Ancient China Simplified

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2. The Yang-tsz had three branches: (1) northern, much as now; (2)
middle, branching at modern Wuhu, crossing the T'ai-hu Lake, and
following 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 the
capitals of Wu (respectively near Wu-sih and Soochow) and Yiieh
(near Shao-hing). The modern canal from Hangchow to Shan Tung is
clearly indicated. Orthodox China knew absolutely nothing of Cheh
Kiang, Fuh Kien, or Kiang Si provinces south of lat. 300.]

In recognition of this civilized move on the part of an ancient
family, Confucius in his history grants the rank of "viscount" to
the King of Wu, but he does not style Ki-chah by the complimentary
title 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, and
with that name the posthumous title of _Kung_, or "duke"'
applied to all civilized rulers. Yet it is evident that the ruling
caste of Wu considered itself superior to the surrounding tribes,
for in the year 493 it was remarked: "We here in Wu are entirely
surrounded by savages"; and in 481 the Emperor himself sent a
message through Tsin to Wu, saying: "I know that you are busy with
the savages you have on hand at present." In the year 482, when
the orthodox princes of Sung, Wei, and Lu were holding off from an
alliance with Wu, the prince of Wei was detained by a Wu general,
but escaped, and set to work to learn the language of Wu. The
motive is of no importance; but the clear statement about a
different language, or at least a dialect so different that it
required special study, is interesting. When Ki-chah was on his
travels, he explained to his friends that the law of succession
is: "By the rites to the eldest, as established by our ancestors
and by the customs of the country." In 502 the King of Wu was
embarrassed about his successor, whose character did not commend
itself to him, His counsellor (a refugee from Ts'u) said: "Order
in the state ceases if the succession be interrupted; by ancient
law son should succeed father deceased." Thus it seems that the
ancient Chou rules had been conveyed to Wu by the first colonists
in 1200 B.C., and that the succession laws differed from those of
Ts'u. Ki-chah's son died whilst he was on his travels, and
Confucius is reported to have said: "He is a man who understands
the rites; let us see what he does." Ki-chah bared his left arm
and shoulder, marched thrice round the grave, and said: "Flesh and
bone back to the earth, as is proper; as to the soul, let it go
anywhere it chooses!" This language was approved by Confucius, who
himself 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 first
sight it would appear strange that a barbarous country like Wu
should suddenly produce a learned prince who at once captivated by
his 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 the
distinguished statesmen of China; but if we reflect that, within
half a century, the greatest naval, military, and scientific
geniuses have been produced on Western lines in Japan (as we shall
soon see, in some way connected with Wu), at least we find good
modern parallels for the phenomenon.

When Wu, after a series of bloody wars with Ts'u and Yiieh, was in
473 finally extinguished by the latter power, a portion of the
King of Wu's family escaped in boats in an easterly direction. At
this time not only was Japan unknown to China under that name, but
also quite unheard of under any name whatever. It was not until
150 years later that the powerful states of Yen and Ts'i, which,
roughly speaking, divided with them the eastern part of the modern
province of Chih Li, the northern part of Shan Tung, and the whole
coasts of the Gulf of "Pechelee," began to talk vaguely of some
mysterious and beautiful islands lying in the sea to the east.
When the First August Emperor had conquered China, he made several
tours to the Shan Tung promontory, to the site of the former Yueh
capital (modern Kiao Chou), to the treaty-port of Chefoo (where he
left an inscription), to the Shan-hai Kwan Pass, and to the
neighbourhood of Ningpo. He also had heard rumours of these
mysterious islands, and he therefore sent a physician of his staff
with a number of young people to make inquiry, and colonize the
place if possible. They brought back absurd stories of some
monstrous fish that had interfered with their landing, and they
reported that these fish could only be frightened away by
tattooing the body as the natives did, The people of Wu, who were
great fisherfolk and mariners, were also stated to have indulged
in universal tattooing because they wished to frighten dangerous
fish away. The first mission from Japan, then a congeries of petty
states, totally unacquainted with writing or records, came to
China in the first century of our era; it was not sent by the
central King, but only by one of the island princes. Later
embassies from and to Japan disclose the fact that the Japanese
themselves had traditions of their descent both from ancient
Chinese Emperors and from the founder of Wu, i.e. from the Chou
prince who went there in 1200 B.C.; of the medical mission sent by
the First August Emperor; of the flight from Wu in 473 B.C. of
part of the royal Wu family to Japan; and of other similar
matters--all apparently tending to show that the refugees from Wu
really did reach Japan; that a very early shipping intercourse had
probably existed between Japan, Ts'i, and Wu; and that, in
addition to the statements made by later Chinese historians to the
effect that the Japanese considered themselves in some way
hereditarily connected with Wu, the early Japanese traditions and
histories (genuine or concocted) themselves separately repeated
the story. One of the later Chinese histories says of Wu: "Part of
the king's family escaped and founded the kingdom of Wo" (the
ancient name for the Japanese race): the temptation to connect
this word with _Wu_ is obvious; but etymology will not tolerate
such an identification, either from a Chinese or a Japanese point of
view; the etymological "values" are _Ua_ and Gu respectively.

