REESE LIBRARY 
 
 OF THI-; 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 CXrs.s No. ^ ) l-j- 
 
THE OLDEST BOOK OF THE CHINESE 
 
 THE YH-KING- 
 
 AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 A. TEREIEN DE LACOUPERIE. 
 
 Doct. phil. and litt. (Lovan) ; Laureate of the Acad. Inscr. andB.-L. ; Professor 
 
 of Indo-Chinese Philology (late of Univ. Coll., Lond.) etc. ; author of 
 
 Origin of the Early Chinese Civilization from Western Sources ; The 
 
 Old Babylonian characters and their Chinese derivates ; The 
 
 Languages of China before the Chinese ; Le Non-Monosylla- 
 
 bisme du Chinois antique; Catalogue of Chinese Coins 
 
 in the British Museum, etc. ; Director of The 
 
 Babylonian and Oriental Record; etc. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 HISTORY AND METHOD 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 D. NUTT, 270, STRAND. 
 
 1892. 
 

 THE OLDEST BOOK OF THE CHINESE 
 
 AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
THE OLDEST BOOK OF THE CHINESE 
 
 THE YH-KINa 
 
 AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 BY 
 
 A. ^TEREIEN DE LACOUPERIE. 
 
 Doct. phil. and litt. (Lovan) ; Laureate of the Acad. Inscr. andB.-L. ; Professor 
 
 of Indo-Chinese Philology (late of Univ. Coll., Lond.) etc. ; author of 
 
 Origin of the Early Chinese Civilization from Western Sources ; The 
 
 Old Babylonian characters and their Chinese derivates ; The 
 
 Languages of China before the Chinese ; Le JVon-Monosylla- 
 
 bisme du Chinois antiqtce ; Catalogue of Chinese Coins 
 
 in the British Museum, etc. ; Director of The 
 
 Babylonian and Oriental Record; etc. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 HISTORY AND METHOD 
 
 I 
 
 VfV 
 
 / 
 
 LOND OK: 
 
 D. NUTT, 270, STRAND. 
 
 1892. 
 
3S33y 
 
 HERTFORD : 
 PRINTED BY STEPHEN AUSTIN AND SONS. 
 

 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Summary. — I. How the discovery that the Yh-King was based upon old 
 documents and vocabularies has been misunderstood for a foreign origin. 
 II. New translators and writers on the subject since 1883-4. III. Sym- 
 bolism of Yh in Yh-King. IV. The Yh of Ghbu was probably an adapta- 
 tion of parts of the Kwei-taang. V. Instances of very ancient lore hidden 
 in the Yh-King. 
 
 I. 
 
 The Yh-King f the first in rank of the canonical books of 
 China, was the result of a transformation in the twelfth cen- 
 tury B.C. of an older work made of documents very ancient in 
 date, and which entitles it to be called the oldest book 
 of the Chinese. I came to that conclusion twelve years ago, 
 and since that time the proofs on which it was based have 
 grown stronger every year. The discrimination of its various 
 strata and sources does away with the apparently insoluble 
 meaning of the work, insolubility shown by the 2,200 or more 
 explanations which have been suggested in China, and the 
 remarkable discrepancies appearing in the European render- 
 ings of the text. 
 
 The views put forward in several previous papers and 
 in the first part of the present work are simply that the 
 basis of this most abstruse book of the Chinese consisted, for 
 the greater part, of vocabulary lists or glossarial explanations 
 of the ideograms forming the heading of every chapter, and 
 that these lists had been framed hy the early Chinese leaders 
 for the benefit and teaching of their followers, in imitation 
 of similar lists used in Anterior Asia, with which they 
 
 i 23046 
 
VI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 were acquainted, explaining the various uses and meanings 
 of the ideographical characters of the writing which had been 
 taught to them. Now there is a great difference between 
 that contention and an assumed western origin of the work. 
 It has been erroneously and repeatedly stated, at first by 
 The AthencBum, Jan. 21, 1882, that we wanted to acknow- 
 ledge in the Yh-King, an Akkadian book, a Babylonian 
 work, or a foreign vocabulary, all statements equally false 
 and inaccurate, as if to throw discredit on our researches. 
 
 Although, as shown by the previous expose, the question of 
 West Asiatic origin of the Chinese civilisation is distinct 
 from the suggested explanation of the Yh-King^ this side- 
 question (the most important at large, but secondary with 
 special reference to the Yh-King) has overshadowed the 
 principal, and the chief point of my views concerning that 
 most ancient Chinese book, viz., that the main portion of 
 it rests on lists of the meanings special to the written 
 symbols headings of the chapters, has been overlooked. In 
 the thoroughly unscientific condition of present sinology, 
 where routine and vested interests take the lead over science, 
 our first communications on the subject could be but 
 variously received. Abused by some, even before anything 
 was published yet, or after the first part of my paper ; received 
 scientifically by others, they have been however praised and 
 accepted by not a few independent scholars and colleagues 
 in sinology. In order to avoid personal allusions and remain 
 in the serene atmosphere of scientific research, I refrain men- 
 tioning any name. Buried in the fascicula of periodicals 
 my purpose has often been misconceived. 
 
 Notwithstanding this unsatisfactory state of things, the little 
 that has been known of the present researches, contemporary 
 with the most disappointing translation by the venerable Dr. 
 J. Legge, in the Sacred Books of the East, has awakened a 
 greater and wider interest than could be expected in the 
 matter. Several publications have been made, which we 
 
INTRODUCTION. Vll 
 
 shall notice directly in this introduction. But the awakened 
 interest has not yet received satisfaction, and we may say 
 cannot be satisfied until our new method of translating the 
 Yh'King has been proved. In these conditions it has been 
 thought necessary to re-publish separately, as the first part 
 of the present work, the extensive paper of mine which 
 appeared in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great 
 Britain and Ireland, for 1882-83. The paragraphs 1 to 41 are 
 exactly the same, while the others, viz. 42 to 117 have been 
 slightly altered and improved for a second edition. The actual 
 printing of pp. 1 to 101 was made in 1883, and had remained 
 in sheets at the printers since that time. The pp. 102-121 
 are new. 
 
 II. 
 
 The first writer in the field,^ after the publication of our 
 first articles on the subject, was Dr. J. Edkins, of Peking, in 
 an elaborate article on the Yh-King as a book of divination^ 
 where he has re-translated from his own point of view with a 
 good deal of extraneous matter the chapters vii. xiii. xv. xx. 
 XXX. and xxxi., translated below (pp. 69-91). His contention 
 is that the work has been devised as a book of divination, and 
 that the internal arrangement of the text and augural words, 
 show a wilful connection with the symbolic meanings attributed 
 to the separate lines composing the Kwas» This we are quite 
 disposed to admit, as the result of the transformation under- 
 gone by the work under the pencil and interpretation of Wen 
 Wang and Chou Kung. 
 
 The first part of the French translation by Mr. C. L. F. 
 Philastre, mentioned below (p. 49) has appeared in 1885, 
 including the Kwas 1 to 30, but the second part with the 
 conclusions of the author have not yet appeared (May 1892). 
 All that has been published is free of anything like the self- 
 
 1 We leave aside the many articles wliicli were only reviews of the suhject. 
 
 2 J.R.A.S. 1884, vol. xvi. p. 371, 372. 
 
 3 Annates du Musee Gmmet, torn viii. 
 
VIU INTRODUCTION. 
 
 enlightened theories we have mentioned, and deserves all 
 praise. The author has added nothing of himself, being 
 satisfied with a close rendering of the text of the work which 
 he reproduces with the characters, and a copious translation 
 of the wings, besides the extensive commentaries of Cheng 
 tze and of Chou tze, the two famous philosophers of the 
 Sung dynasty. 
 
 The fictitious character of the Yh-King as a book, and the 
 impossibility of making out any sense by itself, are plainly 
 shown by the rendering of the text, which the author admits 
 in many cases to be words sans suite, which can be made out 
 but by the commentaries. 
 
 Another French version, complete, has been published by 
 Prof. Ch. de Harlez ^ in 1889. He has given ns a perfect 
 Yh-King, an ideal work, perhaps more like it might have 
 been than like it ever was. Starting from my discovery that 
 the written character attached to the Kwa, and not the Kwa 
 itself, is the subject-matter of the chapter, the great orientalist 
 of Louvain has understood the book as a " repertoire de 
 reflexions philosophiques et grammaticales sous 64 titres," 
 and with the help of the commentaries, Twan of Wen Wang, 
 and Siang of Chou Kung^, he has endeavoured to justify his 
 view. . Later commentators have also proved useful to his 
 work under that respect. In his very creditable performance 
 he has shown, leaving aside the augural words, that the de- 
 scriptions, thoughts, and statements of the work in the hands 
 of Wen Wang and Chou Kung, correspond generally to the 
 meanings and acceptations of the written symbol heading of 
 each chapter. This view differs from ours in that it takes the 
 Yh at a later period of its existence than we do, and after it 
 had undergone the transformations, modifications and changes 
 
 ^ Cf. C. de Harlez, Le texfe originaire du Tih King, sa nature sen interpre- 
 tation, pp. 35. Journal Asiatique, 1887. — Le Yih King, texte primitif, retabli, 
 iraduit et conimente, 4to. pp. 155. Bruxelles, 1889. — Le Yi-King, sa nature et 
 son interpretation, pp. 164-170 of Journal Asiatique, Jan. -Feb. 1891. 
 
 2 Cf. below, pp. 5-6. 
 
INTRODUCTION. IX 
 
 of individual characters, the numerous changes in the head- 
 ings of the chapters, the mutilations of text, and additions of 
 new matters, studied by us, which are traditionally ascribed 
 to Wen Wang. His rendering shows what the latter and Chou 
 Kung fancied the work was, or ought to be, outside the words 
 and sentences of fortune-telling of which they had largely in- 
 creased the number ; but from the very fact that this- aspect 
 of the work corresponds to their own interpretations, it does 
 not follow that tradition is wrong in ascribing its transfor- 
 mation, incomplete and partial as it ever was, to Wen Wang. 
 To describe this temporary stage of the work, while it was in 
 the hands of Wen Wang, as the original or primitive text of 
 the Yh-King is therefore a misnomer, since the quotations 
 given in the Tso chuen of the Yh, previously to this transfor- 
 mation, do not show it in that condition, nor otherwise than 
 already a book of good fortune. 
 
 In the Tsun-nan yat po, a Chinese journal published at 
 Shang-hai, of which the chief editor is Wang T'ao, the well 
 known Sien Seng, who assisted Dr. J. Legge in his labours 
 on the classics, there is an interesting note concerning the 
 Yh-King ; and as this note has been translated by the Kev. 
 John Chalmers, I quote from his translation : 
 
 ". . . . Now according to my judgment, while not expressing any rash opinion 
 as to its Babylonian origin, there must have been some amount of text appended 
 to the names of the hexagrams before the time of King Wan (1100 b.c). Other- 
 wise, how could Kao-tsung (1200 b.c.) have managed his divinations about 
 'attacking the Demon regions' (Hexagrams 63, 64), or King Ti-yh, his about 
 "the marriage of his younger sister" (Hexagrams 11, 54) or the Count of Ki, 
 his about ' Injured intelligence' (Hexagrams 36)? Moreover, King Wan and 
 the Duke of Chou were both wise men, and in those paragraphs on the hexa- 
 grams and lines ascribed to them, there are absurd and irrelevant phrases combined 
 in a manner which makes it evident that being wise they could only have let 
 them remain out of respect for those who had gone before. And further in the 
 time of King Wan and the Duke of Chou, the Lien shan and the Kwei-tsang 
 were still extant, and they surely would have made some quotations from them. 
 I send this for information to your paper, in the hope that some Chinese learned 
 in the Yh may be induced to throw light on the subject. I may also quote a few 
 words from Mao Si-ho's commentary. He says, ' According to Hwan T'ans Sui 
 lun, the Lien shan consisted of 80,000 characters, and the Kwei-tsang of 4,300 
 characters. The former was deposited in Lan t'ai, and the latter in T'ai puh.* 
 Therefore the Hia and Shang dynasties had texts of the Yh (as well as figures) . 
 Chang Kia-tsi (of the Sung dynasty) also says, the Lien shan was lost; but 
 there was a commentary on the Kwei-tsang by Sze-ma Ying (? Ying-chi) in 13 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 sections. And finally in the Tso chwan and Kwoh yii we read frequently of 
 divination in the Shang dynasty. How could they have managed their divination 
 without a text for directions ? " 
 
 Dr. J. Chalmers adds to the preceding remarks that in 
 his conviction 
 
 ** The Th-King never was, and never can by any ingenuity be proved to be, more 
 than a hand-book of divination, with the compiling of which King Wan and the 
 Duke of Chou, if they were wise men, had little or nothing to do. The writer 
 of the above paragraph, whoever he is, seems to be working towards the same 
 view. The absurdity and irrelevancy of the greater part of the text cannot be 
 accounted for on any other hypothesis. It can only be compared to Moore's or 
 Zadkiel's almanac. But it is Chinese and not Babylonian." — China Review, July, 
 August, 1883, vol. xii. p. 59-60. 
 
 With due protest against the mention made by these 
 several writers of a Babylonian origin for the Yh-King, 
 which we do not think has ever been put forward, except as 
 an unfair weapon hurled against us, because of our views 
 about the origin from Anterior Asia of the ancient civilisation 
 of China, there is nothing to object on these several views 
 about the oldest book of the Chinese. They disagree with the 
 views of Dr. J. Legge {cf. p. 3 note), while they agree with 
 us in several respects. And they leave the question as we 
 have placed it, with the solution which we have proposed, 
 and which the complete translation of the book in the second 
 part of the present work will alone justify and finally 
 establish. 
 
 III. 
 
 It is certainly singular that the very name of the Book of 
 Changes had became obscure at an early date. The Shwoh 
 wen of A.D. 89, which is certainly the oldest etymological 
 dictionary, describes hieroglyphicaliy the symbol Yh ^ as 
 representing the Chameleon {Yen ting) and house lizard ; its 
 appearance being figured by its spelling ' sun and moon ' 
 because it symbolizes the ever-changing Yn and Yang? 
 The philosophical speculations of the Han period had then, 
 as in so many other cases when they combine information, 
 
 ^ Shwoh wen, s.v. K^ang hi tze tien, s.v. Mr. Philastre, I.e. p. 11, wants it to 
 be composed of Q sun and ^ not, which is the modern graphical spelling, but 
 is not the historical etymology. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 traditional and speculative, the better of the sober etymologist. 
 In the critical edition of the Shwoh wen issued in 1833, the 
 definition of lizard only is preserved^ and this agrees certainly 
 with the hieroglyphic appearance, more wilfully suggestive 
 than traditional, of several of the ancient forms of the symbol.'* 
 The unsophisticated fact is simply that the tradition about the 
 genuine composition of the original character was partly lost, 
 and that in the ideographism which prevailed since the renova- 
 tion of writing of 820, Chinese scribes were wont to discern 
 at any cost a hieroglyphism, traditional or invented, in every 
 written character. The antecedent character in the mother 
 writing of Anterior Asia has happily been identified and per- 
 mits us to say that it was composed of Star,^ with another 
 character meaning sky, stone, etc.* 
 
 lY. 
 
 The Chou Li or Eitual of the Chou dynasty states that the 
 Ta p^u or Great Augur has charge of the rules of the three 
 Yh ^, called respectively Lien shany Kwei tsang, and Chou 
 Yk; each having eight K?vas and eight combinations of 
 them. Therefore the term Yh was chiefly attached to the 
 sixty-four Ewas and the texts attached to them. But the 
 texts of the Lien skan and Kwei-tsang were difi'erent under 
 some respects from those of the Chou Yh, if we may judge 
 from the quotations of the last named work which are met 
 with in encyclopedic literature. The difi'erence consisted not 
 in the written symbol attached to each Kwa and object- 
 matter of every chapter, nor in the series of its meanings and 
 acceptations, but in the additional statements which followed 
 them, and were historical or legendary allusions. 
 
 * A lizard. The other meanings of this character are given hy phonetic usage. 
 J. Chalmers, The structure of Chinese Characters, after the Shwoh wan, 100 a.d., 
 and the Phonetic Shwoh wan, 1833.— 1882, p. 157. 
 
 2 Cf Min Tsi-k'ih, Luh shu tung, Kiv. 10, f. 14, and for tin, f. 7. 
 
 3 i.e. ANA NANU. — Cf. k. Amiaud L. Mechineau, Tableau Compare dea 
 ecritures Babylonienne et Assyrienne Anciennes et Modernes, 1887, No. 17. — 
 E. Brunnow, Cuneiform classified list, Nos. 448-453. — T. de L., in B. 0. R., 
 vol. V. p. 39. 
 
 4 Chou li, Tchun Ewan, Ta p'u; Kiv. 24, f. 4, 5; tr. Biot, vol. ii. p. 70, 71. 
 
Xii INTRODUCTION. "^ 
 
 The quotations made in the Tso chuen at the occasion of 
 divinations by twigs of the milfoid are most instructive about 
 the history of the Yh-King. In eleven cases the Yh of Chou 
 is referred to eo nomine, and fragments of the text or explana- 
 tions clearly derived from it are quoted. In eight cases no 
 name of work is given, the author mentioning only which 
 Kwas were drawn from the milfoil before proceeding to quote 
 texts following them. Now the interest lies in these texts. In 
 530 and 548 B.C., they are exactly as if quoted from the Yh 
 of Chou, and taking their respective late dates into considera- 
 tion, we may assume that the non-mention there of its name is 
 only an oversight of the writer. On the other hand, in 645 (1 ) 
 and 575 B.C. the texts quoted are not found in the Yh of 
 Chou at all, while in 662, 660, 645 (2) and 635 B.C. parts only 
 of the texts quoted in each instance have survived in it. The 
 outstanding fractions belong in most cases to historical 
 allusions, like those referred to in the K7vei-tsang, but 
 different as to the facts spoken of. Now as seven quotations 
 only of the latter work are available for comparison with 
 five of the unknown work whose extracts appear in the Tso- 
 Chuen, the fact that none of them correspond is no proof 
 that they do not belong to one and the same work in one 
 hundred and twenty-eight sections. There is on the 
 contrary every reason to suppose that the unnamed work w^as 
 the Kwei-Uang , which, belonging to the preceding and little 
 respected dynasty, remained nameless out of reverence for 
 the ruling family of Chou who had also a book of changes, 
 not available yet in these States. 
 
 The Kwei-tsang is said to have contained 4300 words, sub- 
 divided into sixty-four chapters, each having a upper and 
 lower part corresponding therefore to the double section of 
 every KwaJ^ This is the length of the Yh of Chou, and there 
 
 1 Cf. below part i. § 18. 
 
 2 The exact number of characters in the Th-King, without the commentaries 
 or wings, is 4134 divided into 448 sentences from 2 to 30 characters, in 64 
 chapters, from 30 to 95 each. With the wings the total number is 24,107. 
 
INTRODUCTION. Xlll 
 
 is now little doubt in our mind that the latter work is nothing 
 else than a modification and adaptation of parts of the first by 
 Wen Wang. While secluded at Yii-li, he has suppressed the 
 historical allusions which referred to a period too remote in 
 time, and has substituted to them references to events of later 
 date with which his people was acquainted, and a larger 
 number of augural sentences and foretelling words in con- 
 formity with some views of his own about the respective 
 symbolism of the two component parts of every Kwa. On 
 the other alterations and allusions introduced by himself and 
 the Duke of Chou into the work, enough has been said in 
 paragraphs 38-41 of the present volume. 
 
 There is no doubt possible that a former Yh was in the 
 hands of Wen Wang, and that he played havoc right and left 
 with the text, which however he preserved as groundwork of 
 his own Yh. Historical allusions have been lost beyond 
 recovery by suppression of a part of thestate ment, or have 
 been suppressed altogether as proved by the quotations of 
 the Tso Chuen in 645(1) and 575 B.ci An instance of partial 
 suppression of such a text will explain what I mean. In 
 645(2) a divination by the Milfoil is made, and the Kwas 
 drawn were the 54th and the 38th ; extracts are given from 
 the texts following them. The Augurer says amongst other 
 statements : " there is defeat in Tseng Kiu," B4 -^ ^ £ 
 Now in Wen Wang's arrangement of the text it has been 
 simplified to two words : S ^ i^ which it is not surprising 
 that every one of the European exegetes hitherto engaged in 
 interpreting the work has failed to recognize there what it is, 
 i e, an allusion to the defeat inflicted by Hwang-ti upon Tcheh- 
 yeu at Tseng Kiu, which defeat is mentioned in full in the 
 original text of the Yh of the Shang dynasty (otherwise the 
 Kwei-tsang), 
 
 In some cases the arranger of the Yh of Chou does not 
 
 ^ Tso chuen ^ Hi Kung, xv, 13. 
 
 2 Cf. Pih Yuan's gloss, on the Shan hai King^ Kiv. 17, f. 3 v. 
 
XIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 seem to have always understood the original purpose of the 
 texts he was using, as shown by the fact that his separation 
 into chapters does not coincide in every case with the change 
 of subject matter ; for instance, line 6 of chapter Ixi belongs 
 to chapter Ixii, lines 1 and 2 of chapter xlii belong to 
 chapter xli, etc. 
 
 In re-arranging the Yh (of the Shang Dynasty) for the 
 use of their followers, the Chou leader suppressed the allusions 
 which it contained to events of oldest times, and inserted in 
 their stead references to events and circumstances of recent 
 dates and well-known in his time. Such for instance as the 
 allusions to Kao tsung (1364-1324 b.c.) and his campaign 
 against the Kwei fang (Zwa, 63, 1. 2, and 64, 1. 4) ; to Ti-y, 
 the last ruler but one of the Shang- Yn Dynasty {^Kwa 12, 
 1. 5 and 54, 1, 5) ; to Ki-tze {Krca, 36, 1. 5) ; to Mount K'i 
 the traditional residence of the Chou {Kma 46, 1. 4 and 17, 
 1. 6). Except in one case {Kwa 63, 1. 3) all these allusions 
 are placed in the second part of each chapter, i,e.^ line 4, 5, 
 and 6, and thus justify the view we have expressed with 
 reference to the relative position of the vocabulary and 
 examples in the ancient documents. 
 
 V. 
 
 It is not sufficient to be acquainted with the languages and 
 philosophy of the Chinese to understand the Yh-King ; much 
 more is required.^ The descriptions of the ideograms, their 
 meanings and instances of their use, which form the original 
 text, are full of ancient lore, which in our ignorance we are 
 open to misconceive and mistranslate. In the complete 
 translation which forms the second part of the present work, 
 not a few passages are still obscure, and we may consider 
 
 1 I apply here to tlie Yh-King and slightly modified, the judgment passed on 
 Mr. H. A. Giles' The Remains of Lao-tze retranslated^ by Prof. Georg vander 
 Gabelentz of Berlin, when he said that a knowledge of the language and a 
 philosophical training do not suffice to gain a correct understanding of the 
 Tao teh King. {China Review, vol, xvii.) 
 
INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 that the necessary elucidations historical, mythological and 
 otherwise are wanting.^ 
 
 I beg to submit here a few cases in support of my state- 
 ments concerning the existence in the Yh-King of many 
 references to ancient lore and customs. 
 
 The 6rst chapter which concerns Kien J^ Heaven, and is 
 one of the most conspicuous by the unintelligibleness of all 
 the renderings, contains some cosmogonic allusions, non- 
 confucianist in character, and therefore ignored by the 
 literati. They refer to the five dragons, 5. Il* ^^ Zwwy of 
 the fabulous speculations concerning the mythological ages. 
 The second of the ten Ki was that of these five dragons in the 
 general scheme of olden times.^ 
 
 In the said chapter we find them mentioned as follows : 
 
 1. 1 : iW tl ^ ffl ; i.e., the Tdien Lung, were in no 
 distinct place. 
 
 1. 2 : ^ I ?J B ; IX, the Kien Lung were in the lands. 
 
 1. 4 : ^ H ( 1 )^ <S ^ ; the Hwoh-yoh {Lung) were in the 
 watery deep. 
 
 !• 5 : fH 1 S 5c ; the Fei Lung were in the skies. 
 
 1. 6 : /C 1 W IS; (and) the Kang Lung (when) a change 
 occurred.* 
 
 The second chapter contains two important fragments of 
 their most ancient lore, both in the first line. The object of 
 the symbol i^ Kwen described is the mr^^,— literally from 
 the ideographism of the character, the stretched earth — or 
 passive element of nature. 
 
 Now Kwen, ^^ in the first line, is described as $fc ,|| i jft* 
 
 * Dr. J. Edkins has made a remark to that effect in his mentioned paper, y 
 i.e., p. 380, when he says : ** If in certain passages it (the Yh-King) is obscure, '^ 
 it ought to be considered whether the necessary historical elucidations are 
 wanting." 
 
 2 Cf. W. F. Mayers, Chinese Headers Manual, p. 364. 
 
 3 The word Lung has been dropped here because of the rhythm. 
 
 * The Kwang-ya says that there were five sorts of dragons. So said Kwantze 
 in the seventh century b.c. 
 
 5 In the former Th or Kwei tsang, this character was written Wi, cf. Khang 
 hi tze Hen, Tze wei p'u, cl. 12. 
 
 ^ Translated : " correct and having the firmness of a mare" (Legge). — bien at 
 perfection de la jument (Philastre). 
 
XVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 i.e. " the firmness of the female horse," a statement utterly 
 unintelligible, did we not remember that in the earliest 
 cosmogony with which the civilisers of China were acquainted, 
 the primitive being, the root of Heaven and Earth, was a 
 female animal.^ 
 
 The second fragment, referred to in the same chapter, runs 
 as follows : H it ^ ^J3 * 4t 3IDJ, i^e. "the South-West 
 got the falling down, the North-East lamented for it,"^ 
 whei*e we cannot help recognising a clear allusion to the 
 mythological circumstance of the deluge legend as adapted^ 
 and preserved in China, where the story says that the four 
 
 \ pillars of the earth sundered, and the earth became defective 
 
 on one side. A chief difference in the present rendering is 
 
 that Jjg is an early and undeveloped form of |I||9 to fall down 
 
 as a mountain, and not the symbol for a pair or friends. 
 
 The Troglodytes people, spoken of in the thirteenth chapter,* 
 
 ^ translated as a specimen in the first part of the present work 
 
 ^ (p. 89, 91) are no other than the cave men who inhabited the 
 Loess of the present Shen-si and Shansi provinces, when the 
 Bak families arrived there from the west, a practice which, 
 required by the soil, is followed to the present day.^ 
 
 1 It was the earliest cosmogony of Babylonia, anterior to the speculations 
 on the male and female principles, which the Bak sings had learned before their 
 arrival in N.W. China. It was preserved in a work containing many traditions 
 alleged to have been handed down from the time of Hu Nak-Kunte (Yu Nai 
 Hwang-ti) the leader of the Bak sings, and preserved in the Eoyal Archives. 
 Lao-tze when Keeper of those Archives became acquainted with it and introduced 
 it in his Tao teh King, Kiv. 6. Lieh-tze Kiv. 1, 1 Chas also quoted it. For the 
 Babylonian texts, cf. A. H. Sayce, Religion of the Ancient Babylonians, pp. 262, 
 375.— On the whole question cf. my work on the Origin of the early Chinese 
 Civilisation, ch. viii. 141-146. 
 
 2 Translated previously, whatever it may mean — *' getting friends in the south- 
 west, and losing friends in the north-east (Legge) " — " II pourracquerir des amis 
 d'un cote, mais il les perdra de 1' autre " (De Harlez). — "Dans le sud-ouest 
 possibilite d' avoir des amis ; dans le Nord-est perte des amis." (Philastre). 
 
 \ 2 Cf. my monograph. The Deluge tradition and its remains in Ancient China, 
 
 part I. 26, and §§ 135-139 below the change of Orientation. 
 
 * Under the heading jpj Tung -Jen the symbol fung was originally the picture 
 of a crucible (whence " mixed together,") as shown by its regular derivation from 
 the mother writing of "Western Asia. Cf. the Ku-wen forms in Jfm Tsi-Kih, Luh 
 shu fung, and Amiaud-Mechineau, Tableau compare des Ecritures Babylonienne 
 Assyrienne Archaiques et Modernes, 1887. No. 68. 
 
 ^ Cf. for instance F. von Richtofen, China, vol. i. 1877, pp. 68, 72, 73, 96, 
 199, 117. 
 
y 
 
 INTRODUCTION. XVII 
 
 In matters of exchange and currency, the Bak families used 
 to barter all commodities, besides wrought and unwrought 
 metal by weight ; arriving in the Flowery Land they found 
 among the native populations of the east a currency of shells 
 and cowries which they adapted to their own use and require- 
 ments in dealing with them.^ Now this early currency is 
 referred to twice in the Yh-King, 
 
 Under the XList Kwa originally^ yuen round things,2now 
 a classifier of cowries (money and goods), 1. 6-5, we find : 
 ^ S i + 3S i ffi» **also added to ten pairs of tortoise 
 shells."^ 
 
 Under the List Kwa, originally Li fi, regulate, central, 
 number, bestow, give orders,* at the line 2 mention is made of 
 IS S -S> i.^., 100,000 dead shells or cowries.^ The statement is 
 particularly interesting as it shows that when it was at first put 
 into writing for the instruction of the people, the author 
 thought necessary to explain the matter to his followers still 
 unfamiliar with the practice. It has altogether escaped the 
 attention of translators. 
 
 A great danger in explaining the Yh-King is to take as 
 bona-fide expressions and meanings in the language, sach 
 acceptations of words which have no earlier existence than 
 this work itself, and no other meaning than that which have 
 been attributed to them by the ancient commentaries whence 
 
 * Catalogue of Chinese coins including those in the British Museum, introd. 
 p. vii. viii. and page 582 On the Metallic cowries of Ancient China, p. 438. 
 (J.R.A.S. 1888, vol. XX.) Primitive Currency of Ancient China, § 7. 
 
 2 In the modem text, ^^ sun, diminish, injure, destroy, has been substituted to 
 it, to match the spibolicai" meaning of the hexagram, which, however, could not 
 be got at in all cases ; whence the incongruity of the chapter. Cf . below, § 39. 
 
 3 Cf. Legge's translation . . . shows parties adding to (the stores of) its 
 subject ten pairs of tortoise shells . . . and Dr. Harlez : " Augmenter les 
 biens quelqu'un par le riches presents (litt. de tortues a vingt ecailles r' " 
 
 When the work was recast, the character ^ was substituted to it. Cf. 
 below § 39. On the latter character of Min-Tsih-ki, Luh shu fung, Kiv. 7, 
 fol. 53; on ii ibid i. 28. 
 
 ^ There are two varieties of cowries, the "live cowries," and the ''dead 
 cowries.'* Cf. Ed. Balfour, Encyclopcedia of India, 1885, vol. i. p. 835. This 
 particularity explains the statement on the line 5 of the same Kwa where 
 reference is made to " 100,000 not dead." 
 
XVlll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 they have taken an undue hold in the literature. Therefore 
 little value can be attached to their case, and the instances 
 are most numerous. 
 
 A danger of another sort is to translate by their modern 
 acceptations expressions which at the time vt^heu the work was 
 composed had a different meaning. For instance, in chap. iii. 
 1. 6-21, under the heading yg tun, occurs the statement 
 ^ >l| |K in sheng ma pan ju,^ which a quotation of the 
 Tso tchuen in 661 B.C. explains as meaning ''carriages and 
 horses follow one another."^ At present sheng ma means to 
 ride a horse,' and these two words have been translated accor- 
 dingly in some European translations,* as if their authors were 
 unaware of the pre-cited rendering, and as if they did not 
 know that riding on horseback was not yet the custom at that 
 time. The oldest instance of this improvement in China 
 occurred only in 517 B.c.^ ; therefore such a translation is 
 notexact."^' ^**^'^^t' 
 
 1 The vfordi pan there is also written Jg. Cf. T.P.Y.L. Kiv. 893, f. 2. 
 
 2 Tso tchuen, Min Kung, i. 5. Chin. Class, vol. v. p. 125. 
 
 3 Sheng ma, in equum ascendere (Basil.) ; to mount a horse (Stent, PeJc. voc.) 
 The symhol sheng as shown by some of its ancient forms was intended to suggest 
 a chariot with two horses. Cf. Min Tsi-kih, Zuh shu tung, iv. 33 v. 
 
 * The four characters pre-cited are translated : Montant a cheval et comme 
 demeurant en rang (Philastre) ; un cheval Monte qui recule (De Harlez) ; even 
 the horses of her chariot also seem to be retreating (J. Legge). 
 
 5 Cf. Tso tchuen, Tch'ao Kung, xxv. 7. Khang hi tze tien s.v. |^ In 
 former times, men did not ride on horse back ; it came into practice towards the 
 end of the Chbu dynasty (Gloss, to the Li Ki). Liu hiuen commenting upon 
 the statement pre-cited of the Tso chuen, said that it was the first instance of 
 riding on horseback (-ST'i). The first use of cavalry in warfare in China dates 
 of the time of Su Ts'in, i.e. 350 B.C. {Tcheng tze timg), ibid. At the battle of 
 Marathon (490 b.c.) the Persians but not the Greeks as yet were using cavalry. 
 Eiding on horseback was only occasional at the Homeric {Odgss. v. 371 ; Iliad, 
 X. 513, XV. 679), and Vedic (Mg. v. 61-2) periods. Cf. 0. Schrader Prehistoric 
 Antiquities, -p. 262; Max Miiller, biographies of Words, p. 116. Prom the 
 time of Solomon, says Dr. C. F. Keil, Manual of Biblical Archceology , ii. 219, 
 kings and nobles used horses for riding and driving instead of asses and mules 
 (2 Kings, ix. 21, 23 ; xi. 16 ; Isa. xxx. 16 ; Amos, iv. 10), but this assertion 
 seems doubtful so far as riding on horseback is concerned before the time of 
 Isaiah, as the three first passages do not refer to it. Horses existed in Egypt 
 as early as the time of Jacob (Gen. xlvii. 17 ; Exod, ix. 3 ; Deut. xvii. 16), and 
 appear on the monuments from the time of Thothmes I. On the question Why 
 was the horse driven before it was ridden ? cf . Dr. Isaac Taylor, The Origin of 
 the Aryans, 1890, p. 161, and the letters of M. M. William Eidgeway, M. L. 
 Herbert McClure, F. Max Miiller, Talfourd Ely, in The Academy of Jan. 3, 
 10, 17, 24, and Feb. 14, 1891. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XIX 
 
 Such is the mode of investigation pursued here in view of 
 arriving at a clearer intelligence of the Yh-King, and that 
 which will be exemplified in the translation, which, with the 
 valuable help of Prof. R. K. Douglas, will form the second 
 volume of the present work. 
 
 I may be permitted to present here my best thanks for 
 the valuable help I have received from several scholars and 
 friends : Dr. E,. Rost, Librarian of the India Office, for the 
 loan of books under his care ; Mr. T. G. Pinches, of the 
 Department of Oriental Antiquities (British Museum), for 
 MS. notes ; Prof. E. K. Douglas, for his constant support ; 
 and the late Mr. E. 0. Baber, Chinese Secretary of H.B.M. 
 Legation at Peking, for his valuable assistance and advice in 
 the correction of the proofs. The whole paper was written in 
 August, 1882, but the second part (§§ 42-117) was revised in 
 March, 1883. I subjoin a few corrigenda and addenda to the 
 first part ; — Introduction, last note : The criticism of Dr. 
 Legge's Yh-King by Prof. R. K. Douglas appeared in 2'Jie 
 Academy of Aug. 1 2th (not July 1 2th). Dr. Legge wrote a 
 letter about it (Sept. 30), and Prof. Douglas replied, main- 
 taining his views (Oct. 7). The Athenoeum (Sept. 2, No. 
 2862) published a review by a well-known sinologist of Dr. 
 Legge's Yh-King, in which he said : '* We cannot catch the 
 inspiration that gave to Dr. Legge the * clue to the interpre- 
 tation' of this obscure book ; " and further, ** We have .... 
 to confess that we do not understand its drift or its interpre- 
 tation." The same scientific and literary journal published 
 in its following issue (Sept. 9th, No. 2863) a letter of mine in 
 answer to the unjustified and sharp attack made against me 
 by Dr. Legge in his Preface, pp. xviii and xix to the XVIth 
 vol. of the Sacred Books of the East. Dr. Legge replied in 
 the issue of Sept. 23, No. 2865, and the controversy was 
 brought to a close by another letter of mine maintaining 
 my views, published Sept. 30th, No. 2866. I subjoin a list 
 of Addenda and Corrigenda. 
 
XX ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA. 
 
 § 11 (/) : A learned correspondent has suggested that 5C ^ and ^ 
 jt PJi are two well-known colloquial expressions ; but certainly they 
 are not in this case, being reproduced from old. Cf. also Yuen Kien 
 luy han, E, 192, f. 24, v. The phrase means that Shen-nung casts lots 
 in order to attribute to the changes (^) their respective place. 
 § 13 : ' subreptitiously,' misprinted ' surreptitiously.' 
 § 14 (Z) : The same above-quoted correspondent has suggested rightly 
 that ^ ought not to be taken here as a verb, but as an adverb. We 
 should substitute the following translation : "He (Wen Wang) being 
 imprisoned at Yu-li, then, increased the changes proper to the eight 
 Kwas, in favour of the 64 Kwas." This would agree with the state- 
 ments of Hwrng P'u Mih and of Lo-Pi, in his work about the ^ 
 and >^ lines. 
 
 p. 16, § 19. The oldest instance on record, that I know, of a divination 
 by the Yh of Chou, is that of 705 B.C., when Li the thirteenth Kung 
 of GKen (in Honan) sent especially to Chou for that purpose. The 
 Kwas drawn were Kwan (20) and PH (12) (Szema Tsien, She ki, 
 Kiv. 36, f. 2 v.). The next instances mentioned in history are 
 those of 672 and 602 which we have noticed below (p. 16) when 
 the work was still in the hands of officers of Chou, and it was only 
 in 597 that separate copies of the Chou Yh were in circulation. 
 
 p. 78, § 95. Herewith the translations of Mr. P. L. F. Philastre (1885) 
 and of Prof. C. de Harlez (1889), which have appeared since our 
 text was printed, and which I submit for comparison with those of 
 P. Kegis, Eev. MacClatchie and Dr. Legge, pp. 78-80 ; version of 
 Mr. P. L. F. Philastre : Li, avantage de la perfection ; liberte ; 
 reunir des vaches, presage henreux. 
 
