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

4 An author of the 2nd century B. C.

1 Quotation from the Shuking, Wu-yi Pt. V, Bk. XV, 1 (Legge Vol. III, Pt, II, p. 464) [Couvreur].

2 Abridged from the Tso-chuan, Duke Hsüan 3rd year. — From the Hsia dynasty these tripods came down to the Shang and the Chou dynasties, and in 605 B. C. were still in existence [Couvreur].

3 A people in the southern part of Kuang-tung province, near the Annamese frontier.

4 The Wo, an old name for the Japanese, which Chinese authors have explained to mean ‘Pygmies’.

5 The virtue of the Emperor Yü.

1 A sacrificial vessel used during the Hsia dynasty.

2 314-255 B. C.

3 305-249 B. C. The full name of this king is Chao Hsiang.

4 Cf. the parallel passage in Shi-chi chap. 4, p. 39 [Chavannes, Mém. Hist. Vol. I, p. 317] where, however, not Nan Wang, but the Prince of the eastern Chou submits to Ch‘in and cedes his territory.

5 In 255 B. C. Vid. Shi-chi chap. 28, p. 8 [Chavannes, Mém. Hist. Vol. III, p. 429].

6 The eastern part of Shantung under the Ch‘in dynasty.

7 A city in Kiangsu, the modern Hsü-Chou-fu.

8 A river in Shantung.

9 Quotation from the Shi-chi chap. 6, p. 18 [Chavannes, Mém. Hist. Vol. II, p. 154].

10 T‘ai-Ch‘iu was a place in the Yung-Ch‘êng district, Honan.

1 P‘êng-ch‘êng does not lie on the Sse River, but on another small river.

2 In 221 B. C. Then the tripods would have been lost in 250 B. C.

3 Viz. the Chou dynasty.

4 179-156 B. C.

1 A place in Shansi, in the present Wan ch‘üan hsien.

2 Quotation from the Shi-chi ch. 28, p. 20. [Chavannes, Mém. Hist. Vol. III, p. 460].

1 Ancient Chinese feet, which are much smaller than the modern.

2 Large kinds of rice and millet.

1 The Five Sacrifices of the house often mentioned in the Liki.

2 Fêng Po, the Prince of the Wind, Yü Shih, the Master of Rain, and Lei Kung, the Thunderer. Their sacrifices are determined in the Chou ritual.

1 Duke Pao alias Wên of Sung, 609-588 B. C. His death is chronicled in the Ch‘un-ch‘iu, Duke Ch‘êng 2nd year [Couvreur].

1 The Hu in the north, and the Yüeh in the south of China.

2 Yiking, 63d diagram (Chi-chi), Legge’s translation p.206.

1 The mountains and rivers of their territory.

2 The five genii of the house to whom the Five Sacrifices were offered. See further on.

3 Cf. Liki, Ch‘ü-li (Legge, Sacred Books Vol. XXVII, p. 116) [Couvreur].

4 Shuking, Shun-tien Pt. II, Bk. I, 6 (Legge Vol. III, Pt. I, p. 33) [Couvreur].

5 Huang Ti, Ti Ku and Chuan Hsü are mythical emperors. Ti K‘u is said to have been the father of Yao.

6 Kun, the father of Yü.

7 Ming was a descendant of Hsieh, who was a son of Ti K‘u.

8 Chi = Hou Chi, the ancestor of the Chou dynasty.

9 The four sacrifices here mentioned were presented by the sovereigns of the ancient dynasties to the founders of their dynasties, their ancestors, and predecessors.

1 Quotation from the Liki, Chi-fa (Law of sacrifices). The commentators, whom Legge follows in his translation (Sacred Books Vol. XXVIII, p. 201) [Couvreur], read much between the lines, which appears rather problematic.

2 What the ‘Six Honoured Ones’ are, is disputed. Some say : water, fire, wind, thunder, hills, and lakes ; others explain the term as signifying : the sun, the moon, the stars, rivers, seas, and mountains.

3 The Spirit of the Land or the Soil.

4 The Spirit of Grain.

5 By other authors Ch‘i is not identified with the legendary emperor Shao Hao, whose birth was miraculous also. His mother was caused to conceive by a huge star like a rainbow (T‘ai-p‘ing-yü-lan).

6 Errata : The whole page from: ‘He had four uncles’ to ‘From the Shang dynasty downwards people sacrificed to him’ on page 519 is a quotation from the Tso-chuan, Duke Chao 29th year (Legge’s transl. Vol. II, p. 729) [Couvreur]. The text of the Tso-chuan confirms my suggestion (p. 518 Note 4) that we ought to read : ‘who could master metal, water, and wood’, replacing ‘fire’ by ‘water’, for the Classic speaks of metal, wood, and water. It describes the Five Spirits as officers of the five elementary principles, assigning the proper element to each. I have translated [a][b] by ‘four uncles’. Legge’s rendering ‘four men’ is better, [b] may mean a gentleman or a squire (cf. Williams' Dictionary).

7 According to the commentary of the Liki these were not uncles, but sons of Shao Hao.

8 The names of these deities or deified men correspond to their functions : Kou Mang = ‘Curling fronds and spikelets’, Ju Shou = ‘Sprouts gathered’, and Hsüan Ming = ‘Dark and obscure’. According to the Liki (Yüeh-ling) these three deities were secondary spirits, each presiding over three months of spring, autumn, and winter. Some say that Hsüan Ming was a water spirit. As the spirit of summer, Chu Yung, who is related to fire, is venerated. There being a fixed relation between the four seasons, the four cardinal points, and the five elements we have the following equations :

Kou Mang, Genius of Spring, the east, and wood.

Chu Yung, Genius of Summer, the south, and fire.