As in the case of Ts'u, there is no really trustworthy evidence to
show of what race or races, and in what proportions, the bulk of
the Wu population consisted; still less is there any specific
evidence to show to what race the barbarian king who committed
suicide in 473 belonged; or if those of his family who escaped
were wholly or partly Chinese; or if any pure descent existed at
all in royal circles, dating, that is to say, from the ancient
colonists of the imperial Chou family in 1200 B.C.

So far as purely Chinese traditions and history go, the cumulative
evidence, such as it is, needs careful sifting, and is, perhaps,
worth a more thorough examination; but as to the Japanese
traditions and early "history," these, as the Japanese themselves
admit, were only put together in written form retrospectively in
the eighth century A.D., and throughout they show signs of having
been deliberately concocted on the Chinese lines; that is, Chinese
historical incidents and phraseology are worked into the narrative
of supposed Japanese events, and Japanese emperors or empresses
are (admittedly) fitted with posthumous names mostly copied from
imperial Chinese posthumous names. By themselves they are almost
valueless, so far as the fixing of specific dates and the
identification of political events are concerned; and even when
taken as ancillary to contemporary Chinese evidence, except in so
far as a few Chinese misprints or errors may be more clearly
indicated by comparison with them, they seem equally valueless
either to confirm, to check, to modify, or to contradict the
Chinese accounts, which, indeed, are absolutely the sole
trustworthy written evidence either we or the Japanese themselves
possess about the actual condition of the Japanese 2000 years ago.

Meanwhile, as to Wu, all we can say with certainty is, that there
is a persistent rumour or tradition that some of its royal
refugees (themselves of unknown race) who escaped in boats
eastward, 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 may
have quietly and informally introduced Chinese words, ideas, and
methods, several centuries before known and formal intercourse
between Japan and China took place.

CHAPTER XXIX

CURIOUS CUSTOMS

In laying stress upon the barbarous, or semi-barbarous, quality of
the states (all in our days considered pure Chinese), which
surrounded 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 quite
clear, perhaps not even made patent by their own critics to the
Chinese themselves; that is to say, the very small and modest
beginnings of the civilized patriarchal federation called the
Central Kingdom, or _Chu Hia_--"All the Hia"--just as we say,
"All the Russias."

In allotting precedence to the various states, the historical
editors, of course, always put the Emperor first in order of
mention; then comes CHENG, the first ruler of which state was son
of an Emperor of the then ruling imperial house; next, the three
Protectors Ts'i, Tsin, and Sung; then follow the petty states of
Wei, Ts'ai, Ts'ao, and T'eng, all of the imperial family name, or,
as we say in English, "surname," and all lying between the Hwai
and the Sz systems (T'eng was a "belonging state" of Lu). Then
come half a dozen petty orthodox states of less honourable family
names; next, three Eastern barbarian states, which had become
"Central Kingdom," or which, once genuine Chinese, had become half
barbarian; and finally, Ts'u, Ts'in, Wu, and Yiieh, which were
frankly, if vaguely, "outer barbarian-Tartar."