 1. 1-9. — Demarche heritante ; absence de culpabilite. 
 1. 6-2. — Clarte jaune ; grandeur du presage henreux. 
 1. 9-3. — Clarte du soleil qui decline; ne pas frapper sur la terre cuite et 
 
 chanter ; formuler des lamentations sur la grande vieillesse ; 
 
 presage malheureux. 
 1. 9-4. — Comme un courant rapide, de m6me il vient ; comme brtllant, 
 
 comme mort, comme abandonne. 
 1. 6-5. — Comme versant des larmes qui coulent ; comme triste et se 
 
 lamentant ; presage henreux. 
 1. Upper 9. — Le roi se dispose ^ partir en guerre ; il a des succ^s, il 
 
 choisit des chefs ; ce qu'il capture n'est pas le vulgaire ; pas de 
 
 culpabilite. 
 Prof. C. de Harlez : Zi, beaute " bel exterieur," se developpe et s'achfe- 
 
 ve comme dans I'el^ve d'un animal domestique (qui, bien, 
 
 saigne, est gras, bean, luisant). 
 1. — Lorsque la conduite est fautive, mais qu'on cherche avec soin ^ la 
 
 rectifier, en evitera tout bl4me. 
 2. — Le plus bel ^clat est celui du jaune. 
 3. — Lorsque I'eclat du soleil est k son d^clin, ce n'est plus la joix qu'il 
 
 inspire, mais la tristesse. (Litt, ou ne fait plus de musique au 
 
 moyen des instruments de terre, ni en chantant, mais c'est le 
 
 gemissement d'un vieillard. Le tout indique la decheance et le 
 
 chagrin qu'elle cause). Com. 
 
ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA. XXI 
 
 4. — La lumi^re du feu apparalt subitement ; elle brtile, donne la mort ; 
 
 on ne peut la supporter (App.) 
 5. — Quand le prince se met en expedition, on verse des larmes et 
 pousse des gemissements. Et cela doit etre car il sort pour aller 
 chatier les rebelles et les mechants ; dans ses hrillants exploits il 
 brise les tetes des chefs et regoita merci ceux qui ne se sout point 
 associes a leur revolte, Ainsi il n'encourt ancun blame. — Cf. P. L. 
 F. Philastre, Le Yi-King, I., p. 478-488. C. de Harlez, Le Yih- 
 King, p. 78-79. 
 Both translators have largely made use of the commentaries to make 
 something of the text. At the line 9-4, Mr. Philastre says in a note 
 after " courant rapide " — " le sens n'est explicable que par la tradition 
 et par la valeur qu'elle attribuee ^ ces mots, en apparence sans suite." 
 Ibid. p. 485. Prof. C. de Harlez refers to the appendices or commen- 
 taries for every one of the lines. 
 
 Dr. J. Edkins, in his paper on The Ti-King as a book of divination, 
 has re-translated from his point of view which we have explained in 
 the introduction, the six chapters given by us as specimens, but with a 
 good deal of extraneous matter. I extract all the passages which may be 
 looked upon as his translation of this thirtieth Kwa Li, for the sake of 
 comparison with the translations of P. Regis, Rev. MacClatchie, Dr. J. 
 Legge, and of Mr. Philastre and Prof. C. de Harlez. 
 Herewith Dr. J. Edkins' rendering : Li. Correct conduct insures con- 
 tinued success. In nourishing the cow (a patient and docile animal, 
 here introduced as a symbol of submission) luck will be insured. 
 1. — The shoe or your stepping is entangled or confused. Be careful. 
 
 There will be no error. 
 2. — The yellow Li bird. Great good fortune. 
 
 3. — The shining of the setting sun is the symbol. If not saluted by 
 beating earthen pans and singing, there will be heard the sighing 
 of the tottering old man. The omen is unfortunate. 
 4 — He comes with sudden rush, like the burning of a fire, like death, 
 
 as if to be rejected. 
 5. — Weakness on the throne. A shower of tears shows how sad he is. 
 
 He will have good fortune. 
 6. — The King in action. He leads out an army. He obtains fame. 
 He kills the chiefs, and merely make prisoners of those who were 
 not fellow rebels.— J.R.A.S, 1884, vol. xvi. p. 371-.372. 
 p. 28, note 1. The allusion to the battle of Hwang-ti in Fan- 
 ts-iuen (not ts'iun) is interesting because it shows how ancient 
 and deeply rooted among the Chinese traditions was the legendary 
 account of Hwang-ti, which otherwise might have been supposed to 
 be a late importation, cf. for this legend : T. de L., The Chinese 
 Mythical Kings and the Babylonian Canon 1883. From Ancient 
 Chaldcea and Elam to early China 1891, par 46. The Tchi-yeu 
 episode, ibid, is also alluded to in a sentence from the Kwei-tsang. 
 Cf. Shan-hai-king, edit. Pih-Yuan, xvii, 3 v. 
 p. 29, note 2. Other extracts of the Kwei-tsang are given in the 
 Tai ping yii Ian, Kiv. 35, fol. 1 , and in the Shan hai king, edit. 
 Pih-YuanJ 1781 ; one Kiv. 2, f. 14 ; two Kiv. 7, f. 1; one Kiv. 17, 
 f. 3, V. Kiv. 929, f. 1, etc. 
 p. 74. The Kim (mod. Kien) spoonbill bird was known to the Bak 
 families, before their coming in the east, as shown by the fact that 
 
XXU ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA. 
 
 tlie^Chinese name is a loan word from the west. Cf. Egyptian us 
 and Kkemi, Khem, Babylonian Kum4, Assyrian atdn na'ari, she ass 
 of the rivers ; in W. Houghton, The Birds of the Assyrian Monu- 
 ments and Records, pp. 95, 140 ; and The bird originally denoted by 
 the English word Pelican. — The Academy, April 5, 1884, p. 244. 
 
 p. 90. Perhaps ought we read ^ ^ instead of 1)^ 3^, and thus 
 find the KUen Jung Aborigines of which much is said during the 
 Chou dynasty. 
 
 p. 96, § 109. We may add the following instances of similar 
 perversions : — When commentators arose to explain the Una- 
 disutras, they found the greater part of the words contained in them 
 still employed in the literature of their age, or recorded in older 
 dictionaries. But an unknown residuum remained, and to these 
 whenever tradition failed them, they were bold enough to assign 
 arbitrary significations (Aufrecht). In Mexico wilful changes of 
 meaning of phrases were introduced in the recitation of traditional 
 songs by the initiated. Cf. Adolf. Bastian, Sprachvergleichende 
 studien, 1870, pp. 27n, 61. 
 
 p. 96, § 110. On the name of Bak (= Pak or Poh in Poh sing) as 
 an ethnic. Cf. The Languages of China before the Chinese, 
 1887, § 200-201 ; and additions in French edition, 1888, p. 159. 
 Origin of the Early Chinese civilisation, chap. v. 
 
 p. 96, § 110. On the derivation of the Chinese characters from 
 the ancient script of Babylonia and Elam. Cf. T. de L. : The 
 old Babylonian characters and their Chinese derivates 27, pp. March, 
 1888 (B. and 0. R. vol. ii), and the approbative article of Prof. 
 A. H. Sayce on the same subject in Nature, June 7, 1888, and B. 
 and 0. R. August, 1888. T. de L., Chijps of Babylonian and 
 Chinese Palceography ibid. Oct. 1888. From Ancient Ghaldcea and 
 Elam to Early China, par. 14-32 ; B. and 0. R. vol. v., Feb. 1891 ; 
 Catalogue of Chinese Coins, introduction, pp. 33-34 ; Beginnings 
 of writing, chap. ix. 1892. C. J. Ball, The New Accadian, 1889-90 
 pass. ; Ideograms common to Accadian and Chinese, 1890-91, 23 
 and 15 pp. 
 
 p. 97, No. 111. For the similarity of method about ideological 
 lists, Cf for instance the list of 24 terms for Ruler in 
 Babylonia (W. R. T. ii, , 33-3) and the first and second lists in the 
 Oet-ya. 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 4, 1. 7, after which add (out of 2240). 
 9, 1. 11, for J read ^. 
 ,, 1. 31, for writings read writing. 
 
 ,, n. 1, for Li tai Wang nien piao read Zi tai Ti Wang 
 nien piao. 
 
 11, 1. 26, for il. read ^£, 
 
 12, 1. 2, for \ read /\ 
 „ 1. 4, for tIc read pi^ 
 
 13, 1. 32, for -p f[> r^«J<? + ih 
 
 16, 1. 33, for or the Siang read or from the Sstang. 
 24, n. 2, 1. 7, a/if^r Mencius «^i^ III., 2, ix. 8. 
 29, n. 2, 1. 5, <7/i(^r reproduce add some of. 
 
 33, 1. 10, for a girl read an aunt. 
 
 34, 1. 27, for ^ read ^ 
 
 36, 1. 10, for fanciful read fancied. 
 39, 1. 27, for Kin read Kiu. 
 
 41, 1. 2, for Se-Ma read Sa-ma. 
 
 ,, 1. 10, for Lin Hiang read Liu Hiang. 
 
 42, 1. 7, 8, for chang Hiian read Ch'eng Hiuen. 
 
 44. 1. 17, after Ch'eng Kang Ch'eng add or Cheng Hiuen. 
 53, 1. 14, for in modem writing read in modem text. 
 56, 1. 8, for from read form. 
 
 74, §. 74, add note, For the geography of these and other 
 equivalences, cf. T. de L., The Languages of China 
 before the Chinese. §§. 53-57. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I.— Description of the Book. — §§ 1. General description of the book. 
 — 2. The Kwas as a classification. — 3. Commentaries commonly 
 embodied with the text. — 4. Authors of the Twan and Siang. — 
 5. Characteristics of the ten wings. — 6. The first two wings. — 7. 
 Length of the book. 
 
 II.— Ancient Texts on the Authorship of the Book. — §§ 8. Vulgar 
 attribution. — 9. Statements in cheap and modern books. — 10. 
 Texts on the authorship of the Kwas. — 11. The supposed work of 
 Shen-Nung. — 12. Statements by Wang Fu-mi. — 13. Statements 
 by Lo-Pi. — 14. The Hi-tze does not support Wen Wang's author- 
 ship.— 15. Nor does Se-ma Tsien. — 16. Se-ma Tsien on Confucius. 
 — 17. Statement in the Tso-Chuen on Chou-Kung. — 18. Quotations 
 of the Yh in the Tso-Chuen. — 19. Their chronology. — 20. Prove 
 the progress of the Yh. — 21. Prove the existence of the Yh text 
 before Wen Wang. — 22. No proof whatever of the authorship of 
 Wen Wang. 
 
 III. — Influence of the Evolution of Writing. — §§ 23. The old 
 Chinese writing, its early phonetism and its decay. — 24. The 
 hieroglyphical revival about 820 b.c. — 25. The unification by Ts'in 
 She-Hoang-ti. — 26. The transcriptions are made ideographically. 
 — 27. The addition of ideographical determinatives or keys. 
 
 IV. — Obvious Vestiges of the Old Text. — §§ 28. The Lo map and 
 Lo writing. — 29. The Kwas. — 30. The prognostics slips in the 
 Shu-King. — 31 The Kwei-tsang and the Lien-shan. — 32. The old 
 text in the Tso Chuen. — 33. Differences of style in the text of the 
 Yh. — 34. The foretelling words outside the rhymes. — 35. The 
 Ku-wen text. — 36. Ways and means to find it out. — 37. Ancient 
 characters of the old text. — 38. Characters changed. Examples. — 
 39. Changes in the headings of the chapters. — 40. Changes in the 
 transcriptions. — 41. Importance of the changes. 
 
 V. — The Native Interpretations. — §§ 42. Stupendous number of 
 interpreters. — 43. Modifications introduced by Wen Wang. — 44. 
 How he classified the old documents. — 45. Impossibihty for a man 
 of common sense to write it. — 46. The Th handed down by the 
 disciples of Confucius. — 47. Editions and commentaries in the 
 Former Han annals. — 48. Commentaries known at the Han period. 
 49. Other commentators. — 50. The Yh and alchemy. — 51. Other 
 commentaries. — 52. Commentators of the Sung period. — 53. Critics 
 of the present dynasty. — 54. The interpreters much more numerous 
 than here quoted. — 55. Curious modern views of the Chinese. 
 
 VL— The European Interpretations. — §§. 56. Fragmentary trans- 
 lations of PP. Premare, Couplet, Visdelou. — 57. Fragmentary 
 versions of M. J. P. Schumacher, Dr. O. Piper, Adolf Helfferich, 
 etc., etc., P. Zottoli. — 58. Complete Latin version of P. Kegis and 
 others. — 59. Mystic French version by Mr. P. L. F. Philastre. — 60. 
 Complete EngHsh version by Rev. MacClatchie. — 61. Complete 
 English version by Dr. J. Legge. — 62. He has made a Yh-King of 
 
XXVI CONTENTS. 
 
 his own fashion. — 63, Curious effect of these made-up interpreta- 
 tions. — 64. How they have been obtained. — 65. They are complete 
 nonsense, and cannot be genuine. 
 
 VII. — Comparison of the Interpretations. — §§ 66. Great number 
 of unwarranted special meanings. — 67. Curious example of Tien 
 ' heaven ' translated shaving. — 68. Example of the 8th chapter. — 
 69. Passage quoted in the Tso-chuen. — 70. Another passage in the 
 same work. — 71. Fancy of the translations. — 72. Id. 
 
 VIII. — Methods of Interpretation. — §§ 73. Process followed by 
 Wen Wang. — 74. The author of the Sil Kwa has nearly guessed 
 the clue. — 75. The Yh has never been lost. — 76. Method by modi- 
 fication of the characters. — 77. The guess-at-the-meaning principle 
 of translation. — 78. In what it cousists. — 79. The duty of a trans- 
 lator.— 80. Mencius has not upheld the guess-at-the-meaning 
 principle. — 81. Those views are based on a delusion about the 
 archaic Chinese. — 82. The scientific method of translation. 
 
 IX. — Translations from the Yh. — §§. 83 Characteristics of the 
 text. — 84. Foretelling formula interpolated. — 85. Eemarks on 
 several characters. — 86. Our view of the Yh. — 87. Eeasons for giving 
 six chapters as specimens. — 88. Eemarks on the VII th chapter, 
 Sze. — 89. Meaning of Sze in the Classics. — 90. Translation. — 91. 
 It is a vocabulary. — 92. The XV th chapter, Kien, a vocabulary. — 
 93. Translation. — 94. The XXX th chapter, Li, a vocabulary. — 
 95. Translation. — 96. The XXXI st chapter, Kan, a vocabulary. — 
 97. Translation. — 98. The XX th chapter, Kwan, mixed, vocabu- 
 lary and ballad.— 99. Translation.— 100. The XIII th chapter, 
 Tung j en, ethnographical. — 101. Translation. — 102. The foretelUng- 
 words outside the rhymes. 
 
 X. — Contents Forgotten of the Yh. — §§ 103. Contents of the Yh. 
 — 104. How made up of sundry old documents. — 105. When it 
 was arranged. — 106. Is nothing else than a vocabulary. — 107. 
 Other examples of books forgotten. — 108. The Japanese Nihongi. 
 109. The Oupnehkat. 
 
 XI. — Origin of the Yh-king.— §§ 110. Afiinities of the writings and 
 institutions of China and S.W. Asia. — 111. Similarity of ideogra- 
 phical and phonetic lists of words. — 112. Notion of syllabaries 
 borrowed from the West. — 113. Comparison of the characters lu 
 and li. — 114. Distance in time and space of the documents com- 
 pared. — 115. The cuneiform syllabaries and the Chinese CEt-ya. — 
 116. Some western texts may have been preserved in China. — 117. 
 Important value of the Yh-king for ancient Chinese research. 
 
 XII. — Material History of the Yh-King. — § 118. The text Ku-wen 
 engraved on wood tablets, and chuen painted with lacquer on 
 bamboo slips. — 119. After 212 B.C. written in Li-shu with the hair 
 pencil on silk cloth. — 120. The old lacquered tablets were finally 
 destroyed in 311 a.d. — 121. The Ku-wen, chuen, and Li-shu texts 
 engraved on stone tablets in 175 a.d. — 122. The Li-shu text en- 
 graved again on stone tablets before 265 a.d. — 123. Out of 144 
 tablets only 50 remained in 600 a.d. — 124. Texts printed in 593, 
 717, and all the classics in 932 a.d. — 125. Preservation by print of 
 parts of the ancient texts. — 126. The present character was sub- 
 stituted for the former Li-shu in 744. — 127. New stone classics 
 erected in 833 at Chang-ngan, and in the last century at Peking. 
 
 /- 
 
CONTENTS. XXVU 
 
 1.— Concluding chapter. — The Yh-King and the western origin of 
 THE Chinese civilisation. — § 128. Relationship of the Chinese 
 with the Turano-Scythian languages. — 129, Present scheme of these 
 languages. — J 30. Cousinship and Antiquity of the Chinese and 
 Akkado-Sumerian. 
 
 II.— § 131. The Bak families were northern neighbours of the Akkado- 
 Sumerians at first uncivilized. — 132. The Bak families claimed 
 their independence c. 2332 B.C. — 133. Arrived in N.W. China 
 c. 2882 B.C. ; the Bak families wrote documents. — 134. Numerous 
 proofs of this western origin. 
 
 III. — § 135. Derivation of the Chinese cardinal points from those of 
 Elam- Babylonia. — 136. How they were changed during the migra- 
 tion, — 137. The astronomical commands of Yas in the Shu- King 
 suggests the same change, — 138. The explanation is furnished by 
 the palaeographical derivation. — 139. The same phenomenon ex- 
 plains a difficulty of the Yh-king with the Deluge legend. 
 
 IV. — § 140. Ancient western traditions in old Chinese literature. — 
 141. The Babylonian Animal-mother cosmogony in the Yh-King 
 and in Lao-tze, — 142, The sea- traders of the Erythraean sea 
 arrived in 675 in Shantung, introduce coinage, astrology, and incite 
 curiosity. — 143. A search was then made for ancient documents, 
 which studied by the Taoszeists were neglected by the Confu- 
 cianists. 
 
 V. — § 144, Stage of semi-hieroglyphism of the western writing borrowed 
 by the Bak families, — 145. The characters being old required ex- 
 planations, whence the list of meanings in China as in the west. — 
 
 146. Previous comparisons fully confirmed by further research. — 
 
 147. A fuller list for lu and li. — 148. It is a most conclusive proof. 
 VI. — § 149, No pictorial writing in China before the Bak families. — 
 
 150. Various causes of ideographical increase of their writing. 
 
HISTORY AND METHOD. 
 
 On the 10th of May, 1880, at a special meeting of the Royal 
 Asiatic Society, I presented a paper on the History of the 
 Chinese Language, in which I communicated my discoveries 
 on the old phonetic laws of spelling of the Ancient Chinese 
 writing, — the derivation of this writing from the pre- cunei- 
 form characters of South-Western Asia, — and also the nature 
 and contents of the long-disputed book, the Yh-King, The 
 printing of that paper was delayed in order to make it more 
 precise and complete, but parts of its contents, as well as 
 several results of my researches, had been published in 1880, 
 by my friend Prof. E. K. Douglas and by myself.^ 
 
 Since that time these results gained in accuracy and 
 certainty,^ and in January, 1882,^ I was able to make 
 
 ^ See Prof. Douglas, The Progress of Chinese Linguistic Discovery, ** The 
 Times," April 20, 1880 ; reprinted in Triibner's American, European, and 
 Oriental Literary Record, new series, vol. i. pp. 125-127, and my China and 
 the Chinese : their early history and future prospects, in the Journal of the 
 Society of Arts, July 16, 1880. Early History of the Chinese Civilization (with 
 plate of old Chinese characters borrowed from the pre-cuneiform writing), 
 London, 1880 (Triibner). 
 
 2 Vid. an anonjTnous paper on Chinese and Babylonian Literature in Quarterly 
 Review of July, 1882; and Prof. Douglas's charming volume on China (London, 
 1882, 8vo.). Vid. also the valuable report to the Philological Society, 1882, on 
 The Progress of Assyriology, by Mr. T. G. Pinches. 
 
 3 Published in The Athencetim, Jan. 21, 1882, as follows: "Tn company with 
 the general body of Sinologists, I read with pleasure in your issue of the 7th 
 your announcement that Dr. Legge's translation of the *Yh King,' for the 
 * Sacred Books of the East ' series, will be out about Easter. But the paragraph 
 adds : * Curiously enough, some Chinese scholars pretend that the book is written 
 in the Accadian language.' As I was the first Sinologist to point out, two years 
 ago, that the early Chinese civilization had been borrowed by the so-called 
 Hundred families from the south of the Caspian Sea, I fear that the rather wild 
 statement that the * Yh King ' was written in the Akkadian language may be 
 confused with my own views, and I am, therefore, bound to protest against it. 
 As the Chinese scholar^, both English and Chinese, to whom I had occasion to 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 some important statements about the Yh-King, whicli bear in 
 \ no inconsiderable manner on the origin and early history 
 of Chinese culture. 
 
 submit my translation, attach, as I do myself, great importance to my discovery 
 about the ' Yh King,' and as this discovery has caused so eminent a Sinologist 
 as Prof. Douglas, of the British Museum, to join me in the preparation of a 
 translation of the ' Yh King,' which we shall publish in English, and also in 
 Chinese in China, it is important to state on what ground it stands. 
 
 It deals only with the oldest part of the book, the short lists of characters 
 which follow each of the sixty-four headings of the chapters, and it leaves 
 entirely aside the explanations and commentaries attributed to "Wen Wang, Chou 
 Kung, Confucius, and others, from 1200 b.c. downwards, which are commonly 
 embodied as an integral part of the classic. The proportion of the primitive text 
 to these additions is about one-sixth of the whole. The contents of this primitive 
 part of the book are not homogeneous, and belong to different periods of the early 
 history of the Chinese. It has been made up to the number of sixty-four parts, 
 to correspond with the speculations of numbers on the Kwa, at which time these 
 old fragments and the mystical strokes have been joined together. To reach the 
 sacred number of sixty-four it has been found advisable by the compiler to add 
 texts much more recent than the older ones, of which the real meaning had been 
 lost through the lapse of time and changes in the language. So different in sub- 
 ject are the various chapters that we find, for example, in several of them, curious 
 ballads on historical or legendary events. In others we have descriptions of 
 aboriginal tribes of China, their customs, the meanings of some of their words 
 homonymous to the Chinese ones, instructions to the officials about them, and 
 descriptions of the animals, which descriptions in the greatest number of cases are 
 given in relation to their meanings of the character which is the subject of the 
 chapter. Besides all this — and it is the most curious part of the book as well as 
 the most special result of my discovery — we have a good number of chapters 
 which are nothing else than mere lists of the meanings of the character placed at 
 the head of the chapter. These lists are extraordinarily like the so-called sylla- 
 baries preserved in the Cuneiform characters, which were copied, as we know, by 
 order of the Assyrian monarchs from older ones of Babylonia. The system of 
 having such phonetic dictionaries with others of different kinds is a peculiar 
 feature of the old Akkadian culture, on the mixed origin of which there is nothing 
 here to say excepting this, that it was not carried bodily into Babylonia, but 
 sprang up in that region from the intrusion of Northern peoples amongst the 
 highly cultured Cushite populations, who had settled there and possessed that 
 writing of hieroglyphic origin which became the Akkadian and later on the 
 Cuneiform characters. Now there are many most serious facts which prove that 
 writing and the elements of sciences, arts, and government were acquired in South- 
 western Asia by the future Chinese colonists from a centre of activity where the 
 Babylonian or Akkadian culture had more or less directly been spread. It seems 
 only natural, therefore, that the early Chinese leaders should have been induced, 
 not only to keep some of the lists of values of the written characters which they 
 had learned, but also to continue the some practice of making lists in relation to 
 the peoples, customs, etc., of their new country. And though extraordinary, it is 
 not astonishing that some of the oldest lists resemble the lists kept in the Cunei- 
 form characters, and that I was able to exhibit two years ago at the Royal Asiatic 
 Society four of those lists which run parallel in the ' Yh King ' and in the Cunei- 
 form texts. And no doubt the impossibility of reading, as current phrases and 
 texts, simple lists of meanings accounts for the absolute obscurity of these parts of 
 the book, and the astounding number of interpretations which have been proposed 
 by native Chinese scholars. European scholars are engaged on the same path. 
 We have already the Latin translation by P. Regis and others, made with the 
 help of the Manchu version, which is quite unintelligible ; the English translation 
 of Canon McClatchie in the sense of a cosmogony ; and the Latin translation in 
 the ' Cursus Linguae Sinicae,' in course of publication at Shanghai, where is to be 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 3 
 
 Pending the publication of the version of this book I 
 am preparing with the valuable help of Mr. Douglas, I have 
 been advised, as it is a matter of much interest and im- 
 portance, to put together some notes on the authorship^ and 
 history of the Yh-King, as well as on the scientific method 
 of dealing with this, the oldest book of Chinese literature. 
 Consequently I have classified my notes in the following 
 order : 
 
 1. Description of the book. 
 
 2. Ancient texts on its authorship. 
 
 3. Influence of the evolution of writing. 
 
 4. Yestiges of the old text anterior to Wen Wang. 
 
 5. Native interpretations. 
 
 6. European interpretations. 
 
 7. Comparison of the interpretations. 
 
 8. Methods of interpretation. 
 
 9. Contents and origin of the Yh-King. 
 
 found one of the best translations of the Cliinese classics whicli have ever been 
 made. Besides these three, another translation in French is announced as being 
 about to be published in the Annales du Musee Guimei, by M. E. Philastre, who 
 for some years was a high oflBcial in Cochin China ; this translation will exhibit 
 a system of philosophy if we may judge from what the author has already 
 written. 
 
 Dr. Legge's translation will certainly be an improvement upon the others 
 already published. The many years of work which this Sinologist has spent 
 upon it and his study of the commentaries will undoubtedly result in a great 
 amount of information, as in his edition of some of the other Chinese classics. 
 
 So in a short time European scholars will have five translations of the * Yh 
 King ' to compare, and when our translation, the sixth, appears, they will be able 
 to decide which is the most faithful." 
 
 ^ Several misleading statements about the authorship and contents of this 
 mysterious book, and the manner of translating it, have been lately published in 
 an important place, T/ie Sacnd Books of the IJast, vol. xvi., the Yt-King, trans- 
 lated by J. Legge. The author has answered in his Preface, p. xix, rather 
 sharply to the above letter of mine, and though he has made a Yh-King of his 
 own fashion, having formulated the scheme supposed by some commentators more 
 concisely than they have done {Vid. ibid. p. xiv), he dismisses the possibility of 
 understanding the text of the book in a manner different from his own, for the 
 reason that, according to his views and in his own words, *' if you discard the 
 explanations and commentaries attributed to King Wan, the Duke of Kaii, and 
 Confucius, we take away the whole Yi. There remain only the linear figures 
 attributed to Fu-hsi, without any lists of characters, long or short, without a 
 single written character of any kind whatever." The proofs of the inaccuracy 
 of these statements of Dr. Legge will be found throughout the following pages. 
 His version has been thoroughly refuted by Prof. Douglas, in the Academy of 
 July 12th, 1882, pp. 121-122, where is given a comparative version, according 
 to our views, of the 30th chapter of the Yh. Vid. also my letters in the 
 At/ienaum, Sept. 9 and 30, 1882. 
 
4 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 I. Description of the Book. 
 
 1. The Yh'King is the oldest of the Chinese books, and is 
 the "mysterious classic" which requires " a prolonged attention 
 to make it reveal its secrets" \ it has "peculiarities of style, 
 making it the most difficult of all the Chinese classics to present 
 in an intelligible version"^ 
 
 \^ And the 1450 selected works on the Th-King which are 
 enumerated in the catalogue^ of the great Library of the 
 Emperor Kien-Lung, compiled in 1772-1790, point to any- 
 thing but unanimity in the interpretation of the book by the 
 Chinese themselves.^ 
 
 " The ^ g Yih King ' Book of Changes,' " says the best of 
 living Sinologists, Mr. A. Wylie, in his excellent Notes on 
 Chinese Literature ^^ " is regarded with almost universal 
 reverence, both on account of its antiquity, and also the 
 unfathomable wisdom which is supposed to lie under its 
 mysterious symbols. The authorship of these symbols Jt^, 
 which form the nucleus of the work, is with great confidence 
 attributed to the ancient sage {)J 5f^ Fiih he. These con- 
 sisted originally of eight trigrams, but they were subse- 
 / quently, by combining them in pairs, augmented to the 
 number of sixty-four hexagrams." ^ 
 
 2. The figures or Kwa consist of six horizontal lines, 
 divided or undivided,^ placed one under the other. There 
 is applied a special character to each hexagram, forming its 
 name, at the beginning of each of the sixty-four chapters 
 
 ^ The italicised words are borrowed from Dr. Legge's Preface, in whicli we 
 read also : * ' There is hardly another work in the ancient literature of China that 
 presents the same difficulties to translate." See pp. xiii, xiv, xv. 
 
 ^ i5C £ >5 :^ ♦ IS @ • Cf. E. C. Bridgman, Chinese Chresto- 
 mathy (Macao, 1841, 4to.), p. xvii. 
 
 3 The K'ang Hi's Imperial edition of the Yh-King, which appeared in 1715, 
 contains quotations from the commentaries of 218 scholars, and these are (we 
 V take the words of Dr. Legge, Introd. p. 3) hardly a tenth of the men who have 
 tried to interpret this remarkable book. 
 
 * The book opens with the Yh-Kiug, the first of the classics, as do all the biblio- 
 graphies, from the catalogue of the Han period downwards. 
 
 s See Notes on Chinese Literature (Shanghae, 1867, 4to.), p. 1. 
 
 6 In the ordinary phraseology of the Yh, the lower one is called ^ ; and the 
 upper one 'j]fe . The lines are : the jJ^ yang, P|lJ strong, ^ = 9, entire, un- 
 divided, and the j^ yn^ ^ weak, ^ = 6, broken, divided. 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 5 
 
 composing the book. Each of these leading characters is 
 followed by a certain number of others, and the entire 
 chapter is arranged in seven lines under special headings, 
 the first being the heading character, the other six an ordinal 
 series, supposed to apply to each of the six lines of the hexa- 
 gram individually, because their numbers are accompanied 
 by the characters jl^jor /^^ indicating, in the opinion of 
 the commentators, the undivided and divided lines. This set 
 of characters, in seven divisions, the entire text in each 
 chapter, is intermingled with fore-telling words — luclaj, un- 
 lucky, correct, no error, etc. ; but these divisions do not make 
 as many phrases. The characters are disposed in little 
 sentences, often of one character only, or of two or more. 
 The meanings of these sentences are disconnected; they 
 are quite independent one of the other, and do not bear 
 openly on one same subject. A literal version of them is utterly 
 unintelligible.^ These peculiarities would place the Th-King 
 in an unexampled position if it were a book of continuous 
 texts, as it has been hitherto wrongly thought to be by many 
 discordant commentators and interpreters, as well Chinese 
 as European. 
 
 3. The following commentaries are commonly printed with 
 the text, as follows: The first (in 2 sections), with the 
 heading ^ Tican, disposed in two or more lines, is placed im- 
 mediately after the first of the seven lines of the text. The 
 second (in 2 sections), with the heading ^ Siang, is placed 
 after the Tican, and after each of the following six lines of 
 the text. Another one, the ^ "= Wen yen, is annexed to 
 the first two diagrams. All these compose the first and 
 
 1 In a day of wisdom, a known Sinologist, Dr. Legge, in his version of the 
 Tso-chuen {Chin. Class, vol. v. p. 169a), has made upon a quotation of the 
 Yh-King this comment : "But it seems to me of no use trying to make out any 
 principle of reason in passages like the present." This view is the true one, but 
 we are sorry that the learned missionary, to whom we are indebted for a valuable 
 thouo-h unequal version of several of the Chinese classics, has not stuck to it and 
 refrained from publishing his paraphrase of the Th-King. Speaking (The Yi- 
 King, Pref. p. xv) of the literal Latin version done by PP. Regis, De Mailla, 
 and hvL Tartre, and also of his own first version, Dr. Legge writes: "But 
 their version is all but unintelligible, and mine was not less so." However, 
 Prof. Regis and his coadjutors had at their disposal all the help that Chinese 
 lore could throw upon the Yh. 
 
6 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 second Kiuen or books of the ordinary editions of the work.^ 
 A third Kiuen is composed of the following appendices : the 
 S # 1i Si-Tze Chuen " Memoir on the Philosophy of the 
 Text," in two sections ; |$ Jh i^ Shivoh Kwa chuen " Dis- 
 cussion of the Diagrams " ; ^ "^ ^ Sic Kwa chuen " The 
 Order of the Diagrams " ; and, finally, the ^| J[> fj Tsa 
 Kica chuen "Promiscuous Discourses on the Diagrams." 
 
 The Twan, the Siang, and the Hi-tze, being each divided 
 into two sections,^ all the appendices have received the name 
 of "the Ten Wings" + R of the Yh-King. 
 ^ Such is, roughly described, this famous book as it has 
 been handed down to the present time. 
 \f 4. The Tivan is commonly attributed to "Wen "Wang,^ and 
 the Siang to his son, Chou Kung, in the twelfth century 
 B.C., and there is no reason for throwing suspicion on this re- 
 ceived tradition. The other "wings" are of different periods. 
 In two of them, the Hi-Tze and the Wen-yen, is found re- 
 peatedly the same formula, -5" El " The master said," as in the 
 Confucian books, when the words of the great Sage are quoted ; 
 but this cannot be taken as a proof of date, even for these 
 particular appendices, for, in one case at least, words and 
 explanations from the Wen-yen are quoted* in history as 
 early as 564 B.C., fourteen years before Confucius was born. 
 Additions from the Sage's teachings have most likely been 
 made afterwards to these appendices, apparently by one of 
 
 1 Suchasthe ^ g |1 ;$ or |5 7^ ^ fl S ^. 
 
 2 In each, the first line of every chapter attributed to the entire diagram is 
 considered as one part, called Twan or Siang, and the after lines as another part, 
 called Twan chuen or Siang chuen respectively. The text is sometimes called ^|. 
 
 8 Wen Wang ^ ^ "King Wen," or more properly the Elegant King, 
 a posthumous title conferred by his son -W* Tan j^ ^ Chou Kung, the Duke of 
 Chou, to ^ Ch'ang, the Chief of the West "g" fg, father of |^ Fa, posthu- 
 mously called Wu Wang |^ ^, the founder (1169-1116) of the Chou dynasty. 
 Wen Wang (1231-1135), for a state offence, was imprisoned at Yu Li ^ J|_, 
 during two years (1144-1143), which he spent on the Yh-King. The ■^ ^ 
 3^£ ^> of which the chronology down to 826 b.c. is different from the one 
 commonly received, states that he remained six years in confinement. 
 
 * Cf. Wen Ten, 1st Kwa, §§ 1-3, and Tso chuen, Duke Siang, IXth year, § 3, 
 in Legge's edition, p. 440. 
 
THE YH-KING AXD ITS AUTHORS. 7 
 
 his disciples, Shang Kiu, who is reputed to have handed 
 down the Yh from his Master. 
 
 5. The wings and the text do not make a homogeneous 
 work pervaded by the same ideas or produced by one mind. 
 Their discrepancies and wide differences are not of the kind 
 found between different pens dealing with and commenting 
 on a plain text or a book of a known doctrine. They are not 
 within the range of that mere variety of interpretation which 
 occurs when several commentators have been treating of a 
 recognized system commonly accepted. They lack that kind 
 of unity of thought or of dealing with ideas which is the 
 back-bone of commentaries, whatsoever they may be, and 
 however wide may be their divergences of opinion ; in fact^ 
 it seems that they are to be considered as attempts to underV 
 stand the meaning of the book without knowing what it is.T 
 And this we see by the fact, that they introduce incon- 
 gruous ideas, views, and systems of interpretation of their 
 own. Certainly they have not been written at the same 
 time as the text, nor at about the same period all together. 
 Certain discrepancies of views can only have arisen by a not 
 inconsiderable decay of the language during their respective 
 compositions. Other discrepancies may be accounted for by 
 a difference of dialectical spoken language, not of writing, 
 between their authors. Some passages, for example, are but 
 a mere enumeration of the different meanings of the temporary 
 homonymous words with the sound of the heading character 
 of each chapter. This process is followed in different ways. 
 The author of the Wing called Shivoh Kiva ^ J(>, in his 
 last section, has been very near finding the clue to the 
 Th. He has tried to explain the sound attached to the 
 head-character of eight chapters (under the eight primitive 
 Kicas). He gives lists of meanings for each of these sounds 
 in homophonous words, according to his own pronunciation, 
 which was no longer the same as that of the time when 
 the early lists were compiled, and therefore, consequently, 
 gives meanings which are not in the chapters. 
 
 6. The first two wings stand apart from the others, and 
 exhibit more unity; at least more of that unity due to the repe- 
 
8 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 tition of the same rows of characters, even when by an addition 
 of some kind there is a sufficient clue to indicate that the 
 text was differently understood. They have all the appear- 
 ance of having been made to justify the arrangement of the 
 text as they interpreted it, since they very often consist of a 
 mere repetition of the text, frequently with slight modifica- 
 tions and differentiating additions. Their main characteristic 
 is their obvious attempt to interpret the text in a symbolic 
 sense, and to connect it with the linear composition of the 
 hexagram at the head of each chapter, and with its lines indi- 
 vidually. This is done plainly with more or less success by 
 the Siang, which is divided accordingly. The Twan in a 
 more general manner deals with the text as related to the 
 hexagram as a whole, and to its strong and weak lines. 
 
 7. So much for the general contents of the ten wings. It 
 is not my intention in any way to deal with them, but to 
 leave them entirely aside, as far as my translation of 
 the book goes. I was the first among Sinologists to 
 disconnect openly the text from the appendices. For a 
 scientific study of the contents of the text, and how it has 
 been made, it is of absolute necessity to separate the com- 
 mentaries from the text, and to treat of the latter alone. 
 
 (The whole book, text and wings, contains 24,107 characters ; 
 ^ \ the text alone, in its 450 lines (from 2 to 30 characters), 
 ■ has 4134 characters only, or about one-sixth of the whole. 
 
