第13章

BOOK III. THE SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF THE WAR.

BOOK III. THE SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF THE WAR.

1. In the first month, the day jin-shin immediately followed the end of the moon＇s waning. The next day was kwei-ke, when the king in the morning marched from Chow to attack and punish Shang.

THE NAME OF THE BOOK.—威武, ＇The Successful Completion of the War＇. The phrase—武成, meaning, literally, ＇military affairs completed,＇occurs in the 3d paragraph, and has thence been taken to denominate the Book. It is not objectionable as a designation; though it by no means covers the contents, they all grow up around the accomplishment of Woo＇s enterprise. The Book is found only in the old Text.

DIFFICULTIES IN THE ARRANGEMENT AND INTERPRETATION. These will fully appear in the course of the exposition; it may be sufficient here to describe them generally, and for that purpose I will use in the first place the words of Ying-tǎ. He says:—＇This Book consists mainly of narrative; the portion composed of the king＇s words is small. The language of the several parts is without the beginning and the end properly marked, and its composition altogether is different from that of the other Books. From 惟一月 (p. 1.) down to 受命於周 (p. 4), the historian relates the march to the attack of Yin, and the return from the enterprise, with the assembling of the princes:—as introductory to the words of the king. From 王若曰 to 大統未集 (both in p. 5), Woo narrates the rise of their House of Chow; from 予小子 (p. 5) to 名山大꼇(p. 6), he states how he had inherited the possessions and the duties of king Wǎn, and how he declared to the spirits the crimes of Show; from 曰惟有道 (p. 6) to 無눒神休, (p. 8), he repeats his prayer to the spirits.From 既戊午 to the end, the historian again resumes his narrative, and tells of the attack on Show, of his death, of Woo＇s entrance into the capital of Yin, and of his governmental measures.

The prayer, however, which concludes with 無눒神羞, is incomplete. According to the analogy of other prayers, recorded in the 左傳, there ought to be, after those words, some protestation by Woo of his own intentions. And when all the princes and officers were receiving their investitures and commands from the new emperor of the House of Chow, we cannot suppose that he did not address them, in a manner similar to T＇ang, in his ＇Announcement＇. With so many speeches to them before the conflict, we cannot believe that he simply related to them after its close his prayer to the spirits. On these two grounds I must conclude that a portion of the Book, immediately following these words—無눒神羞, has been lost.

＇Perhaps it was wanting when the tablets were hidden away in the wall; perhaps it was among the confused and broken fragments which Gan-kwŏsays there were in addition to the 58 Books which he recovered. As he found in the tablets of this Book a beginning of it and an end, he did not say anything of the intermediate portion being deficient.＇

Ying-tǎ was thus of opinion that the Book was deficient; but it does not appear that he had any doubts as to the relative order in which the several portions stand. He thought some tablets were lost; but did not suppose that any of those preserved had been displaced. In the Sung dynasty, however, the critics assumed not only that there were portions missing,but that the remaining tablets were all disordered and confused. Ch＇ing E-ch＇uen (程伊꼇), Lew Gan-she (劉安世), and others, had their several ways of arranging then so as to produce a consistent narrative; and Ts＇ae Ch＇in, profiting by the determination of his master Choo He, produced an edition of the Book, which has superseded the old one in the copies of the Shoo which are now taught in schools. It will be found, with a translation, in an appendix. Scholars of the present dynasty for the most part acquiesce in his views,when they do not discard the old text altogether. There are some, however, who think they can improve on him, and Wang Loo-chae has given a disposition of the paragraphs somewhat different in his edition of＇Doubts about the Shoo＇.

Maou K＇e-ling will not admit either of disorder or defect in the Book. He has certainly proved by reference to the 左傳 and the 國語, that the prayer of Woo to the spirits was a part of his speech or announcement to the princes;—see the 尚書廣聽錄, on the 武成. So far it is established that the disorder in the parts which the Sung critics complained of and tried to remedy,—if indeed we should call it disorder,—existed even during the Chow dynasty. Maou says,＇If the text be not good, we have only to be content with it as it is.＇ In this he is right. The ingenuity of the critics has not been of service either to history or the classic.

