Charles Darwin - "The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication"

Angela Brazil - "The Jolliest School of All"

Various - "Notes and Queries, Number 191, June 25, 1853"

William S. Sadler - "The Mother and Her Child"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

Ancient China Simplified

E >> Edward Harper Parker >> Ancient China Simplified




CHAPTER XIX

_CONFUCIUS AND LITERATURE_

Life-time of Confucius--Secret of his influence--Visit of the Wu
prince to Confucius' state--Lu's "powerful" family plague--Lu's
position between Tsin and Ts'u influences--Ts'i studies the ritual
in Lu: Yen-tsz goes thither--Sketch of Lu history in its
connection with Confucius--What were his practical objects?--
Authorities in support of what Confucius' Annals tell us--Original
conception of natural religion--Spread of the earliest patriarchal
Chinese state--No other people near them possessed letters--The
way in which the Chinese spread--Lines of least resistance--The
spiritual emperor compared with some of the Popes--Lu's spiritual
position--Confucius of Sung descent, and at first not an
influential official in Lu--Lu's humiliation--Ts'i's intrigues to
counteract Confucius' genius--Travels of Confucius and his
history--His edited works.

CHAPTER XX

_LAW_

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

CHAPTER XXI

_PUBLIC WORKS_

Engineering works of old Emperors--Marvellous chiselled gorge
above Tch'ang--Pa and Shuh kingdoms (= Sz Ch'wan)--The engineer Li
Ping in Sz Ch'wan: his sluices still in working order after 2200
years of use--Chinese ideas about the sources of the Yang-tsz--The
Lolo country and its independence--The Yellow River and its
vagaries--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 of
the Canal by the First August Emperor--Kublai Khan's share in it--
The old Wu capital--Soochow and its ancient arsenals--No bridges
in old clays: fords used--Instances--Limited navigability of
northern rivers--Various Great Walls--Enormous waste of human
life--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 of
Ts'in and China--Magnificence of Ts'i capital--Ts'u's palaces
imitated in Lu--The capital of Wu--Modern Soochow--Nothing known
of early Ts'in towns--Reforms of Wei Yang in Ts'in--Probable
population--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 that
the ruling caste of Japan was influenced by Chinese colonists in
the fifth century B.C.--Rise of Yueh, and action in China as
Protector--Changes in the Hwai River system--Last days of the Chou
dynasty--The year 403 B.C. is the second great pivot point in
history--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 of
Ts'in after two centuries of stagnation--The reforms of Wei Yang
lead to the conquest of China--Orthodox China compared with
Greece--The "Fighting State" Period.

CHAPTER XXIV

_KINGS AND NOBLES_

Titles of the Emperors of the Chou dynasty--The word "King" in
modern 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 was
recognized by the Emperor as possessing the same title as the
Emperor--The Roman Emperors--The five ranks of nobles--The
Emperor's private "dukes" compared with cardinals--The state of
Lu--The state of Ts'i--The state of Tsin--No race hatreds in
China--The state of Wei--Clanship between dynasties--Sacrificial
rights--The state of Cheng: a fighting ground for all--The state
of Ch'en--Explanation of the term "duke" as applied to all
sovereign princes.

CHAPTER XXV

_VASSALS AND EMPEROR_

The vassal princes of the Chou and previous dynasties--Vassal
princes and their relations with the Emperors--Protectors make
great show of defending the Emperors rights--The Emperor's
sacrifices to God--Rules and rights concerning fees--All China
belongs to the Emperor--Peculiar notions about the Emperor's
territory--Respect due to imperial envoys--Direct and indirect
vassals--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 not
inherited during mourning--Forms of address--Rival Protectors and
their respective subordinate states--Tribute from the states to
the Emperor, and presents from the Emperor to the vassal states--
The Emperor accepts _faits accomplis_, and takes what he can
get.

