Tartary, Tattooing, Taxation, Tea, Têh-an, locality, Temple of Heaven, Temples in China, See AncestralTêng, state, _Tenshi_, or T'ien-tsz, Territorial names, Teutonic migrations, Theatricals, Thicket country, See _King_Tho, people, Three Miao, Three Tsin, _Ti_, the word, or Emperor, Tibet, Tibetans, T'ien (disguised form of Ch'en) family, T'ien H&g, Tientsin, modern, Tillage, (see Agriculture), Tin Islands, Titles of vassal rulers, Tobacco, Tombs, Tombs, ancient, Tombs, desecration of, Tombs of Emperors, Tones, Chinese, Tonic languages, Tonquin, Tonquin, early relations with, Tortoises, T'ouman, personal name, Tower of Babel, Trade, Traditions, Treaties, Treaties, Chinese vassal, Treaties, faithlessness to, Treaties, Tartar, Tribute, Tribute of Yii, Triennial homage, Tripods, Nine, Trophies, war, Tropics, Ts'ai, state, Tsaidam, Ts'ao Wên-chung, statesman, Ts'ao, state, Ts'ao-thou Fu, Tschepe, Father, S. J. , Ts'i a Tartar power, Ts'i and Tsin cooperation, Ts'i and Ts'u wars, Ts'i-nan Fu, Ts'i revolution, Tsi, River, Ts'i, state, Ts'i's gay capital, Ts'i's hegemony, Ts'i's hospitality, Ts'i's luxury, Tsin and Ts'i wars, Tsin and Ts'in wars, Tsin and Ts'u wars, Tsin, extension of, Tsin, half Tartar, T'sin, history of, Tsin, New, Tsin, Old, Tsin, state, Tsin, Three, Tsin's division, T's'in and Tsin wars, T's'in and Ts'u cooperation, T's'in empire, T's'in history, T's'in not literary, Ts'in Protector, Ts'in, state, Ts'in's isolation, Ts'in's kindness to Tsin, Ts'in's Tartar blood, Ts'ing-chou Fu, Ts'ing-tao, See Kiao ChouTso Chwan, history, Tso K'iu-ming, historian, Ts'u a literary state, Ts'u and Ts'i wars, Ts'u and Tsin wars, Ts'u and Ts'in straggle for empire, Ts'u and Wu wars, Ts'u as a suzerain, Ts'u as Protector, Ts'u extinguishes LuTs'u, foreign bloodTs'u, progress ofTs'u, state (_see_ Jungle)TsushimaTsz-ch'an_Tsz-chi T'ung-kien_, HistoryT'ung-thou FuTung-t'ing LakeTungusesTun-hwang, localityTurfan, localityTurkestanTurkestan, Early travels toTurksTurning-points in historyTurtlesTwelve mansionsTwelve TablesTyrants, Five, See Protectors

Ultima ThuleUncle, political status ofUrumtsi, localityUsuryUviet (see Yiieh)

ValuablesVarnish for writingVassal princesVassals, barbarousVicar of GodVictims in sacrificeVictory, praying forVietnam, See YiiehViscountsVoltaire on Chinese eclipsesVows, _See_ Oaths and Sanctions

WagnerWall, GreatWalls of citiesWanderings of Second ProtectorWang, titleWar, See WarfareWar-chariotsWar, etiquette ofWarfare, ChineseWarrior King, See Martial KingWater-coursesWealth, ideas ofWei (Ngwei), stateWei Kiang (of Tsin)Wei, RiverWei, stateWei, ValleyWei Yang, statesmanHeights and MeasuresWei-hai-weiWei-hwei FuW&chowWên WangWestern filtration of ideasWestern marches of ChinaWheelbarrowsWidowsWilliam HI. Of EnglandWineWives, classes ofWizards_Wo_, name for JapaneseWomen, position ofWorship or sacrificeWriting, ancientWriting brushWriting modifiedWriting unknown to Tartars, etc. Written charactersWu and Ts'u warsWu and Ytieh warsWu as ProtectorWu extinguishedWu, state"Wu, " the wordWu's pedigreeWu's progressWuhu, modernWu-sih, localityWusung RiverWu Wang

Ya-chou FuYamagata, Prince or Duke_Yamêns_Yang Chou, provinceYangchowYang-tsz, joined to HwaiYang-tsz, mouths ofYang-tsz, RiverYao, EmperorYear, theYellow River as boundary its early course its later courses its lower course its northern bank Tartars its northern bend its southern bendYen, state ofYen-tsz, philosopherYih-ch'êng, localityYing, clan-nameYu, EmperorYii, EmperorYii Chou, localityYü-yüeh, See UvietYiian Shi-k'ai, ViceroyYiieh, Shan Tung capital ofYiieh as ProtectorYüeh destroys WuYiieh, SouthernYiieh, stateYiieh, the HundredYung-ning, localityYün Nan, province

ZodiacZoroaster