ART. XVII.—Ssŭma Ch‘ien's Historical Records. By HERBERT J. ALLEN, M.R.A.S.
(Continued from page 110, January number.)
CHAPTER III. The Yin Dynasty.
Hsieh of Yin's mother was Chien Ti, who was one of the daughters of Yusung
Hsieh (documents) died, and his son Chaoming (luminous) succeeded him.
Chaoming died, and his son Hsiangt‘u (view land) succeeded him.
Hsiangt‘u died, and his son Ch‘ang Jo (bright-like) succeeded him.
Ch‘ang Jo died, and his son Ts‘ao Yü (cattle-pens) succeeded him.
Ts‘ao Yü died, and his son Ming (obscure) succeeded him.
Ming died, and his son Chên (shake) succeeded him.
Chên died, and his son Wei (diminutive) succeeded him.
Wei died, and his son Paoting (report D) succeeded him.
Paoting died, and his son Paoyi (report B) succeeded him.
Paoyi died, and his son Paoping (report C) succeeded him.
Paoping died, and his son Chujên (lord I) succeeded him.
Chujên died, and his son Chu Kuei (lord J) succeeded him.
Chu Kuei died, and his son T‘ien Yi (Heaven B) or T‘ang the Completer succeeded him.
Emperor "Waiping" reigned "three years," and died, and his brother Chungjên (Middle I), that is Emperor Chungjên, came to the throne.
Emperor "Chungjên" reigned "four years," and died. Iyin then set T‘aiting's son, T‘aichia (Great A), on the throne. He was T‘ang the Completer's eldest legitimate grandson. This was Emperor T‘aichia. 'Great Master' died, and his son Wuting (Glossy D) came to the throne. In Emperor Wuting's reign, Iyin died. Wuting died, and his brother T‘aikêng (Great G), that is Emperor T‘aikêng, came to the throne. Emperor T‘aikêng died, and his son Emperor Hsiaochia (Little A) came to the throne. Emperor Hsiaochia died, and his brother Yungchi (Harmonious F), that is Emperor Yungchi, came to the throne. The influence of the Yin dynasty beginning to decline, the princes occasionally neglected to come to court. Emperor Yungchi died, and his brother T‘aimou (Great E), that is Emperor T‘aimou, came to the throne. In his reign Middle Master died, and his son Emperor Chungting (Middle D) came to the throne. Emperor Emperor Chungting died, and his brother Waijên (Outer I), that is Emperor Waijen, came to the throne. The omissions in the book 'Chungting' were not supplied. Emperor Waijên died, and his brother Hotanchia (River
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Truth A), that is Emperor Hotanchia, came to the throne. In his time the influence of Yin again began to wane. Hotanchia died, and his son Emperor Tsuyi (Ancestor B) came to the throne. In Emperor Tsuyi's time Yin again prospered, and the wizard Hsien held office. Tsuyi died, and his son Emperor Tsuhsin (Ancestor H) came to the throne. Emperor Tsuhsin died, and his brother Wuchia (Glossy A), i.e. Emperor Wuchia, came to the throne. Emperor Wuchia died, and Tsuting (Ancestor D), that is Emperor Tsuting, who was Wuchia's elder brother, was put on the throne. Emperor Tsuting died, and his brother Wuchia's son, Nankêng (South G), that is Emperor Nankêng, was put on the throne. Emperor Nankêng died, and Emperor Tsuting's son Yangchia (Male A), that is Emperor Yangchia, was put on the throne. In his reign the power of the Yins declined. Ever since the reign of Chungting the legitimate heir had been set aside, and junior scions put on the throne instead. These used to fight and displace each other. For the last nine generations there had been anarchy, and the princes neglected to come to court. Emperor Yangchia died, and his brother Pankêng (Plate G), that is Emperor Pankêng, came to the throne. In his reign the Yins had their capital on the north of the Yellow river, but Pankêng crossed to the south of the river, and reoccupied the old palace of T‘ang the Completer. This Emperor Pankêng died, and his brother Hsiaohsin (Little H), that is Emperor Hsiaohsin, came to the throne. In his reign the power of Yin was again on the wane. The people remembered Pankêng, and Emperor Hsiaohsin died, and his brother Hsiaoyi (Little B), that is Emperor Hsiaoyi, came to the throne. Emperor Hsiaoyi died, and his son Emperor Wuting (Martial D) came to the throne. When Emperor Wuting was on the throne, he pondered how the Yin dynasty could be revivified, but as he had not obtained an assistant he Emperor Wuting died, and his son Emperor Tsukêng (Ancestor G) came to the throne. Tsuchi commended Wuting for considering the omen of the pheasant as a ground for practising virtue, and conferred on him the posthumous title of 'exalted ancestor,' and Emperor Tsukêng died, and his brother Tsuchia (Ancestor A), that is Emperor Chia, came to the throne. He was dissipated, and the fortunes of Yin again waned. Emperor Chia died, and his son Emperor Linhsin (Granary H) sat on the throne. Emperor Linhsin died, and his brother Kêngting (G. D), that is Emperor Kêngting, sat on the throne. Emperor Kêngting died, and his son Emperor Wuyi (Martial B) sat on the throne. The Yins again left Po, and crossed to the north bank of the