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Art. III.—Ssŭma Ch‘ien’s Historical Records

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Herbert J. Allen
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Yü of Hsia “was styled Wênming.” Yü's father was Kun, whose father was the Emperor Ch'uanbsü, whose father was Ch'angyi, whose father was Huangti; so Yü was Huangti's great - great - grandson, and Ch‘uanhsü’s grandson. Yü's great-grandfather Ch'angyi and his father Kun were both unable to sit on the Imperial throne, being simply officials. In the time of the Emperor Yao “the deluge assailed the heavens, and in its vast expanse encompassed the mountains, and overtopped the hills, so that the common people were troubled about it. Yao sought for one capable of controlling the waters. All the officials and presidents of the four mountains said, ‘Kun might do it.’ Yao said, ‘Kun is a man who disobeys orders, and ruins his companions. He will not do.’ The president of the four mountains said,” Among his equals there is no one so worthy as Kun; I wish your Majesty would “try him.” Upon which Yao, giving heed to the president of the four mountains, employed Kun to control the waters “for nine years,” but the waters did not abate, “and the work was unaccomplished.” Then the Emperor Yao sought a man in his stead, and secured Shun. Shun being employed in the public service was associated with the Son of Heaven in the administration.

Type
Original Communications
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , January 1895 , pp. 93 - 110
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1895

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References

page 93 note 1 Wênming means literally ‘accomplishments and orders.’ In the ‘Counsels of the Great Yü’ (L. C. III. p. 52) the Emperor Yü is so named. That chapter of the Book of History is not further referred to by our historian; but we have all the other books of Yü and books of Hsia either transcribed, or referred to.

page 93 note 2 This passage from the ‘Canon of Yao,’ which we have already had in the first chapter of the Historical Records, appears later in the transcript from the ‘Yi and Chi.’

page 94 note 1 Parts of the ‘Canon of Shun’ (para. 12 and 17) are again quoted here.

page 94 note 2 The first paragraph of the ‘Tribute of Yü’ (L. C. III. p. 92) is here quoted.

page 95 note 1 In the ‘Works of Mencius’ (L. C. II. p. 127) the passage reads, “Yü was eight years away from his home, and though he thrice passed the door of it he did not enter.”

page 95 note 2 These passages appear in the transcript from ‘Yi and Chi’ below.

page 95 note 3 We have now the rest of the Yü Kung (Tribute of Yü) transcribed in its entirety. Dr. Legge in the notes to his translation of this book says very rightly, “The name, the tribute of Yü, gives a very insufficient account of the contents. The determination of the revenue, and of the various articles of tribute was, indeed, very important, but the book describes generally the labours of Yü in remedying the disasters occasioned by the overflowing waters?” It seems indeed to be just a description of the mountains and rivers of the several provinces of China. Of course no one, not even the great Yü, could have performed the Herculean task he is by some credited with doing. Dr. Legge, in fact, says with regard to the second part of the book (p. 129), “we cannot suppose that Yü travelled again along the hills or the rivers, for in that case his toil would have been endless.”

page 96 note 1 The bird barbarians are said to refer to a people living in the north-east who ate the flesh of birds and beasts, and wore their skins. A commentator says that these were the Mohos or Sushêns, i.e. the Tungusic ancestors of the Manchus, who lived on the eastern seabord, north of the Ever White mountains. Their birds, beasts, trees, and all were white. They dwelt in the forests, but the country was so cold that they frequently inhabited deep holes in the ground. They kept pigs, ate pork, wore pigskins, and smeared themselves with lard several inches thick to keep off the winter's cold, were very dirty in their habits, but good archers, shooting with a bow four feet long, and using arrows 1 ft. 8 in. long tipped with stone. At their funerals they piled hundreds of dead pigs on their coffins to serve as food for the deceased. The wooden coffin was bound with cords, and on the top, which protruded from the ground, they poured a libation of wine until the cords rotted.

page 99 note 1 This hill seems to be called subsequently ‘Bird-and-rat-in-the-same-hole’ hill.

page 101 note 1 K'ung-an-kuo states that the six treasuries of nature were water, fire, metal, wood, earth, and grain.

page 102 note 1 Most of the ‘Counsels of Kaoyao’ is here transcribed, a few sentences near the close only being omitted. The historian never intimates in any of his extracts that he is drawing largely from the Book of History.

page 103 note 1 Here follows nearly the whole of the ‘Yi and Chi’ chapter of the Book of History.

page 105 note 1 This passage is found in Mencius (Bk. V. pt. 1, vi.), where, however, the name of Shun's son is not mentioned. There are, too, some discrepancies. Mencius has it that after Yi had been “presented to Heaven by Yü, seven years elapsed, when Yü died”; also that “after the three years' mourning had expired, Yi withdrew from the son of Yü to the north of Mount Chi.” This word, which is also applied to the founder of the Chow dynasty, is the name of the seventh asterism (γ δ ɛ and β in Sagittarius), so called from its resemblance to a chi (winnowing tray or basket). We find it here as the name of a hill, and it was also that of a marquisate.