 II. The Authorship of the Book. 
 
 8. Though Chinese literature is not without several indica- 
 tions as to some authors of the Yh-King^ and echoes of old 
 traditions collected by independent scholars, there is not, in 
 the modern statements, that unity of views which would afford 
 a satisfactory basis for investigation. The reason of this is 
 
 \j obvious. The names of Fuh-hi, Wen Wang, and Confucius, 
 form so sacred a Trinity, that the mere fact of their having 
 been each more or less connected with the making of the 
 book as it now stands, has prevented many writers from 
 quoting any tradition which would have detracted from the 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 9 
 
 glory of either of the three as a sharer in the authorship of the 
 work ; hence, they were contented to say, in a general way, 
 that the book was the work of the three saints, attributing 
 y the Kicas tcL^Fuh-hi, the text to_Weii._. Wang, and the 
 ^ appendices to Confucius, a statement the slightest criticism 
 would have easily exploded and shown to be ridiculous and 
 against evidence. 
 
 9. "We find for example only in popular or unscholarly 
 books, as the M fii ^ I ^ ^,^ such statements as these : 
 
 " Tai Hao Fuh hi begins to delineate the eight Kwas ^ g§ 
 
 "Chou Sin 11th year $t ^ + ^ SE (^•^- 11^4 B.C.) con- 
 fines Si Poh at Yu-Li W fS :iK ^ S- Si Poh practises 
 the Yh "g f g f^ ^.'' And at the end of this very last 
 reign of the Yn dynasty, we find another entry : *' The Yh 
 has text to the sixty-four Kwas ^ ^ y^ + Jh ^ ." 
 
 And at the end of the entries relating to the events of the 
 reign of Ching Wang ^ [I , we read : 
 
 " The Yh has text to the three hundred and eighty-four 
 lines ^^tHHA+B^^ »." 
 
 And, finally, in King Wang, 36th year : " Si I H + 
 y^ ^, Kung tze makes the ten wings of the Yh J^ "F f^ 
 
 i. + %■" 
 
 10. But if we turn to more scholarly and ancient texts, we 
 find difierent, in some cases very precise, statements. They, 
 however, almost all agree in their attribution of the inven- 
 tion of the Kwas to the first name which appears at the 
 dawn of their traditions with an appearance of personality, 
 Fuh-hi. 
 
 Here are a few extracts about this first point : 
 
 {a) "In accordance with the Tortoise writings ]5| jS ffi ^> 
 
 Fuh-hi imitating their figures {JJ ^ 75 H'J ^> made the 
 
 Kwas of the Yh f^ ^ %\r^ 
 
 * Li Tai Wang nien piao, p. 5. 
 
 2 Tai Hao =' great whitish/ also the 'western region' : — Fuh-hi, also written 
 in different manners Jg ^, ^ fl, Jgt ft, ^ J^. 
 ^ )P* ■& 3C S> ^° ^«^ ^^*^ y" ^'^'^ K- 78, f. 3. 
 
10 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 (b) "Fuh-H imitated the Tortoise writing £^ S HO ffi % 
 and made the eight Kwas J^ i^ /\ Jh-''^ 
 
 (c) "Pao-hi made the eight Kwas |g ^ ^ f^ M A #» 
 and arranged their lines JlJ ^ ^. Hien Yuen arose ff 
 W. R M) ^^^ *^® Tortoise and the Divining stalks ex- 
 hibited their varieties Hfl M. M ii ^ ^'"^ 
 
 (d) "Pao-hi drew the Kwas iS S # &> in order to 
 establish their symbolism JH li ^. Hien Yuen began the 
 characters ff ^ J5 ja ^ > in order to set up their instruc- 
 
 tions a wt m-"' 
 
 It is useless to continue these quotations repeating the 
 same thing over and over again, inasmuch as one of the com- 
 mentaries of the Yh, the Hi-tze, second part, first section, 
 gives the same statement : 
 
 (e) " Pao-hi first made the eight Kwas )g B • • • ^ f^ 
 
 A iW 
 
 11. So much for the first delineation of the eight Kwas. 
 As to their multiplication, the unanimity of the traditions 
 ceases, though the larger number of them attribute the opera- 
 tion to Shen-nung. 
 
 In the San Hivang port Ki '^ ^ 7^ |£, compiled by 
 Se-ma Cheng ^ ,^ ^ during the eighth century, the 
 famous commentator of Se-ma Tsien's rI ,|| jS ^^^^ ^^ 
 ^ IJ, and generally printed at the beginning of this 
 celebrated history, we find^ the same statement about Fuh-hi, 
 and about Shen-nung ^ we read : 
 
 (/) " He blended the Yhy and returned each to its place, 
 S^W^#?I^^- Afterwards he multiplied the 
 eight Kwas into 64 diagrams 51 fi; A $F ^ :^ + E3 !£•" 
 
 And in the Ti Wang She Ki,^ quoted again at /^, we read : 
 
 {g) " Shen-nung multiplied the numbers of the eight Kwas 
 S! A & -^ fti» carried them to the square of eight ^S A 
 A ± tl. and formed the 64 Kwas ^ >^ + ES Jt^." 
 
 ^ i^ ^ Jt, f. 34, in the great Cyclopedia in 10,000 Kiuen, Kin ting Ku 
 Kin fu shu tsih cheng. 
 
 * Vid. f. 1 V. and f. 3. ^ Shen-nung, 2737-2697 n.c. ? 
 
 ^ Vid. Tai Fing Yii Lan, K. 78, f. 5 v. Vid. n. 3, following page. 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. H 
 
 In the above quoted wing of the Yh} progress of arts and 
 inventions are attributed to the contemplation of several 
 hexagrams (thirteen in number), which in nine cases at least ^ 
 cannot be confused with the trigrams, and as these inventions 
 are, several of them, connected with Shen-nung, etc., we see 
 that, in the opinion of the time of the writer, most likely 
 anterior to Confucius for that part, at least, the multiplica- 
 tion of the Kwas was un fait accompli at the earliest period. 
 
 12. In a most valuable Cyclopedia in 1000 kiuen, com- 
 piled in 977-983, the Tai Ping yd Lan^ we read : — 
 
 {h) "The Chronicle of Emperors and Kings (by Hwang P'u 
 Mih, a celebrated scholar of the third century, a.d. 215-282) 
 says : '^ I ift $& EI The Pao-hi made the eight Kwas ; 
 iS ^ J^ f^ A Jb • Shen-nung multiplied them into sixty- 
 four Kwas; jplJBS^^^/^+^Jh Hwang-Ti Yao 
 and Shun S ^ ^ ^ developed the hint 5| jjg ^ ;J , and!^ 
 divided it into two Yhs ^ ^ HI ^ ; down to the men 
 of the Hia dynasty 3i X A > who called one on account of 
 Yen-Ti* Lien Shan H i^ ^ J8 llj, and the men of 
 the Yn dynasty who called the other on account of Hwang-Ti 
 Kwei-Tsang'^ IS A ^ ^ El SS ^- ^en Wang 
 enlarged the sixty-four Kwas 3C I -R /\ + #> made 
 clear the lines 9 and 6 ^ :ft^ p^ ^ J^, and denominated 
 it the Yh of Chou m ± ^ ^ •" 
 
 13. In one of the best critical parts of the Lu she Jg- ^,^ 
 by Lo Pi ^. \t^y of the Sung Period, we read : 
 
 1 ^ ^, 2nd part, ch. ii. 
 
 2 16, 17, 21, 34, 38, 42, 43, 59, 62. 
 
 ^ -jj^ ^ ;jjjl ^ K. 609, f. 2. A very interesting notice of this Cyclopedia, 
 
 and its adventures since its compilation, is given by Mr, A. Wylie, Notes on Chinese 
 Literature, pp'. 146, 147. On Hwang P'u Mih, vid. Dr. Legge's Prolegomena 
 to the Shu-King, p. 26 ; and also Mayer's Chinese Reader'' a Manual, n. 2i6. 
 
 * Yen- Ti = Shen-nung. 
 
 5 The Lien-shan is said to have included eight myriads of words, and the Kwei- 
 tsang 4300. I shall discuss this tradition and its bearing when tracing the 
 history of the written text of the Yh, and shall quote a traditional list of the 
 headings of chapters which have been modified by Wen Wang. Vid. § 31. 
 
 ^ KS" & 13^ P&J Kiuen 2, f. 1. In Wylie's Notes on Chinese Literature, 
 p. 24, is the following appreciation of the work: — ** The historical portion is 
 considered of little value, and the author seems to have been led astray by an 
 undue attachment to Taouist legends, but there is a good deal of learning shown 
 in the geographical and critical parts " (here quoted). 
 
12 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 {i) "In his time Fuh-lii ^ % i, ^^ himself multiplied 
 the eight Kwas A Jh S !Sj ^^^ himself discoursed upon 
 them and distributed for use ^ S B "^ JS ffi ; but this 
 text has no place in literature if# ^ ^ ;^ ^ ^ . Arriving 
 at the Lien- Shan and Kivei-Tsang S jS llj U If ^> the 
 upper and lower divisions of the Yh ^ ^ ^ ^ and the 
 illustrations of the hexagrams were all completed gl] ^ ^ 
 B i:^ fra> but in that age they were not deeply studied 
 . M iS ^ S 5l • Coming down to the time of Wen Wang 
 K S !5C 3E> while imprisoned at Yu-Li ^ ^ S he 
 used them for divination ^ J^ I'* H- He added and 
 surreptitiously introduced the foretelling words M *^M^ '^f 
 and he altered the inferring numbers g tj^ f{J ^, in order 
 to regulate the divining stalks of the Great Inference ^ jfc 
 ^C ^ff ^ ^j tbat those using them could draw the infer- 
 ence ^ ^ Pj* ffi- -^^d afterwards the arguments began 
 to be discoursed upon M ^ ^ W^ ia W- ^^ consequence 
 it was called the Yh of Chou M ^ ^ ^ M ^-'^ 
 
 This disquisition on the early history of the Yh is most 
 important, and seems to have been done with great care ; 
 it throws light on some passages of ancient authors I shall 
 have to quote, which otherwise would not seem to require so 
 precise a translation as it is necessary to make, in order 
 to understand them without contradictions. It displays 
 an amount of critical research most praiseworthy. The 
 translation of the passage just given can be entirely trusted, 
 as it is not only the joint work of Prof. Douglas and myself, 
 but has also been revised by an eminent native Chinese 
 scholar. I shall, later, have to deal with what is said about 
 the text previous to the Chou dynasty, as well as with 
 other information given later in the same work, but. with 
 this I have nothing to do in the present stage of my 
 investigations. 
 
 14. I will now turn to some older texts bearing upon part 
 of the work done by Wen Wang. 
 
 And here I find two allusions to it almost in the same terms 
 in the longest wing of the Yh,^ from which we have already 
 
 1 Ei-tze, part ii. ch, 7 and 11. 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 13 
 
 twice borrowed some information. There we read, in Dr. 
 Legge's translation : 
 
 U) "Was it not in the middle period of antiquity^ that 
 the Yh began to flourish ? Was not he who made it (or 
 were not they who made it) familiar with anxiety and 
 calamity ? " And in another passage : 
 
 {k) " Was it not in the last age of the Yn (dynasty), when 
 the virtue of Chou reached its highest point, and during the 
 troubles between Wen Wang and (the tyrant) Chou, that 
 (the study of) the Yh began to flourish ? " 
 
 This does not say that Wen Wang wrote the text of 
 the book, but only that its study began to flourish in his 
 time. We know by other traditions that its study was 
 neglected before, and all this agrees perfectly well. How- 
 ever, as Wen Wang had a great deal to do with this study, 
 we can only take the tradition about his pretended author- 
 ship of the text as a summary statement, avoiding com- 
 plicated explanations, the more so that this is in complete 
 agreement with the nature of the Chinese, whose veneration 
 for the ancestors of their statutes concentrates everything on {/ 
 the star-men of their night-like historical traditions. 
 
 15. From the third commentary of the Yhy I have now to 
 come down to the second century B.C., and must consult the 
 celebrated Historical Records ^ $£ of the Herodotus of 
 China, Se-ma Tsien p\ Mj *^' ^^ his Chou Pon Ki ^ 7^ 
 $£, a certain passage added to the life of Bi PdA=:Wen 
 Wang (which has all the appearance of an interpolation), 
 I read : ^ 
 
 (/) "AYhen he was imprisoned at Yu-Li ^ ^ M, he 
 (Wen Wang) extended ^ the profitable changes ^ ^ 
 proper to the eight Kwas ^ \ ^[>^ in favour of the sixty- 
 four Kwas jgj >^ + ||.." 
 
 ^ The period of middle antiquity, according to Chinese commentators, begins 
 with the rise of the Chou in the twelfth century b.c, and it finishes at the 
 Confucian Era. But we are not sure that this explanation has not been made up 
 for the occasion of this passage. 
 
 2 See Kiuen 4, f. 5 v. 
 
 3 It seems to me that we cannot translate here, otherwise than considering ^ 
 as having its meaning = j}^ ; else the phrase would be in contradiction with the 
 facts certainly known to Se-ma Tsien and his father, of the multiplication of the 
 
14 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 It is here plainly indicated, as in the quotations above 
 {hy i), the very work of Wen "Wang, who, distinguishing 
 the weak and strong lines, has extended their eight changes 
 so as to correspond with the text. 
 
 16. In the Former Han Becords, compiled by Pan Ku, 
 some one hundred and fifty years after the Historical Records 
 of Se-ma Tsien, I read in the section on Literature : ^ 
 
 {m) ** Wen Wang then multiplied the six lines (of trans- 
 formation) of the Yh ^ 2 M ^ fil ^ /A ^ J and made 
 the first and second book f^ J: f ^ . Kung She formed 
 with the Yh's JL ^ ® ^ Twan, Siang, Hi tze, Wen yen, 
 Sii Kwa, the ten supplementary books ^ ^ p ft 3C "a ^ 
 
 This is in perfect agreement, excepting the substitution 
 of the Sii Kwa for the Shwoh Kwa^ with what had been said 
 before by Se-ma Tsien, who, in his "Life of Confucius,''^ 
 had written : 
 
 {n) " Kung tze, when old, also enjoyed the Yh JL "? ^ 
 IfO S M • ^^ arranged (or put in order ^) ^ the Twan^ the 
 Hi, the Siangy the Shivoh Kwa, and the Wen yen ^ ^ ^ 
 U Jh 3!C W-* During his study, the leather thong of (his 
 copy of) the Yh was thrice worn out U ^ ^ |ig 2 IS •" 
 
 17. This is all that is said by Se-ma Tsien, and nothing 
 more, and it is this passage which has been quoted ^ as the 
 proof that, according to Se-ma Tsien, Confucius wrote several 
 appendixes to the Yh. As a matter of fact, the great 
 Historian says nothing of the kind, and to what extent the 
 pencil of Confucius has been at work in the Appendices is 
 entirely left in ih.Q dark by the historical quotations which 
 have been found about it. 
 
 Kwas before the time of "Wen Wang. For this manner of translating ^ 
 see Julien, Syntaxe riouvelle, vol. i. p. 159, and Legge's Chinese Classics, passim. 
 If my translation of this phrase were not the right one, how is it that Pan Ku has 
 not repeated the same thing, but gives a statement which is much more in accord- 
 ance with my translation ? However, it is rather unsatisfactory. 
 
 1 Vid. "bJ ^ ^, Kiuen 30, f. 2. 
 
 2 Vid. She Ki, K. 47, Kung tze She Eia, f. 24 v. 
 
 . 3 For the use of the same word with the same meaning in the same chapter, 
 see ibid, f. 23 v. 
 
 * These, with the ^ ^ and ^ ^, are all the appendixes of the Th. 
 ^ Dr. Legge, Yi King, Introd. p. 26. 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 15 
 
 The absolute silence about tbe work of Chou Kung, if the 
 Siang ^ comes from his pen, would be worth considering, if 
 there was not elsewhere (in the Tso chuen) a recognition of 
 his authorship. The text is speaking of an envoy of the 
 Marquess of Tsin to the State of Lu.^ 
 
 {o) " Looking at the books in charge of the great 
 historiographer || ^ j!ft :/c £ S' ^® saw the Siang of 
 the Yh and the Chun Tsiu ofLu^^^H^^^, 
 and said : Q the uttermost of the Institutes of Chou are in 
 I^u Jql W. ^ '^ # ^- Now, indeed I know the virtues 
 of the Duke of Chou, ^ 75 4* ^n Jg) 2^ ;& fg, and how 
 the Chou attained to Royalty, |a jg j£ ^ ^ ^ ffi-" 
 
 This happened in 540 B.C., when Confucius was yet a child 
 of eleven years, and so, some sixty years before he enjoyed 
 the Yh King. 
 
 18. Besides the indications to be found in the historical 
 texts and traditions set forth in the preceding pages, there 
 is much valuable information as to the earlier Yh, and the 
 progress of the Yh of Chou from 672 to 486 B.C. in this 
 same Tso-chuen^ supplement by Tso k'iu Ming to the Ch^un 
 Tsiu of Lu, compiled by Confucius. 
 
 The Kwas and their appended meanings and list of 
 characters are quoted some twenty times in the Tso-chuen, 
 Studying these with care they give the most suggestive 
 information as to the history and composition of the book. 
 
 19. I resume these quotations as follows : 22nd year 
 of Duke Chwang (672) : The Yh of Chou brought and con- 
 sulted in the state of Ch'in by an officer of Chou. The 
 same thing happens in the 7th year of Duke Siien (602). 
 
 The milfoil consulted in Tsin, Tsi, Ts'in, Lu States in 1st 
 and 2nd years of Duke Min (661-660) ; three times in 15th 
 year of Duke Hi (645) ; 25th year of Duke Hi (635) ; 16th 
 year of Duke Ch'ing (575) ; 9th year of Duke Siang (564) ; 
 25th year same duke (548). 
 
 ^ Tso Chuen, Duke CJi'ao, 2nd year. Legge edit. p. 583, translates : — "When 
 he looked at the (various) documents in the charge of the great historiographer, and 
 the Ch'un Ts'iew of Loo, he said, * The institutes of Chow are all in Loo. Now, 
 indeed, I know the virtue of the Duke of Chow, and how it was that (the House 
 of) Chow attained to the Royal dignity.' " 
 
16 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 The Yh of Chou consulted in Tsin, Lu, Ts'in, Wei States : 
 12th year of Duke Siien (597) ; 9th year of Duke Siang 
 (564) ; 28th year of same Duke (545) ; 1st, 5th, 7th, 12th, 
 29th, 32nd years of Duke Chao (541, 537, 535, 530, 513, 
 509) ; 9th year of Duke Ngai (486 B.C.). 
 
 The Yh of Chou does not appear in the Tsin state before 
 597, in Lu before 564, in Tsi before 548, etc., and before these 
 dates, in 672 and 602, only in the hands of officers of Chou. 
 The milfoil, howeverj was often consulted in the same states 
 before these dates, and some texts more or less alike to Chou's 
 Yh text are quoted. 
 
 20. The result appears to be that the Yh of Chou was 
 more especially used in the state of Chou than elsewhere, 
 but was not in common use in the other states so early 
 as 672, though the book existed at the time. In this 
 year the great Historiographer of Chou uses himself the Yh 
 of Chou, of which he had brought a copy with him, in the 
 state of |?5 Ch'in, and quotes the exact characters of Kwa xx. 
 6-4, of the present text of the book. Afterwards we do not 
 find the Yh of Chou quoted till 70 years after this first date, 
 and once again, in the state of Ch'in, by an officer of Chou, who 
 quotes a meaning. In the mean time, not less than six times, 
 the divining milfoil is consulted in the states of Tsi, Tsin and 
 Ts'in ; hexagrams are quoted, meanings and text are repro- 
 duced, exhibiting discrepancies with the present text, and in 
 any case never extracted from the Siang. 
 
 21. After the occurrence in 602 above quoted, the Th of 
 Chow is again consulted in 597 in the state of Tsin, and, ex- 
 cepting two occasions in 575 in Tsin, and 548 in Tsi, when 
 "divining by the milfoil" is the expression used, there occur 
 in the records of the years 564, 545, 541, 537, 535, 512, 509, 
 and 486 extracts which are all exact quotations of the Yh of 
 Chou, being meanings and characters from the text or the Siang, 
 though not always in accord with Dr. Legge's translation. In 
 564, the foretelling words of the Yh of Chou are distinctly 
 quoted in addition to the meaning of the Kwa quoted from the older 
 Yh, and in 540, when Confucius was a child of eleven years, 
 the Archives of the state of Lu are congratulated for containing 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 17 
 
 the Slang of the Yh by the Duke of Chou, as we have seen 
 above. 
 
 All this points unmistakably to the existence of the text 
 of the Yh as independent and anterior to the Yh of Chou.^ 
 When this last is not eo nomine quoted, and when they only 
 say that they divine by the milfoil, they never quote any 
 passage from the Siang, but only characters and meanings of 
 the text. 
 
 22. I do not find in any ancient authority, the assertion 
 so simple in itself, that Wen Wang did or wrote the text of 
 the Yh. It has crept out as the expression of a natural 
 Chinese feeling, and is to be found only in rather recent 
 time. Even as late as the twelfth century, the Chou yh pon 
 '>^9^ ^ ^ ^ ^) by the famous Chu Hi ;i^ ^, does not 
 express it.'' It is a mistake to believe in a common consensus 
 or general and unique tradition attributing the authorship of 
 the text of the Yh to this king and his son, and all those who 
 may follow what has been stated lately with great emphasis by 
 a well-known Sinologist will only repeat a serious error. And 
 the mistake will be the more amusing if, as has been done, 
 they appeal to the traditions and beliefs of foreigners ; it 
 is difficult to know what may be the traditions and beliefs 
 of foreigners about the 17/, as they cannot have any others 
 than those they have picked up in some Chinese books. At 
 any rate they may be dismissed at once by inquirers as second- 
 hand information,^ as until now the matter has never been 
 seriously investigated. 
 
 ^ One of the most striking passages from the Tso-chiwn, justifying all that we 
 have stated, is the quotation said to be from the 18th Kwa ^, and in which 
 are quoted meanings borrowed from the 40th Kwa ^ , in diiferent order and 
 •with serious discrepancies of characters. This occurs during the fifteenth year of 
 Duke Hi, and is not quoted as from the Yh of Chou. It comes obviously from 
 the older text, previously to its arrangement by Wen Wang. 
 
 ■■* He says (according to the ^ ?ft S^ ^ ® ZSt ' ^- ^^- ^- ^ v.) ; 
 "Fuh-hi made the 64 Kwas {jj || f^ /^ + i\>', Chou Kung 
 connected the words of the lines JqJ ^ f j^ ;^ ^ with the main emblems 
 ^ ^ ^> t^6 prognostics ^, the Kwas ^, and the series of their 
 mutations and explanations ^ ^ |j^ ^ ^, "^ til*" 
 
 2 However, we shall be contented to quote one of the best European Sinologists 
 who mentions the primitive text of the Yh. ''According to the Chinese belief, 
 
 2 
 
18 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 V The comparison of all these authorities of different periods 
 \\^makes it clear, without possible doubt, to any unprejudiced 
 , mind, that the text of the Yh existed long before Wen Wang} 
 
 though not exactly as it now stands; that he studied it, 
 
 modified it, and commented upon it.^ 
 
 III. — Influence of the Evolution of Writing. 
 
 23. The remarkable evolution of speech and of writing in 
 China, their early association and close connexion, their 
 subsequent dissociation and respective disintegration, ^ are 
 of prime importance for any scientific investigation of the 
 oldest texts of Chinese literature. We have multifarious 
 proofs that the writing, first known in China, was already 
 an old one,^ partially decayed, but also much improved since 
 
 these eight figures (the eight Kwas), together with the sixty-four comhinations 
 to which they are extended, accompanied by certain presumptive explanations 
 attributed to Fuh-hi, were the basis of an ancient system of philosophy and 
 divination during the centuries preceding the era of Wen Wang . . ." See 
 Mayer's Chinese Reader's Manual^ vol. ii. p. 241, who quotes (p. 336) his native 
 authorities, none of which have been quoted above, and consequently are to 
 be added to them. 
 
 1 In a dictionary of the Han period, the ^ >g by g|] J^ (2nd cent. a.d. ?) 
 
 we read that '* At the time of the Canon of Yao Pg ^ ^ (2356-2255 b.c. ? 
 or 2145-2042 b.c. ?) tley kept the Yh:^ ^. 
 
 2 There are several passages in the text of the Yh which have been interpreted 
 as allusions to places or facts connected with the rising of the Chou, etc., but this is 
 not the place to deal with them. It will be seen in my translation or scientific 
 analysis of the text, that they have nothing to do with the meanings which have 
 been forced upon them afterwards. 
 
 3 For want of space, I have to summarize in this section a score of pages in 
 which I had summed up from my large work in preparation on the subject the 
 leading facts and proofs of this double evolution. 
 
 * We have convincing proofs (vid. my Early History, pp. 21-23, and the last 
 section of the present paper) that it had been borrowed, by the early leaders of 
 the Chinese Bak families (Poh Sing) in Western Asia, from an horizontal writing 
 traced from left to right, the pre -cuneiform character, which previously had itself 
 undergone several important modifications. Following their old habit of notched 
 sticks and knotted cords, the Chinese disposed in perpendicular lines, and con- 
 sequently had to put up the characters too wide for the regularity of the columns. 
 This was done according to the objects represented by the characters. Vid. for 
 example the Ku-wan shapes of the following characters: turned up: p|, 
 the two lips and tip of the tongue = mouth ; p[, the two lips open and breath 
 = speak ; "^j the two lips and something in the mouth = taste ; @, = the eye, 
 etc., etc. Turned up from the left : "^j the two lips open and voice = speech ; 
 ^, two heights = colline ; ^ = a tortoise; j^ , an animal, afterwards a 
 horse ; etc., etc. Turned up from the right : j^ = a boat ; j^, the upper part 
 
THE YH-KING AXD ITS AUTHORS. 19 
 
 its primitive hieroglyphic stage. Although many of them had 
 kept their early pictographic and ideographic values, the charac- 
 ters, selected according to their sense were used phonetically,^ 
 isolated and in groups, to represent the monosyllabic and 
 polysyllabic words, as well as the compounds ^ of the spoken 
 
 of the face = minister ; ^ , the lower part of the face, the chin ; ^, a seated 
 man, good; etc., etc. 
 
 1 The phonetic combinations in early Chinese have been singularly disturbed 
 by the putting up spoken of in the last note. In the borrowed compounds, when 
 unchanged in direction, the reading goes from left to right ; when put up from the 
 left, it reads from top to bottom ; when put up from the right, the most frequent, 
 it reads fro©Jbottom to top. These various directions, according to the shape, size, 
 and sense of the characters, were imitated afterwards in the new compounds, as long 
 as and where the old principles of phonetic orthography were not forgotten. Here 
 are a few examples of this orthography in the oldest Chinese characters transcribed 
 
 in modern style of writing : i^ = Nam (mod. Nan) was written with ^ —Nen 
 (mod. Jen) under /^ = Muh ; ^ — Kop (mod. Kil) was written j_J = Kam 
 (mod. E'an) under ^ = pi„g ; ^ = jjin (mod. Sien) was written ^ = Lik 
 (mod. Chi) over ^ = Nen (mod. Jen) ; jljj = Sen (mod. Sien) was written [Jl 
 = San (mod. Shan) followed on the right by ^ = Nen ; Jjl^ = Keng was 
 written ij^ = Kivo followed on the right by '^=Nip (mod. Q^i) ; ^ = Jen 
 was written P Shi followed on the right by ^ = Ni (mod. (Ei) ; etc., etc. 
 
 2 The orthography of the bisyllabic or polysyllabic words presents the same 
 phenomena of reading as the two-consonanted words, and for the same reasons. 
 The only disturbing fact which may prevent their recognition is that, the final of 
 the second syllable having been often dropped by phonetic decay, the compound 
 has the appearance of a biconsonauted word. The reading most frequently found 
 for these compounds is genei-ally from left to right, but the other directions also 
 occur. The great interest in this discovery is that the old groups did express not 
 only the raonoconsonant- or biconsonant syllables, but also the polj^syllables and 
 compound words of the colloquial, many of 'which can still be recognized, though 
 more or less decayed since that time. In the comparison with the spoken words, 
 it is important not to forget that the characters used to express the compound 
 words in colloquial are not to be pressed by themselves as a help to restore the 
 older sound of the expression, as they have been used only afterwards to ex- 
 press the spoken word, and they are not etymologically connected to it. The 
 nook-language of the dialects is more fallacious than useful for this purpose. 
 A few examples of various kinds are necessary to illustrate these explanations. 
 Ex. ^ tiv'an =to roll up, to beat, was written in Ku-wen "^-ff and jb^fe 
 which both read TKM, as the three characters were Tth (mod. cht), Kan, and 
 Meu or 3Iuh. Now the colloquial has kept an expression JrT j^ =/« kwan-= 
 * to roll about on the ground,' which is obviously the same with a slight differentia- 
 tion of meaning, whilst the phonetic decay in the older official dialect has con- 
 tracted the whole together into tw^an. Ex. ^ =Aim = ' all, the whole of,' was 
 written in the Ku-wen -y* = Knm under ^ = Thu, or Kam-thu^ for which we 
 find the colloquial hien-tsih (j^ ^) and the contracted form kat {^ mod. 
 kiai). Ex. ^ = Lnn in Ku-wen ^^ = Ban-Lan (mod. Wen-Ian), and in collo- 
 quial Fan-Ian Jjg ^ = ' variegated colours.' jj = Tao = ' to pray,' in Ku-wen 
 same orthography: jf^ -Ki-{-^ = Tho, in colloquial fjf |g 
 
20 THE YH-KINa AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 language.! At that time the writing of the Kii-tven was 
 really the phonetic expression of speech.^ (By an analysis 
 of the old inscriptions and fragments, and by the help of the 
 
 <^ f§ Kao-tao, the contracted form is Kit jfiff mod. X^i, etc. etc. Vid. other 
 examples below, § 31, and the following note. 
 
 To understand, with this true history of the Chinese characters, the rough 
 hieroglyphic signs which (more or less exactly reproduced in every European hook 
 treating of the writing) are wrongly quoted as primitive, and present a striking 
 contrast to the really advanced state of the oldest written words, we must not 
 forget, besides the hieroglyphical revival of 820 B.C. (which has produced no in- 
 considerable influence on the pictography of the characters) , that these rough signs 
 are found only on made-up antiquities, or misunderstood imitations, and also in 
 rude inscriptions written by men unacquainted with the science of writing, which 
 was the privilege only of a small number of the learned. "We have in the Tso-clmen 
 many proofs of this last assertion, as the ' Book of Odes ' could be read or sung 
 intelligibly only by specialists. 
 
 J ^ The Chinese languages are phonetically decayed in the extreme ; however, in 
 their present stage ihey are not monosyllabic, but agglutinative. The theory of 
 their monosyllabism, and in fact its sad influence on linguistic progress, arose from 
 a misunderstanding of the syllabism of the present writing supposed to be spoken, 
 and the wrong assimilation of the old writing to it ; and also from the confusion 
 between the monosyllabisms of elocution and of decay, with a supposed logical mono- 
 syllabism; the whole combined with the false hypothesis of a primeval mono- 
 ' syllabism. 
 
 2 Here is an interesting proof of this remarkable fact, from the Shu-king, The 
 great announcement, ^^ |^, § 2. The Ku-wen phrase is from the text 
 engraved on stone (245 a.d.) in three styles, Ku-wen, Siao-chuen, and Li-shu 
 (Vid. ^ ^ /5^ j^M' ^- ^)- The phrase we take as an example is in 
 modern style : ^ ^ ;^ > translated by Medhurst, ' And now we see their 
 stupid commotions,' and by Dr. Legge, ' Accordingly we have the present senseless 
 movements.' This supposed despising expression is intended to quality a military 
 rising, which had been prognosticated in the West according to the preceding 
 phrase. But as the troubles arose in the East, there is a disagreement which the 
 commentators childishly solve by saying that the troubles arose indeed in the 
 East, but they necessarily went on to trouble the West. The Ku-wen text gives 
 the solution of the difficulty, which came from an inaccuracy of the transcribers. 
 It reads as follows : M, ^ ^. — Yueh tze chun, which in spoken language 
 cannot be understood, but which disintegrated as we must do for the Ku-wen, 
 give: "f" (tJ^I ^ ^ '^=pv-slHn tze chun-ko, are move audihle and completely 
 intelligible to the ear in the colloquial yu-shen ize tung-Jco ^If^ § ^ JJj Z^ 
 =^moreover {is) this rising-in-arms. The above quoted translation must be 
 amended according to the latter, which is the true meaning of the genuine text ; 
 it does not imply any contradiction, as the modern text does ; the king alludes 
 here obviously to the actual outbreak in the East, and not at all to the predicted 
 troubles in the West. As to the necessary philological apparatus of this reading, 
 which I shall give in my Outlines of the Evolution of Speech and Script in 
 China, it will be sufficient to say that: ^ ch'un was formerly tiin; M^=vu- 
 than (mod. yu-shen) contracted in the compounds in met (Sin-Ann.) yueh (Mand.), 
 is still found under the false written etymology J^ ^ ( Viet-tinh) yileh-sheng, 
 a name for the Canton province. I hope that direct proofs, as this example 
 from the Shu-king, will convince the Sinologists of the truth of my discovery 
 of the reading of the old Chinese texts, and consequently, how important it is to 
 gather all that remains still to be found in China of texts in ancient or Ku- 
 wen characters. 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHOIIS. 21 
 
 native works on pala30graphy (some most valuable), I have 
 compiled a dictionary of this period.) But such a writing 
 could not last long, as gradually and inequally the old 
 principles of orthography were lost, while this orthography 
 was not modified to follow the evolution of the spoken language, 
 and the segregation of dialects parallel with the territorial 
 expansion of Chinese culture and power. In fact, the groups 
 were gradually considered as mere ideograms, and the discre- 
 pancies which arose in the various states of the Chinese agglo- 
 meration rendered necessary some kind of unification. 
 
 24. This task was attempted, at a moment of temporary 
 revival of power of the Chou dynasty, under Siien Wang,, 
 by his great historiographer She Chou. This great minister 
 undertook, about 820 B.C., to modify the writing in such a 
 manner that it could be understood whatever might be the 
 dialectical difierences between the states. For this purpose 
 he drew up his Ta-chuen st3de ; rectifying the characters 
 pictographically, restoring many hierogh^phic shapes ac- 
 cording to his views, and adding ideographic characters to 
 many existing and known groups in order to give the 
 necessary precision and to avoid any misunderstanding.^ He V 
 tried to speak to the eye and no longer to the ear.^ In 
 
 ^ I have also compiled a vocabulary of this writing, of which the principles after- 
 wards imitated have been so powerful a factor in the mental and political history 
 of Chinese culture. 
 
 2 The survival of pictography and hieroglyphism, which She-chou gave to the 
 writing by his modifications of the characters, can be fully illustrated by the two 
 following examples. The phonetic group for * wild country,' ' desert,' ^, was 
 written in Ku-wen ^= "t '^^ 'earth,' under jklj Lam, mod. /m, 'forest,' 
 i.e. T initial under L final, to be read T — Z, which we find still in the Corean 
 tel and in the decayed Sinico-Annamite dn. This was all right so long as the 
 reading was not forgotten and the colloquial remained unaltered. But when and 
 where this agreement break up, the ideographical value of the combination, 
 deprived of its phonetic reading, in the regions where had begun the phonetic 
 decay which has tui^ied gradually the primitive tel into the modern ye, was no more 
 suggestive enough of the intended solitude. She-c/ioti for the purpose of suggesting 
 this savageness added the ideograph for isolate (not spear) into the group, and wrote it 
 ^ (not ^ ). The proof of the early bisyllabism T-L of this word is very likely to 
 be seen in the colloquial ye-lu (^^ ]^)> y« decayed of te. Again, the group 
 ^ * to bury,' * to conceal,' was not sufficiently expressive to the eyes ; the 
 historiographer of Chou in framing anew the character substituted |[l|| to its 
 central part ^ in order to suggest 'hidden in the ground as reptiles do,' and 
 did not consider the phonetic expression, which was entirely thrown over by him. 
 
22 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 the states where his very characters were not used, his 
 principles of ideographism at least were extensively followed, 
 though not accepted everywhere.^ The decline of the Middle- 
 Kingdom let the matter drift again. 
 
 25. When Ts^in She Hwang Ti brought all the states 
 under his sway, one of his first cares was to have an uniform 
 writing in the empire. He had, about 227 B.C., the 8iao 
 Chiien framed by a simplification of the Ta Chuen of Se-Chou 
 on the same principles, according to a previously fixed 
 standard of various strokes,^ and, a few years afterwards, the 
 Li 8hu, more square, and fitted to the use of the pencil, newly 
 improved. From the time of She-Chou, the system of ideo- 
 graphic aphones had facilitated the use of added characters as 
 phonetics to express new sounds and new meanings f this 
 process of ideo-phonetic groups was largely used in the new 
 , writings, and became the principal factor in the writing of new 
 words from that time downwards. In their otherwise rather 
 Ichildish explanation of the old formula of the Luh Shu, the 
 Han scholars had recognized the importance of this process. 
 Finally, about 350 a.d., the celebrated caligrapher Wang Hi 
 Che, without modifying the principles, gave to the writing 
 the modern pattern the Kiai Shu, which, excepting a slight 
 improvement during the Sung period, is still in general use.^ 
 
 1 And so was established officially, for political reasons, the wide gap which 
 separates the written style from the spoken language ; a difficulty of which the 
 solution gives the link of the respective evolution of speech and writing in China. 
 
 ■^ The deformation undergone by the old characters (in the cases of no substi- 
 tution) when transcribed with the small canons of fixedly shaped strokes of the 
 Zi-shu, Siao-chfien, and finally modern style Kiai-shu, is the great difficulty 
 which the palaeographer has to overcome. It complicates singularly the graphical 
 etymologies by apparent, but in reality false, similarities, too often accepted as 
 genuine by many uncritical Chinese historians of their writing. The same com- 
 plication presents itself to those who study the history of the Cuneiform 
 characters. 
 
 2 The ideographic determinatives aphone began since that time to be more and 
 more extensively used ; before She-Chou the process had only been initiated in 
 a few places. At first, at least in some quarters, in order to show their non- 
 phonetic value, they were written smaller and rather under the character or 
 group which they were intended to determinate. Cf. for the determinatives 
 ^ > P > ^ 1 ^ i ^ J ^ > ^ J ^^ *^® inscriptions of which the fac- 
 simile are published in the palaeographical collection of Yuen Yuen, ^ "j^ ^ 
 il frf # §^ SC If, K.iv.ff. 36-39. 
 