CONTENTS. Those are summarily and correctly stated in the prefactory Notice.—＇King Woo smote Yin; and the narrative of his proceeding to the attack,and of his return and sending his animals back to their pastures, with his governmental measures, form ＇TheCompletion of the War＇. The whole is divided in Yungching＇s Shoo into 9 parr., which I have rearranged in 10, including them also in three chapters. The first chapter, containing 4 parr., consists of brief historical notes of the commencement and close of Woo＇s expedition. The second also contains 4 parr., and gives the address (or a part of it) delivered by Woo to his nobles and officers on occasion, we may suppose, of their solemn recognition of him as emperor, and of his confirming some of them in their old investitures or appointments, and giving new ones to others. The third, in the two concluding parr., is again historical,and relates several incidents of the battle between Woo and Show, going on to subsequent events, and important governmental measures of the new dynasty.

Ch. I. Pp. 1—4. THE MARCH TO THE ATTACK, AND CONQUEST, OF SHANG. THE RETURN,AND MEASURES ON THE CONCLUSION OF THE WAR.

1 .惟一月壬辰旁死魄一月,—, ＇the first month＇; butwhether we are to understand the first month of the Hea year,—the first month of spring; or the first month of the Chow year,—the second month of winter, cannot yet be determined. Ts＇ae endeavours here to reinforce his view that the month is the first of the Hea year, by calling attention to the language, 一月 and not 正月; but this circumstance is of little weight. 壬辰is the calendaric name of the day, and it was 旁 (read p＇ang, 3d tone,=近, ＇near to＇, ＇close by＇) 死魄＇, next to the day of the dead disk＇. This expression is generally understood to be descriptive of the first day of the new moon. In p. 4 we find the phrase 生魄, denoting the 15th day or full moon. In p. 2, again, we have 哉生明, ＇the beginning of the birth of light＇, as denoting the third day, when the moon first becomes visible. It is clear therefore that the term 魄 was applied to the disk of the moon from the time it began to wane until the new moon reappeared. How it came to be so used, I do not perceive. The 說뀗 has 霸 instead of 魄, but pronounced in the same way; and in the dict. we find the definition quoted ,一月體黑者謂之霸, ＇the body of the moon when dark is called 霸＇.

[Fan Sze-lin (潘士遴) observes that after the lst day of the moon, the light went on to grow, and the darkness of her disk(魄) to disappear; that if the previous month was great (consisted, that is, of 80 days), then on the second day of the month, the ＇light＇began. He concludes that this was the case here, and that the day denoted by 旁死魄 was not the second but the first day of the month. The editors of Yung-ching＇s Shoo are inclined to agree with him, saying it is more natural and in rule to find a specification of the first day of the month than of the second. This view does not seem unlikely.]

越翼日葵已,—越=及; 翼日=明日, ＇the morrow:＇ 葵已follows 壬辰 in the calendar. 王朝步自周,—步=行, ＇to travel＇, ＇to march＇; 王步 is, literally, ＇the king paced it＇.

2. In the fourth month, at the first appearance of the moon, the king came from Shang to Fung, when he hushed all the movements of war, and attended to the cultivations of peace. He sent back his horses to the south of mount Hwa, and let loose his oxen in the open country of T＇aou-lin, showing the empire that he would not use them again.

周 is understood to stand here for Woo＇s capital, called Haou (鎬), which was 30 le south of the pres. dis. of Ch＇ang-gan, dep. of Se-gan, Shen-se. In the next par.,it is stated that he returned to Fung, which had been the capital of his father Wan, in the pres. dis. of Hoo(鄠), of the same dep. The two places were only about 8 miles apart; Haou on the east of the river Fung, and Fung on the west of it. The site of Haou was converted into a lake (昆明池) by the emp. Woo (世宗孝武帝,B.C.139—87) of the Han dyn. 於徵伐商,—於=往, ＇to go＇, ＇to proceed＇.