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 of
orderly method in Chinese history--How the statesmen of each
vassal state developed resources--Ts'in's military development
compared with that of Prussia from 1815 to 1870--"Perpendicular
and Horizontal" period--Object to crush Ts'in--Rival claimants for
universal empire--First appearance of the Huns or Turks-Helpless
position of Old China--Bloody battles in Ts'in's final career of
conquest--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 of
Chinese advance--Methods of Chinese colonization--Equal pedigree
claims of half-Chinese states--Tsin and Ts'i were even more
ancient than orthodox China--Degree of foreignness in Ts'u-Ts'u
native words and music--Ts'u peculiarities-Succession laws in Ts'u
and Lu compared--Further evidence of Ts'u's foreign ways--Beards--
Titles, posthumous and other--Ts'u admits her own savagery--Ts'u's
claim to the Nine Tripods--Ts'u and the Chou rites--Ts'u's gradual
civilization--Confucius' admiration of Ts'u--Confucius' style in
speaking of barbarians--Distinction between "beat" and "battle"--
German distinctions of rank compared with Chinese--The historical
honour of "naming"--Vagueness of testimony and the way to test
evidence.

CHAPTER XXVIII

_BARBARIANS_

The state of Wu--First Chinese princely emigrants adopted
barbarian usages--The Jungle country and Wu--Wu's way of doing the
hair and Wu's confession of barbarism--Federal China uses Wu
against Ts'u--Wu the same language and manners as Yueh--Native Wu
words--Wu's ignorance of war--Wu's early isolation--Ts'i enters
into marriage relations with Wu--Mencius objects retrospectively--
Wu ruling caste--The Wu language--Succession laws of Wu--A Wu
prince's views on the soul--Confucius' views on ghosts--Ki-chah's
intimacy with orthodox statesmen--Rumours of Early Japan--Japan
and Wu tattooing customs alike--Japanese traditions of a
connection with Wu--Dangers of etymological guess-work--Doubts
about racial matters in Wu--Small value of Japanese history and
tradition--General conclusions.

CHAPTER XXIX

_CURIOUS CUSTOMS_

Small size of ancient China--Description of ancient nucleus and
surrounding barbarians--Amount of foreign element in each vassal
state--Policy of the Ts'i and Lu administrations--The savage
tribes of the eastern coasts--Persistency of some down to 970
A.D.--Ts'in's unliterary quality--Her human sacrifices--Her
Turkish blood--Late influence of the Emperors over Ts'in--Ts'in's
gradual civilization--Ki-chah on Ts'in music--Ts'u treats Ts'in as
barbarian still in 361 B.C.--Ts'in's isolation previous to 326
B.C.--Tartar rule of succession at one time in Ts'in--Yiieh's
barbarism--Its able king--Native name--Mushroom existence as a
power--The various branches of the Yiieh race in Foochow, W&chow,
and Tonquin--Wu and Yiieh spoke the same language--Ruling caste of
Wu--Stern military discipline in Wu and Yiieh--Neither state
proved to have had human sacrifices--Crawling customs--Ancient
Chinese descent of rulers--Yiieh's later capital in the German
sphere--Her power always marine.