 * 'Ihe influence of the advanced civilization and the mixture of the Ougro- 
 Altaic early Chinese immigrants with the native populations of China of several 
 states (of which the primitive Tai or Shan was not the least important) were not 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 23 ♦ 
 
 26. The evolution of the Chinese writing being not only a 
 matter of form and shape, but a matter of principles, it would 
 be childish to suppose that the character of the old texts could 
 be found in the modern characters, allowing even for the 
 necessary modification in the shape of the strokes. It does 
 not require any explanation to understand that any text to . 
 be transcribed from the early Ku-wen into Ta-chuen, next i 
 into Siao-chuen or Li-shu, afterwards in Kiai-shu styles, ^ 
 ought to have been thoroughly clear to the scribes, even 
 supposing that the latter had always been earnest and un- 
 prejudiced writers. But what in the case of unintelligible 
 texts ? Exactly what has happened to the Th-King. The 
 purpose of the transcribers being only the ideographical 
 
 confined to the area of their political power. This deep mixture which has 
 produced the Chinese physical type and peculiar speech, and accounts for several 
 phonetic features common to the Chinese and many Indo-Chinese languages, as \. 
 well as for the reciprocal loan of words, which amounts between the Chinese and Tai \^ 
 vocabularies to more than ^O pe r cent, had begun outside long before the extension 
 of the Chinese political supremacy.' And as to this extension, I may remark 
 that the publication by Prof. Douglas in my Orient alia Antigua, part I. of Ihe 
 Calendar of the Hia dynasty, which bear astronomical evidences of its genuineness 
 2000 B.C., points to a settlement more southern than afterwards under the Chou 
 dynasty. The Chinese culture spread very early and extensively in the south, and 
 more on the western than on the eastern side. The phonetic writing, propagated 
 by the Chinese immigrants, was eagerly adopted by the active and intelligent 
 population of the South-West. "We see them at different periods of Chinese 
 history carrpng books to the Chinese court. In 1109 B.C. the Annamites had 
 a phonetic writing, and in several instances we have tidings bearing on the exist- 
 ence of such writings, composed of a certain number of Chinese simple characters 
 used according to the phonetic principle disused amongst the Chinese, as we largely 
 know. These simple characters, selected by progressive elimination of the less easy 
 to draw and to combine, formed a special script, of which we know several offshoots, 
 and have been, according to my views, and as far as affinities of shape and tradition 
 are to be trusted, the Grundschrift with which has been framed that splendid monu- 
 ment of Brahmanic phonetic lore — the South Indian Alphabet or Lat-Pali. The 
 North Indian Alphabet has been framed on a Semitic ground according to the 
 same principles, and this achievement lias been most likely done at the same time 
 for the two alphabets, as they bear obvioas marks of reciprocal influence and of 
 internal making up. Their artificial assimilation and parallelism is obvious. The 
 vocalic notation, however, seems to me to have originated from the South Alphabet 
 side, as here only are found independent vowel characters, which embodied in the 
 consonants have most likely suggested the external addition of marks for the vocalic 
 notation ; these marks were reversed to the left for adaptation to the Northern 
 alphabet. Mention has been lately made of a new writing found at Babylon, which by 
 a too hasty conclusion has been on insufficient examination considered as the ancestor 
 of the South Indian Alphabet. But a keen study of these two lines of writing, on 
 a contract clay-tablet of Babylon, dated in the 23rd year of Artaxerxes, has given 
 me a quite different result ; they are the signatures in cursive Aramaic of the 
 witnesses of the contract, exceptmg two who were not acquainted with writing. 
 The interesting feature is, besides its cursive shape, that of the appended con- 
 sonants, as was occasionally done in cursive Cuneiform ; I cannot find any vocalic 
 notation. 
 
24 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 rendering of the meaning, the substitution of ideographical 
 characters to others which were less so, became a necessity 
 to them, in order that the meaning might speak to the 
 eye of the reader. But, at the same time, by an association 
 of the respect due to the old texts, in accordance with the 
 great veneration always felt by the Chinese for anything 
 handed down from their ancestors, they thought themselves 
 bound in each possible case to substitute a character homo- 
 phonous to the sound they could, by tradition, or otherwise, 
 attribute to the old and unsatisfactory one. 
 
 27. As to the Yh-King, there was happily in these tran- 
 scriptions from one style into another, a serious barrier, 
 opposed to too numerous changes, in the great veneration in 
 which the written words of the sages of yore were held, quite 
 special in the case of this mysterious classic, with consequently 
 a certain kind of fear of altering them. Otherwise we may 
 be sure that the substitution of characters, if carried to the 
 same extent as has been done in the case of the Shu-King,^ 
 where it seems that the alterations reached to a full quarter 
 of the total number of the characters, would have been much 
 more considerable. 
 
 But as the addition of ideographic determinatives to old 
 characters or groups, could be done without, in their views, 
 altering the sound or the appearance, the process was much 
 more largely followed than any other.^ As to the mean- 
 
 * In comparing tlie remains of the Ku-wen text of the Classics engraved on 
 Stone (puhlished in the 2 ^ 5 ^S) '^i*^ ^^^ modern text, we find that 
 no less than twenty-Jive percent, of the characters have been substituted or altered 
 through the transcriptions. 
 
 2 The praise and censure system, which is so conspicuously applied by the 
 commentators of the texts of Confucius, seems to have been really put forward by 
 the Great Sage himself. We know that Confucius said, speaking of the CKun 
 Tsiu : " Its righteous decisions I ventured to make." And also : " Yes ! It is 
 the Ch''un Ts'iu which will make men know me ; and it is the Ch'un Tsiu which 
 will make men condemn me" (Vid. Legge, Chin. Class., vol. v. prol. 2). This 
 important statement has been repeated by Mencius and enlarged by him. There 
 is no doubt about its genuineness. Turning to the pages of the Chi'un Ts'iu, 
 *' We experienced, says Dr. Legge {ibid), an intense feeling of disappointment. 
 Instead of a history of events woven artistically together, we find a congeries of 
 the briefest possible intimations of matters in which the Court and State of Lu 
 were more or less concerned, extending over 242 years, without the slightest 
 tincture of literary ability in the composition, or the slightest indication of judicial 
 opinion on the part of the writer." It is a bare ephemeris. This is a difiiculty 
 which has still to be solved. The attempt by the commentators, of finding in almost 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 25 
 
 ings of the characters in the case of the addition of ideo- 
 graphical determinatives, two cases have arisen. The tran- 
 scribers may or may not have added the proper determina- 
 tive to determine the exact meaning with which the old 
 character was used in the particular case. In difficult in- 
 stances the context was of great help, as in the Shu-King, 
 or in the wings of the Yh, where special phrases are found. 
 But when the sense of the context is of no help, or does not 
 exist, the problem could by them only be solved by an arbi- 
 trary or guessed interpretation, which they expressed, how- 
 ever, in their transcription, by the same system of adding 
 ideographical determinatives. 
 
 It is necessary for us to remember these facts, as they show 
 how unavoidably large has been the influence of the ideas 
 and prejudiced views of the epochs on the works of the 
 transcribers.^ 
 
 every paragrapli some righteous decision, has laid them open to many absurdities 
 (Legge, ibid, p. 5). Xow if we consider that according to the principles of writing 
 at the time of the Sage, a greater importance was given, since She Chou, to the ideo- 
 graphic values of the characters, and that the writer, in order to suggest a com- 
 plementary idea or fix its meaning, could add an ideographic aphone, we are 
 not far from the explanation. And then if we examine the text, we are sure that 
 here is the solution. So, for instance, whilst recording the deaths of great officers, 
 princes, rulers of states, etc., he made use of ^ = 'finish,' when he has to 
 record the deaths of the sovereigns of his state (Lu) , or of their wives, he used the 
 character ^ = * obscure ' (to which has been substituted in Siao-chuen style 
 ^) to show the respect to which those dead were entitled ; it did not allow to 
 consider them as * finished,' as it was more proper to say that they became obscure 
 and could no more be seen. Again in the records of murders, when the murderer 
 is of the same rank or superior to the killed, Confucius used the ordinary character 
 3^ = * to kill ' ; but when it is the murder of a ruler by a subject or of a father 
 by a son, the Sage uses another character ^, which he framed himself for the 
 purpose: he substituted for the determinative ^ *to kill,' the character ^ 
 * rule,' ' pattern,' to show his censure of the fact. I shall study this more 
 largely elsewhere. There is, about the transcriptions made from the old Ku- 
 wen texts into the Si-shu, Siao-chuen, and finally the modem style, a curious 
 remark to make. It is-tbe great influence of this system, of praisa*od censure onu^ 
 the sfilsctiau. oi substituted characters, the addition of ideographic determinatives, 
 in fact all the modifications introduced by the transcribers, it produces the same 
 effect as if they had endeavoured to transform every text into a smooth stream •' 
 of righteous principles and moral conduct. Almost in every case where we can 
 restore the old texts, we find in them much more energy and precision. 
 
 ^ These various influences of ideographism, and of interpretations by the 
 transcribers, have also to be taken into accoimt in any complete study of old 
 Chinese grammar. The European scholars who have worked upon the ideology, 
 
 Ehonetism, and morphology of the Chinese language in the classics, have not yet 
 een able to appreciate the difference which the ideographic transcription they 
 have in hand has produced upon the old style they have not. They were not 
 
26 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 IV. Obvious Yestiges of the Old Text. 
 
 28. On tlie old text of the Yh-King yery little direct 
 information is at hand, and I shall have to find some that 
 is indirect. As it is certainly embodied in the present 
 text, my task in my translation will be to find it out through 
 a minute study of this text, checked by the history of the 
 language and writing in which it is written. 
 
 Of the Kwas I shall not say much, as they are not my 
 immediate purpose. Their original delineation is connected, 
 as we have seen, with the writing of the tortoise. Traditions 
 repeatedly found in literature mention the map of the Ho 
 river and the writing of the Lo river. The great appendix 
 of the Yh says: "The Ho Jpf gave forth the map and the 
 Lo f^ gave forth the writing, which the sages took as 
 pattern."^ It is further said in the Li-Ki^ that **the map 
 was borne by a horse ^ " and elsewhere that the writing was 
 on the back of a divine tortoise.^ This statement has been 
 repeated by Confucius, and it requires an explanation. 
 Throwing ofi" the legendary apparatus of style with which 
 they are traditionally reported, we find in these events two 
 very simple facts. The Tortoise writing given forth by the 
 Loh river is very likely the finding of a large tortoise shell 
 of which the lineaments answered to a certain disposition of 
 numbers.* As to the map produced by the Ma ^ from the 
 Ho river, we have to suggest that it was nothing else than 
 one of these numerical inscriptions, afterwards improved 
 
 aware how highly artificial is the written language, and how deep is the abyss 
 which separates it from the colloquial, modern and ancient, which, after all, is 
 the only one interesting for linguistic research. The phonetic decipherment of 
 the old Ku-wen texts when available will enable Sinologists to know some- 
 thing of the old spoken language. The readings, we have found out, make 
 it clear that the use of frequent polysyllables or compounds did not, in the old 
 time any more than in the present, let so much looseness in the grammatical value 
 and meaning of the words that was supposed to have existed. Besides that, the 
 phonetism more full of the separate words (not decayed as now) did not present in 
 the old spoken language so many homophones leading to confusion, as was 
 dremised by the ancient Sinologists. 
 
 1 Vid. Hi-se, part i. sect. 79. 
 
 2 Vid. Li-ki, ch. viii. trad. Gallery, p. 50, Turin, 1853, 4to. 
 
 3 Vid. Lun-yii, ix. 8. 
 
 * Among the 1690 works quoted by the Imperial compilers of the Tai-Ping-yii- 
 Lan in 977-983 are twelve works on the Eo-tu, two on the Zoh-shu, and one on 
 them both. 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 27 
 
 into an arithmetical puzzle, of cup marks as found in India 
 on cliffs and rocks or banks of rivers, and connected somehow 
 with a native tribe of which the name has been frequently 
 expressed phonetically by a character meaning a horse.^ 
 
 At any rate, the two objects, whatever they were, are enu- 
 merated in the Shu- King among the treasures kept at the 
 Chinese court as late as 1079 b.c, where we find mentioned, 
 the Ho til ^ @ , the great Tortoise-shell, etc.^ 
 
 29. If the Kwas, which were a survival of the arrows of 
 divination known to the ancestors of Chinese culture before 
 their emigration eastward,^ have been traced out from the 
 lineaments of the tortoise shell, we should suppose that the 
 plain lines and the broken lines were intended to represent 
 the non-crossed and the crossed lineaments ; and if from the 
 thrown divining rods also, from the same fact of their relative 
 positions of crossed or non-crossed over. But now we arrive 
 at speculations void and fruitless, and it is time to stop. 
 
 30. In the Shu-King we find an extensive allusion to 
 divination, as done by the Duke of Chou, who consulted 
 the oracular lines kept in the Royal Treasury, and we know 
 from the Chou Li that " the forms of the regular prognostica- 
 tions were in all 120, the explanations of which amounted to 
 1200."* Are we to take these numbers literally ? Could not 
 we suppose that we have here an indication of the two rows 
 of each hexagram, which seems to have been the main 
 division of the Kwei-Tsang, and in six times this number 
 their division according to the lines ; this hypothesis would 
 prove satisfactory if we had 128 and 1248, instead of 120 and 
 1200, given perhaps as round numbers. Or, have we here 
 quite a difierent system of oracular lines ? This might be, as 
 
 1 The extraordinary similarity between the Ho map and the inscriptions found 
 in India by Mr. H. Kivett Carnac is too striking to be neglected. See his Rough 
 Notes on some Ancient Sculpturings on Rocks in Kamdon, in Journal of the Royal 
 Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1877, vol. xlvi. pp. 1-15. I have already pointed out 
 this similarity in my paper on The Indo-Chinese Origin of the South Indian 
 W^riting. 
 
 2 Vid. Shu-King, part v. bk. 22. The great precious tortoise is also mentioned 
 as an heirloom in The Great Announcement, about 1115 b.c. See Chinese Classics, 
 ed. Legge, iii. p. 365. 
 
 3 Cf. my Early History of the Chinese Civilisation, p. 30. 
 * See Legge, Chinese Classics, vol. iii. p. 356 n. 
 
 / 
 
28 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 the Duke of Chou consulted the tortoise^ instead of the 
 milfoil usually employed for the divination by the diagram.^ 
 
 31. We have seen above that the two Yhs, earlier than 
 Chou's Yh, were the Lien- Shan under the Hia dynasty 
 (2205-1766) and the Kwei-Taang under the Yn dynasty 
 (1766-1122 B.C.), both including the sixty-four Kwas." 
 
 The Lien-Shan does not seem to have had the text divided 
 between the sixty-four Kwas, but only under eight divisions 
 or perhaps the eight principal Kwas, as the tradition says 
 that its text was composed of eight myriads of words.* This 
 agrees to a certain extent with the meaning of the name 
 Lien- Shan ■=^^^ united mountains," by which we can understand 
 
 1 In the Tso-Chuen we find several references to this different system, of which 
 it may be interesting to quote one here: in 635 B.C. The Marquis Wtn made 
 the master of divination, Yen, consult the tortoise shell about the undertaking. 
 tie did so and said, "The oracle is auspicious,— that of Hwang-ti's battle in 
 Fan-ts'iun." The marquis said, " that oracle is too great for me." The diviner 
 replied, " The rules of Chou are not changed. The King of to-day is the Emperor 
 of Antiquity." The marquis then said, " Try it by the milfoil." They consulted 
 the reeds and found the diagram, etc., etc. See Legge, Chinese Classics^ vol. v. 
 p. 195. 
 
 2 In the same work, fourth part of The Great Plan, we read an interesting 
 instruction a about the divination to be practised in case of doubts : 
 
 " Seventhly, on the examination of doubts ^ J^ ^. Select and appoint 
 
 special officers to divine ^ ^ ^ |> ^ J\^ . And as to the orders to 
 divine,^ J^ '^ b fiS? *^^^^ "^^ called rain ^| "p^, called clearing up 
 F] ^) called cloudiness p[ ^^ called disconnected Pj i^^ called crossing 
 
 ^) cSiWed correctness Q ^, called repentance ^j '|^^. Of these seven 
 J^ J^ divine by the tortoise five J^ j5.» ^^^ as prognostics use the other 
 two ^ y^ Hi > to trace out the errors j^f ;^ . 
 
 As we have most probably here a relic of the Hia dynasty, it is interesting to 
 find in it this statement of seven orders, or perhaps sets of slips for divination. 
 
 1 shall examine elsewhere what connexion, if any, may have existed between 
 these seven orders and the meanings attributed to the eight diagrams, two of 
 which agree. It would seem that we have here seven series indicated or divining 
 slips instead of eight, which, one may suppose, was the number of classes of rows 
 of characters used in the consultation for prognostics in the Lien Shan system. 
 
 Notes. — « I find a rather dift'erent translation in 85 words in Dr. Legge's 
 Chinese Classics, vol. iii. p. 335, but with the addition of so many words which 
 are not in the text, that I prefer to give a more literal translation. — * ^ trans- 
 lated 'decree of divination.' Cf. Medhurst's Shoo-King, The Great Announce- 
 ment, p. 217. 
 
 3 In fact the period 1766-1122 includes two dynasties, the Shang from 1766 to 
 1401, and the Yn afterwards; but this last name is also given to the whole 
 period. 
 
 * Vid.. Tai 'Ping Yti Ian, K. 608, f. 5. A ^ ^^ usual is not to be taken 
 literally 80,000, but as meaning eight indeterminate innumerable quantities. 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 29 
 
 the lack of the distinctions and distributions afterwards 
 introduced. 
 
 The ^;m-^s«w^=" returned treasures/' by which meaning 
 we understand the attributions of the meanings to the 
 Kwas and their parts/ is a little more known to us, though 
 the very text eo nomine no longer exists as an independent and 
 separate work. We have seen that it had a certain division 
 of the text in two parts, probably according to the inner and 
 outer diagram of each hexagram, and it seems likely 
 that these two parts in every chapter were again divided in 
 six. The text was composed of four thousand three hundred 
 words.2 
 
 32. The documentary evidences on the old text of the Yh 
 are of several kinds. Some consist of the quotations in other 
 classics, others are the result of internal indications, and also 
 the palaeographical proofs. 
 
 We have already (§ 18) spoken of an evidence of prime 
 importance in the score of quotations given in the 
 Tso-CIiuen. They do not always agree with the text as we 
 have it, and the discrepancies are not in every case those 
 which can be attributed to clerical transcriptions. The dis- 
 crepancies exhibited by the quotations indicated where they 
 divine by the milfoil and before they indicate the Yh of 
 Chou, point certainly to an old text which has been wilfully 
 modified in the Yh of Chou. In elucidating my version I 
 hope to show all these discrepancies, and in several cases 
 
 1 It is not unlikely that something of the arrangement by "Wen "Wang has crept 
 out from the temporary homonymy at his time of these two characters, Kwei-tmng 
 with 1^ and M. Cf. above, § 2n. This will be discussed in the translation. 
 
 2 Though the text of the Kwci- Tsang |^ ^ seems to have been lost of old, 
 quotations from it were found in old literature. The work is not one of the 1690 
 works of which the titles are given at the beginning of the Great Cyclopaedia of 
 983 A.D., the Tai Ping Yii Ian. However several quotations from it are given in 
 it, and I think it interesting to reproduce them. In the chapter on Nu Kwa 
 
 ^ jia.weread: SS « EI ^pj' A « ^ 5fi » ^ ^ 6 i: 
 
 EI ■§ BS US :fL il'li J « S ¥ *^ ± ill ft -^ B- 
 
 In the chapter on ifMn«(?-7'i we read: gf- ^ ^- ^" jfljl ^ i^ jpl^ 
 
 Vid. K. 78, f. 4, and K. 79, f. 2. On Nu Kwa, vid. Mayer's Manual, p. 162, 
 n. 521. 
 
30 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 the causes of their modification, by Wen Wang ; but we 
 have no room here for such an investigation. 
 
 33. It would be also beyond the scope of these pages 
 to show the serious differences of style between that of the 
 Text, in the case of phrases, and that of the oldest wings, 
 the Tivan and the Siang, works of Wen Wang and of Chou 
 Kung. They are not all of the same period, the Text exhibiting 
 an older stage of grammar. Many peculiarities of style in the 
 Text are not of those which have been introduced by the 
 western influence of the Chou, and consequently, as they 
 cannot be more modern, they point to an older period. It is 
 a fact of the evolution of the language, which I have traced 
 up and explained elsewhere, but my present version points 
 out the many materials which the text of the Yh offers for 
 that purpose. 
 
 34. Another argument, the several cases of which I am 
 able to point out in my version, is in connection with the 
 foretelling words, showing their ulterior addition to the 
 primitive text in accord with what we know by the tradition 
 as has been shown above (§ 13). It is that in the rhymed 
 chapters, they are outside the rhymes ! The importance of 
 this fact must not be neglected, as it shows that the text was 
 written before its partition into separate lines to correspond 
 to the weak and strong lines of the Kwas, and before the 
 intermingling of the words of fate. 
 
 35. A careful study of the Ku-icen text of the Th would be 
 of the greatest importance. It would certainly discriminate 
 the alterations introduced by Wen Wang : I, therefore, await 
 anxiously the good chance which may put in my hands, or in 
 those of any one of more ability, the text Ku-wen handed 
 down by Fei-shi, a text which was not different from the 
 Imperial copy revised by Liu Hiang about the Christian era, 
 at the time of the Literary Revival under the Han dynasty, 
 as will be seen below (§ 48). 
 
 The numerous palaGographical works compiled with great 
 care by the Chinese (several of which would do honour to 
 European scholars), and the comparison with many inscrip- 
 tions, afford a not inconsiderable amount of information 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 31 
 
 towards the recognition of the old meanings of the 
 characters, besides their values in the Shu-King and the 
 Shi-King. But all this requires a good deal of patient 
 research and comparative criticism for a profitable use 
 of them. 
 
 36. In the absence of the continuous text of the Th in old 
 Ku-wen characters, we are not altogether deprived of certain 
 tidings, and though they cannot, as the text would do, give 
 us the same amount of information, they are not to be 
 neglected. There are two means for finding them, first, by 
 the palaeography, and secondly by the traditions in litera- 
 ture. 
 
 Characters of the Ku-wen text of the Yh are found in 
 Chinese palaeographical works, ^ and some have occasionally 
 been quoted by the late M. Pauthier from the text of Fei-shi 
 which he possessed in his own library. Though these charac- 
 ters are not numerous, they are not without their utility for 
 our researches. The comparative studies I have made for my 
 history of the Chinese language, on the transformations of the 
 Chinese characters from the most ancient period downwards, 
 allow me to say what we learn from these characters quoted 
 from the old Yh-King. They concur in fully strengthening 
 the exactitude of the traditions quoted above on the existence 
 of the old text of the Yh, or the greatest part of it, long 
 before the time of Wen Wang, its partial modification, 
 completion and arrangement by that sage, and the author- 
 ship of the Tican and Siang by the same and by his son. 
 
 37. These characters are of three kinds. Some, which 
 come from the text, are of the oldest period when the 
 writing was the faithful reproduction of the language. This 
 stage had passed away at the time of Wen Wang and his 
 
 1 Such as the ;;;F^ ^ ^ ^ by Fu Lwan Tsiang, 1751, in 14 Kiuen, 
 according to the 214 radicals; the yF^ ♦ 5S ^5" 19 ^15' ^^^^» ^ ^^ 
 Kiuen, according to 76 finals. In these two works the old forms are quoted with 
 references to the inscriptions, texts, etc., where they are to be found. The latter, 
 though less complete than the former, is more accurate ; it is a wonderful monu- 
 ment of palffiographical knowledge and patient research, the work of an entire 
 life devoted to study. Its author published it at the age of 82. It has been 
 reprinted several times, in 1718, 1796, 1865, and these are the different editions I 
 have seen : the 1796 one is the worst. 
 
32 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 son. Other characters, from tlie Tican and Siang, and occa- 
 sionally from the text, are also of the old style still in use, 
 with or without additional ideographic determinatives, but no 
 longer understood on the principles of their composition and 
 hence blindly copied. The third category includes characters 
 from the wings, which are obviously written according to 
 the principles laid down by She Clidu about 820 B.C. We 
 shall not enter into the details, they would be most interesting, 
 about these categories, as they would require more space 
 than we can afford. We cannot help, however, quoting two 
 or three examples of the oldest written words. 
 
 38. So *|^ he7ig, constant, continual, which in the Ku wen 
 text of the Yh was written by a group of two characters 
 which transcribed in modern caligraphy would be ^ J5 
 E-eading the two characters according to the orthographical 
 principles of the old Ku-wen, we expect, by their disposition 
 side by side, a compound word to be read from left to right, 
 and we find g Keng X5 S^i<^o, which is obviously the same 
 as the modern expression heng kiu *[§ ^, having the same 
 meaning.^ In the Tivan and Siang we find two forms of the 
 same early group, but of which the component parts were no 
 longer understood, as shown by the blind interpretation given 
 to their strokes.^ 
 
 Again, ^ I ' the chin,' which represents two characters of 
 the older Yh, gS and |^ ; one is the heading of the 27th 
 chapter, the other is in the text.^ We shall see in our version 
 which spoken expression it represents. 
 
 Again ^ substitution in modern writing to the Siao Chiien 
 
 ^ Cf. Min tsi Ki, Luh shu t'ung, K. iv. f. 21 v. Fu Lwan Tsiang, Luh shu 
 Fon Luy, s.v, 
 
 2 In cases of single words written phonetically with two characters, these are 
 often superposed ; the under one suggesting the initial. These principles and their 
 ulterior modifications, their demonstration and the method which I have used to 
 find them, are explained and summarized in my paper on the Evolution of 
 Language and Writing in China. Yid. also the notes to § 23 of the present 
 paper. 
 
 ^ Min Tsi Ki, Luh shu fung, K. i. f. 29. 
 
 * This is one of the characters which show that the writing borrowed by the 
 Bak people, P'oh Sing, has not always been written in perpendicular lines. As 
 all those which had more width than height, it has been turned up from the right, 
 and originally represented the lower part of the face, mouth, and chin, still dis- 
 cernible through the modern strokes. 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 33 
 
 ^ which had been substituted for the Ku-wen ^^} Read 
 according to the old principles, the latter gives mod. Kih Uieh, 
 and in the oldest dialects K'ich tiet (Sinico-Annamite), or Kwik 
 tsit (Canton), which are no longer used, but for which we find 
 the modern equivalent |pf ^ Kiaishet, Pekinese Chieh-shuOy to 
 explain, to unloose. 
 
 If space could be given to this question, many proofs 
 could be forthcoming to show that Wen Wang has entirely 
 misunderstood the materials he had in hand. For example, 
 he has misunderstood an old group form of Jj ^ a girl ' (44th 
 Kwa) for ^ copulatio ; but, as this subject would have 
 been unfit for discussion, he has been unable to follow this 
 course in his arrangement of the text, so that the whole 
 chapter, which describes the occupations of a girl, presents 
 now in the modern interpretation an amount of nonsense, 
 seldom found to so ludicrous an extent. 
 
 39. Tradition has been kept of the modifications (transcribed 
 in modern character), introduced by Wen Wang to twenty- 
 five of the sixty-four headings of the chapters.^ He has put 
 at the Kwa 5. % instead of j§ ; 9. >J> ^ instead of ^ g ; 
 15. m instead of ^ ; 18. ^ instead of ^ ; 23. glj instead 
 of 'SI ; 25. 5; g instead of # £ ; 26. :^ ^ instead of 
 < S ; 29. JJ: instead of ^ ; 31. ^ instead of Jg ; 33. 
 S instead of Ji ; 37. ^ A instead of %% A ; 40. ^ 
 instead of ^ ; 41. ff^ instead of %\ 46. ^ instead of S ; 
 51. 8 instead of g ; 52. ^ instead of Jg ; 59. ^ instead 
 of ^. 
 
 Besides these seventeen, there are five single headings, 
 W. S, l!C, S, ffi, and three double ^' ^, ^ ji^, 
 JS 'S> of which Wen Wang's substitutes have not been 
 traditionally kept, but which can be detected without great 
 difficulty, by a close study of the book. 
 
 As these headings are the objects of the chapters, it is easy 
 to conceive how important it is to know them with precision, 
 
 1 Cf. § 23 n. and Min Tsi Ki, Luh shu timg, K. v. f. 33. 
 ' Vid.i^ *, it. P&, K.2,f.2v. 
 
34 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 for the understanding of the rows of characters by which 
 they are followed. 
 
 40. Remains of the early commentators ^ show unmistakably 
 a period intermediarj' between the characters as they have 
 been transcribed into the actual style of writing and the 
 oldest one, fully justifying what we have said of the gradual 
 modification of the characters, according to the views of 
 the interpreters at the successive transcriptions from the old 
 Ku-wen text into the Siao Chuen style, and from this into the 
 modern Kiai Shu. 
 
 In the ordinary edition we find that thirty-one headings 
 are the object of special remarks ; thirteen are indicated as 
 sham representatives and eighteen are to be taken with a 
 special meaning. 
 
 It is in this passage and transcription from the Siao- Chuen 
 to the modern style, that in the absence of the Ku-wen text, 
 we shall be able in numerous cases to check the interpreta- 
 tion supported by the modern characters. Substitution of 
 characters, as ;fjg for |^, and ^ for 55) or -^ for }$ are not 
 unimportant, but such as »]g * respectful ' for f ^ ' pelvis ' 
 modifies entirely the possible meaning. And is not the same 
 thing to be said of g, g, |Jll, ^, Jg., substituted to g, 
 S, 15, m^ 03, etc., etc.2 
 
 41. We find in the dictionary of the " Original characters 
 of the thirteen kings," Shih san King Pon i^se -^ 2 M ^ ^ 
 sect, of Th King, some changes of characters, as these : |^ 
 instead of ^ ; ;pg instead of 1% ; ^ instead of 5c ; El 
 instead of g ; J$ instead of ^ ; fg instead of dgl.^ 
 
 Or characters as these : ^, a, }jg, §, :g, P|l, gi, Sf, 
 ^, which are but the sham representatives of the older 
 ones. 
 
 According to the notes of the ordinary editions of the Yh, 
 we find no less than 77 in the text and 102 in the Twan, 
 
 1 Cf . the jg ^ , annotated by g |f of the Tsin period. Vid. "^ f^ 
 
 ^ Vid. Luh-shu-fon-luy^ sw. 
 
 3 So ;g is for i^, Cf. Min tsi Ki, Luh shu Vung, K. iv., f. 51. 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 35 
 
 Siang and Wen Yen embodied with the text, of characters 
 which stand for others, and over 300 which are translated 
 with unusual meanings. Many of the latter show only how 
 forced were the interpretations supposed by the editors. It 
 is instructive to point out these facts as a warning for those 
 who should be inclined to accept any version, which has not 
 been prepared by the necessary palaeographical and linguistic 
 researches on the text ; a scientific preparation of which the 
 Chinese interpreters in their attempts, and the European as 
 well, though less excusable, do not seem to have had the 
 sliofhtest idea. 
 
 V. — The Native Interpretations. 
 
 42. The possibility of understanding certain parts of the 
 Th-King, such as the ethnological chapters and the legendary 
 ballads, led early to the conclusion, that the whole of these 
 documents could be currentl}'" read and interpreted. It is 
 quite possible that the hexagrams^ were attached to them 
 merely as a system of numerical classification to keep them 
 in proper order ; but it is more likely that the antiquity of 
 these obscure documents, and the tradition that they con- 
 tained a treasure of ancient wisdom, first led to their use as 
 fateful and prophetic sentences, in which some glimmer of 
 meaning was detected or surmised, and that the hexagrams 
 were then applied to them for the purposes of divination. 
 
 The attempt to explain these old fragments began early, 
 and has been continued by a host of scholars. The selection 
 of 1450 works on the Yh for the library of Kien-Lung y 
 points to anything but unanimity in the understanding of 
 the book. 
 
 43. The profound modifications which were introduced by 
 Wen Wang, in his transcription of the old text, are attested 
 by the precise and exact traditions respecting his work, 
 which we have quoted above (§§ 12, 13, 14, 38, 39). But 
 
 ^ On the possible connexion of the Kwas with the belomancy of S.W. Asia, the 
 eight Kwas of Fuh-hi and the eight arrows of Marduk, see my Early history of 
 Chinese civiiization, p. 29-30. 
 
36 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 the method he pursued in his treatment of the text, and more 
 markedly still in the explanations (Twan) he appended to 
 each chapter, is made clearer to us by the work of later 
 commentators. The book itself, as it stands now, bears 
 obvious traces of many discrepancies of views, as we shall see 
 hereafter. 
 
 Wen Wang meditated upon the old sets of words ap- 
 pended to each leading character, title or subject of each 
 chapter, and modified some of these characters to suit his 
 fanciful interpretation of the context or sequel. He worked 
 hard to make something of them and to accommodate them 
 at all risks to some sort of signification. He .expanded 
 them so as to fill up the seven lines he wanted for each 
 -N^ chapter, and he is open to the suspicion of having added more 
 >^ than the prognosticating words, when his materials were not 
 sufficient. When the primitive text at his disposal was too 
 short for his purpose, the same meanings are severally 
 repeated ; but when the contrary happens, the meanings 
 are piled up one after the other, with an attempt to make 
 out some kind of sense, which is necessarily broken and dis- 
 connected ; except in a few cases where, either by chance or 
 by ability in modifying the characters by their homonyms 
 or synonyms, some kind of connected meaning has been 
 obtained. It should be observed, with reference to those 
 chapters which are mere lists of meanings, that the very 
 nature of the case made it an easier task to force a general 
 internal connexion upon them, because of the occasional rela- 
 tion of the meanings, primitive or derived. 
 
 44. Wen Wang has arranged the Yh documents, exchanging 
 characters, sometimes for their homonyms, sometimes for 
 their synonyms ; he has displaced some in order to give the 
 prominence to characters which could be taken as foretelling 
 words ; and of such words he has interpolated not a few. He 
 has ingeniously tried to give to the whole of every chapter an 
 appearance of relation to the special symbolic meanings 
 attributed to each of the two trigrams composing the 
 hexagram, and, in so doing, has led the way for subsequent 
 commentators, among whom his son Tan holds a prominent 
 
THE YH-KIXG AND ITS AUTHORS. 37 
 
 place. He has written tlie Twariy which may be taken as 
 a justification of the text as amended by him, and which 
 gives hints on the symbolism he thought was embodied in 
 the hexagrams. 
 
 45. If Wen "Wang had actually evolved from his brain all 
 these incongruous and more or less disconnected words, we 
 might conclude that his confinemenL.in_Yu-li had seriously^ 
 affected his mental power, since, if we take all the chapters 
 for a genuine text, it is just such a composition as might have '^ 
 emanated from a lunatic asylum. The only possibility of 
 avoiding such a conclusion is to admit, what is shown by 
 various kinds of evidence, that he could not help using sets 
 of characters and meanings framed a long time beforehand 
 for each chapter, and that he did his best with them.^ 
 
 46. The Yh-Kingy with the Five commentaries, as arranged "^ 
 by Confucius, was handed down by one of the disciples of y 
 the Sage, called Bhang Kiu'^ "^ J^, and styled Tze Muh ^ /^C, 
 
 of whom we know very little. Was it he who embodied 
 into two of the wings the quotations of Confucius' words, 
 or was it Puh Shang \\ ||[, styled Tze Hia ^ J, another of 
 the disciples of the Sage, who is said to have written on 
 the Yh a commentary in eleven books ? ^ The Records of the 
 Former Han Dynasty^ report that the Yh was commented on 
 during the Civil war period by numerous schools, but in fact 
 we have only the names of those of the Han period. The 
 next most important commentary seems ^ to have been 
 
 » Chu Chen :^ ^ has remarked {^Ean Kien Lui Han, K. 195, f. I5v.), that 
 "Wen Wang made the Yh in such a manner that the Kwas §^ j^ J^ g|| 
 compose the first, and that ^ "^ ^ ^ compose the second book. These 
 Kwas, which are the eight primitive ones, are classified in the present arrange- 
 ment as Nos. 1, 2, 29, and 30, in the first book, and 52, 58, 51, and 57, in the 
 second. Should any additional proofs be necessary to show that the increase of 8 
 to 64 was made previously to Wen Wang, this anomaly of arrangement would 
 be one. 
 
 2 On Shang Kiu, see Taien San Shu, K. 88. 
 
 3 Fuh Shang, born 507 B.C., was yet living in 406 bc, and then presented 
 copies of some of the Classical Books to the prince "Wen of Wei. He is repre- 
 sented as a scholar extensively read and exact, but without great comprehension 
 of mind. See Legge, Chin. Class, vol. i. proleg. p. 118, on I'dh Shany. 
 
 * See the chapters on Literature, K. 30, f. 1. 
 ^ Seethe^ g IE *• 
 
^ 
 
 38 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHOHS. 
 
 that of Tien Ho ^/ the great officer ^ ^ who, in 
 379 B.C., founded the second dynasty of rulers of the state 
 of Ts'i. 
 
 Many other scholars and commentators are known to have 
 worked on the Yh during the centuries preceding and follow- 
 ing the foundation of the Chinese Empire ; the names of 
 many and the works of a few are not yet altogether for- 
 gotten. They are reputed, by the later interpreters who 
 maintain their own explanations, to have been uniformly 
 in error. 
 
 47. "When during the Ts'in dynasty the books were burnt 
 (b.c. 213-212), the Yh being a book employed for divination 
 was preserved. This is expressly stated by Pan K'u in his 
 Records of the {Former) Han dynasty (section of Literature), 
 where he reproduces the famous catalogue compiled in the 
 last years preceding the Christian era, by Liu Hiang, Liu 
 Hin and others, of all the books gathered for the Imperial 
 Library. We reproduce from this catalogue the list con- 
 cerning the Yh-King, as follows : 
 
 Yh'King; 12 sections (from) She J^, Mong ;^, Liang Kixi 
 
 ^ £ ^ schools. (Se Ku says : The upper and 
 
 lower parts of the classic and the ten wings, 
 
 namely 12 sections in all^) 
 Yh^s tradition %. (from) Cliou She J5 J5 ; 2 sections. 
 