It has already been demonstrated that there is evidence, however
imperfect, to show that the mass of the population of Ts'u and Wu
were of decidedly foreign origin. Even as to Ts'i, which was
always treated as an orthodox principality, it is stated that the
founder sent there in or about 1100 B.C. "conformed to the manners
of the place, and encouraged manufactures, commerce, salt and fish
industries." On the other hand, the son of the Duke of Chou (the
first vassal prince appointed by his brother the Emperor) changed
the customs of Lu, modified the local rites, and induced the
people to keep on their mourning attire for three full years. It
was considered that the Ts'i policy was the wiser of the two, and
it was foretold that Lu would always "look up to" Ts'i in
consequence of this superior judgment on the part of Ts'i. On
frequent occasions the petty adjoining "Chinesified" states, of
which Lu was practically the mesne lord, are stated to have been
"tainted with Eastern barbarian rites." From and including modern
Sue-chou (North Kiang Su) and eastward, all were "Eastern
barbarians"; in fact, the city just named (mentioned by the name
of _Sue_ in 1100 B.C., and again about 950 B.C., as revolting
against the Emperor) perpetuates the "Sue barbarians" country,
which was for long a bone of contention between Ts'i and Ts'u, and
afterwards Wu; and the name "Hwai savages" proves that the Lower
Hwai Valley was also independent. The Hwai savages, who appear in
the Tribute of Yue, founder of the Hia dynasty, 2205 B.C., revolted
1000 years later against the founders of the Chou dynasty. They
were present at Ts'u's first durbar in 538 B.C., and are mentioned
as barbarians still resisting Chinese methods so late as A.D. 970.
In Confucius' time the Lai barbarians (modern Lai-thou Fu in the
German sphere) were employed by Ts'i, who had conquered them in
567 B.C., to try and effect the assassination of Confucius'
master. Six hundred years before that, these same barbarians were
among the first to give in their submission to the founder of
Ts'i; and in 602 B.C. both Ts'i and Lu had endeavoured to crush
them.

As to the state of Ts'in, there is not a single instance given of
any literary conversation or correspondence held by an orthodox
high functionary with a Ts'in statesman. While it is not yet quite
clear that orthodox China can shake herself entirely free of the
reproach of human sacrifices in all senses, it is quite certain
that Ts'in had a barbarous and exclusive notoriety in this
regard'; and, as the Hiung-nu Tartars also practised it, and Ts'in
was at least half Tartar in blood, it is probable that she derived
her sanguinary notions from this blood connection with the Turko-
Scythian tribes. On the death of the Ts'in ruler in 678 B.C., the
first recorded human sacrifices were made, "sixty-six individuals
following the dead." In 621, on the death of the celebrated Duke
Muh, 177 persons lost their lives, and the people of Ts'in, in
pity, "composed the Yellow Bird Ode" (of these popular Chinese
odes more anon). This holocaust was given as one reason why Ts'in
could never "rule in the East," _i.e._ assume the Protectorate over
the orthodox powers all lying to its east, on account of this cruel defect
in 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 the
innovation more cheaply) abolished the principle of human sacrifices
at the death of a ruler. Ten years later, the Emperor's astrologer paid
a visit to Ts'in;--evidence that the imperial civilizing influence was
still, at least morally, active, This astrologer and historiographer,
whose name was Tan, is interesting, inasmuch as he has been
confused with Li Tan (the personal name of the philosopher Lao-
tsz, who was also an imperial official employed in the historiographical
department). It is added that, previous to this visit, for five hundred
years Ts'in and Chou had kept apart from each other. Notwithstanding
this prohibition of human sacrifices, when the First August Emperor of
Universal 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 with
him. Besides this, all the workmen who had made the secret door and
passage to his grave were cemented in alive, so that they might never
disclose the secret of its approaches.

