Wang ch‘ung lun-hêng philosophical essays Traduits et annotés par Alfred forke

5 Another ancient city in Shansi not far from Chiang.

6 Han Ching Ti 156-140.

1 Quotation in a abridged form from Shi-chi chap. 57, p. 6v. seq.

2 Têng T‘ung was a million of the Emperor Wên Ti.

3 Cf. Têng T‘ung’s biography in Shi-chi chap. 125, p. 2.

4 Han An Kuo, 2nd cent. B. C.

5 Died 112 B. C.

1 A native of the Yûeh State, and minister of King Kou Chien of Yüeh, in modern Chekiang, 5th cent. B. C.

2 An old State in Shantung.

3 Quoted from the Shi-chi chap.41, p.8v. The last clause is abridged.

4 Wei Liao wrote a work on the art of war.

5 An ancient name of K‘ai-fêng-fu.

6 The first emperor of the Ch‘in dynasty 221-209 B. C.

7 Shih Huang Ti’s kingdom in Shensi.

8 Quoted in an abridged form from the Shi-chi chap. 6, p. 6 seq. [Chavannes, Mém. Hist. Vol. II, p. 114].

1 A disciple of Confucius, extremely ugly, but very talented. Cf. Analects VI,12 [Couvreur].

2 A famous physiognomist 3rd cent. B. C.

3 A native of Yen, who first studied physiognomy with T‘ang Chü and later on was appointed minister by King Ch’ao Hsiang of Ch‘in (305-249 B. C.).

4 In Honan.

5 A disciple of Confucius.

6 The appellation of Kung Sun Ch‘iao, a famous minister of the Chêng State in the 6th cent. B. C.

7 A quotation from Shi-chi chap. 47, p. 12v. Cf. Legge, Analects, Prolegomena p.78.

8 One of the disciples of Confucius, whose character was not quite on a level with his fluency of speech, wherefore the Master said of him, ‘In choosing a man for his gift of speech, I have failed as regards Tsai Yü’.

1 What has been received as fate is the vital fluid or life. The length of life depends on the quality of this fluid, but it can be shortened by accidents, such as war, fire, etc. coming from abroad, before vitality is exhausted, and death would ensue under normal conditions. The Chinese word used here, means ‘fate’ as well as ‘life’.

1 And this nature becomes manifest by the way in which the new-borns cry. Strong babies have strong voices, weak ones give only a whine.

2 On the Chinese foot see p. 320 Note 1.

3 Wang Ch‘ung explains the term chang-fu ‘Young man’ as originally meaning a man of ten feet=chang.

4 A husband thus addresses his father and mother-in-law.

1 Quotation from the Shuking Pt. I, chap. III, 12 (Legge Vol. III, Pt. I, p. 25).

2 The Shi-chi chap. 1, p. 20 (Chavannes, Mém. Hist. Vol. I, p. 69) writes twenty years.

3 In that case Shun cannot have reigned for him longer than 20 years, for 70+20+8=98.

4 Quotation from the Shuking (Shun-tien) Pt. II, Bk. I, chap. VI, 28 (Legge Vol. III, Pt. I, p. 51).

5 The computation gives 110 not 100 years. We should read ‘he was tried twenty years’ instead of thirty, the reading adopted in the Shi-chi and defended by several old commentators. Cf. Legge’s notes to the passage and Chavannes loc. cit. p. 91 Note 2.

6 Quoted from the Liki, Wên Wang shih-tse (Legge, Sacred Books Vol. XXVII, p. 344) [Couvreur]. The commentators are at a loss, how to explain that Wên Wang was only ten years older than his son, Wu Wang, and how he could give him some of his years.

1 1078-1053 B. C.

2 Sse Ma Ch‘ien mentions this report in his biography of Lao Tse (Shi-chi, chap. 63, p. 3). Some said that Lao Tse became over 160 years old, others that he lived over 200 years, prolonging his life by the practice of virtue.