 (Grandson oi Fu Wang ^ ^ ^J) 
 Fuh She J3K J5, 2 sections. (A native of Tsi 
 
 ^ called Fuh Kivang Jg ^.) 
 Yang She ^^ R, 2 sections. (IN'amed Ho, 
 
 styled Shu-yuen i^i ^ M.'jt* natiYe of Che- chwen 
 
 -^ )]\ Shan-tung.4) 
 
 * See on Tien So, Mayer's O.R.M., part i. n. 719. 
 
 "^ This is the Imperial copy, revised as said above by Liu-Hiang. 
 
 3 Pauthier, loc. cit., who quotes three of these works, says of this second : " Le 
 Yh-King avec les explications de Wen Wang et de Tche'ou Koung en deux livres, 
 tel qu'il subsiste encore de nos jours." There are several mistakes in these state- 
 ments. The Chinese text says nothing of the kind, and Chou She, in whose name 
 he finds a reference to Wen Wang and Chou Kung, was a literate of the Han 
 period. 
 
 * Probably so called from Sien-Tanff, the capital of the Ts'in, the archives of 
 which were saved by Siao Ho, who died b.c. 193, whose full name is given in the 
 note. See on him, Mayer's Chinese Reader'' s Manual, n. 578, 601, and Chinese 
 Classics, edit. Legge, vol. i. Prolog, p. 118. 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 39 
 
 — Ts'ai Kimg ^ S, 2 sections. (Native of Wei 
 @j, grandson of She Chou Wang ^^ J^ [J.) 
 
 — Han She ||! ^, 2 sections. (Named Ing ^}) 
 
 — Wang She ^ J5j 2 sections. (Named 
 Tung ^.) 
 
 — Ting She "J^ J6 > ^ sections. (Named Kw^an^ 
 styled Tze, ^ ^ •?, native of Siang Liang.) 
 
 — Ku Wu Tze 1& S ^, 18 sections. (From 
 ^ "? to 5 -5- taught the Yn and Yang of the 
 
 — ^?<;e/iVc?w's 3 Eight-path Precepts 'Jjg S jS f l|> 
 
 2 sections. {Hwai Nan Wang facilitated the re- 
 searches and explanations of the Thj and nine 
 men studied the rules of the nine masters.) 
 
 — Old Miscellanies "i^ ?^, 80 sections. 
 
 — Discriminations of Miscellaneous calamities 
 ^ j}^ g, 35 sections. 
 
 — * Spiritual gyration' jplf ^^, 5 sections and 
 one Map. 
 
 — Mang She and King Fang^ :£ J£ M M> ^^ 
 sections. 
 
 id. id. 66 sections. 
 
 — Luh ch^ung tsung lioh shtcoh >|| ^ ^ 15^ ^, 
 
 3 sections. 
 
 — King she ha kia 'ff^ }^^ '^y 12 sections. 
 Various extracts (from) She^ M'dng and Liang 
 
 Kin :^ "p] iE :£ '^ £, each 2 sections. 
 Altogether 13 schools and 294 sections. 
 In the chapter on divination of the " Catalogue " of Liu 
 
 ^ Probably Tou Yng, who died B.C. 131. See on this officer, Mayer's Manual^ 
 part i. n. 678. 
 
 2 From 57 to 9 B.C. As there is no other indication, we must take the cyclical 
 characters as indicating the nearest period from the author's compilation — perhaps 
 that Ku Wu Tze is to be translated The Old Five Masters. The statement is very 
 important for the history of the Yh commentaries, even when a different view is 
 maintamed, as in ^ M H gj , K. 192, f. 19. 
 
 3 Or Liu Ngan, who died b.c. 122. See Mayer's Manual, part i. n. 412, 
 
 * On King Fang, philosopher and astronomer, of the first century b.c, see 
 Mayer's (J.B.M. part i. n. 270. In the list of 1690 works given as references 
 by the compilers of the Cyclopedia Tai-Ping Yii La)i, eight works connected with 
 the Yh and divination are by or on King Fang. 
 
40 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 Hiang and Liu Yn, there are several titles of books on the 
 Changes, as follows : — 
 
 )f ^, 38 Kiuen.— Ml ^ BjJ ±, 26 K.— JH ^ ^ ffi 
 It g, 50 K.-;^ m in ^. 28 K.-^ ?Jt il ^, 30 K.-M- 
 
 mm^-s m, 23 K.-ft s ^ m 71 k.-^ fi> a a. 
 
 48. At the time that the Han dynasty rose to power, the 
 explanations of Tien Ho pg fn were still followed. Down 
 to the dates of the Emperors Siian g (73-48 B.C.) and Yuen 
 j\^ (48-32 B.C.), the Th was commented on by She Ch'ou 
 jjg g|, Mong m ^ 5, Liang Kiu *^ g^ in the official 
 literary schools, and by Fei chi ^ ]i^, King Fang 3^ g and 
 Kao '^} Among the people Liii-Hiang took the Imperial 
 Kit-wen "^ ^ text of the Yh-King, and collated it with the 
 editions of /SAe, Mong and Liang Kiu; occasionally he omitted 
 passages which did not exist (in the olden text), or which 
 were faulty, and restored others which had been lost. But 
 Fei^s edition 2 was identical with the Ku-wen^ and this 
 scholar had studied the Yh of THen So, which with the 
 commentaries formed twelve pien. So had done 8he, Mong, 
 Liang and Tsil Tung, but without following the very words 
 of T'ien Ho's commentary.* 
 
 49. Yang Hiung (b.c. 53-a.d. 18), the author of the 
 famous Vocabulary of Dialects ^ "g, wrote the T^ai hiien 
 King ^ ^ 0,^ professedly in elucidation of the Yh-King, 
 
 1 The text of Pan Ku gives only the names as She, Mong, and Liang Kiu, but 
 we complete them from the JU ^ IE ^ i^ Tai-Ping-yii-lan, K. 609, f. 2. 
 
 2 The late French sinologist, G. Pauthier, possessed in his own library an edition 
 of the Ku-wen text of the Yh, printed in 1596, under the title JU ^ ^ ^ "(^f^C 
 in 2 pien. His valuable library having been broken up and dispersed everywhere, 
 I have been unable to find this book. We have to regret that Pauthier could 
 not follow his scheme of publishing it in facsimile. And so, too, we have to 
 regret that he has not given somewhere a description of it. He only says that it 
 was the text of Fei-chi (probably ^ [|[). Should this edition be genuine, 
 it would be of immense importance for our studies. Vid. Pauthier, Journal 
 Asiatique, Sept.-Oct. 1867, p. 238, and Avril-Mai, 1868, p. 363. 
 
 3 Pauthier {Journal Asiatique, Sept.-Oct., 1867, pp. 236-238) has misunder- 
 stood all these passages. He has mistaken : 1°. the names of the two Emperors 
 Siien and Yuen for the name of a commentator who never existed ; 2°. The 
 name of Mong, a commentator of the first centuiy b.c, for the name of Mencius ; 
 3^. he has made of Liang-Kiu, also a commentator of the Han period, two men ; 
 taking Liang as Koh Liang and Kiu as Confucius. 
 
 s His book m the Tai-Fing^-gu-lan, is quoted as |g ^-g ^ >k X IS • 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHOES. 41 
 
 but it is considered almost as obscure as the original classic. 
 His views were upheld by Se-Ma Ktcang (a.d. 1009-1086), 
 and in recent times by Tsiao-Tuen-hi, but, after all, the result 
 is unsatisfactory.^ 
 
 The application of the old theory of the two principles, 
 Yn and Yang, Obscurity and Light, Female and Male 
 activities in Nature (which has been lately carried through 
 the whole Yh by Canon MacClatchie in his English version), 
 had been made to the Yh-King during the first century B.C., 
 as we have seen in the catalogue of Lin Hiang.^ 
 
 Another celebrated commentary of the Han period was 
 written by Tsiao Kan H^ ^ .^ 
 
 50. Almost everything has been sought for in the Yh, inas- »X 
 much as the unintelligibility of the text was an asylum for any 
 freak of imagination. As early as the middle of the second 
 century B.C. the Yh was connected with alchemy.^ The 
 earliest work now extant on the practice of alchem}^ accord- 
 ing to Mr. A. Wylie, is the Ts'an t 'nng K'i i^ [p| ^ , from 
 the hand of Wei Peh-yang |^ fg |^.^ This writer 
 professes to discover the occult science hidden in the 
 mysterious symbols of the Yh-King^ but his book and his 
 doctrine have been by common consent discarded by the 
 literati. Many commentaries have been written on this 
 treatise, the most important being under the Tang, the Sung 
 and the Yuen dynasties.^ 
 
 Kwoh P^oh (a.d. 276-324), a famous scholar, commentator 
 and expositor of the doctrines of the Taoist transcendentalism, '^ 
 also ventured an explanation of the Yh-King? "— — — 
 
 The character "j^ is for ^ > because the latter being the personal name of the 
 Emperor K'ang Hi, forbidden during the reign of the Emperor, was still left 
 aside at the time of the reprint of the Cyclopedia. 
 
 * Vid. "Wylie, Notes on Chinese Literature, p. 69. 
 
 2 Others are enumerated by Dr. J. H. Plath, Ueber die Sammlung Chinesischer 
 Werke der Staatsbihliothek aus der Zeit der L. Ban und Wei. Miinchen, 1868, 
 8vo. pp. 4, 5. 
 
 3 On this philosopher vid. Mayer's Chinese Reader s Manual, n. 839. 
 
 * Many are indicated in Matwanlin, Wen Men tung K'ao, K. 175. 
 
 5 In the Tai-Ping-yii-lan it is quoted under the title of J|] ^ Ts'an fung 
 K\, which is the name given by the commentator P'ang Hian of the Tang 
 period. 
 
 6 For more details Vid. Wylie, Notes on Chinese Literature, p. 175. 
 
 ' ^'"115 m ^ }i5i #. 
 
42 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHOKS. 
 
 51. Down to the time of the Wei dynasty || (220-265 
 A.D.) the doctrines of Bhe-CWou and M'dng-Hi had schools 
 and were discussed. But at the time of the Western Tsin 
 "g" g (265-313 A.D.) the schools of Liang Kiu^ She Ch'ou 
 and Kao disappear ; ^ those of Mong-Hi and King-Fang were 
 still known by their books, but they were no longer taught. 
 The teachings of Fei-chi were commented upon by Chang- 
 Huan g[5 ^ (a.d. 127-200), 2 under the Eastern Han dynasty, 
 and later on by Wang-Pi J ^ (a.d. 226-249), ^ under the 
 Wei dynasty. The latter was a scholar of high repute, and 
 deeply versed in the mystic lore of the Yh-King ; ^ notwith- 
 standing the early age (24) at which he died, his erudition 
 was such as to cause him to be looked upon in subsequent 
 ages as the founder of the modern philosophy of divination. 
 
 52. The theories of Wang-Pi on the subject remained 
 unchallenged until the period of the Sung dynasty, when 
 a fresh school was founded by Chen-Hi-I fj ^ J5 or 
 Ch'en-Tw'an ^ ^J (who died about a.d. 920) .^ This cele- 
 brated Taoist philosopher and recluse had devoted himself to 
 the study of the arts of alchemy and the occulL4ihilesophy 
 of the Yh-King, He is recognized by Chu-Hi as having 
 founded the modern school of interpretation of the system 
 of the diagrams.^ But according to the compilers of the 
 Imperial edition, down to the time of Chu-Hi or Chu-Fu- 
 tze (1130-1200), the essence of the Yh-King had not been 
 understood, and to this great philosopher is attributed the 
 honour of having made it known to the great advantage of 
 his compatriots. The Yh has been interpreted by Chu-Fu- 
 tze and his fellow authors of the Sung dynasty, as a treatise 
 on morals, a directory for self-government and politics, — a 
 view, however, which had been introduced by Cheng Fu- 
 tze. Though the great influence of Chu-Hi's commentaries 
 
 ^ Vid. ^ ^ ^ "^ , reprinted in the Han Wei t'sung shu collection. 
 
 2 Vid. on these two celebrated scholars, Mayer's Chinese Reader's Manual, nn. 
 69 and 812. 
 
 » F«^. JU ^ J£ ^ in Tai Ping yii Ian, K. 609, f. 2. 
 
 * His hook is entitled J^ ^ ^ "j^J > reprinted in the Ban Wei t'sung shu 
 collection. 
 
 s Vid. Mayer's Chinese Header's Manual, p. 245. 
 
 ^ Vid. Mayer, ibid. 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 43 
 
 on the other classics, and the just recognition of his services 
 to Chinese literature, have given to his views an undeserved 
 repute, and have rather overshadowed the other systems of in- 
 terpreting the Yh, the latter have by no means been silenced. 
 
 53. "Writers of the present dynasty, such as Hwei-T'ing-ii, 
 Chang-Hwei-yen and others, who have accomplished a 
 positive advance towards freedom of thought in their study 
 of the ancient books, have drawn attention to the old 
 interpretations of authors who lived early in the Christian era. 
 They regard the Yh rather as a bi^gk of fate. According to 
 them it foreshadows the changes of the physical universe and 
 of human affairs. It is the record of the unseen destiny that 
 controls the prosperity and decay which belong to all 
 beings and things. Its symbols are of so general a kind that 
 they admit of various applications ; but the most distinctly 
 marked of these applications are to the accession of an 
 emperor to the throne, and the distinction between the good 
 and noble-minded man and one who possesses the opposite 
 qualities. These more ancient critics lived very near the 
 time of the disciples of Confucius, and are therefore con- 
 sidered to have been in a better position for ascertaining the 
 real meaning of the book than later scholars. Some of 
 them were Taoists, to which religion the happy obscurity of 
 this book accommodates itself as well as to the Confucian.^ 
 
 54. These few sketches (§§ 42-53) are far from conveying to 
 the reader's mind an idea of the multiplicity and variety 
 of the native interpretations of the Yh-King. It would 
 be an immense task, far beyond the scope of the present 
 pages, to quote even the bare names of all those who, 
 in China, have laboured on the mysterious book. There is 
 scarcely any of the commentators of the Classics who has 
 not endeavoured to>^opose new explanations on the whole 
 or in details. Such is their number that in the last century 
 (1772-1790), when the great catalogue for the library of 
 the Emperor Kien-Lung was drawn up, no less than fourteen 
 
 ^ For part of tMs section see I>r. Edkins, On the Present State of Science, Litera- 
 ture, and Literary Criticism in China, reprinted from the North China Herald of 
 March, 1857, in The Chinese and Japanese Repository, London, 1864, 8vo. pp. 29, 
 32, 63-69 ; cf. p. 67. 
 
44 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 hundred and fifty different works on the Th were selected 
 ^^^^ for that purpose. How many more were forgotten, de- 
 liberately rejected or lost altogether ! 
 \^ No less than nineteen scholars of high repute for their 
 commentaries or studies of the Yh have had their tablets 
 erected in the Temple of Confucius.^ These tablets are 
 divided into four classes, viz. : 4 Associates, 12 Men of 
 Genius, 79 Former Worthies, QQ Former Scholars. Amon g 
 N the 12 Men of Genius, the last is Chu Hi (1130-1200), the 
 V celebrated commentator, author of five works on the Yh^ and 
 of whom I spoke above. Among the 79 Former Worthies- 
 the 9th is Shang Kiu (born 523 B.C.), aboA^e quoted ; the 75th 
 Chou Tun-i (1017-1073) ; the 76th, Chang Tsai (1020-1076) ; 
 the 78th, Ch'eng-I (1033-1107), author of a great com- 
 mentary; the 79th, Shao Yung (1011-1077). Among the 
 66 Former Scholars, the 10th is Tu Tze Ch'iin (about B.C. 
 50-A.D. 40), a commentator ; the 12th, Ch'eng Kang Ch'eng 
 (a.d. 127-200), a commentator; the 14th, Fan Ning^ (339- 
 401) ; the 18th, Fan Chung-yen (989-1052) ; the 31st, Lii 
 Tung-lai (1137-1181), author of a commentary; the 36th, 
 Ts'ai Ch'en (1167-1230), author of speculations for divination 
 by the numbers of the Yh\ the 38th, Wei Liao-weng (1178- 
 1237), author of a treatise on the Yh ; the 40th, Wang Pai 
 (1197-1274), author of a commentary ;3 the 43rd, Chao Fuh 
 (1200-after 1251), who taught the Yh with the commentary 
 on it by I-chu'an ; the 44th, Hu Heng (1209-1281) ; the 
 46th, Wu Ch'eng (1247-1331), author of remarks on the Yh\ 
 the 53rd, Hii kii jen (died 1485) ; the 54th, Ts'ai Tsing (1453- 
 1508), author of a treatise called Yh-King Meng yn ^ $M ^ ?|> 
 which is chiefly a seilection of notes and commentaries with 
 original observations, and which, printed by Imperial order 
 in 1529, has since remained a standard work on the Yh,^ And 
 
 1 See the excellent book of T. Watters, A Guide to the Tablets in a Temple of 
 Confucius, Shanghai, 1879, 8vo. 
 
 2 Fan Ning was opposed to magic and divination, and to all the vain heresies 
 of his time ; he wrote fiercely against "Wang -Pi (above quoted), who during the 
 preceding century had struck out a new system of divination for the Yh. See T. 
 Watters, O.G. p. 107. 
 
 3 See T. Watters, O.C. pp. 169 and l&l. 
 
 * See T. Watters, O.C. p. 208, and pp. 28,. 4o, 66, 70, 76, 79, 97, 100, 107, 
 114, 147, 160, 167, 180, 181, 187, 205, and 207. 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 45 
 
 outside the temple, in the " Temple of Ancestors glorified as 
 Sages/' is the tablet^ of Ts'ai Yuen-ting (1135-1198), cele- 
 brated for his erudition in general, and notably for his labours 
 in elucidation of the text of the Yh.^ 
 
 55. So little satisfaction was given by all these various 
 schools or proposals of interpretation, and so inadequate were 
 they to illustrate the few passages of the Yh which are by no 
 means obscure, that this mysterious book is still avowedly 
 not understood, and that we assist, now-a-days, at a most 
 ctt«oua_speetacle.^ There are not a few Chinese of education,N 
 among those who have picked up some knowledge, in Europe^ 
 or in translations of European works, of our modern sciences,{ 
 who believe openly that all these may be found in their Yh/ 
 Electricity, steam-power, astronomical laws, sphericity of the 
 earth, etc., are all, according to their views, to be found in the^ 
 Yh-King ; they firmly believe that these discoveries wer( 
 not ignored by their sages, who have embodied them in their] 
 mysterious classic, of which they will be able to unveil th( 
 secrets when they themselves apply to its study a thorougl 
 knowledge of the modern sciences. It is unnecessary for 
 any European mind to insist upon the childishness of such 
 an opinion. Even in admitting, what seems probable, that 
 the early leaders of the Bak people {Poll sing) were not 
 without some astronomical and mathematical principles, 
 which have been long since forgotten, there is no possible 
 comparison whatever between their rude notions and our 
 sciences. The latter imply a parallel knowledge of mechanical 
 and industrial arts to which the Chinese have always been 
 complete strangers. 
 
 > See T. Watters, O.C. p. 252. 
 
 2 See Mayer, C.R.M. part i. n. 754. 
 
 ' P. Gaubil, Traitd de la Chronologie Chinoise, p. 81, writes of the Yh-King 
 that *' the different parts which compose this book do not give any fixed chrono- 
 logy. Not that there have not been Chinese who pretended that they found a 
 chronology in the Y-King, and even in the eight Kwa, but there is no foundation 
 to be made in these Chinese systems of chronology which are based on the Y-King, 
 for those persons have made an Y-King according to their own fashion." — Thomas 
 Fergusson, Chinese Researches, Part I. Chinese Chronology and Cycles (Shanghai, 
 1880, 12mo.), pp. 24-25. This little book, made up of quotations, would have 
 been valuable, had the author displayed more discrimination in the choice of 
 his authors. Simple reviewers, literary essayists, and mere dreamers, are credited 
 with the same authority as scholars and specialists. 
 
46 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 yi. — The European Interpretations. 
 
 56. The European scholars in their translations, or 
 attempts at translations, have not yet reached this last 
 stage. They are still behindhand or strangely in advance. 
 Many have written and speculated on the Kwas, but few 
 have attempted the hard task and responsibility of getting up 
 a version. Several illustrious Jesuits have translated frag- 
 ments of the work. P. Premare has translated the first two 
 chapters with their appendices.^ The 15th chapter has been 
 translated twice, once by P. Couplet and others,^ and once by 
 the great P. Yisdelou.^ They have considered the heading 
 ^ Kien of this chapter as the real one, with the meaning 
 humility y and have translated accordingly. Unhappily for the 
 work done, the genuine object of the chapter is ^ instead of 
 m, so that all the interpretation built upon the latter falls 
 to the ground. 
 
 57. We leave entirely aside the European speculations of 
 the Kwas which cover a large ground, in almost every direc- 
 .tion, magic, mystic philosophy, mathematics, natural philo- 
 'sophy, cosmogony, etc., and even music* Cosmogony holds 
 the first rank, as far as number of supporters is concerned, 
 such views being those of many commentators; but, as Dr. J. 
 Edkins has rightly remarked, there is no cosmogony in these 
 symbols ; and we can say that there is no connexion whatever 
 between the contents of the chapters and the symbolism 
 
 * attached to the hexagrams. In our opinion there is a con- 
 nexion still to be explained, between the hexagrams and the 
 
 ^ Notes critiques pour entrer dans V intelligence de V Y-King (Bibl. Nat. Fonds 
 Chinois, No. 2720), by P. de Premare. 
 
 2 In Confticius Sinnrum philosophus, Paris, 1687. 
 
 ^ Notice du Livre Chinois nomme Y-King, ou Livre canonique dfs changement.<t, 
 avec des notes, by M. Claude Visdelou, Eveque de Claudiopolis, in the Chou-King, 
 edit. P. Gaubil (1770), pp. 399-436. Eeprinted in G. Pauthier's Livres sacres 
 de r Orient, pp. 137-149. It had been written in 1728. 
 
 * An enumeration is found in H. "VVuttke, Die Unistehung der Schrift (Leipzig, 
 1875, 8vo.), pp. 247, 748, and in Henri Cordier, Biblioteca Sinica, vol. i. coll. 
 645-647. The two complete one another. Special papers or notes have been 
 written by Martini, Leibnitz, P. Amiot, De Guignes, J. Klaproth, Abel Kemusat, 
 Seyffarth, W. Schott, G. Pauthier, J. Edkins, J. Haas, R. A. Jamieson, T. 
 MacClatchie, Saint Martin, etc. Vid. also Neumann, in Z. d. D. M. G.j 1853, 
 vii. 2, p. 144. 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 47 
 
 notched sticks of old, as expression of numbers and their use 
 ■* V io^belomancy. 
 
 In their speculations on the Kivas and the appended text, 
 several German scholars are conspicuous for the special atten- 
 tion they have paid to the matter. We shall mention the 
 old Mr. J. P. Schumacher/ of Wolfenbuttel, in 1763, who 
 fancied that the Y-King was nothing else t han a history of 
 the Chinese.2 Dr. 0. Piper (1849-53), in two papers,^ has 
 considered it as the groundwork of a treatise on ethics in 
 connection with the weak and strong lines of the hexagrams. 
 Herr Adolf Helfferich (1868) ^ has indulged himself in 
 worthless speculations on symbolism and linguistics on the 
 first thirty chapters of the Yh ; in somewhat nebulous ex- 
 planations he holds that the Kwas are the basis of the 
 Chinese writing and are somehow connected with the system 
 of the knotted cords or Quippos. 
 
 We shall have disposed of the fragmentary translations 
 in mentioning the work of P. A. Zottoli, of the present day 
 (Nankinese Mission), who has published^ a translation of a 
 few chapters and almost all the appendices ; the learned 
 Jesuit was too great a sinologist to translate the text accord- 
 ing to the farcical treatment of many Chinese commentators, 
 and has displayed a praiseworthy wisdom in refusing to 
 translate what cannot be translated, and being satisfied with 
 few examples. 
 
 58. P. Regis and others have written on the whole text 
 and commentaries a Latin version^ of great brevity and 
 excessive literalness, made with the help of the Manchu 
 version. They have considered each row of characters as a 
 
 ^ Die verborzenen Alterthutner der Sinesen aus dem uralten Kanonischen T-King 
 unfersuchet, von M. Joh. Heinrich Schumacher, "Wolfenbuttel, 1763, 8vo. pp. 208. 
 
 2 Vid. Wuttke. Die Entstehung der Schrift, p. 247. 
 
 ^ JJeber das I-King. Die ttxte der Coiifucius welche sich auf die verschiedenen 
 Reihenfolgen des Kwa beziehen in Zeitschrift d. D. M. G., 1853, vii. pp. 187-214. 
 — Ueber das I-King, Die verschiedener Bestandtheile des Buche u. ihre Verstand- 
 lichkeit, ibid. iii. 1849, pp. 273-301 ; v. 1851, pp. 195-220. 
 
 * Turan und Iran. Ueber die Entstehung der Schriftsprachej Frankfurt-a-M. 
 1868, 8vo. pp. 184. (Das Chinesische I-King, pp. 108-184). 
 
 5 Cursus litteraturce linguce sinica, vol. iii. 1880. 
 
 ® T-King, Antiquissimus Sinarum liber (written about 1736) quem ex latina 
 interpretatione P. Eegis aliorumque ex Soc. Jesu P.P. edidit Julius Mohl. 2 
 vol. 1834, Stuttgard, 8vo. 
 
48 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 current text, but were driven to render it in broken and short 
 sentences. They have accepted bodily, without any inquiry 
 into its antiquity and genuineness, the rather modern tradi- 
 tion attributing the authorship of the text to Wen Wang 
 and Chou Kung, and of the appendices to Confucius. Having 
 so fettered themselves at the very outset, they have received 
 as genuine the few sentences where allusions to personal 
 affairs of Wen Wang have been supposed ; and this led them 
 to assume that the text relates to the transactions between the 
 founders of the Chou dynasty and the last sovereign of the 
 Yn dynasty, and is, thus, capable of being historically illus- 
 trated. The result has been to impress upon their minds 
 ideas of meanings which have nothing to do with the original 
 text ; but as they were sinologists of great attainments, they 
 have given their views on the question of veiled allusions 
 in their running commentaries, while honestly translating 
 the text separately word for word. Their version, however, 
 was done on the modern Kiai-shu text, as amended and modi- 
 fied by successive transcriptions in the manner we have 
 pointed out. And as they have not taken into account the 
 ancient meanings of the characters, the result is unsatis- 
 factory, and utterly unintelligible. The inexactitude of the 
 views they have taken is exploded by their version itself.^ 
 
 59. The Eev. T. MacClatchie, of Shanghai, has published, in 
 1876, a complete English version, to which several allusions 
 are made in the present paper. The learned missionary has 
 not made any inquiries as to the origin and growth of the 
 book. He has not distinguished the text from the appendices, 
 and gives those which are intermingled with the text, as they 
 are in the ordinary Chinese edition. He wanted to find in 
 the Yh-King references to a cosmogony, based on the male 
 and female principle of nature, and he has translated accord- 
 ingly with Chinese commentators.^ 
 
 ^ Dr. Legge {Yi-King, Preface, p. xv) : ''But their version is all but unin- 
 telligible, and mine was (?) not less so." 
 
 2 A translation of the Confucian ^ g or the ^' Classic of Change,"" with notes 
 and Appendix, Shanghai, 1876, 8vo. The same author had published The 
 siimbols of the Yh-King {China Review, vol. i. pp. 151-163) ; Phallic Worship 
 (ibid. vol. iv. pp. 257-261). 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 49 
 
 60. M. P. D. F. Philastre, who has acquired during a long 
 stay in the East a good practical knowledge of the Chinese, 
 has undertaken a complete version which will appear in the 
 Annales du Mus^e Guimet, vols. vi. vii. He has already given, 
 a few years ago, a foretaste of his views in his curious book 
 called La Genese du Langage et du Mystere Antique. Here 
 
 \ we see that the Yh-King is more mystic than anything else 
 in the world ; the speculations of the most abstruse meta- 
 physics are not so deep as the mysteries embodied, according 
 to this writer, in the Chinese book. The symbolism of 
 astronomy, electricity, chemistry, etc., is carried to the 
 extreme, and discovered in every separate and individual 
 consonant, vowel and accent composing the sound of each 
 Chinese character, rendered in the Latin alphabet according 
 to the French pronunciation and transcription ! 
 
 The following extract will give an idea of the result : — 
 '* Premier diagramme, ou Koua, KHiEN=raisonnement sur (') 
 le mouvement du soleil autour de la terre cause de conviction 
 sur (k) I'eclat (h) obscurci de la lune et la (n) lumiere du 
 soleil." (sic!) 1 
 
 The 31ystere Antique (?) finds here its home, and the 
 author thinks that he can illuminate this deep abyss. 
 Speculations of this kind are beyond the limits of scientific 
 research, and having no other ground than the imagination 
 of the writer, are altogether foreign to our studies. 
 
 61. Now we come to the English paraphrase, not trans- 
 lation, lately published in the Sacred Books of the East^ by 
 Dr. J. Legge, the well-known author of valuable editions 
 and translations (according to the commentaries) of several 
 of the Chinese Classics. 
 
 The writer believes in the tradition of the authorship of 
 the text by Wen Wang and Chou Kung, and has endeavoured 
 to justify it, but as the two quotations he gives, upon which 
 this assertion rests, have proved (above §§ 14, 16, 17) not to 
 bear this meaning, we have to consider it as a mere opinion 
 which he has failed to support with satisfactory reasons. He 
 
 ' Yid. P. D. F. Philastre, Premier essai sur la Genese du langage et la 
 Mystere Autique (Paris, 1879, 8vo.), p. 53. 
 
50 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 rightly refuses to accept the part of this tradition which con- 
 cerns the authorship of Confucius, but then why accept the 
 first part ? In disconnecting the text from the commentaries, 
 as a necessary preliminary step to any understanding of the 
 book, Dr. Legge follows the principle we had maintained 
 previously. 
 
 With the prejudiced views of "Wen Wang^s and Chou 
 Kung's authorship of the text, Dr. Legge has, on the other 
 hand, been strongly impressed by (1) the moral interpreta- 
 tions of Chu-hi ; (2) the views of the Han scholars con- 
 sidering the book as a work of divination ; and (3) the ideas 
 of the first commentaries perpetuated by a long line of 
 successors, to the effect that the system of symbolism of the 
 strong and weak lines of the hexagram is followed in the 
 sentences of the text. He has combined the information, and 
 looking all along for allusions of these kinds, he has written 
 an unintelligible paraphrase of each line of the text. 
 /^ 62. According to his views ^* the subject-matter of the text 
 (may be briefly represented as consisting of sixty-four short 
 lessays, enigmatically and symbolically expressed, on import- 
 V <ant themes, mostly of a moral, social and political character, 
 'and based on the same number of lineal figures, each made up 
 of six lines, some of which are whole and the others divided.''^ 
 
 These imaginary essays and their internal adaptation to 
 the strong and weak lines (undivided and divided) must of 
 course be made to match with the views of the adaptator ; 
 and it is quite curious to see how the simple principle of the 
 weak and strong lines system is distorted, with the view 
 of making it correspond to the guessed meanings of the 
 artificial phrases when they disagree too obviously. Such a 
 method is undeserving the attention of a man of common 
 sense ; it is a compilation of guesses and suggestions, a 
 monument of nonsense. 
 
 63. Going through the interpretations of the Yh, as pro- 
 posed by the Chinese themselves, and of which the late* 
 English paraphrase is a fair specimen, one cannot fail to be 
 
 ^ Vid. Legge, Ti-King, Introduction, p. 10. 
 
THE YH-KING AXD ITS AUTHORS. 51 
 
 struck by the stupendous effort it represents. It shows 
 plainly all that has been done by the tortured minds of the 
 Chinese, all the fancies of their maddened brains in their 
 attempts to understand what could not be understood. We\ 
 do not know really which is the greater wonder, the mar- 1 
 vellous patience of a hundred generations of Chinamen in / 
 piling up distorted and fantastic interpretations, and building \ y/ 
 this extraordinary Babel of nonsense and ingenuity, or the 
 courage of European scholars who believe in it and present the ' 
 achievement of such an interpretation as a bona fide written ' 
 book. 
 
 64. The so-called sixty -four essays comprising the Yh-King 
 text are, as we have said, fantastic creations, the protracted 
 work of generations of interpreters. If we remember what 
 we have said several years ago, that the greatest number of 
 these chapters are nothing but mere lists of the different 
 meanings of the leading character which is the subject of 
 each chapter, it is easy to conceive that several of these 
 meanings are often connected, when they are the natural 
 extension by the evolution of ideas of the primitive meaning. 
 This connection is the explanation of the delusion under 
 which so many interpreters of the Yh have laboured. 
 
 By a constant strain on the meaning of the characters and 
 the help given to that strain by the addition of the ideo- 
 graphical determinatives, especially at the times of the reforms 
 of writing, and a non-interrupted pressure on the connection 
 of the text with the lines of the hexagram, the Chinese in- 
 terpreters have succeeded in forcing upon the text, in 
 numerous cases, appearances of meaning. But these shadowy 
 meanings are unavoidably disconnected, and to admit that 
 they match one with another, within and beyond the limits 
 of each chapter, requires an amount of goodwill and oblivion 
 of all previous notions on the meanings of the characters, 
 which cannot be reasonably granted. 
 
 65. It is impossible to believe that a man, in his sober 
 senses, has ever written such foolish things as those which ^y 
 the interpreters followed by Dr. Legge invite us to accept ; 
 and on the hypothesis, not of the authorship which we dis- 
 
52 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 prove, but of the arrangement of the text by Wen Wang 
 which we believe, we have to choose between two opinions, — 
 either that he was of unsound mind, not the sage so highly 
 praised by all the Chinese traditions, and that his confine- 
 ment at Yu-Li had affected his intellectual power, or, what 
 is more likely, that he did not understand the whole of the 
 old slips he had in his hands. Occasional gleams of sense, 
 '^ and rectifications made very likely by himself, confirm the 
 great probability of our explanation. 
 
 If Wen Wang had written the Yh for the purpose which 
 later interpreters have attributed to him, how is it that the 
 sages who wrote the appendices have not been able to agree 
 on this point ? This is a very serious objection against all 
 interpretations based upon such a theory. 
 
 YII. — Comparison of the Interpretations. 
 
 66. The number of special meanings and readings of 
 characters in the Yh-King, suggested by commentators and 
 adopted by interpreters, is enormous. In the greatest number 
 of cases they have been made up for the occasion, and 
 their raison-d^ etre is obvious. It was considered an absolute 
 necessity to make them mean something en rapport with the 
 other characters, and with a more or less far-fetched allusion 
 to a good or bad, strong or weak fact, in connexion with the 
 strong and weak lines. Their meanings have grown into 
 currency by the process usual in such cases ; suggested by 
 one, quoted by another, repeated by a third, the meaning 
 gains ground and thus at last becomes the received interpreta- 
 tion. Taking into account the general insufficiency of critical 
 minds amongst the Chinese, this is the explanation required 
 for the understanding what has happened in a great number 
 of cases.^ 
 
 ^ We do not intend by this remark to give any support to the views of a great 
 geographer, Dr. J. Bretschneider of Peking, when in his paper on Chinese geo- 
 graphy {Notes and Queries, vol. iv. p. 4) he says: "My opinion is that the 
 Chinese of the present day are nearly idiots and incapable of a sensible critique." 
 My learned friend Dr. Bushell {I'he Chinese Becorder, Aug. 1871, p. 63, where I 
 find the quotation) has already protested against so sweeping an appreciation. 
 The great lack of the Chinese critics is the absence of the sense of perspective 
 and comparative method, and their defect is to accept too easily anything said of 
 
THE YH-KING AXD ITS AUTHORS. 53 
 
 The influence of these interpretations has been great on the 
 successive transcriptions of the text and wings, before they 
 had been crystallized in the modern st3de of writing. 
 All the substitutions, alterations and augmentations of the 
 characters of which we have spoken in previous sections of 
 this paper could be quoted here to exemplify these 
 remarks. But the pressure on the characters has not always 
 been accompanied by the modification required, and many 
 curious examples of the results obtained could here be quoted, 
 
 67. As an illustration of what we are pointing out, we 
 shall indicate the treatment which one of the simplest and 
 commonest Chinese characters has been made to undergo. In 
 the 38th chapter, which consists of a vocabular}' of the 
 character ^ (and not P^ as written in modern writing), the 
 third line runs as follows: £ f| ^. ^ ^ M- i^ A- 
 ^ JL SJ-^ ^^^'> which are nothing more than five difi'erent 
 meanings of ^ : 
 
 1. To see (cf. the modern character ideo-phonetic fl^). 
 
 2. To draw a chariot {cf. |g). 
 
 3. An ox yoke. 
 
 4. It is in the Heavens (an opposition, e.g. of Sun and 
 
 Moon, cf. lig). 
 
 5. To slit the nose {cf. ^l). 
 
 It will scarcely be believed that in the commentaries J^ 
 THen * Heaven ' has been interpreted by shaving ! ! ! ^ and 
 
 old. But we Europeans have acquired our scientific methods only through many- 
 generations, and what was the western critic previous to this immense progress ? 
 I am not sure whether a considerable part of our western literature, even of the 
 last few years, might not be judged by terms nearly as severe as those of the 
 Kussian physician. 
 
 1 By a confusion of characters ^ is sometimes written instead of y^. 
 
 2 Vid. K'ang-hi tze Tien, s.v. ^ . It is interesting to see the efforts of com- 
 mentators to make out this interpretation which occurs only once in Chinese 
 literature, and this single case is this very passage of the Yh. Chu Hi and others 
 have supposed that ^ has been written instead of [^ , because of a certain re- 
 semblance of shape of the two characters in the Chuen style of writing, and that 
 Iflj 'whiskers,' should represent j^j 'to shave the whiskers.' But this is im- 
 possible in palaeography, as the latter is a compound character made for this 
 meaning ; "jfg could have an affirmative and not a negative meaning of the 
 existence of its object. The older commentators, most likely by homophony with 
 i^, had suggested "to prickle the face, to mark the forehead." Vid. the 
 dictionaries ^ J, ]£ J? 51 , g ffi ^ ffil K. 16. 
 
54 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHOES. 
 
 this has been accepted by P. Eegis, Canon MacClatchie, and 
 Dr. Legge, without the slightest remark. 
 
 P. Regis translates: "Yisum currum detinet; ejus boves 
 moratur; illius hominis capillos radit; nasum proscindit. . ." 
 Dr. Legge translates: "In the third line, divided, we see one 
 whose carriage is dragged back, while the oxen in it are 
 pushed back, and he is himself subjected to the shaving of 
 his head and the cutting off of his nose. . . ." (13 Chinese 
 words=40 English!) 
 