[We saw, in the ＇Great Speech＇, Pt. ii., p. 1, that on the day mow-woo, the 28th day of the lst month, king Woo halted on the northern bank of the Ho. On that same day he had crossed the river;—see the 9th par.below. The distance from Haou to Mǎng-tsin is said by Ying-tǎ to be 1,000 le, and I have seen another estimate of it at 900 le. Taking the larger number,we have 25 days＇ marches, of 40 le each, or about 14 miles per day, which could be accomplished without difficulty. Five days after (the day 葵亥), Woo drew up his army in the borders of Shang, and waited for the dawn of the next morning, the 4th day of the 2d month, to decide the contest between himself and Show.

After the battle, Show fled to the ＇Stag tower,＇ and burned himself to death. In the mean time, Woo,having received the congratulations of the princes on his victory, pressed on after the tyrant. On arriving at the capital, the people were waiting outside the m in anxious expectation, which the king relieved by sending his officers among them with the words,—＇Supreme Heaven is sending down blessing＇ (上天降休). The multitudes reverently saluted the king, who bowed to them in return, and hurried on to the place where the dead body of Show was. Having discharged three arrows at it from his chariot, he descended, struck the body with a light sword, and cut the head off with his ＇yellow＇ battle-axe and made it be suspended from the staff of a large white flag.Much in the same way he dealt with the bodies of two of Show＇s concubines who had killed themselves; and then returned to his army. These accounts are taken from the ＇Historical Records＇, and are put down by subsequent writers as lying legends, inconsistent with Woo＇s character.

Next day he entered the capital of Shang in great state, attended by his brother and the chiefs of his host, and solemnly accepted the charge of the empire.It was said to him, on behalf of all the nobles, ＇The last descendant of the House of Yin having destroyed, and disowned the bright virtue of his forefathers, having insolently discontinued the sacrifices to the spirits, and having blindly tyrannized over the people of Shang,the report of his deeds ascended to the great God in heaven.＇ (其章顯聞於天皇上帝). On this, Woo bowed twice, with his head to the ground, and said, ＇It is right that I should change the great charge; that I should put away the House of Yin, and receive myself the great appointment of Heaven.＇ He then again bowed twice,with his head to the ground, and went out.

In this way king Woo took on himself the sovereignty of the empire. One of his first steps was to appoint Show＇s son, Luh-foo (祿父), prince over the domain of Yin; and he appears to have remained in the capital of Shang between two and three months,employed in the measures described in the last two parr. of this Book, and in others requisite to the establishment of the dynasty of his House.]

Pp. 2, 3. Measures in the 4th month showing that the war was over. 2. 既四月哉 (=始) 生明,—this was the 3d day of the month; —see on the last par. But there had been an intercalary month between. This is proved in the following manner.—The day 丁未 of par. 3 evidently belonged to the 4th month.

3. On the day ting-we he sactificed in the ancestral temple of Chow, when the chiefs of the imperial domain and of the teen, how, and wei domains all hurried about, carrying the dishes. Three days after, he presented a burnt-offering to Heaven, and worshipped towards the mountains and rivers, solemnly announcing the successful completion of the war.

甲子, the day of the battle of Muh, was the 4th of the 2d month, which we may suppose had 29 days. This brings us to 庚寅, for the first day of the next month,the 18th of which was a 丁未 day; but it could not be that of the text. We have to count 60 days before we come to the next 丁未 day, which would consequently be in the 5th month, unless there was an intercalary month between the lst and the 4th. The chronologers are all agreed in supposing that there was a second month intercalary this year; and consequently the tingwe day of the text would be the 18th or 19th of the fourth month. 至於豐,—Fung was the capital of Wǎn and here was the ancestral temple of the princes of Chow. That was the reason, as we gather from the next par., why Woo went in the first place to Fung and not to Haou. 偃武修뀗,—in the rest of the par. we have two instances of the ＇hushing of military measures＇, (偃is defined by 臥, ＇to sleep＇, ＇to send to sleep＇); what ＇the cultivations of peace＇ were, we are not told. 華山之陽=華山之南, ＇the south of mount Hwa＇. For mount Hwa,see on ＇The Tribute of Yu＇, Pt. i,. p. 62.