CHAPTER XXX

_LITERARY RELATIONS_

Literary relations between vassal states--Confucius set the ball
of philosophy a-rolling--The fourfold "Bible" of China--Odes were
generally known by heart--Comparison with President Kruger and his
texts--Quotations from Odes and Book enable us to fix dates--Books
were heavy weights in those days--People trusted to memory--The
Rites more exclusively understood by the ruling classes--
Comparison with Johnsonian wits--Instances cited, with side
proofs--History and Classics corroborate each other-Evidences--
Confucius' ancestor composes odes--Political song by the children
of Tsin--Another still-existing ode in reference to the Second
Protector--Ts'u's early literary knowledge--General knowledge of
Odes and History--Ignorance of Ts'in-Ts'in ancient documents the
only ones now remaining--First definite notion of abolishing the
feudal system--The pivot point 403 B.C.--Ts'in's conquests in
north, south, east, and west--The First August Emperor's travels--
Lao-tsz's Taoist philosophy becomes fashionable--Ts'in's hatred of
orthodox literature, and of the Odes and Book in particular--The
Book of Changes escapes his hatred--Revolutionary decree of the
First August Emperor-Lost annals of all feudal states but Ts'in--
Learned Tartars of Tsin-Confucius used Tsin annals too--Origin of
the name _Shi-ki,_ or "Historical Annals"--Further evidence
of 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 are
not much changed now--Traders then, as now, but no through
travellers--Chinese probably in China for myriads of years before
their records began--Tonic peculiarities of all tribes near China
except the Tartars--Chinese followed lines of least resistance--
Tartars driven back, but difficult to absorb--So with Coreans and
Japanese-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 of
ancient emperors in north, coast, and south parts--Suggestions as
to how the most ancient Chinese spread themselves--No hint of
immigration from anywhere--The old suggestion of immigration from
the Tarim Valley and Babylonia--Suggested compromise with Western
religious views--Creation and Nature--Compromise with the
supernatural and imaginative--Summing up.

CHAPTER XXXII

_THE CALENDAR_

The Chinese calendar--Confucius and eclipses--Proclaiming the new
moon--Celestial observations in different states--Chinese year is
luni-Solar--Difficulty with the exact length of a moon--Ingenious
devices for bringing the solar and lunar years, the seasons,
solstices, and equinoxes into harmony with agricultural needs--The
sixty-year cycle--Various reforms of the calendar, and various
changes in the month beginning the year--Effect of calendar
changes on Confucius' birthday--All is evidence in favour of
accuracy of the Chinese records.

CHAPTER XXXIII

_NAMES_

The difficulty of proper names--Instances-Clans and detached
families--Surnames and personal names--Strange personal
appellations--Interchange of names by all states--Eunuchs and
priests-Minute rules about "naming" individuals--Confucius conveys
praise or censure by "naming" persons--The principles upon which
several names are applied to one person--Tabu-Instances, and Roman
parallel--The Duke of Chou virtual founder of posthumous name
system--Dying king and posthumous choice of name--Incestuous
marriages in own clan--Hushing up incest in high places--
Complication of names connected--Bearing of names upon the
political events connected therewith.

CHAPTER XXXIV

_EUNUCHS, HUMAN SACRIFICES, FOOD_

Eunuchs and their origin--criminals with feet chopped off as
keepers--Noseless criminals for isolated picket duty--The branded
were gate-keepers--Eunuchs for the harem--"Purified men"--
Comparative antiquity of Persia and China--Eunuchs in Tsin--Ts'i
eunuchs and Confucius--Eunuchs in Wu--Ts'u's uses for eunuchs--
Eunuch intrigues in connection with the First August Emperor--The
First Emperor's putative father--His works--Eunuch witnesses
assassination of Second August Emperor--General employ of eunuchs
in China--Human sacrifices in Ts'in and Ts'u: also in Ts'i--Doubts
as to its existence in orthodox China--Han Emperor's prohibition--
No fruit wine in ancient China--Spirits universal--Vice around
ancient China rather than in it--Instances of heavy drinking in
Ts'i and Ts'u--Tsin drinking--Confucius and liquor--Drinking in
Ts'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 of
destroyed state annals-Exaggerated importance of the expedition,
even if facts true--King Muh's father was killed in a similar
expedition--Discovery of the Bamboo Books of 299 B.C. in 281 A.D.--
Imaginary interpretations put upon King Muh's expedition by
European critics--The Queen of Sheba--Professor Chavannes
attributes the travels of Duke Muh of Ts'in 650 B.C.--Description
of first journey--Along the great road to Lob Nor-Modern evidence
that he got as far as Urumtsi--Six hundred days, or 12,000 miles--
Specific evidence as to distance travelled each day--Various
Tartar incidents of the journey--The Emperor's infatuation on the
second journey--Lieh-tsz, the Taoist philosopher, on the Emperor
Muh's travels--Arguments qualifying M. Chavannes' view that Duke
Muh, 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 and
his wars against Yiieh--Offered an asylum in Chusan--Suicide of
Fu-ch'ai--Escape of his family across the seas to Japan--China
knew nothing of Japan, even if Wu did--Story reduced to its true
proportions--Traces of prehistoric men in Japan--Possible
movements of original inhabitants--Existing evidence better than
none at all--East from Ningpo must be Japan--Like early Greeks and
Egyptian colonists--Natural impulses to emigration--Refugees from
China compared to Will Adams--Natural desire to improve pedigrees--
No shame to Japan's ruling caste to hail from China--European
comparisons--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 instances
of succession rules--Status of wives-Cases where the Emperor
himself breaks the rules--Instances of irregular succession in
various states--Customs of war--Cutting off the left ear as
trophy--Rewards for heads--Principles of facing north and south--
Turning towards Mecca--Left and Right princes--Modern instances of
official seating--North and south facing houses--Chivalrous rules
about mourning--Funeral missions--The feudal yearnings of
Confucius explained--Respect even of barbarians for mourning--Many
other quaint instances of funeral and mourning rules--Promises
made to a dying _non compos_ of no avail--Mencius and the
diplomatists.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