 68. Some of these made-up interpretations are amusing 
 enough to dispel the spleen. For example, in the eighth 
 chapter, again a vocabulary, we have the meanings of j:^. 
 This character signifies mainly " to compare," " to put in 
 juxtaposition," thence to be near, though separated, and by 
 the natural extension of ideas it has been applied to the crack 
 in a vase.^ Although this secondary meaning does not seem 
 to occur in several of the other classics, we have the proof 
 that it is a very old one by the expression " cracked earthen- 
 ware " J;^ U in the Siang chuen of the same chapter. 
 
 The rows 2, 3 and 4 of the characters in the text describe 
 this meaning of the word as applied to a crack, in the follow- 
 ing terms : — ^ 
 
 6-2 — J;b ;^ S P^ ' cracked from inside.' 
 
 6-3 — J-\^ jS 81 A * cracked, but not through.' ^ 
 
 6-4 — ^\% J:t ;^ ' cracked outside.' 
 
 In P. Regis's translation,* where meanings are attempted 
 with the help of the Manchu version with but very few 
 additions to the text, we find respectively : — 
 
 2 — Ex intimis inire foedus. 
 
 2 — Si, qui foedus init. 
 
 4 — Ad extra foedus init. 
 
 Taking now the late English version, we immediately reach 
 
 1 With tliis meaning it is now written J;[*l^ , J:h^ . 
 
 2 We neglect the fore -telling words ^ ^ added to the second and fourth 
 sentences. 
 
 2 The last character of 6-3 is sometimes written ^ by a confusion with y^, 
 "but the parallelism of the three sentences do not allow of any mistake in translating. 
 4 See vol. i. pp. 323, 325, 327. 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 65 
 
 tlie height of fancy in the following phrases which are 
 given as the translation of the seventeen Chinese characters 
 above : — 
 
 2. "In the second line, divided, we see the movement 
 towards union and attachment proceeding from the inward 
 (mind)." 
 
 3. "In the third line, divided, we see its subject seeking 
 for union with such as ought not to be associated with." 
 
 4. "In the fourth line, divided, we see its subject seeking 
 for union with the one beyond himself." ^ 
 
 Altogether fifty-seven English words for seventeen 
 Chinese. And what a galimatias ! What a marvel of 
 tortured ingenuity ! One is led to think that the native in- x/ 
 terpreters could not understand the crack in the text because 
 of the crack in their brain. 
 
 69. So little reliance can be placed upon the translations 
 hitherto published that it is difficult to find the same passage 
 translated by two sinologists in an identical manner. And 
 what is more curious is to see the same passages translated 
 dijfferently by the same scholar, as for example, passages 
 quoted in the Tso Chuen translated there and afterwards 
 differently in the version of the Yh. This is almost con- 
 clusive, and shows what a monument of fancy are the in- 
 terpretations as last given to the Th. But we do not want 
 to find fault with one sinologist more than with another ; it 
 is not the individual work we are attacking, but the methods 
 which have been followed. 
 
 We shall give a few examples of the discrepancies of 
 translation. In the Tso Chuen ^ Ist year of Duke Chao 
 (541 B.C.), there is a quotation from the Th of Chou.^ The 
 words chosen are taken from the second wing, the Siang 
 (which is never quoted when the Yh of Chou is not specified), 
 
 1 See Legge, Ti-Eing, pp. 74, 75. 
 
 2 The quotation from the second wing, as well as others of the same kind, show 
 unmistakably that those wings (1st and 2nd) were considered as integral parts of 
 the Yh of Chou, and intermingled with the text. The tradition attributing the 
 intermingling to Fei-Chi, or more likely to Tien Ho, is not very clear, and from 
 an examination of the list extracted from the • Former Han Records,' as well as 
 from the quotation here noticed, it seems that the two arrangements, namely with 
 and without, were equally adopted. Vid, above, § 47. 
 
56 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHOES. 
 
 and from the 18tli chapter: H -^ ill "the wind falls on 
 the mountain," which is translated in Dr. Legge's version 
 of the Tso Chuen : " the wind throwing down (the trees of a) 
 mountain.'' ^ In the present Th-Kingy we find the sentence 
 written as follows : |lj 1^ ^ H " The foot of the moun- 
 tain is windy," which in Dr. Legge's version of the Yh is 
 translated : " (The trigram for) a mountain and below is that 
 for wind, from Ku " ! ! ! (Ku is the name for the Kwa).^ 
 
 70. In the Tso-Chueriy 1st year of Duke Ch'ao, § 10. 2,^ we 
 read, according to Dr. Legge, that the Yh of Chou under 
 the symbol §, speaks of a woman deluding a young man 
 "iC Wi ^' Here we have the meaning assigned at that 
 period to the beginning of the second line : ^ -^ <;^ ^ ; 
 the same sentence which we find translated in P. Begis's 
 version by " curam habet infortunii matris^^ * and in Dr. 
 Legge's late version : " The second line, undivided, 8hoic8 
 [a son) dealing with the troubles caused by his mother J' ^ 
 
 Which of these three versions is correct ? The last must 
 be erroneous, because there is in it much more than the four 
 Chinese characters can support. To choose between the 
 meanings as given in the Tso-Chuen and the Regis version, 
 would be a difficult task, but we are saved the trouble when 
 we remember that the character ^ is one of those which 
 Wen Wang has substituted, and that the old one was ^.^ 
 Having discovered the proper character we are unable to find 
 the proper meanings, and the whole chapter when translated, 
 without introducing any theories or far-fetched ideas, resolves 
 itself into a mere list of the meanings of the said character. 
 
 71. We cannot help recognizing that such, amusing as 
 they may be, systems of translation are a dangerous game to 
 play at, since they open the way to all the imprudences of 
 imagination. Such a method, followed by several persons 
 equally trained to its pursuit, cannot fail to produce the 
 
 ^ Vid. Chinese Classics, vol. v. p. 581. 
 
 "^ Vid. Sacred Books of the East, vol. xvi. p. 291. 
 
 3 Chinese Classics, edit. Legge, vol. v. pp. 574, 581. 
 
 * T-Kiiig, vol. ii. p. 16. 
 
 '" The Sacred Books of the East, vol. xvi. p. 95. 
 
 * See above, § 39. 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 57 
 
 widest divergences in the case of almost every single passage.^ 
 So we have in the T/i, Chap. XYIII. 1-6, # ^ ;i #, 
 which, translated as a phrase, gives, according to 
 
 Dr. Wells Williams,^ " To follow a father's calling " ; 
 
 Dr. Legge,^ "A son dealing with the trouble caused by his 
 father"; 
 
 P. Regis,^ " Curam habet infortunii patris." 
 
 72. But this example is nothing compared with the strange 
 phenomena we have quoted. We refer to the obvious proof 
 given by the translation of the Yh-King by Canon Mac- 
 Clatchie, who has followed a method of his own, and has 
 been able to produce a version consistent from beginning to 
 end, but evidently wrong from its very departure. We 
 have again an example of the consequences of the same 
 process in the fragmentary translations of the Yh published 
 by the French scholar, M. E. Philastre, whose ground is an 
 obscure mj'sticism and symbolism, and is vitiated by the 
 same radical fallacy throughout. And if we compare with 
 these two the elegant but unintelligible translation lately 
 published by Dr. Legge, we cannot fail to recognize the 
 same inherent defect, with this difference, however, that the 
 systematic views to which he has bent his translation are not 
 properly his own, but only the consummation of the Chinese 
 theories he has adopted from many commentators of the 
 book. 
 
 YIII. — Methods of Interpretation. 
 
 73. That the question of method is of primary importance 
 in dealing with such a work as the Yh does not require 
 any kind of demonstration. 
 
 We have seen that the classification, emendation, and 
 rectification of the old slips or rows of characters, addition 
 of many foretelling words, with an attempt at their adapta- 
 
 1 Cf. below, the translations of P. Regis, Rev. MacClatchie, and of Dr. Legge, 
 §§ 90, 93, 95, 97, 99, and 101. 
 
 2 Syllabic Dictionary, p. 434. 
 
 3 the Yi-King, p. 95. 
 
 * Y-King^ vol. ii. p. 14. 
 
58 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 tion to the strong and weak lines, or perhaps only to the 
 tipper and lower trigrain of the hexagram, were in all pro- 
 bability the work of Wen Wang,^ who wrote the commentary 
 Twan which follows the first line of every chapter. The 
 task was continued by his son Chou Kung in his commentary 
 Siang which follows the Tioan, and each of the six lines of 
 every chapter, where he attempts to interpret the meanings. 
 
 74. The author of the wing, the SiX Kwa ^ J|>, whoever 
 he may have been, seems to have come very near understand- 
 ing some parts of the text. But it is obvious that he was 
 in some way fettered by the previous commentaries of Wen 
 Wang and Chou Kung. Moreover he could not conceive a 
 fact so simple as the real one, namely, that the book is com- 
 posed of mere lists of meanings of characters. Instead of 
 looking to each chapter for the meanings of the character 
 which heads it, he sought for its sound as it was at his time 
 and place, and he has enumerated the meanings of its homo- 
 phones. 
 
 The same process was partly employed by Wen Wang, 
 and more extensively by Chou Kung, and was continued in 
 the commentaries after the time of the author of the Sii 
 Kwa ; many interpretations have been suggested by, and 
 handed down from the early commentators by meanings 
 suggested to them by homophones at their time and in their 
 dialects, with the temporary phonetic equivalents : K=T, 
 P=K, M==P, I^a=T-K, Y=S, Sh = L, L=:K, etc. This 
 interesting feature, which is the clue to many curious sug- 
 gestions, is inherent in the phonetic history of the language, 
 as will be pointed out at its occurrence in my version. 
 
 75. The Yh-King has never been lost and found again 
 more or less incomplete, as was the case with the Shu-King 
 and the Shi-King^ and was not, like them, exposed to losses 
 and misreading under the process of decipherment. But it 
 was subject in the fullest degree to all the inconveniences of 
 transcribing the text in the new styles of writing, especially 
 at the time of the Literary Bevival under the Han period. 
 
 ^ A fact, began certainly previously to his time. 
 
THE YH-KIXG AND ITS AUTHORS. 59 
 
 Many passages of a dubious meaning have been crystallized 
 into a more determinate interpretation through the trans- 
 cription in a more ideographic style of writing. In the case 
 of a text which, as the appendices show, was so difficult to 
 understand, it is obvious that the addition to the characters 
 of ideographic determinatives (vulg. the keys) precising their 
 meaning, was a matter which depended entirely on the 
 exactitude of the interpretation, and was altogether valueless 
 if, as we know, the interpretation was often misunderstood. 
 
 76. We have seen in previous §§ (38-41) how long the 
 process of substitution and modification of characters of the 
 text had been going on, and from the numerical importance 
 of these changes and additions we are able to appreciate how 
 widely an exact transcription of the old text in Kiai shu 
 (modern) strokes would have differed from the text as we 
 now possess it. The original has been gradually modified by 
 the transcribers in accordance with suggestions of meanings 
 by the commentators, and significations obtained by a facti- 
 tious and persistent pressure of the mind in search of 
 allegories and tropes of speech. Such meanings were con- 
 sidered as satisfactory when they appeared to be supported 
 by a temporary and local homonymy, in connection with the 
 supposed thesis of the chapter and its division according to 
 the strong and weak lines. 
 
 Notwithstanding these protracted exertions, how poor is 
 the result ! How disconnected are the meanings ! What 
 extraordinary fancies ! How unreasonable it all is ! It has 
 been impossible to find any continuity in the chapters indi- 
 vidually or in the series. All the efibrts of the interpreters 
 have proved fruitless, and the attempts of the late English 
 translator result in total failure. 
 
 77. We have not here to consider the systems sought for 
 in the Yh, which have had a great influence on the proposed 
 meanings. Enough has been said of the native interpreta- 
 tions, and in what concerns the European ones, we are 
 bound to recognize that such systematic views have had 
 very little if any influence on P. Regis's version (leaving 
 aside his commentaries), but, on the contrary, have strongly 
 
60 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 swayed the versions of Canon MacClatchie, Mr. Philastre, 
 and the paraphrase of Dr. Legge. 
 
 The acme of these processes of interpretation is to be 
 found in the guess- at-the-meaning principle of translation, of 
 which the eminent missionary-Professor is a staunch sup- 
 porter. He has endeavoured to justify his process of 
 paraphrasing instead of literally translating, by the most 
 obnoxious system ever found in philology. If this easy 
 process were to be henceforth followed, as unhappily seems 
 to be the case in recent translations, it would be destructive 
 of all trustworthiness in any translation. In Dr. Legge's 
 hands we are afraid this system has proved a very unsafe 
 instrument. The learned sinologist thought he could trust 
 it even in the case of an untranslatable text, because it had 
 rendered him good service and facilitated his task in many 
 passages of his translations of several of the other Chinese 
 classics, where the context, the sequence of facts and ideas 
 and the commentaries supported it. 
 
 78. Let us inquire in what consists this guess-at-the-meaning 
 method, and on what ground it rests. " The great thing," we 
 are told,^ "is to get behind and beyond the characters, till one 
 comes into rapport and sympathy with the original speakers 
 and relators." " We must try with our thoughts to meet the 
 scope of a sentence, and then we shall apprehend it." ^ *' In 
 the study of a Chinese classical book, there is not so much an 
 interpretation of the characters employed by the writer as 
 a participation of his thoughts ; there is the seeing of mind 
 to mind." ^ 
 
 It is obvious that all this opens a door to any fancy of a 
 translator, who will always easily imagine, in perfect good 
 faith, that his mind (in its wanderings ?) has seen the mind 
 of the author he interprets. We must protest energetically 
 against such a demoralizing doctrine, which would be the 
 ruin, by the facility it presents, of all those who have the 
 duty of translating any Chinese book. We should no longer 
 
 ^ By Dr. J. Legge, in his paper on the Principles of Composition in Chinese^ as 
 deduced from the Written Characters, in J.ll.A.S. Vol. XI, N.s. 1879, p. 255. 
 
 2 Vid. his Preface to the Yl-Kiiig, p. xx. 
 
 3 Ibid. 
 
THE YH-KIXG AND ITS AUTHORS. 61 
 
 be able to trust any translation without first comparing it 
 word for word with the original. All confidence in the work 
 of others, which is so necessary a factor in literary research, 
 would be destroyed. By this system, the same text translated 
 by two different persons will never give the same rendering ; 
 and, proofs in hand, we may say more, viz. the same text 
 translated by the same person in two different moments will 
 not be rendered with the same sense. 
 
 79. The written characters are the vehicle of the thought 
 of a writer, and it is by an attentive study of these characters, 
 their individual meanings, their place in a sentence, and the 
 place of the sentence in the context, and by this only, that 
 we can know what he meant, and express it in another 
 tongue. The " meeting of the scope," " the seeing of mind 
 to mind," are charming poetical expressions, but they have 
 nothing to do, in that case, with a sound scholarship. Any 
 one who translates a text must never forget that he has in his 
 hands a fidei commissicm, and that he will commit a breach 
 of trust, in every case where he exposes himself to write his 
 own views instead of those of his author. 
 
 80. The method of guessing-at-the-meaning is said to have 
 been taught by the old Chinese philosopher Mencius (b.c. 
 372-289),^ who laid down some such principles, in what con- 
 cerns the * Book of Poetry,* and that book only, because of the 
 metaphors and figures of speech familiar to poets, and which 
 are not to be taken literally, but as explained by the context. 
 
 We reproduce the whole section (as a part of it would not 
 carry the same meaning), according to the translation of Dr. 
 Legge,^ as follows : 
 
 " Hien-k'ew Mung said, * On the point of Shun's not 
 treating Yaou as a minister, I have received your instructions. 
 But it is said in the Book of Poetry, 
 * Under the whole heaven 
 Every spot is the sovereign's ground ; 
 To the borders of the land. 
 Every individual is the sovereign's minister ' ; 
 
 ^ Vid. bk. V. pt. ii. ch. iv. § 2. 
 
 2 Vid. The Chinese Classics, vol. ii. pp. 228, 229. 
 
62 THE YH.KmG AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 and Shun had become emperor. I venture to ask how it was 
 that Koo-sow was not one of his ministers.' ^ Mencius 
 answered, '' That ode is not to be understood in that way ; 
 it speaks of being laboriously engaged in the sovereign's 
 business, so as not to be able to nourish one's parents, as if 
 the author said, ' This is all the sovereign's business, and lioio 
 is it that I alone am supposed to have ability, and am made 
 to toil in it ? ' Therefore those who explain the odes, may 
 not insist on one term so as to do violence to a sentence, nor 
 on a sentence so as to do violence to the general scope. They 
 must try with their thoughts to meet that scope, and then we 
 shall apprehend it. If we simply take single sentences, there 
 is that in the ode called * The Milky Way,' 2 
 
 * Of the black -haired people of the remnant of Chow, 
 
 There is not half a one left.'^ 
 
 If it had been really as thus expressed, then not an individual 
 of the people of Chow was left." 
 
 Comparing these two quotations from the Shi- King with 
 the strophes from which they are extracted, and the explana- 
 tions of the chatty Mencius, it is obvious that he has only 
 pointed out that the poetical expressions of the Shi- King are 
 not to be taken literally in mangled quotations. He has not 
 laid down principles for the elucidation of all the classics,- 
 and in any case his principles have nothing to do with the 
 guess-at' the-meaning principle. 
 
 ^ The whole strophe runs as follows (pt. ii. hk. vi. od. i. st. 2) : " Under the 
 wide heaven,— All is the king's land. — "Within the sea boundaries of the land, — 
 All are the king's servants. — The great officers are unfair,— Making me serve thus 
 as if I alone were worthy." — Legge, Chmese Classics, vol. iv. pp. 360, 361. The 
 writer means that as every one is equally at the sovereign's disposal, it is unfair 
 for his great officers to make him serve, as if he was the only one to do it. 
 
 2 Dr. Legge has taken these two phrases, beginning from " not insist," and 
 and ending ''apprehend it," as motto of his translations, vols. ii. iii. iv. v., 
 but he has omitted the beginning, " Therefore those who explain the Odes," so 
 that his mangled quotation does not carry the meaning intended by Mencius. 
 
 3 'I'he whole strophe runs as follows (pt. iii. bk. iii. od. iv. st. 3) : " The 
 drought is excessive,— And I may not try to excuse myself. — I am full of terror 
 and feel the peril, — Like the clap of thunder or the roll.— Of the remnant of 
 Chow among the black-haired people, — There will not be half a man left ; — Nor 
 will God from His great heaven— Exempt (even) me. . . ." Vid. Legge, 
 Chinese Classics, vol. iv. p. 530. The author apprehends future evils if the 
 drought continues longer. 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHOES. 63 
 
 81. The views which I have disputed (§^ 77, 78), have 
 been conceived under a grave delusion in regard to the old 
 Chinese style. To hold that the written characters of the 
 Chinese are not representations of words but symbols of ideas, 
 and that the combination of them in composition is not a repre- 
 sentation of what the writer would say, but of what he thinks,^ 
 is rather an exaggeration. It is only partially true of the 
 book-language of to-day, which is nothing else but an abridg- 
 ment, more ideographic than phonetic, of the spoken language 
 with the extensive ornamentation in literary style of idioms 
 borrowed from literature, history, etc. But the wide gap 
 which exists now between the colloquial and the written 
 language has not always existed. It has been widened and 
 deepened progressively. At first the written language was 
 the faithful phonetic reproduction of the spoken one. So 
 true is this, that with the help of the laws of orthography of 
 the period, we can transcribe the few old fragments we possess 
 from their pure Ku-wen characters into modern ones, and that 
 they correspond exactly to the spoken language. There are 
 still indications of this remarkable fact, in the oldest chapters 
 of the Shu-King, through their transcriptions down to the 
 modern form of characters. This early style was subse- 
 quently modified, and the assertion of Remusat, inferred from 
 the modern characters, that the Ancient style was senten- 
 tious, vague, concise and disconnected, is not to be accepted 
 without reserve. The ancient predominance of phonetic cha- 
 racters, single and compound, has gradually yielded place to 
 a preponderance of ideograms. The official modification of 
 writing by She Choic about 820 B.C. for political purposes 
 is a well-known fact. Once open, the gap has not only 
 never been filled, but on the contrary has had an unin- 
 terrupted tendency to be widened by the continuous increase 
 of literary idioms. Besides this, many words are still repre- 
 sented, in the book language, by characters of which the 
 sound is now obsolete for the colloquial, the former having 
 but seldom followed the phonetic decay of the latter, while 
 
 1 Vid. Legge's Preface to his Ti-King, p. xv. 
 
64 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 the modifications it has undergone during many centuries 
 are very slight. 
 
 82. I hope that these lengthy discussions and expla- 
 nations will be understood for what they are, viz. an attempt 
 to define the situation, to clear the ground and justify the 
 method I follow in my translation of the Yh, 
 
 It seems to me that it is mere waste of time to attempt 
 a real and true version of the Yh-King without having 
 laboured a good deal previously, in palaoographical researches 
 and linguistic studies, of which the European translators do 
 not seem to have conceived the necessity and importance. 
 A faithful version of the Yh is certainly not a matter of 
 illumination, or inspiration, or of " meeting the scope " of the 
 author. It can only be the result of patient and extensive 
 researches. It cannot be obtained by the strained application 
 of any preconceived theory, because the adaptation, classifi- 
 cation and repetition, to which the text has been exposed, is 
 obviously an after-arrangement, independent of what the 
 text was originally. I repudiate altogether what I have 
 called the guess-at-the-meaning principle as destructive of a 
 true rendering, because the translator who follows it cannot 
 help guessing "behind and beyond" the characters according 
 to his prejudiced views. The attempt to translate the Yh by 
 the Yhy i.e. by the idioms whicli have been introduced into 
 literature from the supposed interpretation, is a danger which 
 does not seem to have been hitherto perceived, and whicli I 
 shall try to avoid. I translate literally, with no addition 
 beyond what is required by the exigencies of grammar. 
 This was the system followed by P. Eegis, but he had not 
 the help of palasography and linguistic studies. I desire to 
 remain on the terra firma of scientific method, having found 
 that, by this process, all extravagant and fantastic views are 
 entirely ignored, and that a very simple and easily under- 
 stood explanation of the text of the Yh is obtained. This 
 old book has much more importance for the history of the 
 Chinese language, writing, culture and people than has been 
 supposed. 
 
THE TH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 65 
 
 IX. — Translations from the Yh. 
 
 83. "When considering the Chinese text of the Yh-King, 
 as it now stands, the observer is struck with the frequent 
 repetition throughout the book of a small number of different 
 formulae in one, two, or three words, the whole being 
 obviously the foretelling words surreptitiously added by 
 Wen Wang when he arranged, without understanding their 
 real character, the ancient slips he had in hand.^ There is 
 no doubt that these words did occur here and there in the 
 old texts, previously to Wen Wang's arrangement, and that 
 he has mistaken their proper primary value in the context ; 
 he has considered them as foretelling words, and repeated 
 them in every section of the book. 
 
 84. Such formulae as ^g #, 55 IS. 55 §, A §, ^^ "g, 
 ^J J[, which occur very often,^ and ;^ |^, ;^ ^, which 
 are met with less frequently, are almost always foretelling 
 words added afterwards ; of course they have to be neglected 
 in a translation bearing on the old text only. The formula 
 55 'IS ^ is sometimes uncertain, because the character '[g has 
 been substituted* for §[> in all the cases where this last 
 occurred in Wen Wang's text, and consequently cannot be 
 distinguished any more from the cases where '[§ did occur 
 previously in the genuine text. The oldest shape of ^ was 
 ^ before Wen Wang's time. 
 
 85. A remark is also necessary on the character ^Ij , which 
 in the interpolated foretelling formula has the meaning of 
 "benefit"; but the same form is the oldest one of ^ "many, 
 numerous," which did occur in the ancient text, but because 
 the character has the other meaning of fortune telling, it was 
 not recognized by the transcribers in modern style with its 
 
 ^ <* He added and subreptitiously introduced the foretelling words, ..." Vid. 
 above, § 13, quotation (i). 
 
 2 On an interesting coincidence presented by several of these foretelling words 
 with Assyrian ones, vid. my Early History of Chinese Civilization^ p. 26. 
 
 ^ wu ' not ' as used in the Th is always written ^ , a variation first intro- 
 duced by the followers of Lao-tze and Chwang-tze. Vid. Tai Tung, Luh shu 
 Ku ; L. C. Hopkins, The Six Scripts^ a translation (Amoy, 1881, 8vo.), p. 35. 
 
 * Cf. Min tsi Ki, Luh shu tung, K. vii. f. 48. 
 
66 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHOES. 
 
 meaning of plurality, and in consequence not rewritten ^, 
 as it ought to have been. 
 
 Other foretelling words are [X|, ^, ^, etc., which occur 
 very frequently and are evident interpolations. The same is 
 most likely to be said of ^C "primary," "original," some- 
 times joined to one or two of the above quoted characters. 
 
 We have, moreover, to mention here ^^^ which occurs 
 about fifty times. It is placed in twenty-nine cases imme- 
 diately after the character which forms the subject-matter of 
 the chapter, and is ten times preceded by y^. It denotes 
 " to pervade, to go through," and seeing that it precedes the 
 enumeration of the various acceptations of the head- words of 
 the chapter, it is this character we should have expected to 
 find in order to suggest " meanings " or " significations," to 
 which it corresponds plainly. 
 
 86. It might be useful to repeat once more that the result 
 of our studies is that the Th-King has been made up of various 
 documents of very ancient date, of which the contents were 
 forgotten, or misunderstood, and in consequence considered 
 as a book of fate, for which purpose many foretelling words, 
 according to the Chinese tradition, were subreptitiously in- 
 troduced and interpolated in the old rows of characters. 
 
 87. In order to demonstrate all that has been stated and 
 unravelled in the preceding pages, we must go through several 
 chapters of this mysterious classic. As the vocabulary-chapters 
 are the most numerous, we shall give the English version 
 of a few of them, and then of a chapter in which is embodied 
 an old ballad relating to an historical fact of the twenty- 
 second century B.C. We shall conclude with an anthropological 
 chapter speaking of Aboriginal Tribes. 
 
 This translation is not to be considered as definitive, and 
 is very far from the comparative stage of completion to 
 which it should be carried out. It is only an outline showing 
 how the book has been made up and what materials are 
 gathered in it. More precise meanings, in many cases, 
 might be found in order to obtain more accuracy, and I dare 
 say the result would be still more satisfactory in corre- 
 sponding acceptations and meanings than those given below. 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. '67 
 
 88. The choice of the seventh chapter was indicated to us 
 as a specimen suitable to show the genuineness of our views 
 about the vocabulary chapters, by the importance given to 
 it by the last translator of the Yhy Dr. J. Legge. According 
 to the Rev. Professor of Oxford, who has repeated his trans- 
 lation of the chapter in his Introduction as " a fair specimen " 
 of what he calls " the essays that make up the Yi of ^'au," ^ 
 ** so would," he says, " King Wan and his son have had all 
 military expeditions conducted in their country 3000 years 
 ago. It seems to me that the principles which they lay 
 down might find a suitable application in the modern warfare 
 of our civilized and Christian Europe. The inculcation of 
 such lessons cannot have been without good efiect in China 
 during the long course of its history "^I ! ! No other result 
 but insanity could be produced by this supposed essay, as 
 well as by all the others which, as we said, are of the same 
 kind ; as our readers will judge, in the perusal of what is 
 supposed by the said Professor to be the genuine meaning of 
 the text. For this purpose we reproduce, in smaller type, 
 his translation, with those of the Rev. MacClatchie and 
 P. Regis, in parallel columns, juxtaposed to the English 
 equivalents we give with the text. In an intermediary 
 column, next to the Chinese text, and as a proof of the 
 exactitude of our rendering, we have placed the characters 
 in their ancient ^ and modern forms, which in the vocabu- 
 laries are successively described. 
 
 The rendering of the foretelling words, as we have said 
 above, is left blank. 
 
 89. Before passing to the rendering of the said chapter 
 on 05, let us peruse the various acceptations of this word in 
 those of the classics published in English by Dr. J. Legge, 
 through the valuable indices he has framed for them,. 
 
 1 Sacred Books of the East, vol. xvi. Introd. p. 25 : ** The subject-matter of 
 the text may be bnefly represented as consisting of sixty -four short essays, enig- 
 matically and symbolically expressed, on important themes, mostly of a moral, 
 social, and political character, and based on the same number of lineal figures, 
 each made up of six lines, some of which are whole and the others divided." Vid. 
 ibid. p. 10. 
 
 2 Ibid. p. 25. 
 
 3 "Written in modem strokes, in Kiai-shu or pattern-writing, for the sake of 
 convenience. 
 
68 THE TH-KING AND ITS AUTHOES. 
 
 In the Shu-King} we find tlie following acceptations : 
 
 (1) The multitudes, the people ; all. — (2) A capital city. — (3) An army, a 
 host. — (4) Instructors. — (5) Applied to various officers, . . . tutors, a high office 
 appointed by Yu, . . . judges. — (6) A model, to take as a model. 
 
 In the Shi-King : ^ 
 
 (1) A multitude, all.— (2) Forces, troops.— (3) "^ 0jj the capital.— (4) 
 Master. — (5) Various officers. — (6) To imitate. 
 
 In the Chun Tsiu : ^ 
 
 (1) An army, a force, etc. 
 
 In the "Great learning," the "Doctrine of the Mean'* and 
 the " Conversations of Confucius" :* 
 
 (1) The multitude, the people.— (2) A host.— (3) A teacher.— (4) Sundry 
 officers, etc. 
 
 In Mong-tze (Mencius) :^ 
 
 (1) A military host.— (2) A teacher, master. — (3) To make one's master, to 
 follow. — (4) Sundry officers. 
 
 We will now proceed with the version : 
 
 1 Vid. Legge's Chinese Classics, vol. iii. p. 672. 
 
 2 Vol. iv. p. 711. 
 
 3 Vol. V. p. 902. 
 * Vol. i. p. 333. 
 5 Vol. ii. p. 429. 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 69 
 
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 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
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THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 71 
 
 The fifth line di- 
 vided, shows birds 
 in the fields, which 
 it will be advanta- 
 geous to seize (and 
 destrov). In that 
 case there will be 
 no error. If the 
 eldest son leads the 
 host and younger 
 men (idly occupy 
 offices assigned to 
 
 g 
 
 1 
 
 a 
 
 and correct he may 
 be, there will be 
 evil. 
 
 
 Fifth-six. 
 Represents beasts in 
 the field ; there is 
 benefit in catching 
 and no danger en- 
 sues. The eldest 
 son may now have 
 a command in 
 the army, but a 
 younger son will 
 lie dead in the bag- 
 gage cart (if he 
 
 
 
 "o 
 
 when moral unde- 
 fiectedness is pre- 
 served (this stroke) 
 is unlucky. 
 
 
 In quintum sextum. 
 
 Praedaestincampis, 
 oportet loqui de 
 ilia capienda. 
 Nullum est malum 
 natu majoribus 
 committere milites. 
 Natu minores ad 
 sarcinas adhibere, 
 licet solidum, ma- 
 lum est. 
 
 
 
 
 (6-5.) 
 In the fields 
 are birds (so 
 called) many 
 take the name. 
 
 The elder sons 
 (are) the lea- 
 ders of the 
 
 army. 
 The younger 
 (are) the pas- 
 sive multi- 
 
 tude. 
 
 
 
 
 ■i 
 
 © 
 
 11 .s 
 
 ml 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 ^ 
 
 
 d Qi 
 
 d a> " 
 
 iS O) *- oj rt o 
 _. d^ " « 
 
 <Xi 
 
 .d rrj § F§ 
 
 7b^ 
 
 w a> 
 
 r» on xj *"^ o IB C4_i 
 _Q -ja "73 r^ >-, O) 
 
 cs ""S OS ~ -d .rt 00 
 
 b^ 
 
 o 
 
 <D O SJ vi> _• 
 
 P..15 5? >. ^ .t^ ^ 
 ■X3 
 
 
 
 " d CQ ^ 
 
 ai ^ ® 
 
 
 ^ o S o rd tr* d 
 
 ^^ g s I H .a 
 
 
 « •» ^ 
 
 •s § 
 
 to OS Kj O m -*^ 
 
 be 
 
 60 <» tn 03 tt) —^ O 
 
 l|:i|-s 
 
 ^ ® i o -2 
 
 i_i M d 
 
 :^ 
 
 2 t' 
 d oi 
 
 t- * Q 
 
72 
 
 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 
 
 
 I O) W ^ '-' CO r£3 ■■" ^ 
 
 .— I ^ fc^ CO ;-i ^, . _ S 
 
 O 
 
 ^ rO ^ . rH -^^ °* 2 
 
 UJ ^H O i«. 
 
 rr-l « 
 
 O 03 
 
 §.-s'Pi.Si 
 
 53 
 
 a» 
 
 <D 
 
 <» *^ > )iJ fl J 
 
 •= fl Ph^ ^ -^ .S 
 
 
 
 E3 
 
 03 i^ 
 
 &C 
 
 CD 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 »» 
 
 »\ 
 
 1 'g 
 
 
 'n^'n^ 
 
 
 ll-gllo 
 
 11 -g 
 
 M&Si 
 
 MS 
 
 O &D 
 
 3 
 
 ^ = 
 
 a 
 
 ■^ IM 
 
 E 
 
 ^ (^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ■l<*i El 
 
 ■< 
 
 ■M-K S 
 
 ^ 
 
 pd •- fcC<M 
 
 o ;-! p J- 
 
 rC ^ rg o 
 
 *^ OJ o 
 
 '« 2 ^- d 
 
 ^ § -S.S 
 
 CO a r^ OJ 
 
 rt O OS r"^ 
 
 fl 03 a ;-? 
 
 I Si i 
 
 S <x> ^ UZ 
 
 "" .2 -ta 
 
 OS ^ S g 
 
 to 2 g cp 
 
 - § 2 "^ H 
 
 ^ ^ CO 
 
 CO cj_, 
 
 g^ ft 
 
 -u o ,-+^ 
 
 O) "-^ n3 
 
 „. "^ 03 
 
 «^ "3 -'" 
 
 'So® 
 
 d .s . 
 
 .2 ^ -^ 
 
 CO (D rO 
 
 d "* -*^ 
 1^ § 
 
 f3 .3 ^ 
 
 O >- tea 
 § ft^ 
 
 d o) 
 
 <D ^ 
 S-" O 
 
 r2 +a 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTEORS. 73 
 
 91. If the reader compares the description given in our 
 version of the various acceptations of the word gjj Sze (made 
 clear by the necessary remarks in the foot-notes, with the 
 extracts of vocabularies of several classics on the same word 
 which we have reproduced above (§89), he will be struck 
 by the perfect correlation, and be satisfied that our statement 
 is sound, viz. that the Sze chapter is made up of the slips 
 containing the vocabulary describing the word. All the 
 remarks, which we have to make of unavoidable length, are 
 mutatis mutandis, applicable to the other chapters. 
 
 92. The following chapter, of which we give the version, 
 is the fifteenth relating to ^, which has been completed later 
 on by a determinative and written m, as we have reported 
 above (§ 39) from an ancient tradition. 
 
 The use of this character, with the proper determinative, 
 has been extended to a large number of acceptations, but in 
 early times, the various meanings attached to it were rather 
 small.^ The author of the re-arrangement had therefore to 
 repeat several of them, in order to fill up the required number 
 of lines. 
 
 The most interesting feature is the quotation about the 
 spoonbill or Platalea major y an interesting bird which occupies 
 a large place in Chinese literature from an early period. It is 
 described in the CEl-ya, Shan Sdi King, and was " a strange 
 bird like a duck, the paired-wing bird, with one eye and one 
 wing, affiliated to the plaice in its structure, and so made 
 that two must unite for either of them to fly." It is still 
 found in Formosa.^ 
 
 Here is the version of the chapter : 
 
 ^ They are only those represented hy the character itself with the determinatives 
 (or keys) 38, 43, 61, 85, 149, 154. Cf. Min tsi Ki, Luh shu tung, K. iv. ff. 67, 
 68 ; K. viii. f. 46. 
 
 2 Vid. Tai Fing yu Ian, K. 927, f. Iv. Khang-ki Tze-tien, Pu 196+10 str. f. 
 
 73. And also Wells "Williams, Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language, p. 
 
 382. Mr. Rob. Swinhoe had caught several of those birds at Tamsui, Formosa ; 
 
 . vid. a notice of his in Notes and Queries on China and Japan^ vol. i. p. 131 (Oct. 
 
 31, 1867). 
 
74 
 
 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 
 
 
 00 1 tH (B 1— ! (D ■ 
 
 3 first line, di- 
 ied, shows us the 
 perior man who 
 .ds humility to 
 imility. (Even) 
 e great stream 
 ay be crossed 
 ith this, and 
 ere will be good 
 rtune. 
 
 
 
 
 
 ien indicate 
 ogress and sue 
 ss. Thesuperio 
 an (being humbI 
 it implies) wi] 
 ive a (good) issu 
 his under 
 yngs. 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 1 
 
 ft 
 
 ^ ^8 a ^^s^ 
 
 g-pg-^^r^a^^^ 
 
 
 p 
 
 M 
 
 i 
 
 'he Kheen diagram 
 implies luxuriance. 
 The model man 
 obtains the (ad- 
 vantage of) it 
 throughout his life 
 
 First-six. 
 Represents) the ex- 
 treme humility of 
 the model man ; is 
 useful in wading 
 through great 
 streams, and is 
 lucky. 
 
 
 § 
 
 P4 
 
 H 
 O 
 
 p^ 
 
 e-i 
 
 "-' 
 
 
 
 02 
 
 <» a 
 
 sill 
 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 Bj^ 00 a 
 
 
 m 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 S 
 P^ 
 
 Kien est per 
 Sapiens 
 habet. 
 
 Epiphona p 
 
 Hunulitati 
 
 tatemaddit 
 
 Utiturmag 
 
 transitu. 
 
 Hoc bonum. 
 
 
 B 
 
 
 
 ^— ^ 
 
 
 
 <1 
 
 
 
 <iM tj 
 
 1 o OQ ^ ^ 
 
 
 
 
 o o 
 
 ^B-^ §.S g 
 
 
 
 
 w 
 
 QO vZ5 
 
 "^ §.S|-S 
 
 
 m 
 
 
 QQ 
 Hi 
 O 
 
 
 f-i d ^ 5i S 05 
 
 
 
 
 ;z; 
 
 Mean 
 Kien 
 
 Princ 
 issue 
 
 ^"~^M © ^ 
 
 
 ps 
 
 g 
 
 H 
 
 ^olifl 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 
 ffl 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 >^ 
 
 
 C4H 
 
 o 
 
 -. 
 