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

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

As to Yueeh, there is no question as to its barbarism, though the
one single king around whose name centres the whole glory of Yiieh
(Kou-tsien, 496-475) seems to have been a man of great ability and
some fine feeling. The native name for Yiieh was _Yue-yueeh_,
as stated in Chapter VII.; and it seems likely that all the coast
of China down to Tonquin, or Northern Annam, was then inhabited by
cognate tribes, all having the syllable _Yueeh_, or _Viet_, in
their names. The great empire or kingdom of Yiieh, founded upon
the ruins of Wu, soon split up into the "Hundred Yiieh," i.e. (probably)
it relapsed into its native barbarism, and ceased to cohere as a
political factor. "Southern Yueeh" (the Canton region) has undoubted
historical connections with the Tonquin part of Annam, and several
other of the subdivisions of Yiieh, corresponding to Foochow, Wenchow,
etc., show distinct traces of having belonged to the same race. But it is
unsafe to say how the Chinese-transcribed name Yii-yiieh was
pronounced; still more unsafe is it to argue that it must have been _U_
or _O-viet_ simply because the Annamese so pronounce the word
now. We have seen that, according to one historical statement, the
Wu and Yiieh people spoke the same language; in which case the
members of the ruling Wu caste who fled to Japan in 473 B.C. were
probably not of the same race as the "savages around them." As an
act of bravado, in 481, the King of Wu made five condemned
centurions cut their own throats before the Tsin envoy, in order
to show what effectively stern discipline he kept, In 484 the King
of Yiieh had already committed a similar act of bravado; but
neither of these barbarian states is distinctly recorded to have
indulged in human sacrifices at the death of a sovereign. Previous
to the crushing of Wu by Yiieh, in 473 B.C., Yiieh was nearly
annihilated by Wu, and on this occasion Kou-tsien's envoy
advanced crawling on his knees to beg for mercy; this is hardly an
orthodox Chinese custom. However barbarous Yiieh may have been,
its ruling house possessed traditions of descent, through a
concubine, from an emperor of the Hia dynasty; for which reason
the founder was enfeoffed, near modern Shao-hing, west of Ningpo,
in order to fulfil the sacrifices to the founder of the Hia
dynasty, who was, and is, supposed to be buried there: like the
first colonists who migrated to Wu, he cut his hair, tattooed
himself, 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 the
high-road to China proper. The term originated in times when Ts'u
had not yet become a recognized "Hia." The fact that Yueeh, with
its new capital then in Shan Tung, could never govern the Yang-tsz
and Hwai inland regions, seems to prove that her power was always
purely a water power, and that she was comparatively ignorant of
land campaigns.

