DOCTRINES OF THE SHOO KING. 53 he proceeds: "When ruin overtakes Shang, I will not be the servant of another dynasty. But I tell you, O king's son, to go away as being the course for you. . . Let us rest quietly in our several parts, and present ourselves to the former kings. I do not think of making my escape.' In another portion of the Shoo the causes which lead to the preservation or loss of Heaven's favour are thus described by "The Duke of Chow: "-"The favour of Heaven is not easily preserved. Heaven is hard to be depended on. Men lose its favouring appointment because they cannot pursue and carry out the reverence and brilliant virtue of their forefathers." Again :-"Heaven is not to be trusted. Our course is simply to seek the prolongation of the virtue of the Tranquillising king, and Heaven will not find occasion to remove its favouring decree which King Wan received." 2 The paramount importance to the national welfare of a wise selection of ministers and officials receives its full share of attention in the Chinese Bible. The Duke of Ts'in, another province of the Empire, is represented as speaking thus: "I have deeply thought and concluded;-Let me have but one resolute minister, plain and sincere, without other abilities, but having a simple, complacent mind, and possessed of generosity, regarding the talents of others, as if he himself possessed them: and when he finds accomplished and sage-like men, loving them in his heart more than his mouth expresses, really showing himself able to bear them:-such a minister would be able to preserve my descendants 1 Shoo King, iv. II. 2 Ibid., v. 16. 1. and my people, and would indeed be a giver of benefits. '1 These extracts, without giving an adequate notion of the very miscellaneous contents of the Shoo King, a work which could not be accomplished without an undue extension of the subdivision referring to it, will serve to show that its moral tone on matters relating to the government of a nation is not inferior to that of any of the productions of classical or Hebrew antiquity. SUBDIVISION 6.-The She King. Whatever sanctity or authority may attach to the She King in the minds of the Chinese, must belong to it solely on account of its antiquity, for there is certainly nothing in the character of its contents that should entitle it to a place in the consecrated literature of a nation. Similar phenomena, however, are not unknown among more devout races than the Chinese. Thus the Hebrews admitted into their Canon the Books of Ruth and Esther, and the Song of Solomon, which contain but little of an edifying nature, though full of human interest. The same may be said of the She King. The play of human emotions is vividly represented in it, but there is not much in which moral or religious lessons are to be found, except by doing violence to the text. The She King is a collection of ancient poems. Tradition attributes the arrangement and selection of the Odes now contained in it to Confucius, who is supposed to have selected them in accordance with 1 Shoo King, v. 30. See also v. 19. 2. THE POEMS OF THE SHE KING. 55 some wise design from a much larger number. The present translator, however, assigns reasons for rejecting this tradition, and for believing that the She King was current in China long before his time in a form not very different from that in which we now possess it. At the present day, its songs have not lost their ancient popularity, for it is stated that they are "the favourite study of the better informed at the present remote period. Every well-educated Chinese has the most celebrated pieces by heart, and there are constant allusions to them in modern poetry and writings of all kinds."1 The poems, which were collected from many different provinces, relate to a great variety of subjects. Some are political, some domestic; some sacrificial, others festive. We have rulers addressing the princes of their kingdom in laudatory terms, and princes in their turn extolling the ruler; complaints of unemployed politicians, and groans from oppressed subjects; husbands deploring their absence from their wives on military service; forlorn wives longing for the return of absent husbands; stanzas written by lovers to their mistresses, and maidens' invocations of their lovers; along with a few allusions to amatory transactions of a more questionable character. All these miscellaneous matters are treated in short, simple, and rather monotonous poems, which, if they have any beauty in the original, have completely lost it in the process of translation. There is sometimes pathos in the feelings uttered; but the expressions are of the most direct and unornamental kind, and the whole book partakes largely of that artlessness which we have noted as one of the ordinary marks of Sacred Books. 1 Davis' Chinese, ii. 60. A few specimens will suffice. Here is the " protest of a widow against being urged to marry again :" I. "It floats about, that boat of cypress wood, 2. There in the middle of the Ho. With his two tufts of hair falling over his forehead; He was my mate; And I swear that till death I will have no other. O mother, O Heaven, Why will you not understand me? . "It floats about, that boat of cypress wood, There by the side of the Ho. With his two tufts of hair falling over his forehead; He was my only one; And I swear that till death I will not do the evil thing. Why will you not understand me?" 1 In the following lines a young lady begs her lover to be more cautious in his advances, and that in a tone which may remind us of Nausikaa's request to Odysseus to walk at some distance behind her, lest the busybodies of the town should take occasion to gossip : 1. "I pray you, Mr Chung, Do not come leaping into my hamlet; Do not break my willow-trees. Do I care for them? But I fear my parents. You, O Chung, are to be loved, But the words of my parents 2. "I pray you, Mr Chung, Do not come leaping over my wall; Do I care for them? But I fear the words of my brothers. Are also to be feared. 1 She King, i. 4. I. SPECIMEN ODES FROM THE SHE KING. 3. "I pray you, Mr Chung, Do not come leaping into my garden; Do not break my sandal-trees. Do I care for them? But I dread the talk of people. You, O Chung, are to be loved, Is also to be feared." 57 The following Ode, conceived in a different spirit, will serve to illustrate one of the most prominent features of Chinese character as depicted in these ancient books, its filial piety. It is supposed to be the composition of a young monarch who has just succeeded to the government of his kingdom : "Alas for me, who am [as] a little child, On whom has devolved the unsettled State! Solitary am I and full of distress. Oh my great Father, All thy life long, thou wast filial. "Thou didst think of my great grandfather, [Seeing him, as it were] ascending and descending in the court. Day and night will be so reverent. "Oh ye great kings, As your successor, I will strive not to forget you.' "3 SUBDIVISION 7.-The Ch'un Ts'ëw. According to Chinese tradition, the Ch'un Ts'ëw, or Spring and Autumn, was the production of Confucius himself; not indeed his original composition, but a compilation made by him from 1 She King, i. 7. 2. Not literally a child. "Little child" is the usual style of Chinese rulers when designing to express feelings of modesty and religious reverence. 3 She King, iv. 1. [iii.] 1. |