The ＇wild of T＇aou-lin＇ (Peach forest) is referred to the country about the hill of Muh-new (牧牛), called also the hill of K＇wa-foo (夸父), in the south-east of the pres. dep. of T＇ung-chow (땢州). An objection has been taken to the credibility of the account here on the ground that the horses and oxen belonged to the people,—were only contributed by them for the expedition; and that to appropriate them to himself in this way, instead of returning them to their owners,was an act befitting Show, and not at all to be expected from king Woo. But we may be sure these were Woo＇s own horses and oxen. If it be granted that the people did supply a portion of the animals used in war, the sovereign himself furnished a larger number;—see K＇e-ling＇s 古뀗尚書冤詞, Bk. IV., on the point.

[In the Le Ke, the Bk. 樂記, pp. 29-22, there is an expansion of the text, celebrating King Woo. It may be that the author had before him some copy of the 武成, current in the Han dynasty, fuller than that which we now have. In p.19, it is said—馬散之華山之陽, 而弗復乘, 牛散之桃林之野而弗復服, 車甲釁而藏之府庫, 而弗復用, 倒載千戈, 包之以虎皮,……然後天下知武王之不復用兵也.]

3. Various sacrifices, and solemn announcement of the completion of the War. 丁未祀於周廟,—the fourth month would commence on 已丑 or 庚寅, according as the previous one had 29 or 30 days, and 丁未 must have been the 18th or 19th day. Before setting out on his enterprise, Woo had sacrificed to his father, to God and the earth (＇The Great speech＇, Pt. i., p. 10); here at its close he sacrifices, and, we may suppose, gives thanks at the same alters. 邦, 甸, 侯, 衛,—see the account and figure on pp. 148, 149, of the divisions of the empire under the Chow dynasty. By the 邦we must understand, I think, the central division,—the imperial domain (王畿) and 甸, 侯, 衛, we have three of the divisions which lay beyond it,—a part for the whole of the five domains which constituted the ＇middle kingdom＇. We cannot account for the irregularity of the order in which they are given. After衛 we must understand 諸侯, equivalent to ＇the chiefs＇,which I have supplied in the translation.

4. After the moon began to wane, the hereditary princes of the various States, and all the officers,received their appointments from Chow.

Gan-kwŏ defines 駿 by 大, ＇great＇, ＇in great state＇; it is better to take it with Ts＇ae after the 爾雅, as=速. 豆籩,—see Con. Ana., VIII, iv. 3. It was an honour to the chiefs and princes to assist at the sacrifice.

越三日庚戌,—between ting-we and kǎng-seuh there are two days, so the latter was the 21st or 22d day of the month. In Bk. XII., p. 2, we have 丙午越三日戊申,where both ping-woo and mow-shin must be reckoned to make up the three days;—the writers had different methods equally legitimate, of reckoning. 柴,—see on the ＇Can. of Shun＇, p. 8. —＇望,see on the Can. of Shun＇,p. 6. This sacrifice was offered, I suppose, at the altar of the great earth, mentioned in Bk. I., Pt. i., p. 10. 4. The princes and officers receive their appointments from Woo, as the first emperor of the dynasty of Chow. 既生魄,—the moon begins to wane,—the darkness is born—after the full moon. The day indicatedinthe htienerallyupposedbhebh＇inC16tetttute;sgsoxLeih, observes that, if that had been the day, the phrase would have been 哉生魄, corresponding to 哉生明 in p.2. He would lay stress therefore on the 既, as showing that the darkness was not only ＇born＇, but had made some growth; and fixes the day as the 17th. But here there is a difficulty.—The historian goes backward instead of forward with his narrative; the 17th would precede the day ting-we. Ying-tǎ calls attention to this circumstance, he himself supposing the day to be htndihehehiefsssistingheffthe16tctttt;anaocaasacrifice in the ancestral temple he sees a proof that they had previously received their appointments from king Woo. I should myself extend the force of the 既much more than Ch＇in does. Why may not the phrase既生魄 indicate any between the 15th and the end of the month, when we should come to the ＇death＇ or end of the darkness? The historian has chosen to indicate thus indefinitely the day when the princes and officers received their appointments from Woo. As to their assisting on the day ting-we at his sacrificial service, that might very well be. Things could not be done in order while the revolution was in progress. From the taking the field against Show down to the new commissioning of rulers under the new supremacy, all was irregular and only after this would a new order of things take its course.