_WOMEN AND MORALS_

Rights of women in ancient China--The legal rule and the actual
fact--Instances of irregularity in female status, both in ancient
and modern China--Instances of incest and irregular marriage even
in orthodox states-Women, once married, not to come back--The
much-married Second Protector--Hun and Turk customs about taking
over Wives--Clan marriages of doubtful legality--Succession rules--
Ts'u irregularities and caprice--Elder brothers by inferior
wives--Paranymphs, or under-studies of the wife--Women always
under some man's power--Incestuous fathers--_Lex Julia_ introduced
into Yiieh by its vengeful King--The evil morals of the Shanghai-Ningpo
region of ancient Yiieh--No prostitution in ancient China, except perhaps
in 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 nothing
of 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 emigration
of the Chinese--Some traditions of Chinese migrations from the
south--Traditions of enfeoffment of vassals in Corea, about 1122
B.C.--Knowledge of China as defined by the First Protector, and as
visited by the Second in the seventh century B.C.--Evidence of the
Emperor's limited knowledge of China in 670 B.C.--Yiieh first
appears in 536 B.C.--Tsin never saw the sea till 589 B.C.--Ts'i's
ignorance of the south-u, Yiieh, and Ts'u all purely Yang-tsz
riverine states--Ts'u alone knew the south--CHENG's ignorance of
the south--Ts'u and orthodox China of the same ancient stock--
Tsin's ignorance of Central China--Tsin defines Chinese limits for
Ts'u--Ancient orthodox nucleus was the "Central State," a name
still employed to mean "China" as a whole.

CHAPTER XL

_TOMBS AND REMAINS._

Evidences still remaining in the shape of the tombs of great
historical personages--Elephants used to work at the Wu tombs--
Royal Ts'u tomb desecrated--Relics of 1122 B.C. found in Lu--Ts'in
destitute of relics--Confucius and the Duke of Chou's relics--Each
generation of Chinese sees and doubts not of its own antiquities--
No reason for European scepticism--Native critics know much more
than 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--Chou
ancestors had originally fled from China to the Tartars--Chou
family's subsequent dealings with the Tartars--How Ts'in replaced
Chou as the semi-Tartar or westernmost state of China--Tartars for
many centuries in possession of Yellow River north bank--Once
extended to Kiang Su province--Confucius' knowledge of the
Tartars--Tartar attacks in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C.--
Causes of the Protector system--Incompetence of Emperors to stave
off Tartar attacks--Ts'i's extensive relations with the Tartars--
The Second Protector and his adviser--Rude treatment of the Second
Protector 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--How
Tartars have in modern times ruled China and Asia.

