I HAVE divided this Book into three chapters:--one, consisting of brief historical notes of the commencement and close of Wû's expedition; a second, giving the address (or a part of it) delivered by Wû to his nobles and officers on occasion, we may suppose, of their recognition of him as king, and his confirming some of them in their old states or appointments, and giving new ones to others; the third again historical, and relating several incidents of the battle between Wû and Shâu, and going on to subsequent events and important governmental measures of the new dynasty. Most Chinese critics hold that portions of the Book are lost, and that the paragraphs of it are, besides, erroneously arranged. In what division of the documents of the Shû it should be classified, it is not easy to say. It is more like a 'Canon' than anything else. 1. In the first month, the day Zăn-khăn immediately followed the end of the moon's waning. The next day was Kwei-kî, when the king, in the morning, marched from Kâu 1 to attack and punish Shang. In the fourth month, at the first appearance of the moon, the king came from Shang to Făng 2, when he hushed all the movements of war, and proceeded to cultivate the arts of peace. He sent back his horses to the south of mount Hwâ,
On the day Ting-Wei, he sacrificed in the ancestral temple of Kâu, when (the princes) of the royal domain, and of the Tien, Hâu, and Wei domains, all hurried about, carrying the dishes." The third day after was Kăng-hsü, when he presented a burnt-offering to Heaven, and worshipped towards the hills and rivers, solemnly announcing the successful completion of the war.* After the moon began to wane, the hereditary princes of the various states, and all the officers, received their appointments from Kâu 2. 2. The king spoke to the following effect:--'Oh! ye host of princes, the first of our kings 3 founded his state, and commenced (the enlargement of) its territory. Kung Liû, 4 was able to consolidate the services of his predecessor. But it was the king Thâi who laid the foundations of the royal inheritance. The king Kî was diligent for the royal House; and my deceased father, king Wăn, completed his merit, and grandly received the appointment
He arranged the nobles in five orders 4, assigning the territories to them according to a threefold
133:1 Kâu is, probably, Wû's capital, called Hâo, about ten miles south of the present district city of Khang-an, and not quite so far from his father's capital of Făng. The river Făng ran between them. 133:2 In Făng there was the ancestral temple of the lords of Kâu, and thither from the capital of Shang, Wû now repaired for the purpose of sacrificing. 134:1 The country about the hill of Mû-niû or Khwâ-fû, in the southeast of the present department of Thung-kâu. Thâo-lin may be translated 'Peach-forest.' 134:2 The new dynasty of Kâu was now fully inaugurated. 134:3 By 'the first of our kings,' we must understand Khî, Shun's Minister of Agriculture; and his state was that of Thâi. 134:4 Kung Lîu, perhaps 'duke Lîu,' appears in Pin, the present Pin Kâu of Shen-hsî, about the beginning of the eighteenth century B.C., reviving the fallen fortunes of the House of Khî. History is then silent about the family for more than four centuries, when we find Than-fû, called here 'king Thâi,' founding the state of Kâu. 135:1 Probably mount Hwâ and the Ho. 136:1 Shang Yung must have been some worthy in disgrace with Shâu, and living in the retirement of his village. 136:2 The Stag Tower was the name of a place in the present department of Wei-hui, Ho-nan, where Shâu had accumulated great treasures. He fled to it after his defeat, and burned himself to death; but it would appear he had not succeeded in consuming at the same time all his wealth. 136:3 Kü-khiâo was in the present district of Khü-kâu, department Kwang-phing, Kih-lî, where Shâu had collected great stores of grain. 136:4 Dukes, marquises, earls, counts, and barons. 137:1 Dukes and marquises had the same amount of territory assigned to them, and counts and barons also.
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