river. The Emperor Wuyi was unprincipled and made images, which he called 'Heavenly gods.' With these he played chess, ordering some one to make the moves for them; and when the 'celestial gods' did not win he abused them, and making a leather bag, filled it with blood, threw it up and shot at it. This he called shooting at Heaven. While Wuyi was hunting between the Yellow and Wei rivers, there was a clap of thunder, and Wuyi was struck dead by lightning. His son Emperor T‘aiting (Great D) came to the throne. Emperor T‘aiting died, and his son Emperor Yi (B) sat on the throne. In his reign the fortunes of Yin declined still further. Emperor Yi's (B) eldest son was Ch‘i, viscount of Wei. Ch‘i's mother being of low caste, he could not be heir to the throne. His younger son was Hsin (H), whose mother was the principal consort, and so he became the heir-apparent. Emperor Yi died, and his son Hsin sat on the throne. Emperor Hsin was called by everybody in the empire Chou (the tyrant). Emperor Chou's discrimination was acute, his hearing and sight particularly good, his natural abilities extraordinary, and his physical strength equal to that of a wild beast. He had cunning enough to evade reproofs, and volubility enough to gloss over his faults. He boasted that he was above his ministers on the ground of ability, and that he surpassed the people of the empire on account of his reputation. He indulged in wine, women, and lusts of all sorts. His partiality for Tachi (Actress F) caused him to carry out whatever she desired, so that his ministers had to devise new forms of dissipation, the most depraved dances and extravagant music; he increased the taxation in order to fill the Stag tower with money, and to store the granary at 'Big bridge.' He made a collection of dogs, horses, and curiosities, with which he filled his palaces; and enlarging his parks and towers at Shach‘iu,
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procured numbers of wild beasts and birds and put them therein. He slighted the spirits, assembled a great number of play actors at Shach‘iu, made a pond of wine, hung the trees with meat, made men and women chase each other about quite naked, and had drinking bouts the whole night long. The people murmured, and when the nobles rebelled Chouhsin increased the severity of his punishments, instituting the punishment of roasting. After the death of King Wu of Chou, Wukêng, Kuanshu, and Ts‘aishu rebelled. King Ch‘eng ordered the duke of Chou to execute them, and the viscount of Wei was established in the Sung State to continue (the ancestral worship as) a descendant of the Yins. {This series of translations was apparently never continued in JRAS.} 1 The term Yusung is doubtless a variant of Yu-hsiung, one of the names of the 'Yellow Emperor' of the first chapter of the Records. The second of the two characters may also be read Jung, for it is the same as the ordinary one for 'Jung,' with the addition of the determinative 'woman' (###), as M. Lacouperie has already pointed out. Ssŭma Ch‘ien, in his history of the Hsiungnu (Huns), also calls the tribe Mountain Jung, so that if there were any truth in the history it might be shown that we have here a tradition of the descent of the Chinese nation from the Huns. The name Chien Ti means 'impetuous barbarian of the North.' 2 The dark bird is a swallow. In the third sacrificial ode of Shang ('Sacred Books of the East,' iii, p. 307) we are told that 'Heaven commissioned the swallow to descend and give birth to the Shangs.' 3 Quoting the passage from the Canon of Shun, also in the first chapter of the Records. 1 From the preface to the Shuching, paras. 9 and 10. 1 Iyin is stated to have come to Po in the train of a daughter of the prince of Hsin, whom T‘ang was marrying, and recommended himself to the favour of the latter by his knowledge of cookery (L. C. II, p. 238). 2 A native commentator says that the guileless king was T‘ai-au-shang-huang (great guileless supreme sovereign). The nine rulers are stated by one author to be the 'three sovereigns,' the 'five gods,' and Yü, the founder of the Hsia dynasty, while another says they are the 'nine sovereigns of man' (vide Introductory Chapter to the Historical Records). 3 Quotation from the preface to the Shuching, para. 11. 4 Cf. the name K‘unmo, king of the Wusun country, to which a princess of China was sent B.C. 106. 5 The whole of the 'Speech of T‘ang,' being the first of the 'Books of Shang,' is here quoted. 1 Preface to the Shuching, para. 12. 2 It is noticeable that the term 'warlike king' was applied to the founders of both the Shang and Chou dynasties, as well as to the emperor under whose sway the historian wrote. 3 Quotation from the 14th and 13th paragraphs of the preface to the Shuching. 4 Quotation from the preface to the Shuching, paras. 15 and 16. The 'Announcement of Chunghui' is the second book of Shang, and the 'Announcement of T‘ang' the third book of Shang. 