CHAPTER XLII

_MUSIC_

Music in Chinese life--Confucius' present dwelling and the ancient
instruments therein--Comparison with Wagner's Ring--Musicians as
corrupters of simplicity--Tsin and Ts'in dialects--Music as an
adjunct to government--Confucius' views on music--Ts'u music--The
effect of music on the mind--Rewards in the shape of right to play
certain tunes--The Emperor Muh's music--Music coupled with
soothsaying--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--Inlaid
ivory sofas--State treasure--Wealth in horses-Silks and furs in
Tsin and Ts'u--Women as property--Pearls and jade as portable
property--A Chinese Crocesus--Escape by sea to Shan Tung--Gold as
money--Bribery with "metal"--Iron and gold mines in Wu--Fine Wu
swords--"Cash" as coins--Ts'u money--Weight of a gold piece--Cooks
important personages--"Meat-eaters" meant the ruling classes--
Silk universal--Poor wore hemp--No cotton--Ts'in custom of wearing
swords--Jade marks of rank--Sports--Egret fights-war hunts--Horses
in Peking plain--Hunting chariots and "shaft-gates"--_Yamen,
ya_, and Turkish encampments--Cockfighting-Lifting heavy
weights--Ball games--Women at looms--Little said of family life--
No homely pastimes--No squeezed feet--Helplessness of the people
under their taskmasters.

CHAPTER XLIV

_CONFUCIUS_

Confucius--His merits--His imperial and ducal origin--Migration of
his family from Sung to Lu--His warrior father--His quaint
childish fancies--Lu officer foretells his greatness--His first
pupils--His appointment as steward--His visit to Laos--No reason
for 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 discusses
Ts'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 literary
labours--His official posts and his views on law--Ts'i overborne
by Wu--Ts'i's attempt at assassination defeated by Confucius'
diplomacy--Treaty between Lu and Ts'i--Civil war in Lu--Confucius
Premier--Successful administration--Confucius leaves Lu in
disgust--His treatment in Wei state--Leaves Wei, but returns to
old friend there--Confucius' suspicious visit to a lady--Leaves
disgusted _via_ Sung for Ts'ao--Visits to Cheng (mistaken for
Tsz-ch'an) and Ch'en--A prey to rival ambitions--Episode of the
Manchurian 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 literary
status--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--Consoles
himself with literature--Popularizes history-Edits the Changes and
the 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--His
artful censures--Sanctity of the classes--Confucius' meannesses
and indiscretions--Allowances must be made for time and place--
Tsz-ch'an quite as good a man--Reasons for permanency of Confucian
system--Reasons for Lao-tsz not being mentioned--All Chinese
statesman-philosophers were, or tried to be, practical--First
mention of Lao-tsz's new Taoism--Lao-tsz well known 400 B.C.--
State intercourse before Confucius' time--Philosophy taught by
word of mouth--Cheapening of books accounts for spread of
knowledge--Description of ancient books--Confucius was young when
he visited Lao-tsz--Lao-t&s book in ancient character--Meagreness
of 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 foreign
critics.

CHAPTER XLVI

_ORACLES AND OMENS_

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

CHAPTER XLVII

_RULERS AND PEOPLE_

Personal character of wars--People's interests ignored--Instances--
Comparisons with the Golden Fleece and Naboth's vineyard--Second
Protector avenges scurvy treatment--The halt, the maim, and the
blind--Jephthah's rash vow-Divinity of kings--Ts'u more tyrannical
than China--Responsibility of Chinese before Heaven--The King can
do no wrong--Emperors reign under Heaven--Heaven in the confidence
of rulers--Sacred person of kings--Distinction between official
and private death--Double chivalry of a Tsin general--The gods and
Tsz-ch'an's scepticism.

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