[In the Books of the early Han dynasty, 律歷志, 第一,下, compiled by Lew Hin we find three quotations as from the 武成.

The first agrees with the 1st par. of the chapter.—惟一月壬辰旁死霸, 若翼日葵巳, 武王乃朝步自周, 於徵伐紂. The second is not found in the received text, nor any trace of it; but it agrees sufficiently with the firstpar. of the ＇Speech at Muh＇, andthestatementfinthe h took.—粵若來ave三,괗hi(ditionhf9Bteepar.ossomsincorrectly) 月, 既死霸, 粵五日甲子, 咸劉商王紂. It isthen stated that there was a second month intercalary in this year which began with the day 庚寅; that the third month began with 已未, and the fourth month with 已丑. Then comes the third quotations.—惟四月既旁生霸, 粵六日庚戌, 武王燎於周廟, 翼日辛亥祀於month天位, 粵, on the d五日乙卯a, y乃 Kǎ以庶國祀馘於周廟ng-seuh, the 6th , ＇In the fourth after the 16th,king Woo made a fire in the ancestral temple of Chow. Next day,—the day sin-hae,—he sacrificed at the altar of Heaven; and five days after,—on the day yin-maou,—attended by the princes of the various States, he sacrificed an presented the heads of Show and histwo concubines in the ancestral temple.＇ Here the intimations of time are different from those which we have in parr. 3 and 4 of the text. Possibly the 燎 here= the 柴 of par. 3;—and they are referred to the same day. We cannot trace any other correspondencies.

The question occurs,—Where did Lew Hin find the copy of the 武成, from which he made these quotations? Yen Sze-koo supposed they were taken from some copy of Fuh-shang＇s Books; see an art. by Choo He in the 集說. But Fuh-shang did not possess the 武成.

5. The king spake to the following effect:— "Oh! Ye host of princes, the first of our kings founded the State and commenced our territory. The duke Lew was able to consolidate the merits of his predecessor. But it was the king T＇ae who laid the foundations of the imperial inheritance. Then king Ke was diligent for the royal House; and my deceased father, king Wăn, completed his merit, and received the great decree of Heaven to soothe the regions of the great bright land. The great States feared his strength; the small States cherished his virtue.

Yen Jŏ-ku, Wang, Ming-shing and others think that he took them from the copy of the ＇Old Text＇, which Gan-kwŏ had transcribed, and which was preserved in one of the imperial repositories. We know that Lew Hin had access to this copy, and it is possible that he might quote from the 武成 in it.

There is, however, another way of accounting for the quotations. There was a copy of the 武成 current in the Han dynasty, as we have seen there was of the誓泰. K＇ang-shing states that it was lost in the reign of the founder of the eastern Han, A.D. 25-57. We do not know whence it was derived. From the last quotation we may suppose that its character was like that of the copy of the ＇Great Speech＇, which likewise disappeared. It appears to me more likely that the quotations by Lew Hin were made from it than from the ＇Old Text＇ to which he had access. The authority of the received text, such as it is, need not be affected by the differences between it and the passages in the 律歷志.

Ch. II. Pp. 5, 7. ADDRESS OF KING WOO TO THE PRINCES, ON GIVING THEM THEIR INVESTITURES. 5. Sketch of the history of the House of Chow from its founder to king Woo.