page 106 note 1 Here follows a transcript of the whole of the ‘Speech at Kan.’ Dr. Legge observes in the concluding note to his translation of the chapter that the account is a clumsy imitation of Yü's expedition against the Sanmiao tribes in the ‘Counsels of the Great Yü,’ but there are so many imitations and repetitions in the Records that one soon tires of noticing them, and can but suppose that the historian's inventive faculty was faulty.

page 107 note 1 From the Preface to the Book of History, para. 7.

page 107 note 2 The ‘Song of the Five Sons,’ and the ‘Punitive Expedition of Yin’ are the names of two other short documents of the Shuching. The calendar getting into confusion is said to refer to a solar eclipse occurring in the fifth year of the reign of the Emperor Chungk'ang or K'ang the 2nd, which, according to the common scheme of chronology, was in the year B.C. 2155, but Professor De Lacouperie gives the rectified date as 1904, while it is 1948 B.C. in the Bamboo annals. The date of the eclipse cannot, however, be satisfactorily verified, and the doubts as to the antiquity of this part of Chinese history are therefore confirmed.

page 107 note 3 From the Preface to the Book of History, para. 8.

page 108 note 1 These characters, which mean ‘pig-sty,’ may be used derogatorily for the Shiwei tribes, which were to the east, west, north, and south of Turphan. One of the eighteen tribes joining Yelutache in 1125 A.D. was called the Great Yellow Shiwei (see Situation de Holin en Tartarie. T'oungpao, vol. iv. p. 76). In Plath's Mandchurie, p. 80, we find that ‘the Shiwei lived to the north of the Amur and of the Moho, and 3000 li from the Khitan country. You cross the river Cho, pass the mountain Toutsu, which is 3000 li in circumference, reach the Kioli river, and then come to the land of the Shiwei.’ One of the most southerly branches of this stock were the Khitans, who came originally from the north of Liaotung (cf. Parker's History of the Tunguses, Wuhwan, China Review, vol. xx. p. 100)Google Scholar.

page 109 note 1 Li or Chieh Kuei is the 17th and last emperor of the Hsia dynasty, which the ‘General Mirror of History’ shows us lasted 439 years, but with the exception of K'ungchia and the last emperor, where some few details of character are given, our historian merely gives the names of the last fourteen without any record of events or length of reigns whatever. This is the more surprising when, according to Dr. Legge, “the documents of the Shuching which follow the Tribute of Yü, commencing with the speech at Kan, delivered in B.C. 2197 by Yü's son and successor, may all be received as veritable monuments of antiquity, and are contemporaneous with the events which they relate.”

The meanings of the names of the emperors are worth noting, for it will then be seen how many are connected with astronomy or the calendar—a very pregnant fact. They are as follows:—

(1) The great Yü or Hsia how. Kung yü and Hsia how were the names of two scholars contemporary with Ssŭma Ch'ien. The characters used for writing Kung yü are the same as those for ‘Tribute of Yü,’ but reversed.

(2) Ch'i or Oh'i ming=opening brightness, is the name for the planet Venus, so called because it ‘opens the brightness’ of the day (L. C. IV. 2, v. 9).

(3) T'aik'ang, or K'ang the 1st, literally ‘great peace,’ but is used for the second of the twenty-eight asterisms, answering to ι.κ.λ.μ. in Virgo constellation.

(4) Chung K'ang or K'ang the 2nd.

(5) Hsiang, the ‘Counsellor,’ is the name of a single red star, answering to seventy-three of Flamsteed between δ and ɛ of the Great Bear (Schlegel, p. 528). The interregnum of forty years during this reign referred to in different schemes of chronology is not referred to by our historian.

(6) Shao K'ang = K'ang the lesser, or K'ang the 3rd.

(7) There seems an uncertainty as to the right character to be used for the Emperor Chu's name. Ssŭma gives first , which means the space between the throne and the Emperor's retiring room behind it, and then which means ‘I.’ The ‘General Mirror of History’ gives , which means a shuttle. It is likely that , which means a lance, and the star β in Böotes, is the one which should be used.

(8) Huai = the Sophora Japonica tree; also the essence of the asterism tumulus composed of α in Equuleus and β in Aquarius.

(9) Mang=bearded grain, a solar term falling about the 6th June.

(10) Hsieh = ooze out. Read ‘I’ = a tributary of the Huai river.

(11) Pu-hsiang=no surrender. Hsiang lou is a star in Aries.

(12) Chiung = a door-bar.

(13) Chin = a hovel.

(14) K'ung chia = Cave A. Chia is a cyclical character, and the first of the ‘Ten stems,’ and being used in notation may be said to be equal to l, or A.

(15) Kao or Hao = vast, glorious. Great Hao is the name for the first moon, as Small Hao is for the ninth moon.

(16) Fa = to shoot; spring.

(17) Li Kuei, or Chieh Kuei. Li = a shoe, and Chieh = cruel. Kuei is the last of the ‘Ten stems’ and therefore equivalent to the letter 10 or J.

Thus most of the names of the Emperors of this dynasty seem to be connected with astronomical or calendaric signs, and this fact will be more evident in the case of the names of the emperors in the succeeding dynasty of Shang.