Ju Shou, Genius of Autumn, the west, and metal.

Hsüan Ming, Genius of Winter, the north, and water.

I suppose that in the clause ‘who could master metal, fire and wood’ we ought to read water in lieu of fire, for the gods there enumerated are those of wood, metal and water. The spirit of fire follows in the next clause.

In the Liki, Hou Tu, the Lord of the Soil is made to correspond to the middle of the four seasons — in default of a fifth season — to the centre, and to earth. (Cf. Legge, Sacred Books Vol. XXVII, p. 281 Note.) [Couvreur].Thus we have :

Hou Tu, Genius of Mid-year, the centre, and earth.

These Five Spirits are called the Wu Shên. They were worshipped during the Chou dynasty and are mentioned in ancient works (Liki, Tso-chuan, Huai Nan Tse).

1 Another name of Shao Hao, who was lord of Ch‘iung-sang.

2 A legendary emperor.

3 Cf. Note 4.

4 See p. 250.

5 Personal name of the emperor Shên Nung, who was lord of Lieh-shan.

6 The Liki in the current edition writes : Li Shan.

7 The Liki has : Nung.

8 Liki, Chi fa (end).

9 Dynastic appellation of Shên Nung.

1 The fourth star in Ursa major.

2 The discontented and mischievous spirits of former sovereigns without children, who must be propitiated.

3 Quotation from the Liki, Chi-fa (Legge, loc. cit. p. 206) [Couvreur].

4 In 203 B. C.

5 The constellation T‘ien-t‘ien ‘Heavenly field’ in Virgo.

6 According to the Shi-chi chap. 28 (Chavannes Vol. III, p. 453) Han Kao Tsu instituted these sacrifices in the 9th and 10th years of his reign.

7 Analects XI, 25, VII [Couvreur].

8 River in the south-east of Shantung.

1 Kao Tsu.

2 The ‘Bright star’ is generally regarded as another name of Venus. Cf. Shi-chi chap. 27, p. 22 [Chavannes, Mém. Hist. Vol. III, p. 371].

3 Thus Jupiter, which rules over spring only, could not well be sacrificed to at the rain sacrifice in autumn.

4 A chapter of the Liki.

5 Cf. Legge’s translation of the Liki (Sacred Books Vol. XXVII, p. 251 [Couvreur] and 283 [Couvreur]).

6 The Dragon Star occurs in the Tso-chuan, Duke Hsiang 28th year [Couvreur], as the star of Sung and Chêng. The commentary explains it as a synonym of Jupiter.

7 The Ming Star = Venus governs the west and autumn, whereas Jupiter reigns in the east and in spring.

1 About the prognostics furnished by the stars.

2 Quoted from the Liki, Chi-fa (Legge, loc. cit. p. 208) [Couvreur].

3 Quotation from the Liki, T‘an-kung (Legge, loc. cit. p. 196).

1 Chi Cha, fourth son of King Shou Mêng of Wu, who died in 561 B. C.

2 A territory in Kiangsu, the appanage of Prince Chi Tse.

3 A State in Anhui.

4 He was on an embassy to Lu, Ch‘i, Chêng, Wei and Chin, and passed in 544 B. C.

5 See a parallel passage in the Shi-chi chap. 31, p. 9v.

6 Analects X, 8, X [Couvreur].

7 This is not quite true. The Liki, the Tso-chuan, and the Shi-chi treat of ghosts and spirits in many places, as we have seen.

1 Not a moral offence, but a disregard of noxious influences.

1 Shuking, Hung-fan Pt. V, Bk. IV, 23 (Legge Vol. III, Pt. II, p. 335) [Couvreur]. By another punctuation the commentators bring out another meaning viz. that there are seven modes of divination in all, five given by the tortoise and two by milfoil.

2 We must not suppose that Heaven can fear and tremble, for, as Wang Ch‘ung tells us over and over again, Heaven is unconscious and inactive. It possesses those qualities ascribed to it only virtually. They become actual and are put into practice by man, who fulfils the commands of Heaven with trembling awe. Its moral feelings are heavenly principles and heavenly emotions. Cf. p. 129.

3 Two emperors of the Chou dynasty of bad repute. Yu Wang reigned from 781 to 771 B. C., Li Wang from 878 to 828 B. C.

4 Cf. p. 136.

1 Even in that case there is fate, which includes human activity.

2 Snakes, reptiles, and worms which like man have no scales, fur, or feathers.

1 Yiking, 1st diagram (Ch‘ien).

1 Vid. p. 136.

2 Cf. p. 185.

3 The Shi-chi chap. 8, p. 11v., where this passage occurs (Chavannes, Mém. Hist. Vol. II, p. 343), speaks of the city of Hsiang-ch‘êng in Honan, whereas Hsiang-an is situated in Anhui.

4 Cf. p. 136.

5 Three cyclical numbers.

6 On a Wang-wang day one must not go out, and on a Kuei-chi day returning home is disastrous.

1 Wang-wang, Kuei-chi, Sui-p‘o, and Chih-fu are technical terms used by geomancers and in calendars to designate certain classes of unlucky days.

1 In addition to the Blue Dragon and White Tiger Wang Ch‘ung mentions the T‘ai-sui, Têng-ming and Tsung-k‘uei as such spirits. Cf. Lun-hêng, chap. 24, 13 (Nan-sui).

2 The Blue Dragon and the White Tiger are also names of the eastern and western quadrant of the solar mansions. Comp. p. 106 and p. 352.

1 Cf. p. 242.

1 The image of the departed, who as master dwells in the ancestral hall.

1 No figures are used at the sacrifices to those deities.

2 A nobleman, related to the ducal house of Chin, of the 5th cent. B. C. The Ch‘ung Hang family possessed large domains in Chin.