THIS Announcement was, like the last, made to Făng, the prince of Khang, about the time when he was invested with the principality of Wei. Mention has often been made in previous documents of the Shû of the drunken debauchery of Kieh as the chief cause of the downfall of the dynasty of Hsiâ, and of the same vice in Kâu-hsin, the last of the kings of
Dr. Williams, in his Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language (Shanghai, 1874), gives this account of Kiû:--'Liquor; it includes spirits, wine, beer, and other drinks. The Chinese make no wine, and chiefly distil. their liquors, and say that Tû Khang, a woman of the Tî tribes, first made it.' This account is to a considerable extent correct. The Chinese distil their liquors. I never saw beer or porter of native production among them, though according to Dr. Edkins they had been brewing 'or nearly so' for more than 3000 years. Among his examples of the use of Kiû, Williams gives the combinations of 'red Kiû for claret, 'white Kiû' for sherry, and 'pî (simply phonetical) Kiû' for beer, adding that they 'are all terms of foreign origin! What he says about the traditional account of the first maker of Kiû is not correct. It is said certainly that this was Tû Khang, but who he was, or when he lived, I have never been able to discover. Some identify him with to, said by Williams to have been 'a woman of the Tî tribes.' The attributing of the invention to Î-tî is probably an independent tradition. We find it in the 'Plans of the Warring States' (ch. xiv, art. 10), a work covering about four centuries from the death of Confucius:--'Anciently, the daughter of the Tî ordered Î-tî to make Kiû. She admired it, and presented some to Yü, who drank it, and found it pleasant. He then discarded Î-tî, and denounced the use of such generous Kiû, saying, "In future ages there are sure to be those who by Kiû will lose their states' According to this tradition intoxicating Kiû was known in the time of Yü--in the twenty-third century B.C. The daughter of the Tî would be Yü's wife, and Î-tî would probably be their cook. It does not appear as the name of a woman, or one from the wild Tî tribes.
With regard to the phrase Shâo Kiû, said to be the proper term for ardent spirits, and unknown in China till the Yüan dynasty, a reference to the Khang-hsî Tonic Thesaurus of the language will show instances of its use as early at least as the Thang dynasty (A.D. 618-906).]
1. The king speaks to the following effect:--'Do
'When your reverent father, the king Wăn, laid the foundations of our kingdom in the western region, he delivered announcements and cautions to (the princes of) the various regions, and to all his (high) officers, with their assistants, and the managers of affairs, saying, morning and evening, "At sacrifices spirits should be employed."* When Heaven was sending down its favouring decree, and laying the foundations of (the eminence of) our people, (spirits) were used only at the great sacrifices. When Heaven sends down its terrors, and our people are thereby greatly disorganized and lose their virtue, this may be traced invariably to their indulgence in spirits; yea, the ruin of states, small and great, (by these terrors), has been caused invariably by their guilt in the use of spirits 2.
He said, 'Let my people teach their young men that they are to love only the productions of the soil, for so will their hearts be good. Let the young also hearken wisely to the constant instructions of their fathers; and let them look at all virtuous actions, whether great or small, in the same light (with watchful heed).
'(Ye people of) the land of Mei, if you can employ your limbs, largely cultivating your millets, and hastening about in the service of your fathers and elders; and if, with your carts and oxen, you traffic diligently to a distance, that you may thereby filially minister to your parents; then, when your parents are happy, you may set forth your spirits clear and strong, and use them 2.
'Hearken constantly to my instructions, all ye my (high) officers and ye heads of departments, all ye, my noble chiefs;--when ye have largely done your
'I have heard it said likewise, that the last successor of those kings was addicted to drink, so that no charges came from him brightly before the people, and he was (as if) reverently and unchangingly bent on doing and cherishing what provoked resentment. Greatly abandoned to extraordinary lewdness and dissipation, for pleasure's sake he sacrificed all his majesty. The people were all sorely grieved and wounded in heart; but he gave himself wildly up to drink, not thinking of restraining himself. but continuing his excess, till his mind was frenzied, and he had no fear of death His crimes (accumulated) in the capital of Shang: and though the extinction of the dynasty (was imminent), this gave him no concern, and he wrought not that any sacrifices of fragrant virtue might ascend to Heaven.* The rank odour of the people's resentments, and the drunkenness of his herd of creatures, went loudly up on high, so that Heaven sent down ruin on Yin,
'If you are informed that there are companies that drink together, do not fail to apprehend them all, and send them here to Kâu, where I may put them to death. As to the ministers and officers of Yin who were led to it and became addicted to drink, it is not necessary to put them to death (at once);--let them be taught for a time. If they follow these (lessons of mine), I will give them bright distinction. If they disregard my lessons, then I, the One man, will show them no pity. As 174:1 There is a place called 'the village of Mei,' in the north of the present district of Khî, department Wei-hui, Ho-nan;--a relic of the ancient name of the whole territory. The royal domain of Shang, north from the capital, was all called Mei. Fang's principality of Wei must have embraced most of it. 174:2 Kû Hsî says upon the meaning of the expressions 'Heaven was sending down its favouring decree' (its order to make Kiû, as he understood the language), and 'when Heaven sends down its terrors,' in this paragraph:--'Kang Nan-hsien has brought out the meaning of these two statements much better than any of the critics who went before him, to the following effect:--Kiû is a thing intended to be used in offering sacrifices and in entertaining guests;--such employment of it. is what Heaven has prescribed. But men by their abuse of Kiû come to lose their virtue, and destroy their persons;--such employment of it is what Heaven has annexed its terrors to. The Buddhists, hating the use of things where Heaven sends down its terrors, put away as well the use of them which Heaven has prescribed. It is not so with us of the learned (i.e. the Confucian or orthodox) school;--we only put 175:2 Here is another permissible use of spirits;--at family feasts, with a view especially to the comfort of the aged. 176:1 Tî-yî was the father of Kâu-hsin, the twenty-seventh Shang sovereign. The sovereigns between Thang and him had not all been good, but the duke of Kâu chooses here to say so. 177:1 These were the first, second, third, and fifth domains or territorial divisions of the land under Kâu, counting back from the royal domain. It appears here that an arrangement akin to that of Kâu had been made in the time of Shang.