3 The Shuking Pt. V, Bk. XV, 5 (Legge Vol. III, Pt. II, p. 467) [Couvreur] expressly states that Kao Tsung = Wu Ting enjoyed the throne for fifty and nine years, not for a hundred. He reigned from 1324-1266 B. C.

4 Thus the Shuking (Lü-hsing) Pt. V, Bk. XXVII, 1 (Legge Vol. III, Pt. II, p. 588) [Couvreur] as Wang Ch‘ung and others understand the passage (On Legge’s different view cf. his notes). According to the Shi-chi King Mu’s reign lasted but 55 years. It is usually reckoned from 1001-947 B. C.

1 This legend is mentioned in the Wu Yüeh Ch‘un-ch‘iu, the Chronicle of Wu and Yüeh, by Chao Yeh of the 1st cent. A. D.

2 Cf. Chap. XXXVII. The Shiking Pt. IV, Bk. III, Ode 3 only says that Heaven commissioned the swallow to descend and give birth to Hsieh (Legge Vol. IV, Pt. II, p. 636). [Couvreur]

3 , which also may signify an egg.

4 Chiang Yuan, the mother of Hou Chi ‘trod on the toe-print made by God’ says the Shiking, Pt. III, Bk. II, Ode 1 (Legge Vol. IV, Pt. II, p. 465) [Couvreur].

5 Yü Hsieh, and Hou Chi are the ancestors of the Three Dynasties : Hsia, Yin, and Chou. The Shuo-wên observes that because the mothers of these Sages were moved by Heaven, Son of Heaven became a term for a Holy Emperor.

6 Shiking Pt. III, Bk. II, Ode I, 2 [Legge] [Couvreur].

7 The last emperors of the Hsia and the Yin dynasties.

8 The last reigning emperor of the house of Chou (314-256 D.C.), who in 256 had to surrender 36 cities to the King of Ch‘in and in the same year died as a prisoner of Ch‘in.

9 A book of prophecies wrongly ascribed to Confucius.

10 Shi-chi chap. 8, p. 2. [Cf. Chavannes, Mém. Hist. Vol. II, p. 325].

1 The father of Kao Tsu.

2 The son-in-law of the powerful eunuch Chao Kao, who contrived the death of the emperor. Cf. Chavannes, Mém. Hist. Vol. II, p. 213 seq.

3 The Emperor Erh Shih Huang Ti, son of Ch‘in Shih Huang Ti, 209-206 B. C.

4 Cf. p. 178.

5 A child which occupied the throne 65 days only.

6 The forester of the Emperor Shun.

1 Man measures seven feet according to the measurement of the Chou epoch, when 1 foot was like 20 cm., and 7 feet = 1,40 m.

2 The Shiking loc. cit. explicitly states that the foot-prints were made by God.

3 The name of Hou Chi’s mother.

4 For details cf. Shi-chi chap. 4, p. 25 (Chavannes, Mém. Hist. Vol. I, p. 281) which quotes a passage from the Kuo-yü, and Lun-hêng Bk. V, p. 1v. (I-hsü).

5 781-771 B. C.

6 The famous favourite of King Yu, who ruined the empire by her extravagance.

1 With two dragons.

2 See p. 225, where this story is told in detail.

3 Cf. p. 326.

1 Cf. p. 304.

2 For this legend vid. p. 332.

3 A minister of Huang Ti, cf. p. 244.

4 The surname Chi does not point to the foot-prints which Chiang Yuan in believed to have walked upon.

1 Cf. p. 180.

2 Chap. 2-4 of the Shi-chi [Chavannes, Mém. Hist. Vol. I].

3 Chap. 13 of the Shi-chi [Chavannes, Mém. Hist. Vol. III].

4 As the mother of Hsieh did, when she swallowed the egg, cf. chap. XXXVII.

5 We learn from Lun-hêng Bk. XXIV, p. 3 that it was against the custom to make music on the anniversaries of the downfall of the Hsia and Yin dynasties, as one did not write on the death day of T‘sang Hsieh, the inventor of writing. I infer from this that the last emperors of the Hsia and Yin dynasties were famous for their music, and that Confucius feeling in himself a talent for music imagined that he was a descendant of the Yin emperors.