 
 1 
 
 M 
 
 o 
 
 1 1 
 
 "11 
 
 ni 
 
 llf o . 
 
 
 
 
 i 3 
 
 g o 
 
 ? 
 
 3^ C! 
 
 
 CO 
 
 
 o 
 
 ** 
 
 
 
 CI 
 
 
 H 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 lip 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 Jibfr 
 
 •l<Si^ 
 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 mm 
 
 Hifi-K in 
 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 75 
 
 
 
 ^^ g^w;a gcS 
 
 S rt « 
 g S iii 
 
 .^^ 
 
 1 O -rt 
 
 
 
 S S o «' 
 
 I 
 
 
 p- J a c 
 
 
 I CO 
 
 a> 
 
 O S 
 
 H el 
 ^ 2 
 
 « a 
 
 o •— < ^ o 
 
 CO 'S: '^ "^ 
 
 '^ bD ^ O (D 
 
 CO a Pi d 
 
 ^•C^'g go 
 
 '^ o ^ o 
 
 « 03 s3 O 
 
 H^ fee 
 
 c8 ^ . 
 
 r^ S 2 3 
 
 CO o °Q 2 
 
 ^l:*^ 
 
 n:3 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 II ^ 
 11.2 
 
 .2 II 3 
 
 
 fr 
 
 
 
 
 W 
 
 i: 
 
 
 11^ iw 
 
 lil«^ 
 
 4' HK 
 
 ^ 
 
 4<^ fl< 
 
 ■^t? 
 
 liFlin -Ktt^ 
 
 « 
 
76 
 
 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 ^ §.a 
 
 bo- 
 
 a ^ B 
 
 -2 o 2 -t;? 
 
 a a. 
 
 ^•S 
 
 
 
 ^ CO 
 
 
 ja ^ o3 fi Q ;:H PJ 
 
 ■-I O rC =*-! F^ '^^ 
 
 
 .a.s , 
 
 O 
 
 - 3 '^ d o g 
 QQ s 03 n -fs o 
 
 P ® El 2 
 
 t? o "^ fl o 
 
 S.15 a-rt.2 5=1 
 
 (2; a '^ ^ o ^ -s 
 
 M n pj ^ P, ^i* 
 
 p^ 
 
 
 p^ a^a ^to 
 
 
 I 
 
 CO 
 
 O o 
 
 S S^. 
 
 9 ^•-* 
 
 § ^ ^.s g 
 
 fl Vm 
 
 -4-3 
 
 o 
 
 ^g 
 
 
 11 J. 1^.3^^-^^ 
 
 fee «r^ f>,2 
 
 CO fec^ 
 
 © o 
 
 o g: 
 
 S 
 
 ■r-i -(.3 
 
 O 00 
 
 feD 
 
 ^1 ^ 
 
 be 
 
 >^: 
 o 
 
 O 
 
 I— I 
 i o 
 
 •on? ^ 
 
 "(5 
 
 « 
 
 gg 
 
 H5 
 
 4^ 
 
 it 
 
 E 
 
 ■1<K 
 
 Wr 
 
 IS 
 
 
 -M^ 
 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 77 
 
 94. No observations are required on the following chapter, 
 the xxxth, on ^ of which the primary orthograph was ^ as 
 we know by palaeography. The author of the re-arrangement 
 had not the same difficulties for the separation of the rows 
 of characters into the seven lines, because of the great number 
 of acceptations. He was obliged to put them up one after the 
 other, not always separated by the word ^ or jp "like.^* 
 The same thing occurs several times in other chapters.^ 
 
 In the last section of this paper we shall have to speak 
 again of this chapter. 
 
 Here is the version : 
 
 1 For instance, chapters iii., xxii., rxxv., etc. 
 
78 
 
 THE TH-KIXG AND ITS ATTTHORS. 
 
 m 
 u 
 
 o 
 
 P3 
 H 
 < 
 
 o 
 
 w 
 
 M 
 
 w 
 
 P^ 
 
 ^^' 
 
 
 •- .S .15 
 
 rQrO 
 
 5 »H g ■» CO -iv^ :;j 
 
 ^§ 
 
 -i^ £ » .« 
 
 
 2 ^ 
 
 T5 Ph 
 
 a s « 
 
 S ^: S 
 
 Pl.1 
 
 o -^ o Oi 
 ■i=i;::j orQ 
 
 -S a -f^ a^?3 
 
 ' -^ !=' 1^ ' 
 
 QJ O 
 
 S«:t^ 
 
 J 03 , 
 
 as^.s' 
 
 
 
 03 
 
 0^ M 2 ^ o 
 •t; ts S CD "7^ 
 
 .a 
 
 to O 
 
 3 a 
 
 a a 
 
 s a 
 
 p^ Phos o rt 
 
 Ph^ 00 eS a 
 2 § « I 
 
 
 ^ 9 e8 
 
 
 se 
 
 CO M 
 
 OQ 
 
 H 
 
 < rd 
 
 i=l fl o 
 
 r^ C3 C3 g 
 
 El Si 
 
 (First 9 
 To shoe. 
 
 Confused. 
 
 
 
 To burn. 
 
 Attentive 
 
 
 ^ o -^ 
 
 Hill 
 
 1 
 
 J 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 6t 
 
 lis 11^1 
 
 
 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 79 
 
 
 b .S rt a b 03 ^ fl fi^is Sto««'«'« i-^o-^o^ 
 
 o 
 
 >-. 
 
 S 2 ^ rC3 -5 S 5P-*^ 0* • . :3 5 - 
 
 11-^^ '1^ billet! 'I i-l 
 
 J. 
 
 a a o « 
 
 ■U ^j|g Sag-Sir ^iiii§ -g. irs 
 
 ^ 
 
 a? 
 
 
 ii s II fe'.g I1 1 nana ii .a ii § ii g- 
 
 O) 
 
 
 g 
 
 U 
 
 ■fsj 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 Je 
 
 m 
 
 @ 
 
 lis |a 
 
 niii^ 
 
 1^ 
 
 -K 
 
 as ^ s ^ s 
 
 ■l<t« « 
 
 ■^m 
 
 t^ 
 
 g 
 
 a^«K « 1^ g? if 
 
80 
 
 THE YH-KING AND ITS AFTHORS. 
 
 
 •S £ g ^^ 
 
 
 -^^-^ S 2 I fe §3 
 pi nj •!— 3,^J -^a fcc fH rO 
 
 .g § 
 
 .^ g --l^ <j ^ r^ =S 
 
 
 
 Pi '-I 
 
 Ph,Q 
 
 fe C !=* 
 
 ^ ^ -S ^^ 
 
 g -2 .-2 J -^ be 
 
 
 o:p 
 
 
 Hrt 
 
 fi'6 
 
 2 ^ "3 . S I M 
 g ;S ^a ^ g ^ 
 
 o . 
 
 fco 
 
 
 n:3 
 
 is 
 
 DO tD I 
 
 CO f^ P bS 5 
 
 Ph 
 
 03 
 
 a a 
 
 P! o 
 
 § ^J *> ri4 O 
 03 (X) 1^ OD r— ; 
 
 © OQ O r^ 03 
 
 
 
 
 §^ 
 
 ^ rO ^ <=> "^ 
 
 - bS)" Bite >. 
 
 •§ & II 5 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 '3 
 
 r— I 
 
 c3 
 
 ^Sff © 
 
 4J ««^rQ 
 
 :2 II :3 
 
 s?-? ffi°ss|isiii°'rffii 
 
 as 
 
 
 d) 
 
 »\ 
 
 rO 
 
 o 
 
 ni 
 
 6r 
 
 
 o 
 
 s^ 
 
 o 
 
 
 «9 
 
 33 
 ■1<K 
 
 ■103 ^ ^ ^W 
 
 
 83 
 
 i{ H « g IS 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 81 
 
 96. The following chapter translated, the thirty-first, on 
 ^, which is also a vocabulary, does not present so many 
 meanings as the preceding, and it was not necessary to pile 
 them up to the same extent. Besides, the meanings to be 
 described were of peculiar difficulty in order to make the 
 difierence in the material and moral use of several of them 
 intelligible. The meanings under i.-l, vi.-2, ix.-5, and 
 upper 6, which are the various aspects of one same meaning, 
 afford an interesting instance of the trouble taken by the 
 original framers of the vocabulary to cope with the difficulty 
 of making them clearly understood. 
 
 The character j^, of which the ancient sound was Kam 
 (or Kom)^ is a compound character which meant *'to bite," 
 and in its primary stage of symbolico-syllabism was written 
 J§ "kS-" to be read from bottom to top.^ Kom meaning 
 " mouth hewing " i.e. " to bite " extended afterwards to the 
 sense of " to seize, to shake, to move." 
 
 Ten foretelling words have to be dropped throughout the 
 chapter. 
 
 ' According to one of the laws of archaic orthography. Vid. § 23, note 2, p. 19. 
 
82 
 
 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHOES. 
 
 PC 
 
 < 
 
 o 
 
 
 1^ 
 
 -4-3 en © dj 
 
 
 
 
 Art ^ o g 
 
 (D © rt w rd ,o 
 
 d -g sr -le. -S 
 "^ S'^ fcoS ^ - 
 
 
 o 
 . o 
 
 'B 
 
 d 
 o 
 
 ni 
 
 
 qT 
 
 bb 
 
 
 d 
 
 ^ 
 
 "^ 
 
 
 '"' 
 
 o 
 pd 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 tJ3 
 
 d 
 
 
 
 O) 
 
 p- 
 
 rn 
 
 
 TS 
 
 
 
 F^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 s 
 
 ^ 
 
 Ph 
 
 di« ^ o 
 
 .2 2 .2 " 1=* >> 
 
 II 
 
 •^i I is It 
 
 d S.2 S o ^ ^ 
 
 ;4j a 
 
 o 
 
 43 -+J «d -^=1 
 d'^ ^ « 
 
 1| .ia 
 
 "^ J:; 02 S d 
 d 2 eS o d 
 
 gO^ d^ 
 
 P^ 
 
 PI 
 
 c3 O 
 
 o S 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 3 
 
 iaf,^^ 
 
 ;^S fla 
 
 • S .S CO o 03 ' 
 
 I d 8^? ^' 
 
 si- 1^ 
 
 >^ 2 
 a rd 
 
 s a 
 
 CO 
 
 CO O O) 
 I (X) o 
 
 +3 bD 
 
 II i 
 
 IN "Hi 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 83 
 
 
 I a> CO 
 
 ^ .a is vVv <J^ _«*H 
 
 05"^ 0'^:73 -- m „ 
 
 
 
 .g 
 
 'a 
 
 
 o "^^ o 
 
 g 2 2 o S ^ 
 
 O -73 I 
 
 I n3 
 
 £-2 
 
 s:a^ 
 
 ^ •>-( '-' kZ O t-i , 
 
 -K'^ 
 
 ■3& 
 
 ^a-s* s. 
 
 ^ *- aj »H ra 
 .H bO£j).».2 
 
 S^ o 2 -go 
 .«. §.S S.S 
 
 _2,^2 S 
 ^^•2.2 
 
 "S d'3 
 
 fl c ; 
 
 
 00 -M ">H "TS OQ 
 
 
 .a - 
 
 ^ == - - a -"-'o 
 
 ^ §S3rdrtprti=l-do§o 
 DoCoQ+3obCo3ej4HOj.3PJ 
 
 5 i=^ "3 
 
 
 2 ;2 ^ fl ^ 
 
 
 
 w^ a ^ .:^ 
 
 pui 5 2 -fs w ::^ 
 
 M 2 <» ^ o 
 
 PL( • r< fl © o to 
 
 o § g § 
 
 >» 
 
 
 
 ^^ 
 
 pq Cl, 
 
 2 
 ■S 
 
 I 
 
 .a 
 J2; 
 
 :S 
 
 CO 
 
 a 
 to 
 
 B ^ 
 
 a 
 o 
 
 O 60 
 
 feD CD 
 
 So 
 
 
 3 i 
 
 > , 
 
 o 
 
 >^ CO 
 
 60 O 
 
 .3-3 
 
 "B5 q_tS'^ 
 
 II -a II i 
 
 IS 
 
 II II 
 
 a II a -^ 
 
 cS CO 
 
 ^^s^^i^, 
 
 II 'g II % II & 
 
 w e3 H 
 
 2 - O 
 
 lis MS hm g «: 
 
 
84 
 
 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHOES. 
 
 1 o^ o 
 
 ^ 
 
 O 1 
 
 , 03 CO 
 
 !!li 
 
 
 
 ^§1 
 
 o te =" 
 
 ri^rO ^^ 
 
 Mt^6 
 
 a ^ <D 
 
 
 O 
 
 The fifth li] 
 divided, she 
 moving th 
 along the 
 
 o 
 
 III 
 
 
 <» -s 
 
 
 
 CD 
 
 ■^i) 
 
 
 
 
 1^2 
 
 
 
 1 a « 
 
 
 
 
 rj (T) 
 
 
 
 
 Fiff 
 influ 
 .ck; 
 llows 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 S d 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 aj r^ C+H 
 
 
 
 W •!—» 
 
 1— t 
 
 
 
 1— 1 
 
 !^-^^.J- 
 
 
 
 g-8 
 
 [JINTU 
 
 move 
 psen 
 
 
 
 H S O 
 
 5 -g § 
 
 
 
 « bog 
 
 Epiphon. 
 
 Scapulas 
 Nullus e 
 tendi loc 
 
 
 
 ill 
 
 ?■" = . 
 
 
 O 
 
 OD O 
 
 1 c3 ^_<' 
 
 
 o 
 
 p O 03 O 
 
 
 
 
 — ^-^-^ 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 •rH 
 
 
 
 •» 
 
 ns' 
 
 s 
 
 
 JS^-fe 
 
 ^ 
 
 ?^* 
 
 
 c3 
 
 III 
 
 g 
 
 
 II & 
 
 C3 
 
 5=1 
 
 
 ^f 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 
 -4-^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 «a 
 
 
 
 
 g 
 
 
 
 @ 
 
 \^n 
 
 
 @ 
 
 ■!<« 
 
 -^n 
 
 
 tt^ 
 
 H=^ 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 85 
 
 98. We hope that the preceding versions of four chapters 
 will be considered as sufficient to exhibit the disposition of 
 the chapters of the Yh made up of mere vocabularies. "We 
 shall now give an instance of a chapter in which has been 
 embodied what we may call a ballad relating to an historical 
 fact of the twenty-second century B.C., mz. the revolt of Ktvan, 
 the youngest son of the Emperor K'i, at the place of his exile 
 (in modern Chih-li), where he had been sent most likely after 
 intrigues which we may easily guess. 
 
 Here is the translation of this chapter, which treats on 
 H, and which is the twentieth of the sixty-four chapters 
 of the Yh, 
 
86 
 
 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 p 
 
 PQ 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 H 
 PW 
 
 W 
 
 o 
 
 w 
 
 W 
 
 
 s 
 
 
 ^2 
 2^ 
 
 i5 '*-*'^ 
 
 
 M 
 
 
 MP 
 
 8 If^-S «:5 
 
 41 
 
 ^ 
 
 o Ph' 
 
 • ^ PI 
 
 <D S" § -S <» o Ph"-+3 
 
 
 ^ o 
 
 w 
 o 
 
 c3 
 
 i 
 
 o ^ - 
 
 
 
 - Ph 
 en f-f"^ 
 
 g 55h^ a 
 
 y q3 c+H rO o 
 
 fee 
 
 
 s ^ 
 
 w.S 
 O O 
 
 n 
 
 u 
 
 a -3 
 
 O <D 
 
 fi^ 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 87 
 
 ^^-s 
 
 C ff " 
 
 ,13 to 
 
 ^•?5 
 
 • So (DO 
 
 CS o 
 
 &a 
 
 Ph o > 
 
 O) O -73 
 ^-^ 03. 
 
 I (D O 03 O) I 
 .s eS O 
 
 o 
 
 
 2 ^^ m ^ ii a *-i ■— <^ 
 
 a s 
 
 '3 § § ^ M^ 
 
 >-,S « o o .S 
 
 '^.':2.2.2^ bod 
 .9 Lr ca 00 
 
 
 ^ I bo 
 
 
 •^ a 
 
 en -j^ ~i^ -jji fu-i 
 
 Sgo. 
 
 o 
 
 ■•SI 
 
 .2 oo ^ ?= 
 
 H-Sd 
 
 1^1 
 
 O ■— I C3 
 
 P ... 
 
 .2 ^ 
 
 •s w 
 
 2g 
 
 s-a 
 
 si 
 
 O <D 
 
 1 
 
 'II 
 §1 
 
 ^ i i 
 8h .15 <» 
 
 
 
 © a 
 
 • 1-1 03 
 
 I GO 
 
 O c3 
 03 
 
 S 
 
 CD bo 
 
 
 CO 
 
 •^ -To S? . . 
 
 -T fli r^ ^H 
 
 JO C3 +3 te rs 
 
 ■p^n^a pio 
 
 
 IK 
 
 ¥? 
 
 111 
 
 
 ■ICE ^ 
 
 
 5 
 
 ^ S ^ ►§ 
 a> a> rt OS 
 
 rt e i « 
 
 cS "S ^ »4 
 
 •ll - 
 
 t^Ti g fl 2 
 
 H Q) „ •• O 
 pQ f-i oTf^ CO 
 
 S S'2'p-J 
 
 45:3 +2 ^ S 
 £'2 o >.ph 
 
 ^ 2 a «o "^ 
 eS . '3 feiD 2 
 
 * ri g ^ « 
 
 -« O 00 S 
 
 Oj .-( i^it3 t» 
 
 fc» CO 05 d JJ 
 
 t> lens's 
 
 M § ^:a 
 
88 
 
 THE YH-KING AND ITS AIJTHORS. 
 
 (DO I <D Ji ^ ^- 
 
 
 ■+= <u .2 — 
 
 — I be o tc 
 
 bX3 
 
 ^ -ii .9 
 
 ' S -S S? a g rt r£l rO '^ 
 
 'Ts g o s >- g © 
 
 
 
 ^ S 
 
 o -^^ 
 
 fciD g O ■-- O 
 j=l S fl 
 
 '^ rs 3 t, cj 
 
 I CD JL ^H rrt tH -t^ 
 
 §-^ p.-g ^-r. a 
 
 ri o -2 -^ '^ - '- 
 
 !3 fe 
 
 0) <D 
 
 •73 DQ -t-=> -4-3 -tJ C SH 
 
 _><! S 
 
 '^ ^-^ (D o) ce "^ "^ 
 ^ q3^ o-S ^5 
 
 Ph QQ O n Oj U QQ 
 
 CO . — ^ CO 
 
 "o .S "^ 
 
 gal 
 «.a ..'^ 
 
 .^ (D CD 
 
 
 p &C2 I 
 
 I 
 
 is 
 §1 
 
 2 ^ 
 
 If 
 
 j2^ &C^ l>rM 
 
 P o C3 
 g § .2 es 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 i =* g 
 '^ ;h ^ « 
 
 M 
 
 &c § 
 
 s a 
 
 w ca s 
 
 M n rt 
 
 o t* PI . 
 
 H ® OS 
 
 ►71-73 C3 ^ 
 
 ^^ (D O 
 ® rt !3 
 
 c3 rt 
 
 '^s " 
 
 M 
 
 § a 
 
 1 
 
 feo 
 
 I 
 
 a> 
 o 
 
 .a 
 
 
 W 
 
 ^ 
 
 ih 
 
 ■^^ 
 
 « 
 
 BM 
 
 K 
 
 Wr 
 
 
 "HS ITS 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 89 
 
 ■43 © O © p3 DO 
 
 © ^ © -^cS S 
 
 ei.-t^'^.S S m ® 
 
 o !3 .^ o g 
 k =« 2 ,^. ^ 
 
 -. ^ p^ S __, "^ r^ 
 
 > rc 
 
 too 
 
 O 
 
 O '^ 
 
 03 61: 
 
 © c3 
 
 ^ a i 
 
 © 
 
 g^©g^H 
 
 © b <i^ 2 
 
 &• 
 
 " 8 I © 
 
 ©.and 
 
 rd © 
 
 ^.oi 
 
 2 a. g d 
 
 00 °° S o 
 
 © ■v' -^ 4-i nd <iJ c8 
 ^^ 5-1 o© ^r^ 
 
 -»J O _rj ^ © ^^ ® 
 
 o 
 
 l-H 
 
 a 
 
 P5 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 a 
 
 H 
 
 55i 
 
 < 
 
 Eh! 
 
 pT 
 
 s 
 
 a 
 o 
 
 a 
 
 H 
 
 r^ 2 ^ g 
 
 p 
 
 S S R 
 
 1—1 
 X 
 
 a 
 
 
 ^ o 
 
 2 3-5- 
 
 ,J5 © ^J © 
 
 ■35 prfj " >-. 
 
 c2.^ fe^ c « E 
 o S « S S'^^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 .-^ 
 
 Us! 
 
 •'-' rrj QQ © 2 ^ 
 
 pL,H o O o © ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 H 
 
 
 
 Thung ZSn (or 
 Union of men) ap- 
 pears here (as we 
 find it) in the (re- 
 mote districts of 
 the) country, indi- 
 cating progress and 
 success. It will he 
 advantageous to 
 cross the great 
 stream. It will be 
 advantageous to 
 maintain the firm 
 correctness of the 
 superior man. 
 
 
 Tung 3 in extends 
 (even) to rural 
 regions, and im- 
 plies luxuriantly 
 aboimding ; wad- 
 ing through great 
 streams is now 
 profitable ; and 
 the model man 
 gains advantage in 
 the preservation of 
 moral rectitude. 
 
 QQ 
 M 
 
 Tong-jin id est 
 Hominum con- 
 junctio in deserto. 
 
 Est penetrato. 
 
 Oportet transire 
 magnum fluvium. 
 
 Oportet ut sit in 
 soliditate sapientis. 
 
 
 
 GO 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 The Troglodytes (which are) in 
 the wild places. 
 
 Many cross the river. 
 
 Many (of them) are sages. 
 
 
 
 < ^ m 
 
90 
 
 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 
 
 
 §1 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 •g — <::) ^ pin 
 
 til 
 
 § o » 
 
 &D 
 
 fcC 
 
 ==1 
 
 M 
 
 ■+^ 15 a p3 03 rt "^^ 
 
 05 .^ CQ QJ rO O 02 
 
 I— 1 
 
 -* 03 M 
 
 g © -« 
 3 § 
 
 PI 
 
 -I As 
 
 .S - 
 
 "3 be 
 
 .S'^ 
 fl 
 
 03 ^ (D O 
 
 
 « S e ® c'-'J^ 'd 
 
 03 O -P t*^ O ^ .S 
 
 S 'o 03 ""^ 'q-'o 
 !=1 
 
 03 X 
 
 &Ph 
 
 !='d^03j:j'>H^« 
 
 K y o ij o 
 
 El ?3 .a O 03 
 
 =^ c3 aJ^ OS a> fir 
 
 ? • si 2 2 
 
 it 
 
 'Is 
 
 fa "^ 
 klU o 
 
 bo 
 
 9 • 
 
 h QQ 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 ;-) 
 
 GQ 
 
 •2 
 
 ri 
 
 CO 
 
 1=1 
 
 o 
 
 CO ^ 
 
 C5 
 
 oT i=l 
 
 § g 
 
 *© ^ 
 
 •5 «^ 
 
 
 bD c3 
 .^ P4 
 !=! C3 
 
 
 H 
 
 
 
 IK 
 
 HI'S «® 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 91 
 
 g^g§^^:2^^J ^^ S 3 ^ §ffl gH:g CD o gg^-SSHg^ 
 
 S — ^,£5 •S>3oS«*So-H ojo StH .r^o) **c!;3fc' 
 
 •5 o. 
 
 
 Hiiyiif^l II E|tlll:i|il -pi 
 
 O 
 
 >% go 
 
 5 ±^4. Q 
 
 gl^ilo g I ^11 lis SII1I 
 
 S PI fl S 
 
 00 la ^ 
 
 CD 08 
 
 
 1^ 2 II 1 
 
 ii ^•-' H f-" O r . 00 
 
 
 
92 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHOES. 
 
 102. An interesting feature of this chapter is the remark- 
 able proof it offers of the late addition of the foretelling 
 words. The chapter is in verses, and the rhymes are easily 
 recognized; ^ with -J- ; )\\ with pg ; Jg with ^; fg with 
 ft ; ^ with rX ; 0E with Jg ; ^ with Jf. So that the 
 foretelling words are no part of the ancient text, and have 
 to be left aside ; they are: "y, ^, ^ ^, :§:, §, Jg ^, 
 This is, I think, a very satisfactory demonstration. 
 
 X. — Contents Forgotten of the Yh. 
 
 103. In observing for our version of the Th-King the 
 principles of criticism laid down in the preceding section, 
 we have been able to discover these remarkable facts, ^ that, 
 in many chapters, the multifarious indications given by 
 the characters in rows or isolated, are, within the chapter, 
 just the various meanings more or less completely existing 
 still and found in literature, of one ideographic character or 
 expression represented more or less exactly by the modern 
 heading of the same chapter.^ These lists of values are 
 occasionally accompanied by mythical, historical, geographical, 
 ethnographical, ethical, astronomical, etc., references. De- 
 scriptions of aboriginal tribes of China ; their customs, the 
 meaning of some of their words, homonymous to the Chinese 
 word which is the subject of the chapter, instructions to the 
 officials about them, description of animals, birds, commercial 
 and vulgar values, etc., are given as far as they exemplify the 
 Chinese word. 
 
 104. The Yh-King has obviously been compiled of various old 
 materials of different sorts and styles, which, misunderstood, 
 have been arranged, classified, divided in lines, corrected and 
 completed by the addition of many of the foretelling words 
 which have been interspersed in the text.^ Short sentences 
 and rows of characters have been, with the help of the changes 
 of writing, strained into meanings supposed to have been 
 
 1 Vid. my Early History of the Chinese Civilization, p. 25. 
 
 2 Excepting the alterations voluntarily introduced since. 
 
 3 Vtd. above, § 13. 
 
THE YH-KING AI^D ITS AUTHORS. 93 
 
 expressed by Wen Wang, the presumed editor of the book, 
 and related to the immediate period previous to him, but 
 with which they had originally no connection whatever. 
 An interesting feature is, to be able to detect how, from 
 independent rows of characters, not intended for the pur- 
 pose, the correspondence which seems to exist between 
 the contents of the chapters and the six whole and broken 
 groups composing the sixty-four hexagrams or Kwas of the 
 same number of chapters was obtained. A brief exami- 
 nation of the whole easily explains the process by which 
 the regular classification and division into the desired number 
 of 64 chapters of 7 lines has been got up. In the case of 
 words having an insufficient number of meanings to fill up 
 the required seven lines, the same meaning is repeated some- 
 times variously, as often as necessary ; in reverse cases, the 
 meanings have been strung together one after the other like 
 a thread of beads ; and as the subject-matters were not of the 
 required number of 64, several have been cut in two, and a 
 few more modern texts have been added. 
 
 105. The Yh-King seems to have been arranged at first 
 under the Hia dynasty (2205-1766 B.C.) ; and when it 
 reached the hands of Wen Wang, it was already used for 
 divination. Its broken and numerous meanings progressively 
 misunderstood by the changes occurring in the language, the 
 growth of the dialects and the discrepancies introduced in 
 the writing by oblivion of the old rules of orthography, had 
 made of these ancient documents a very suitable reference to 
 pick up prognostics. The text had been connected with the 
 64 Kwas, and every chapter divided most likely into two parts, 
 in order to correspond to the two trigrams of each hexagram. 
 Wen Wang in 1143 b.c. subdivided the text and modified it 
 as we have seen, he added as an explanation of his re- 
 arrangement the first wing beginning with ^ Tican saya, 
 and his son Chou Kung added in turn, the second wing 
 beginning with ^ Q Slang sai/s, in the ordinary editions of 
 the Yh. 
 
 106. To resume the question, the text of the Yh-King is 
 nothing else than a general vocabulary of a small number 
 
94 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 (about 60) of words and expressions. And, no doubt, the 
 impossibility of reading as current phrases and text, simple 
 lists of meanings [as if we should try to read Johnson's 
 Dictionary as we would read a novel], accounts for the abso- 
 lute obscurity of the book and the astounding number of 
 interpretations which have been proposed by native Chinese 
 scholars, a path in which they have been uselessly followed 
 by several European Sinologists. 
 
 107. The Yh-King is not the only book whose fate has 
 been to be misunderstood. Many of the Yedic hymns have 
 had their primary object and views entirely turned away. 
 In Japan, too, we have a very striking example, to which we 
 shall refer presently. But the Yh-King is the only one 
 which, having to be transcribed several times through suc- 
 cessive changes of writing and the improvement of characters 
 in order to precise their sense, has been exposed to all the 
 consequences of the process and has accordingly suffered. 
 
 108. The Japanese example is sufficiently striking to be 
 placed side by side with the protracted misunderstanding of 
 the Yh-King, though not with the gradual and eventual 
 transformation of the text of the Chinese mysterious book. 
 The Nihongi has met the same fate of a forced interpretation, 
 which afterwards was recognized as the result of an improper 
 intelligence of the style in which it was originally written. 
 The Yamatohumi B ^ # IS ^^^ Nippon-syo-ki^ (vulg. 
 Nihongi), containing the oldest history of Japan, from 661 B.C. 
 till 696 A.D., was published in 720 a.d. as manuscript in thirty 
 parts. It was worded in Chinese and written in Hing-shu 
 fj ^ or running hand Chinese characters.^ At that time 
 Chinese composition was extensively used in Japan, but 
 afterwards since the period Yengi (a.d. 901) intercourse 
 with China ceased and no more students went to that 
 country, so that finally a peculiar Japanese style of Chinese 
 composition arose, in which the characters were not read 
 
 1 These two readings illustrate the two modes of reading the Chinese characters 
 in Japan, according to their sound [Koye) or to their meaning [J[omi). Cf. J. J. 
 Hoffmann, A Japanese Grammar (Leiden, 1868, 8vo.), p. 4. 
 
 2 Hoffmann, Japanese Grammar, p. 5. 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 95 
 
 in the same order as they were written. Those coming 
 first in order when writing a sentence being placed at the 
 end of the sentence in reading ; the characters forming no 
 complete meaning if read as they were written. This hybrid 
 style is in use at the present time for epistolary correspondence 
 and for government documents.^ In order to avoid any 
 misunderstanding, in modern texts special small signs are 
 placed on the lower left hand side of the Chinese characters 
 to indicate the transposition required. The Nihongiy as other 
 books of the same time, being written in Chinese, " the 
 unlettered could not understand it without explanation. 
 Hence there existed in the middle ages rules for the inter- 
 pretation of this history, and gradually it came to be con- 
 sidered as a religious work on Shintoisra. Both Shinto and 
 Buddhist priests explained it as a work on Confucianism or 
 Buddhism, so that at last incorrect opinions and statements 
 were formed, with which the ignorant were misled. Owing 
 to the frequent wars, however, these doctrines were neglected, 
 and at last there were none who believed in them." ^ Even- 
 tually, eight hundred years after (since a.d. 1688-1703), the 
 erroneous opinions of the scholars of the middle ages were 
 corrected, and the proper reading of the ancient texts was 
 recovered. 
 
 109. What happened to the illustrious German philosopher 
 Schopenhauer, with the first imperfect and misleading version 
 of the TJpanishads,^ might be quoted as another instance of 
 
 * Vid. An Outline History of Japanese Education^ Literature and Arts ; pre- 
 pared by the Mamkusho (Department of Education), Tokio, Japan, 1877, 12mo. 
 p. 145. 
 
 2 Outline History of Japanese Education, p. 146, 
 
 3 The first version of the Upanishads made into any European language was by 
 the famous traveller Anquetil Duperron, from the Persian ; he seems to have 
 made both a French and Latin translation, the latter alone having been published 
 (a.d. 1801-1802). It was written in a style utterly unintelligible except to the 
 most lynx-eyed of philosophers. Amongst these, the celebrated Schopenhauer 
 distinguished himseli by his open avowal; "In the whole world there is no study, 
 except that of the originals, so beneficial and so elevating as that of the ' Oupnek- 
 hat. It has been the solace of my life, it will be the solace of my death." It is 
 difficult to understand how the translation of Duperron could provide this double 
 solace. The opening words of his translation are these: *' Oum hoc verbum (esse) 
 adkit ut sciveris, sic J6 maschgouli fac (de eo meditare) quod ipsum hoc verbum 
 aodkit est ; propter illud quod hoc (verbum) oum, in Sam Beid, cum voce alta, 
 cum harmonia pronunciatum fiat." — Vol. i. p. 15. 
 
96 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 an important work misunderstood, and nevertheless satisfying 
 somehow minds fond of nebulous statements in which their 
 imagination could freely exercise itself. 
 
 XL— Origin of the Yh-King. 
 
 110. Proofs of various kinds: similitude of institutions, 
 traditions and knowledge, affinities of words of culture ; and 
 in what concerns the writing : likenesses of shapes of charac- 
 ters, hieroglyphic and arbitrary, with the same sounds (some- 
 times polyphons) and meanings attached to them, the same 
 morphology of written words, the same phonetic laws of or- 
 thography, had led me, several years ago,^ to no other con- 
 clusion than that (as the reverse is proved impossible by 
 numerous reasons), at an early period of their history and 
 before their emigration to the far East, the Chinese Bak 
 families had borrowed the pre-cuneiform writing and elements 
 of their knowledge and institutions from a region connected 
 with the old focus of culture of South- Western Asia.^ 
 
 The similarities in shapes, sounds, and meanings of charac- 
 ters ^ show that the borrowing was done at the period when 
 the Cuneiform strokes already introduced were not yet 
 exclusively used to draw the characters, straight and curved 
 lines being still used at the same time, and the introduction 
 of the wedge-shaped implement had not effaced the picto- 
 graphical forms of the signs.* 
 
 1 Vid. the bibliograpliical information in § i, n. 1 of the present paper. 
 
 2 The late period of the extension is shown by the state of oblivion in which 
 the early Chinese Bak families were, in regard to the primitive meaning of many 
 characters, their mistakes on that subject, and the many later notions from Baby- 
 lonian arts and knowledge which they had borrowed at the same time. The 
 peculiarities of the connexion of the archaic Chinese characters and the Babylonian 
 writing, for instance, in the case of the cardinal points, show unmistakably that 
 the borrowing was not made before the Semitic influence took the lead over the 
 Akkado-Sumerian sway. 
 
 3 When I pointed out in May, 1880 {Early Sistort/, p. 29), the shifting of the 
 points of the compass, I did not hope that this statement would so soon receive 
 a brilliant confirmation, from the Assyrian side. Cf . the decipherment of a tablet 
 secured by the British Museum, July 27th, 1881, by Mr. T. G. Pinches, Proceed- 
 ings of the Society of Biblical Archceohgy ^ Feb. 6th, 1883. The great importance 
 of the fact is that it gives a hint on the date of the extension of the writing from 
 S.W. Asia to China, and a clue to the Zodiacal diflSculty which Dr. G. Schlegel 
 has tried to solve in adding 17000 years, which are now unnecessary. 
 
 * This is shown not only by some early Chinese characters containing such 
 strokes, but also by various traditions speaking of strokes broad at one end and 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 97 
 
 111. A most interesting feature of the literature embodied 
 in the cuneiform characters is the numerous vocabularies 
 (known wrongly as syllabaries) framed for the understanding 
 of the characters and texts of antiquity. They may be 
 roughly divided into two classes, being vocabularies of several 
 kinds giving the diflferent meanings, various sounds, Sume- 
 rian, Akkadian, Assyrian, and the Akkadian descriptive 
 names of the characters, single and compound. One class 
 gives the meanings and sounds of one character ; the other 
 class the various characters of one meaning, or of objects of 
 the same kind. They are phonetic and ideologic vocabu- 
 laries, as, for example, in Chinese, the Yh-King's phonetic 
 vocabularies, and the old dictionary (Et-ya's ideological lists. 
 
 Without exception the so-called Cuneiform syllabaries 
 hitherto found and deciphered are only copies made by order 
 of the Assyrian or Babylonian monarchs. That the originals 
 of these copies were the primitive ones is very dubious. There 
 are reasons and even facts which tend to show that the 
 process of framing lists of those classes is nearly as old as the 
 systematization of the writing in horizontal lines, or has been 
 required, if not by the reform, at least by the ethnological 
 extension of the pre-Cuneiform script and writings. 
 
 114. Admitting by the force of overwhelming evidence, 
 the borrowing by the Chinese Bak families of the script and 
 elements of culture from this lexico-making people, we have to 
 recognize the probability of their borrowing at the same time, 
 as was unavoidable, some of these vocabularies. The remark- 
 able similarity of shape, polyphony and various meanings 
 between some of these cuneiform phonetic lists appended to one 
 character, and some of the Yh-King's chapters, as for example 
 between those represented by JglJ and ^, *l??{J and -^^ Ig[ 
 and ^, ch. 30, 22, 52, would suggest that some of the Yh- 
 King^s vocabularies are imitated form old pre-Cuneiform ones. 
 
 115. Let us take, for instance, the character ][^ lu "a 
 
 pointed at the other. "We have, however, to take into account the change in ap- 
 pearance of the characters, caiised by the use of another material than the clay 
 tablets and of another tool than the triangular-shaped one used for the impressiou 
 of the cuneiiorm strokes. 
 
98 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 bull," ^ of which the oldest shape is the same as the archaic 
 form of ^ U "a cow." The various acceptations of th6 
 Cuneiform character lu in the syllabaries, and those of the 
 Chinese character //, indicated in the XXXth chapter of the 
 Thy a chapter of which it is the subject-matter, ought to 
 correspond, if we are right in our statements. The ancient 
 sounds of the Chinese word were Up, dej), de f those of the 
 wedge-written character were lup, dip, udii.^ On the so- 
 called syllabary-tablets, the character Ig[J single or redupli- 
 cated has the following acceptations : 
 
 JgU immerU ="lamb." 
 gU gukkalhm — '' &heQ^" (?). 
 
 I^ sahatum = " to seize." 
 