CHAPTER XXX

LITERARY RELATIONS

It is instructive to inquire what were the literary relations
between the distinguished statesmen and active princes who moved
about quite freely within the limited area so frequently alluded
to in foregoing pages as being sacrosanct to civilization and the
rites. There seems good reason to suppose that the literary
activity 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 drenched
the royal courts of the Six Kingdoms was in part the consequence
of Confucius' own efforts in the literary line. In the pre-
Confucian days there is little evidence of the existence of any
literature at all beyond the Odes, the Changes, the Book, and the
Rites, which, after a lapse of 2500 years or more, are still the
"Bible" of China. The Odes, of which 3000 were popularly known
previous to Confucius' recension, seem to have been originally
composed here and there, and passed from mouth to mouth, by the
people of each orthodox state under impulse of strong passion,
feeling, or suffering; or some of them may even have been
committed to writing by learned folk in touch with the people.
Naturally, those songs which specially treated of local matters
would be locally popular; but it would seem that a large number of
them must have been generally known by heart by the whole educated
body all over orthodox China, It will be remembered that in the
year 1900, an enterprising American newspaper correspondent took
advantage of President Kruger's penchant for quoting Scripture,
and telegraphed to him daily texts, selected as applicable to the
event, for which the replies to be sent were always prepaid. For
instance, on news of a British victory, the American would
telegraph: "Victory stayeth not always with the righteous"; on
which President Kruger would promptly rejoin: "Yet shall I smite
him, even unto the end." This was the plan followed by Chinese
envoys, statesmen, and princes in their intercourse with each
other: no matter what event transpired, Ki-chah, or Tsz-ch'an, or
Shuh Hiang would illustrate it with an ode, or with a reference to
the "Book" (of history), or by an appeal to the Rites of Chou, or
to some obscure astrological or cosmogonical development extracted
from the mystic diagrams of "The Changes." As often as not, the
quotations given from the Odes and Book no longer exist in the
editions of those two classics which have come down to us. This
fact is interesting as proving that the _Tso Chwan_--or Commentary of
Confucius' pupil Tso K'iu-ming on Confucius' own bare notes of history--
must have been written before Confucius' expurgated Book of Odes
reduced and fixed the number of selected songs; or, at all events,
the records from which Tso K'iu-ming took his quotations must have
existed before either he or Confucius composed their respective annals
and comments. In the times when a book the size of a three-volume
novel of to-day would mean a mule-load of bamboo splinters or wooden
tablets, it is absurd to suppose that generals in the field, or envoys on
the march, could carry their Odes bodily about with them: it is even
probable that the four "scriptural" books in question were
exclusively committed to memory by the general public, and that
not more than half a dozen varnish-written copies existed in any
state; possibly not more than one copy. In fact, the only
available literary exhilaration then open to cultured friends was
to check the memory on visiting strange lands by comparing the
texts of Odes, Changes, or Book. A knowledge of the Rites would
perhaps be confined to the ruling classes almost entirely, for
with them it lay to pronounce the religious, the ritual, the
social, or the administrative sanction applicable to each
contested set of circumstances. It is very much as though,--as was
indeed the case in Johnsonian times,--the French, English, and
German wits of the day, and occasionally distinguished literary
specimens of even more "barbarous" countries, should at a literary
conference indulge in quotations from Horace or Juvenal by way of
passing the time: they would not select the Twelve Tables or the
Laws of the Pr'tors as matter for the testing of learning.

To take a few instances. In 559 the ruler of Wei had severely
beaten his court music-master for failing to teach a concubine how
to play the lute. One day the prince invited to dinner some
statesmen, the father of one of whom had taken offence at the
prince's rudeness; and he ordered the same musician to strike up
the last stanza of a certain ode hinting at treason, which the
malicious performer did in such a way as to give further offence
to the father through his son, and to bring about the dethronement
of the indiscreet prince. It gives us confidence in the truth of
these anecdotes when we find that K'ue-peh-yueh was consulted by the
offended father as to what course he ought to pursue. This Wei
statesman, who has already been twice mentioned in connection with
other matters, met Ki-chah of Wu when the latter visited that
state in 544, and he was also an admired senior acquaintance of
Confucius himself, whom he twice lodged at his house for many
months. Three chapters of the "Book" still remain, after
Confucius' manipulations of it, to prove how Wei was first
enfeoffed by the Duke of Chou, and one of the Odes actually sings
the praises of a Ts'i princess who married the prince of Wei in
753 B.C. Thus we see that the ancient classics are intertwined and
mutually corroborative.

When the Second Protector (the last of the four Tartar-born
brothers to succeed to the Tsin throne) was on his wanderings in
644 B.C., the Marquess of Ts'i gave him a daughter, of whom he
became so enamoured that he seemed to be neglecting his political
chances amid the pleasures of a foreign country, instead of
endeavouring to regain his rightful throne at home. This princess
first of all quoted an ode from the group treating of CHENG
affairs, and secondly cited an apt saying from what she "had
heard" the great Ts'i philosopher Kwan-tsz had said, her object
being to promote her lively husband's political interests. This
all took place a few years after Kwan-tsz's death, and 200 years
after the founding of CHENG state, and is therefore indirect
confirmation of the fact that Kwan-tsz was already a well-known
authority, and that contemporary affairs were usually "sung of" in
all the orthodox states.

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