6 Shun had double pupils as well, vid. p. 304.

1 Li ki chap. I, No. 1 (Chü-li), p. 20v. (Legge’s translation Vol. I, p. 84.) Various reasons have been assigned by the commentators for this rule. They say, in opposition to Wang Ch‘ung, that during heavy rain-falls fish are so easily got as not to be valuable, or that then they are muddy and not fit for eating. This last reason seems the most plausible.

1 To become like a quail or a crab.

2 Quoted from Huai Nan Tse, who adds that the tiger devoured his brother, when he opened the door.

3 A legendary minister of Yao and father to Great Yü.

1 An adherent of the founder of the Han dynasty. The Taoists have claimed him as one of their patriarchs and mystics. See p. 235.

2 The Yellow River.

3 This event in told in detail on p. 233.

4 Posthumous name of the Shang emperor Wu Ting, 1324-1265 B. C.

5 A paper mulberry tree grew in the court of the Emperor, which had two spans of circumference on the second day already. This was, of course, regarded as a portent. Cf. Lun-hêng Bk. V, p. 1 (Yi Hsü) where the legend is told in full.

6 According to the Shuking Pt. V, Bk. XV (Legge Vol. III, Pt. II, p. 467) Kao Tsung reigned 59 years.

7 515-451 B. C.

1 This story is told in full in Lun-hêng Bk. IV, p. 9v. which seems quoted from Huai Nan Tse XII, 11v. The planet Mars being in the constellation of the ‘Heart’, the astrologer Tse Wei informed the Duke that Heaven was going to inflict a punishment upon him, advising him, however, to shift this misfortune on his prime minister, or on his people or on the year. The prince thrice declined to allow others to suffer in his stead, giving his reasons for each refusal. These are the three good maxims of our text. Tse Wei then changed and congratulated the Duke, saying that Heaven had heard the three excellent sentiments uttered by him, that the same night it would cause Mars to pass through three solar mansions, and that it would add twenty-one years to his life, each mansion consisting of seven stars and each star representing one year.

2 658-619 B. C.

3 Shang Ti, the supreme being, God.

4 A magician of the time of Shên Nung.

5 A prince of Chin 571 B. C., who became a Taoist and an immortal. He was seen riding through the air upon a white crave. Mayers, No. 801.

6 The meaning is, as summer is preceded by spring, thus the body exists, before it is informed by the vital force.

1 This verse does not occur in the Liki, but in the Shiking Pt. IV, Bk. III, Ode II (Legge, Classics Vol. IV, Pt. II, p. 635) : ‘He (the ancestor) will bless us with the eyebrows of longevity. — We will have yellow hair and wizened faces indefinitely’.

2 Fore more details see the Shan-hai-king.

1 Great Yü 2205-2197.

2 A minister of Yü.

3 A Taoist goddess. Cf. my article ‘Mu Wang und die Königin von Saba’ in the Mitteilungen des Seminars für Orientalische Sprachen zu Berlin Vol. VII, 1904.

1 The following story is taken from the Shi-chi, chap. 28, p. 28 v., where an official relates it to Han Wu Ti. Cf. Chavannes, Mém. Hist. Vol. III, p. 488.

2 In Shansi Province, near P‘u-Chou-fu.

3 This mountain lies in Shensi, near Hsi-an-fu.

4 The context requires ‘Tripod beard’, but we read instead of . A place, called ‘Tripod lake’ actually exists in Honan (Playfair Cities and Towns No. 7329). This name has perhaps been the origin of the legend, as Wang Ch‘ung suggests (cf. above p. 322). In ancient times only the phonetic part of a character was often written, and the radical left out. Thus could stand for ‘beard ‘as well as for ‘lake’. Our text has the ‘beard’.

5 Some commentators hold that the name Wu-hao = Raven’s Cry refers to the lament of the people, others that it was the name of a tree well fit for the fabrication of bows.

6 Huang Ti, Chuan Hsü, K‘u, Pao, and Shun. According to other writers the Five Emperors are : T‘ai Hao, Yen Ti, Huang Ti, Shao Hao, and Chuan Hsü.