1 Quotation from the preface to the Shuching, paras. 20 and 17. The 'Both possessed pure Virtue' is the sixth book of Shang. 2 Quotation from Mencius (L. C. II, p. 236), Dr. Legge having noticed the historical difficulty as to T‘ang's successor, and intimated that he should follow the standard chronology, which omits the reigns of Waiping and Chungjên, it would be as well to give the reading of Mencius, which, although rather vague, seems to confirm the historian's statement. Mencius says: "After T‘ang's demise, T‘aiting did not come to the throne. Waiping two years; Chungjên four years; T‘aichia turned upside down the statutes of T‘ang, and Iyin placed him in T‘ung," etc. Dr. Legge considers that the language of the 18th paragraph of the preface to the Shuching, viz. "After the death of T‘ang, the first year of T‘aichia," is opposed to the view that there were two reigns between T‘ang and T‘aichia. 1 Quotations from the preface to the Shuching, paras. 18 and 19. The 'Instructions of I and the T‘aichia' are the fourth and fifth books of Shang. 2 Quotation from Mencius, V, 1, VI, 5. 3 Quotation from the preface to the Shuching, para. 21. 1 Quotations from the preface to the Shuching, para. 22. 2 Quotations from the preface to the Shuching, para. 23. 3 Quotation from paras. 24 and 25 of the preface to the Shuching. Para. 26 reads: "Tsuyi was overthrown in Kêng." 1 From para. 27 of preface to the Shuching. The Pankêng is the seventh book of Shang. 1 Para. 27 of preface to the Shuching. 2 This passage becomes more intelligible on referring to the 'Charge to Yue,' or the eighth book of Shang, a portion of which is quoted (L. C. III, pt. i, p. 250), where the king says: "As it is mine to secure what is right in the four quarters of the empire, I have been afraid that my virtue is not equal to that of my predecessors, and, therefore have not spoken. But while I was respectfully and silently thinking of the right way, I dreamt that God gave me a good assistant, who should speak for me. He then minutely described the appearance of the person, and caused search to be made for him, by means of an image of him, throughout the empire. Yue, a builder in the country of Fuyen, was found like," etc. 3 Para. 28 of preface to the Shuching. 1 From para. 29 of preface to the Shuching. 2 Here follows the whole of the book called 'The Day of the Supplementary Sacrifice of Kaotsung,' that being the ninth book of Shang. 3 From para. 29 of preface to the Shuching. 1 This was a copper rod placed over a pan of live charcoal, and rubbed with grease, and arranged in such a way that when the poor wretches had to cross over it, they slipped and fell into the fire. 1 From 30th paragraph of preface to the Shuching. 2 The tenth book of Shang, called 'The Chief of the West's Conquest of Li,' is here quoted throughout, with the exception of the last sentence. 3 The eleventh or last book of Shang is referred to. Every book in the first part of the Shuching has now been quoted from or referred to. 1 This expression is found in the Analects, 18, i. 2 Quotation from the third book of Chou, called 'Successful Completion of the War.' 3 As the period recorded in this chapter extends from B.C. 2256 to 1122, according to the accepted chronology, it must be admitted that the details are meagre in the extreme. Of the forty-three reigns, including the thirteen prior to T‘ang the Completer, we have merely a list of names of the rulers (and this is also the case with eleven out of the seventeen emperors of the Hsia dynasty),
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and the chapter is chiefly made up of ridiculous legends and pompous announcements. Again, every one of the thirty emperors of this dyasty has a name compounded of one of the '10 stems'—used for the cycle and for numeration, and which I have, therefore, translated by a letter of the alphabet—and a word such as 'ancestor,' 'great,' 'little,' 'martial,' etc. It has been alleged that the real names of these emperors have been tabooed, but those who assert this should be prepared to state where we are to look for the real names, for the histories do not give any others than those I have mentioned, and should give their authority for the statement that the names were actually tabooed. Cyclical characters also form part of the names of five of T‘ang the Completer's immediate ancestors, of Wuting's minister, and of the vile consort of the last sovereign of the Yin dynasty. If it were the custom to taboo the names of the emperors of the dynasty (and history does not relate that such was the case), why should the names of these people also be tabooed? It is hard to reconcile so many strange coincidences with actual facts. Surely it is more natural to suppose that the historian, who had reformed the calendar just before he wrote his history, and whose mind was, therefore, running on cyclical characters, should have used them as names for his fictitious emperors.
Footnotes