7 Shi-chi chap. 28, p. 30v [Chavannes, Mém. Hist. Vol. III, p. 496]. When Ch‘in Shih Huang Ti had sacrificed on the tomb of Huang Ti upon Mount Chiao, he asked, how Huang Ti could be an immortal, and yet be buried there. Than somebody replied that Huang Ti had ascended to heaven as a genius, and that only his garments and cap were left and interred.

8 The fundamental principle of Taoism. The Taoists have always claimed Huang Ti as one of theirs. Hence the legend of his ascension to heaven.

1 This seems to me a fancy etymology. Huang is ‘yellow’, but never means ‘to pacify’. The ‘Yellow Emperor’ was called yellow from the colour of the earth, over which he ruled. Thus the name is generally explained, whether correctly is doubtful.

2 Some say that this mountain is situated in the province of Kansu, others more eastward in the province of Shensi. Vid. Shi-chi chap. 1, p. 8.

3 China’s most sacred mountain in Shantung.

1 Taoism inculcates contemplation and quietism, and abhors an active life.

2 Only he who possesses Tao, becomes immortal, and can ascend to heaven. If the model emperors Yao and Shun did not attain to Tao, why should Huang Ti, provided that he worked as hard as Yao and Shun.

3 The hill-sacrifice was not performed, unless the empire enjoyed peace, and peace could not be secured without hard work. Hard work precluded a Taoist life, and without Tao, Huang Ti could not ascend on high.

4 The text says ‘Tripod lake’. Cf. above p. 332.

5 In the province of Chekiang.

6 This etymology is given by Sse Ma Ch‘ien, Shi-chi chap. 2, p. 26.

1 Liu An, Prince of Huai-nan, commonly known as Huai Nan Tse, a Taoist philosopher and alchemist of the 2nd cent. B. C. He was a prince of the imperial family of the Han emperors. His principality was situated in Anhui.

2 The elements of which the bodies of all creatures are composed cannot be transformed, therefore those creatures cannot change their nature.

3 These metamorphoses are mentioned in ancient works, and believed by the Chinese up to the present day. Cf. p. 326.

1 140-86 B. C.

2 The modern Ya-chou-fu.

3 An old kingdom in Ssechuan.

4 One of the Nine Provinces, into which Yü divided the Empire, comprising Shensi and Kansu.

1 The eight principal Taoist associates of Huai Nan Tse, one of which was Wei Pu.

2 The following story is taken from Huai Nan Tse.

3 A traveller of the 3rd cent. B. C.

4 This expression can mean the Gobi.

5 The ‘Great north’ and the ‘Park Gate’ are Taoist fancy names.

6 It is interesting to note the name Mongol here....The last character is written now. The Mongols were already known to the Chinese under their actual name in the second century B. C., when they were living in the north of China.

7 To wit the four quarters, above and below.

1 This is probably the name of a genius.

2 According to the belief of the Taoists there are nine superposed stages or spheres of the heavens.

1 In the ‘Water Classic’ Hsiang Mun Tu is called Hsiang Ning Tu.

2 The modern P‘u-chou-fu in Shansi.

3 A circuit comprising the southern part of Shansi.

1 A famous doctor, who cannot have lived later than the 4th cent. B. C., for mentioned in Lieh Tse [Wieger].

2 A parallel passage of this story occurs in the Lü-shih-Ch‘un-Ch‘iu.

3 That is what the Taoists say of themselves.

1 140-85 B. C.

2 A district in Honan. The name of the Marquis was T‘ien Fên.

3 The Shih-chi says the tenth year.

4 Duke Huan of Ch‘i reigned from 683-641 B. C. The 15th year of his reign was 669.

5 This story of Li Shao Chün is quoted from the Shi-chi chap. 28, p. 21 [Chavannes, Mém. Hist. Vol. III, p. 464].

1 Why 200 years ? Li Shao Chün would have known the nonagenarian’s grandfather, if he was about ninety years old himself.