 ]^ ]gU simdilu =" a bucket." 
 
 lUJ IglJ tinium =*Maw, order." 
 
 t^T| I^Tf sitmanu =" keeping." 
 
 glj IIIJ ritbusu =" lying down." 
 
 I^yy Iplf sitpuru =:" sending." 
 
 Jgpf Jgiy Imrrumu =** encircling."* 
 
 Unfortunately a great many values of the sign are lost in 
 consequence of the fractures of the tablets, the principal frac- 
 ture leaves a lacuna of six or eight lines ^ lost, representing at 
 least as many words. On the other hand, the decipherment of 
 historical inscriptions has revealed several of these lost mean- 
 
 1 In the bilingual list {Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, vol. ii. p. 44) 
 lu is found (as borrowed from the Akkadian stock) with Assyrian complements 
 precising the gender and number, viz. : lu (a bull), liilu (a cow), lunim (oxen). 
 Lu is the word as borrowed from the Akkadian ; lulu is the word with the 
 Assyrian feminine ending ; lunim is the plural masculine, explaining the foregoing 
 groups. The entry succeeds another meaning "oxen." Mr. T. G. Pinches has 
 found this and other information quoted below, on my pointing out to him, by the 
 help of the Chinese, that the characters ought to have the meaning of "a bull" 
 or " a cow," hitherto unknown by the Assyriologists. 
 
 2 Decayed into Li and che. The final p has been lost very early, but traces of 
 it are still found, and the restoration is perfectly justified by many cases. Cf. for 
 instance : Min tsi ki, Luh shu tung, K. i. f . 22 v. Vid. also J. Edkins, IntroduC' 
 Hon to the Study of Chinese Characters, p. 108, number 724. 
 
 3 A syllabary in four columns of the Sp. II. collection in the British Museum, 
 gives as the name of this sign hi the word {lu-up=) lup, thus indicating the full 
 form of the word. — T. G. Pinches, MS. note. 
 
 * Vid. Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, vol. iii. p. 70 lines 58, 59, 60 ; 
 vol. ii. p. 22. Fred. Delitzsch, Assyrische Lesestiicke, pp. 36, 58, 25 ; and also 
 T. G. Pinches, MS. note. 
 
 » Vid. Gun, Imc. W. A., vol. iii. pp. 69-70. F. Delitzsch, Assyr. Les. p. 65. 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 99 
 
 ings, sucli as "to approach, to burn, to cross, to spoil, to 
 hold," etc.i 
 
 116. Now let us remember that these acceptations of the 
 Cuneiform character, in the above case as in others, were 
 written some thousands of years ago, and since that time 
 have no more been exposed to the fluctuations which con- 
 stantly occur in word-meanings. They have been buried 
 under the ruins of the civilization which produced them, and 
 their language is dead for eighty generations. On the Chinese 
 side no burial nor death has taken place ; some kind of crys- 
 tallization has produced itself in the mind of the middle- 
 kingdom-man by his exaggerated veneration for anything 
 which he has received or assumes that he has received from 
 his ancestors ; and though the ground- work of the syllabaries, 
 like chapters included by ignorance in the Yh-King, is 
 undoubtedly a very early compilation, it must not be for- 
 gotten that they have been transcribed again and again, 
 re-written and re-arranged by Wen Wang, and, besides that, 
 exposed to all the alterations and transformations of a writing 
 and a language still living. 
 
 With all these impedimenta in the way of comparison, and 
 all these causes of divergence, are not the parallelism and 
 resemblances of meanings something wonderful ? After having 
 referred to the various acceptations of the character ^, as 
 indicated in the chapter relating to it, given above (§ 95), it 
 is impossible not to be struck by the evidence that the two 
 systems and the two texts are related one to the other. It 
 would be rather a bold conclusion to say that they are the 
 same lists ; the Chinese being the copy of the other, with no 
 other discrepancies than those of time, space and language ; 
 but what is pretty sure is, that the Chinese vocabularies have 
 been framed in obedience to the same principles, with the 
 same materials, and undoubtedly according to the tradition 
 of the old syllabaries of South-Western Asia. 
 
 117. The same principles having been traditional on the two 
 
 1 Cf. with caution, Rev. A. Sayce, Assyrian Grammar, and E, de Chossat, 
 Repertoire Asst/rien, s.v., because of the progress of decipherment since the 
 publication of their works. 
 
100 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHOES. 
 
 sides, it is no more a remarkable fact, though a convincing 
 evidence, to find in the two countries, besides the phonetic 
 vocabularies, the converse system, i.e. lists of the words or 
 characters having a common meaning. The old Chinese 
 dictionary, the fj ^% (El-ya, is nothing else than an ideo- 
 logical vocabulary. If we take, in the first part (^J f^ 
 Shih Ku, which is said to have been arranged from old 
 documents by Chou Kung in the twelfth century B.C.), the 
 list of the words for Idng or prince, and restore their older 
 forms in order to read their old sounds, and then compare it 
 with a list of the same kind published in pi. 30, i. of the 
 Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, vol. v., we cannot 
 help seeing many words common in the two lists, showing 
 that these lists have been drawn from materials difierentiated 
 from one same stock. 
 
 118. It would certainly be unwise, though not hopeless, the 
 historical and geographical distances having been extended as 
 thej^ have, to expect the discovery of the same texts in Chinese 
 and in Cuneiform. In the lapse of time which has occurred 
 since the communication of culture and probably of written 
 documents, these have varied. They have been transcribed, 
 according to the changes of the writing, or, what is much 
 more probable, they have been lost on the Chinese side, which 
 had to keep them twenty-five centuries more [to hand them 
 to us. A few fragments may however have survived among 
 a people so fond of tradition as the Chinese are. This would 
 be the explanation of the extraordinary similitude of some 
 of the Yh-King lists with some Cuneiform lists. 
 
 119. As a matter of probability, it seems only natural that 
 the early leaders of the Chinese Bak families, instructed by 
 the culture of South- Western Asia, should have been in- 
 duced not only to keep some lists of the values of the written 
 characters they had learned and wanted to transmit, but also 
 to continue the same practice of making lists relating to 
 the peoples, customs, etc., of their new country. 
 
 As a matter of fact the Yh-King is the oldest of the Chinese 
 
 1 Vid. above § 23 n. 
 
THE TH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. lOt 
 
 books, not certainly as it now stands, but as far as concerns 
 the greatest part of the documents which are compiled in it. 
 Some of these parts are most likely contemporary with the 
 early leaders of the Chinese Bak families {P'oh Sing), It has 
 all the appearance of being a series of notes, documents, and 
 informations collected by the early chiefs of the Chinese im- 
 migrants. It looks like a repository of indications drawn up 
 by the early leaders of the Bak families, for the guidance of 
 their officers and successors, in the use of the characters of 
 the writing, by the native populations with whom the newly 
 arrived people had to deal, for the customs, the produce of the 
 soil, the animal kingdom, etc. ; and it is, in this sense, that 
 the Th-King is the most valuable of the Chinese classics, 
 the one in which, according to the non-interrupted and un- 
 conscious feeling of the Chinese themselves, was embodied 
 the wisdom and knowledge of the sages of yore. 
 
 It has been deeply modified and somewhat augmented in 
 the course of time, and with the extensive emendations made 
 to the text, the possibility of finding out the primitive mean- 
 ings can hardly be expected in every case ; the contrary 
 would be surprising with so many difficulties to overcome. 
 Be that as it may, the remarkable results of these researches 
 make the Yh-King a much higher and more useful book than 
 it had previously been supposed to be. It is not a mysterious 
 book of fate and prognostics. It contains a valuable col- 
 lection of documents of old antiquity in which is embodied 
 much information on the ethnography, customs, language 
 and writing of early China. 
 
 XII. — Material History of the Yh-King. 
 
 118. The primitive texts of the Th were necessarily written 
 in Ku'tcen style of characters, and as usual engraved^ on wood 
 or bamboo tablets. It was during the eventful period of that 
 
 ^ Not scratched, but cut incuse with a graving knife, in characters thick at 
 one end and thin at the other. Cf. T. de L., The old Babylonian characters and 
 their Chinese derivates, § 23. — The famous inscription of the Great Yii, always 
 quoted as an instance of early Chinese characters, cannot be older than the 
 fifth century b.c, while the sinuosities and irregularities of the strokes have been 
 only the result of the abrasion of the stone. 
 
102 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 style of writing that the work was re-arranged, and that the 
 most numerous substitutions, additions and suppressions of 
 characters took place. It does not appear that the Yh was 
 transcribed in the Ta chuen^ or great curved characters of 
 820, but without preyenting its preservation in the oldest 
 style, it was re- written for practical use as a book of de- 
 vination, in the chiien or curved characters (mixed of Ku-wen 
 and ta chuen principles) which was current between the end 
 of the eighth and the first quarter of the third century B.C. 
 The process was then to write with a bamboo calamus dipped 
 ^ in lacquer on slips of bamboo, and the Ku-icen text was also 
 copied in that way. 
 
 119. In 227 B.C. appeared the Siao chuen or lesser curved 
 character, which was simply an official adoption, and partial 
 completion, of the sj^stem of simplifying the written cha- 
 racters, a habit which had gradually come into practice for 
 two centuries. Fifteen years afterwards, the Li shu, a square, 
 bold and thick mode of writing with the brush, newly invented, 
 came into use for administrative purposes. The year before, 
 i.e. in 213 B.C., had begun the celebrated persecution of the 
 Hwang-Ti, the first Emperor of China, against the traditional 
 literature of antiquity ; but it did not afiect the fate of the 
 Th, which was amongst the works excepted by special order. 
 The work transcribed in the chuen was also written in the 
 Li shu styles, with a new confirmation of many supposed 
 meanings by new substitutions of characters, and the changes 
 or additions of determinatives which had come into greater 
 use during and since the chuen period.^ It was then written 
 with the hair-pencil on rolls of silk-cloth. 
 
 120. The great trouble, which gave to the literati during 
 the Renaissance of literature the recovery of many works 
 hidden in out-of-the-way places during the persecution, and 
 the loss of many others, led them to invent a new mode of 
 preserving the sacred books, and at the same time avoid any 
 corruptions of the text. Paper came into current use at the 
 
 ^ beginning of the second century, but it does not seem to have 
 
 * Cf. supra p. 22, and Catalogue of Chinese Coins, p. xxxv.-xxxyi. 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 103 
 
 had any influence on the preservation of the Yhy or any other 
 of the classics, because the former systems were not discarded 
 for some time, and the ancient copies had not disappeared. 
 The lacquered tablets of the classics which had been dis- 
 covered in 154 B.C., hidden in the ancient house of Confucius, 
 were preserved in the Eoyal Archives, where those which had 
 escaped the bibliothecal catastrophes of the years 23 and 290 
 remained until 311 a.d., when they were lost in the great 
 fire which destroyed the precious library once collected by 
 the TVei dynasty. 
 
 121. The year 175 a.d. saw put in practice the grandest 
 idea of the time, in view of securing evermore the integrity 
 of the sacred books. Tsai-yung, duly authorised by the 
 Emperor Han-Ling-Ti, after a careful revision of the text of 
 six kings,^ by competent scholars, wrote them» himself in red 
 on 46 stela. The engraving and erection of the tablets was 
 finished in 183 a.d., in front of the Imperial College, on the 
 east side at Loh-yang. Their text was threefold, Ku-weUy 
 Chuen and Li shu.^ Students were allowed to take rubbings 
 of the stones, and the result was that less than a century 
 afterwards five of the stela had disappeared, only twelve 
 were still intact, and twenty-nine were either broken or 
 defaced. Those which had contained the Yh-King were no 
 longer recognisable.^ In order to obviate the gradual dis- 
 parition which was going on in their time, the Emperors of 
 "Wei had taken some important measures. In the years 240- 
 248 A.D., the ruling prince, Tsi Wang Tang, had the Shu- 
 King engraved again, and also the Tchun Uiu with the Iso 
 tchueUy on both sides of 48 stelas in the same three styles of 
 characters. The Ku-icen part was engraved after the trac- 
 ings taken in 220 a.d. by Tch'un from the wooden tablets of 
 the Royal Archives. 
 
 122. Subsequently and before the end of their dynasty in 
 265, the Wei had also the text of the Yh-King^ Shu-King, 
 
 1 Not five kings, as sometimes repeated. 
 
 2 Cf . Hou Han shti : Tsai )Ting biography. 
 
 3 Cf. the statements of Luh Ki, in his Zoh yang Ei. He lived 260-303 a.d. 
 He could recognize only parts of the Shu King, Kung-yang''s commentary with 
 the Chun Tsiu, Lun-yu Li-Xi, and nothing from the ¥h and Shi Kings. 
 
104 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 Kung-yangy and Li Ki in the Li sliu characters engraved on 
 both sides of 48 other stone tablets, as a pendant to the other 
 set. 
 
 123. These remarkable monuments did not remain intact. 
 In the middle of the fifth century, out of an original number 
 of 144, only 91 remained, viz. 18 of the Han period, 25 of 
 the treble-styled ones of 248, and all the 48 in Li shu. These 
 91 dwindled down to 52 in 550, and to 50 in 600 a.d. At 
 the latter date only five of the tablets of Tsai yung were 
 still in existence. In 717 the 48 tablets of 248 were re- 
 duced to 13. Several removals in 546, 580 and 586 had 
 taken place to their greatest injury. All that remains of 
 them since that time is preserved at Si-ngan fu, in the 
 famous Fei-lin or Forest of Tablets, amongst the three 
 hundred inscriptions which it contains. 
 
 124. In the winter quarter of 717, an Imperial proclama- 
 tion was issued that search should be made for lost writings. 
 A commission of 23 scholars was appointed to this effect ; 
 they laboured for nine years editing and printing texts, and 
 then presented to the throne a copy of their work in 48,000 
 sections.^ Ancient texts had been printed before, notably in 
 593 B.C., but the sacred books themselves were not included 
 in one or the other of these two occasions. Their texts, 
 however, could but be directly or indirectly preserved by the 
 new art, either by direct printing under private enterprise 
 or by the imperial editions of some of the commentaries upon 
 them. It was only in 932 that an imperial order was 
 issued to engrave on wood and print for distribution the 
 nine kings recognized at the time. The work was finished in 
 952, and was made according to the current text.^ 
 
 125. Some of the ancient texts were also preserved by 
 printing. We have mentioned p. 40, the Ku wen text of the 
 Th-Kingy of which an edition printed in 1596 was once in 
 the library of Pauthier. Unhappily we have not yet been 
 
 ^ Cf. Kang Men ta tsuen, R. 38, f. 16. — L. C. Hopkins, The Six scripts^ 
 p. 36. — Also Kang Jcien tcheng she-ti, K. 23, f. 10. 
 
 2 Cf. Xing y k'ao, E. 293, f. 1 sq. ; T'ung Jcien kang muh, K. 56, f. 22v., 
 R. 59, f. 10; li tai ki sze, R. 80, f. 13, 17; Gr. Pauthier, Memoiresii. I.e. 
 p. 414-416. 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 105 
 
 able to consult a copy of the same, and we urge our col- 
 leagues in Sinology to help us in the matter. 
 
 In 1049-1054, a scholar named Su-wang discovered some 
 original rubbings which had been taken on the three 
 character stone classics of the Wei dynasty, i.e. the 48 tablets 
 erected in 240-248 a.d., and he had them engraved and 
 published at Loh-yang. In 1806 Sun-ting-yen republished 
 them after a copy of Su-wang's work, which had come into 
 his hands. It includes 307 characters Ku-wen, 217 Chuen 
 and 295 Li shuy of the Shu King, Chun tsiu and Tso tchuen.^ 
 
 Some editions of the chuen text of the classics have been 
 published by Imperial order. The latest is entitled Kiti ting 
 chuen wen luh king sze shu, i.e. the chuen text of the six kings 
 and four canonical books edited by Imperial commission. 
 
 126. In 744, Hiuen Tsung of the T'ang dynasty, 
 appointed a commission of scholars, under the presidency of 
 Wei Pao, to substitute for the Li shu characters the form 
 which was current in his day.^ That was the Heng-shu or 
 current hand which, initiated by Liu Teh-cheng in 165 a.d. 
 had been improved by Wang Hien-chi, who died in 379 a.d. 
 This event is told at the occasion of the Shu king.^ Nothing 
 precisely is said of a similar change at that time for the other 
 classics ; but it seems extremely probable that the work was 
 accomplished by the same commission. 
 
 127. In the following century a new set of stone classics 
 was erected at Chang-ngan (Si-ngan fu). Five years (833- 
 837) were spent to engrave the twelve works they included 
 on 216 tablets. The Th-King occupied the first nine.^ 
 They are still at present, hardly injured, in the " Forest of 
 Tablets " at Si-ngan fu,^ which we have already mentioned, 
 and where they continue to be the gaze of a host of students. 
 
 1 Cf. Sun Sing yen, Wei san li shih king wet tze Tc^ao. — A copy of this 
 precious little work exists in the British Museum. 
 
 2 The National Library of Paris has an edition (without title-page) in the 
 Chuen character of the Yh, Shu, Shi, Chun-tsiu, Y-U and Chou-li. 
 
 3 Tze hioh tien, K. i. f . 22 v. 
 
 * Wang Chang, Kin shih tsuipien, R. 109. — Li tai ki sze, K. 70, f. 22 v. — 
 G. Pauthier, O.C, p. 405-406. 
 « Cf. A. Williamson, Journeys in North China, 1870, vol i. p. 380. 
 
106 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 The characters are in the heng shu style, and present but very- 
 few and unimportant discrepancies with those of modern 
 time. 
 
 Although it had been customary under former dynasties 
 to remove with them the stone libraries at every transfer of 
 capital, the stone classics have remained in the town where 
 they had been erected. But the northern capital, under the 
 present dynasty, could not remain without similar monu- 
 ments. During the reign of Kien lung, 182 stone tablets 
 engraved on both sides, ^ containing the thirteen classics, 
 executed in a style of great beauty, were erected at Peking, 
 and are admired to the present day in the old Ktcoh tze Men. 
 
 Such have been the material circumstances concerning the 
 preservation of the Yh King, 
 
 Concluding Chapter. — The Yh-King and the Western 
 Origin of the Chinese Civilisation. 
 
 128. The language of the Bak families, which under the 
 leadership of Yu Nai Hicang-ti (Hu Nak-Kunte)^ arrived about 
 2282 B.C. on the banks of the Loh river in Shensi,^ was 
 deeply connected with that of the Akkado-Sumerians of 
 Elam-Baby Ionia. This alone might be sufficient to show 
 that previously to their migration to the East and the 
 Flowery Land they were settled in the vicinity — probably 
 in the JJ^orth East — of these populations, and therefore in 
 
 1 Cf. "W. A. P. Martin, The Kwoh tze Kien, an old Chinese University : 
 —The Chinese Recorder, 1871, p. 86. 
 
 2 On this identification Cf. my monograph on The Onomastic similarity of Nai 
 Hwang-ti of China and Nakhunte of Susiana, London, 1890, 10 pp. ; and B. 
 and 0. R., vol. iv. pp. 256-264. 
 
 3 The first year of Yu-Nai Hwang-ti, independently of the miscalculated 
 astronomical recurrences which have perverted the Ancient Chinese chronology 
 variously arranged by native scholars from the Han to the Sung dynasties, has 
 been found on purely traditional grounds, by Hwang P'u-mi, a great scholar of 
 A. D. 215-282, in his works Ti wang she ki and Nien lih, to have happened in a 
 year which corresponds to our 2332 B.C. And the annals of the Bamkoo Books 
 {Tchuh shu ki nien I., i., 3) state as the first geographical entry that Hwang-ti, 
 in the 60th year of his reign, sacrificed near the Loh river (in Shensi S.E.). 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHOHS. 107 
 
 proximity of tlie Chaldean civilisation, with which we have 
 shown them to have been so well acquainted.^ The relation- 
 ship of their language with that of the Akkado-Sumerians 
 was pointed out and exemplified by me in 1880, and re- 
 peatedly since then in subsequent publications. I thought 
 at first that the connection was such that comparative 
 philologists might be compelled to include the ancient 
 Chinese and the Akkado-Sumerian dialects in one and the 
 same group of the Ural-Altaic languages.^ But a more 
 extensive comparison has shown me that the Akkado- 
 Sumerian words in Chinese belong to three successive strata : 
 (1) "Words belonging to the common inheritance of the two 
 languages from the original Turano-Scythian linguistic stock 
 to which they belonged and from which they have separately 
 and greatly diverged, through their contact with other 
 languages ; ^ (2) Words of culture received by the Bak 
 families from the Elamo-Babylonian civilisation in which 
 they were current terms ;^ (3) Words which have entered 
 China through intermediate and later channels. 
 
 129. At present the Turano-Scythian stock of languages is 
 divided into six principal groups : — 
 
 1. S. W, Asiatic: Akkado-Sumerian, etc. 
 
 2. Uralic: Ugro-Finnish ; Samoyed; Tungusic; Japanese. 
 
 3. Altaic : Turkish ; Mongol. 
 
 4. Kuenlunic : Kotte ; Chinese ; Tibeto-Burmese. 
 
 5. Himalaic : Dravidian ; Gangetic ; Kolarian ; etc. 
 
 6. Caucasic : N. Caucasian ; Alarodian.^ 
 
 1 In numerous publications referred to in the following notes. 
 
 2 Early history of the Chinese Civilisation^ 1880, pp. 19-21, where I gave a 
 comparison of fifty words identical in the two languages. 
 
 3 This is shown by the successive changes which have occurred in their respec- 
 tive ideologies. The ideological indices of the Chinese were at first iii. 1, 3, 5, 8 ; 
 passing through iv. 1,3, 6, 7, and vi, 2, 3, 6, 8, they are now settled at vi. 1, 3, 
 6, 8. — Those of the Akkado-Sumerian from iii. 1, 3, 5, 8, have passed to i. 1, 
 3, 5, 8, and iii. 2, 4, 5, 8. The standard indices of the Turano-Scythian stock 
 are iii. 1, 3, 5, 8. 
 
 * Cf. my work on the Origin of the early Chinese civilisation from Babylonia, 
 Elam, and later western sources, ch. iv. note 54 ; B. and 0. E. 1889, vol. iii. 
 p. 77. 
 
 ^ The Euskarian is perhaps the sole representative diverged and altered of a 
 seventh group. 
 
108 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 The arrangement ^ may not, and probably does not, corre- 
 spond to the original sub-division, as the geographical loca- 
 tions were different from what they are at present ; but a deep 
 relationship older than their division and multiplication in 
 groups exists between these languages, and as this relation- 
 ship is a result of common descent from an original nucleus 
 of dialects neighbouring one another, the older the lan- 
 guage of a group, the greater must be its affinity with any 
 other old language of a different group. Hence the com- 
 parisons which have been established on equally good grounds 
 between the Akkado-Sumerian and the Uralic languages by 
 Francois Lenormant,^ the Altaic languages by Prof. Fritz 
 Hommel,^ and the Chinese languages by myself, and lately 
 and more fully by the Eev. C. J. Ball.^ Similar comparisons 
 between Akkado-Sumerian, Tibeto-Burmese, and Dravidian 
 languages would prove equally successful. But the reasons 
 previously stated make the relationship with the ancient 
 Chinese particularly extensive without it be necessary to 
 assume, as an explanation of the case, that the Chinese 
 language is a modern representative of the Ancient Akkadian. 
 
 ^ On these groups ef. the standard works of Dr. Heinrich "Wenkler, JJral- 
 altaische Volker und Sprachen, Berlin, 1884 ; Das TIralaltaische uhd seine 
 Gruppen, Berlin, 1885. Also T. de L., The Languages of China before the Chinese 
 (Presidential Address to the Philological Society, 1886) ; second edition enlarged, 
 in French, 1888, 210 pp.. Alfred Maury, Journal des Savants, 1889, Oct. 
 473-485, Sept. 577-566. R. de la Grasseerie, Des recherches recentes de la 
 linguistique relatives aux langues de V Extreme Orient, princigalement d'apres les 
 travaux de M. Ten-ten de Lacouperie. Paris, Imprimerie Nationale, 1891, 31 pp. 
 
 2 La langue Primitive de la Chaldee et Us idiomes Touraniens, Paris, 1875; 
 Chaldcean Magic, London, 1877, 144 pp. 
 
 ' Die Sumero- Ahkadische Sprache und ihre Verwandtsc7iaftverhaltnisse,'pip. 65 
 (Zeitschrift flir Keilschrif tf orschung) , Munich, 1884 ; The Sumerian language 
 and its affinities, 13 pp. J.R.A.S. 1886, vol. xviii. T. de L., Akkadian and 
 Sumerian in Comparative Philology , 7 pp., The Babylonian and Oriental Record, 
 Nov. 1886, vol. i. 
 
 * T. de L., Early history of the Chinese Civilisation, pp. 19-21. Also C. J. Ball, 
 The New Accadian, 122 pp. (P.B.A,, 1889-1890), who has omitted to acknow- 
 ledge that I had been the first to open the field. The author, in order to avoid 
 to some extent the many pitfalls inherent to comparison of monosyllables, has 
 ingeniously proceeded by groups in his assimilations, and has thus undoubtedly 
 proved a deep relationship between the vocabulary of the two languages, although 
 about one-third of his Chinese words are misconceived or not old. 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 109 
 
 11. 
 
 131. It is not unimportant that this distinction should be 
 clearly understood, as otherwise an easy confusion might 
 arise in the minds of our readers and lead them to expect 
 between the Akkado-Sumerians of Babylonia and the ancient 
 civilizers of China, a continuity and parallelism of descent 
 and tradition, which is contrary to the historical evidence 
 collected some years since in long and extensive researches. 
 The Akkado-Sumarians were not the civilizers of Chaldaeo- 
 Babylonia. They were still rude and in a primitive stage of 
 social development when they came down from the moun- 
 tains of the north-east to the vicinity of the Persian Gulf, 
 attracted perhaps by the civilization already existing there. 
 The Chaldaean tradition was that the arts of civilization, 
 writing included, had been introduced by sea, and the most 
 recent researches and discoveries go far to show that the 
 Chaldean historian, Berosus, who has preserved the tradition, 
 was right. They assimilated to themselves this previous 
 civilization, which under their influence was developed and 
 deeply modified in the region of the country they occupied. 
 It was also transformed and modified, perhaps contempo^ 
 raneously during a certain period, by the Semites, in whose 
 hands it remained at last entirely. And it was this mixed 
 civilization which, after twenty or more centuries of evo- 
 lution and wear, extended eastwards unto the borders of the 
 Elamite country where the Bak tribes, or Bak sings, the 
 future civilizers of China, could avail themselves of its 
 advantages, about 2500 b.c.^ Besides the inference derived 
 from the traditions, the date is ascertained by the fact that 
 the forms of the ancient Babylonian characters, semi-linear 
 
 1 Recent discoveries (1891) in the ancient country of Illibi (Ellibi, Lilubi) 
 in the south of Media, show that it was under the sway of Babylonian civilisation 
 at the time of Gudea, if not before. Cf. G. Maspero, Decouverte de deux Antiques 
 tnVnutneuis Chaldeens; C. E. Acad. Inscr., t. xix. p. 426 ; J. de Morgan et Fr. 
 V. Scheil, Les deux steles de Zohab: Eec. de travaux, xiv. 100-106. — Gudea 
 himself made a campaign in Elam and conquered the town of Anzan. Cf. the 
 inscription of his statue B, col. vi. ; Record of the past, 1890, vol. ii. p. 82 (tr. 
 A. Amiaud). 
 
110 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 and cuneiform, from which the early Chinese symbols have 
 been derived, were those in use between the ages of Gudea 
 and Khammurabi.^ 
 
 132. The approximate date when the future civilisers of 
 China ^ began their migration eastwards is known only from 
 a supputation of traditions made by native scholars. Hu 
 JN^ak Khunte (in Chinese Yu Nai Hwang-ti), was their first 
 leader towards 2332 B.C. He raised in arms and fought 
 with success against the successors of Sargon (in Chinese 
 Shen nung), because his people objected to pay heavy taxes 
 newly imposed upon them.^ Fifty years later, i.e. about 
 2282 B.C., he had reached with his followers the south-east of 
 the present Shensi province, and could ofier a sacrifice on the 
 banks of the Loh river.* 
 
 133. It would be rather bold to assert that, when fleeing 
 east the Elamo-Babylonian yoke, and finally reaching the 
 Flowery Land whose fame had attracted them, the leaders of 
 the Bak Sings had actually carried away with them some 
 written documents. It is not improbable, but we cannot 
 prove it. In any case, it is most certain that some of the 
 notions they had borrowed were still very fresh when they 
 committed them to writing, and thus handed them down to 
 posterity. Others on the contrary were rather confused in 
 their memory. The diflPerence in some cases may have 
 resulted from the indirect way they had learned them. 
 
 134. The simple fact which underlies the whole history of 
 their after-evolution and progress is that they carried away 
 with them a semi-practical knowledge of the whole system of 
 Elamo-Babylonian civilization in the very stage of develop- 
 ment that had been reached a little after the middle of the 
 
 ^ Mr. C. J. Ball, in his independent comparisons, has come to the same con- 
 clusion, 
 
 2 They were most prohahly a blue-eyed, ruddy faced, and not black-haired race. 
 Cf. the demonstration in T. de L., The Black heads of Babylonia and Ancient 
 China, 1892, §§14-20. 
 
 3 Cf. T. de L., Onomastic similarity, § 5 ; From Ancient Chaldea to early 
 China, 1891, § 46. 
 
 * Cf. Hwang P'u-mi, Ti Wang she M ; Nien lih. This great scholar who 
 lived in the third century established the chronology of olden times chiefly from 
 traditional data, and did not subordinate his dates to the recurrence of astronomi- 
 cal events falsely established and calculated, as did Szema Tsien and others. 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. HI 
 
 third Millenium B.C., neither before, afterwards, or elsewhere. 
 In a special work on the Origin of the Early Chinese civiliza' 
 tion from Babylonia^ Elaniy and later western sources,^ besides 
 a certain number of monographs, since the proceeding pages 
 have been printed, I have attempted to discriminate from the 
 subsequent acquisitions made through various channels the 
 items of civilization in (1) sciences and arts, (2) writing and 
 literature, (3) institutions and religion, (4) historical legends 
 and traditions, which received by the Bak Sings previously 
 to their migration, have belonged to them since their settle- 
 ment under Yu nai Hwang- ti in the N.W. of the Flowery 
 Land. The list includes more than one hundred different 
 entries. 
 
 III. 
 
 135. One of the most striking evidences of this early bor- 
 rowing is that which has been preserved in the astronomical 
 statements of the first chapter of the Shii-King and the legen- 
 dary statement of the second chapter of the Yh-King, as 
 shown by the derivation of the symbols for the cardinal points 
 from those of Chaldaea and Elam.^ Palaeographical compari- 
 sons of the ancient Babylonian characters of about 2500 B.C. 
 with the primitive Chinese symbols, show that the signs of 
 the diagonal Orientation of Chaldea and Elam have been the 
 antecedents of those of the perpendicular Orientation of 
 China as follows : 
 Tang, the East, and the Left, has been derived from Alu, the 
 
 South-east and the Left. 
 Si, the West, and the Mighty has been derived from sicli, the 
 
 North- West and the Right. 
 Teh, the North and the BacU, has been derived from Mar{tu), 
 
 the Abode (of Sunset), the South- West and front for the 
 
 Akkado-Sumerians, and the West or behind for the 
 
 Assyrians. 
 
 1 In course of publication in The Babylonian and Oriental Record since 
 February, 1889. 
 
 2 Cited supra, p. 96. — Cf. T. de L., From Elam to China, the shifted cardinal 
 points: Babylonian and Oriental Record, Jan., 1888; From Ancient Chaldea 
 and Flam to Early China, par. 20-32 : Shifting of the cardinal points : ibid. 
 February, 1891. 
 
112 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 Nan, the South and the Front, was derived from Kurra, the 
 North-East and the Back of the Akkado-Sumerians, the 
 East and Front of the Assyrians. 
 
 136. Now when the Bak Sings emigrated from their former 
 settlements in the borders of Elam to go north-eastwards, 
 they left behind them the Mar or abode, whose symbol 
 became equivalent to their back. The fluctuations of their 
 route caused them to forget that it ever had anything to 
 do with the setting sun. And afterwards, bending their 
 route southwards to reach the much coveted Flowery Land, 
 their back became the north, and it has remained so for them. 
 For the same reason the sign primitively Kurra, which they 
 called Nam or Lam, modern Nan, became that of the South 
 and their front. 
 
 This change of front implied necessarily a corresponding 
 inversion in the two other symbols Ala = Tung = Left, and 
 Sidi := Si = Eight, which ought to have become the E-ight 
 and the Left, inversely of what they are. But with their 
 ancient respective meanings of Left and Eight, they could 
 be but in constant use; routine was stronger than any 
 reasoning, and thus preserved their old and popular accepta- 
 tions. The result was a curious confusion at the beginning, 
 illustrated in the two cases we refer to, which has baffled 
 hitherto all native and European commentators. 
 
 137. In the first chapter of the Shu-King it is reported that 
 Ti Yas taught his followers and subjects which stars they 
 ought to observe in order to determinate the seasons. In 
 the North for winter it was Mao (Pleiades) ; in the South for 
 summer. Ho (Scorpio) ; in Tung the East for spring, Niao 
 (Hydra) ; and in Si the "West for Autumn, Hiu (Aquarius). 
 Now this is just the reverse of what the things are in nature, 
 and it gives to Spring the constellations corresponding to 
 Autumn, and vice versa, &c. The mistake has given to the 
 Chinese cosmography of later years its ludicrous and unex- 
 plained appearance. Native and European astronomers agree 
 to say that at the time of Yao, the positions of the four stars 
 could not be all that which the text ascribes to them. The 
 Northern observation could be made at a certain hour, but 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 113 
 
 those of the East and West were impossible. As stated by 
 Siu-fah, the learned author of the T'ien yuen Lih li tsiuen shu 
 (published in 1682), the stars such as Hydra ought to have 
 changed from left to right.^ "With the data supplied to us 
 by the antecedents of the Chinese symbols for the points of 
 space, this gives us a clue to the right explanation which the 
 statement of the Th-King also confirms. 
 
 138. The original and concise document made use of by the 
 Chinese leader, placing the star Hiu in relation with the 
 symbol of space Si, and the star Niao with Tung was certainly 
 right and logical with the things that ought to be ; for, the 
 symbols peh and nan having been inverted in meaning, Si 
 and Tung ought also to have been inverted ; the popular 
 routine ought not to have been followed, and the inversion 
 of meaning which consistency required agreed with the 
 natural position of the stars. But somebody blundered 
 with the document. The statement in the Yh-Kingy which 
 we shall examine presently, ofiering the same particularity, 
 would suggest that the error was not Yao's fault. It was 
 more probably a mistake of the author of the chapter of 
 the Shu Kingy who, as stated in the text, compiled it after- 
 wards on notes from antiquity, and, unaware of the peculiarity, 
 combined or corrected wrongly the information. 
 
 139. In the second chapter of the Yh-Kingy about the 
 Earth, it is stated that in the Si-nan they got the falling 
 down, and in the Tung-peh they grieved for it. With the 
 usual acceptation of south-west and north-east for the two 
 expressions, the statement is unintelligible. But if we look 
 upon it as a fragment of the earliest lore written by one of 
 the first leaders, when Si and Tung had exchanged their 
 former acceptation like Peh and Nany the matter becomes 
 clear. The statement means that in the south-east they got 
 the falling down and in the north-west they grieved for it. 
 And it agrees with the following circumstance in the remains 
 
 ^ Cf. G. Schlegel, JJranographie Chmoise, 1875, pp. 4-9. — J. Chalmers, On 
 the Astronomy of the Ancient Chinese, 1875. — The two European scholars agree 
 with the Chinese. 
 
 8 
 
114 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 of the Deluge legend preserved in China, verses 5, 6 and 7 : ^ 
 "The pillars of Heaven were broken and the four cardinal 
 
 points of the earth sundered ; 
 ** This caused the Heavens to fall on the North- West, and 
 
 consequently the sun, moon and stars moved to that 
 
 point ; 
 "The Earth also became defective on the South-East, and 
 
 that is the reason why the rivers flow in that direction. "^ 
 
 The statements of the Shu King and of the Yh-King thus 
 
 explain and confirm one another, and may be looked upon as 
 
 original relics of the written teachings imparted to their 
 
 subjects in China by the early leaders arrived from the west. 
 
 lY. 
 
 140. "We find still in the present time, although in a frag- 
 mentary and corrupted condition, some remains of traditions 
 and legends originally from the west, which must have been 
 taught also by the early leaders, and committed to writing 
 for preservation. Such documents were made use of by the 
 authors of the Yhs, as proved by the fragments of the Kwei 
 tsang and some of the allusions referred to in the Chm Th, 
 such as the female-animal in cosmogony, the sundering of 
 the cardinal points, the defeat in Tsung Kiu, &c. We have 
 investigated a few of them, such as those concerning the 
 Deluge tradition, the Fishmen bearers of writing, the Tree of 
 Life, Stories about Sargon (in Chinese Shennung), and Hu 
 Nak Khunte, the animal mother in cosmogony, a list of 
 Akkadian and Kassite Kings, with the probability of finding 
 some more.^ The fate of these precious relics of "Western 
 
 1 Cf. T. de L., The Deluge Tradition and its JRemains in Ancient China, 1890, 
 $ 26 (B. and 0. E., iv. 80). 
 
 2 Allusion to the direction of the two great Mesopotamian rivers which runs 
 from N.W. to S.E. 
 
 ^ Cf. T. de L., Early History of Chinese civilisation, 1880 ; Chinese and 
 Akkadian affinities: The Acad. 20 Jan. 1883 ; The- Affinity of the ten stems of 
 the Chinese cycle with the Akkadian numerals : ibid. 1 Sept. 1883 ; The zodiac 
 and cycles of Babylonia and their Chinese derivatives: ibid. 11 Oct. 1890; The 
 Chinese mythical Kings and the Babylonian canon: ibid. 6 Oct. 1883; Tra- 
 ditions of Babylonia in Early Chinese documents : ibid. 17 Nov. 1883 ; Babylonian 
 and old Chinese measures : ibid. 10 Oct. 1885 ; Ancient Chinese Weights and 
 Measures, pp. xli-xlvi, Introd. of Catalogue of Chinese Coins, 1892; Babylonia 
 and China : The Acad. 7 Aug. 1886 ; Western origin of the early Chinese civili- 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 115 
 
 antiquity in Ancient China was very sad. The Chinese mind 
 in its matter-of-fact character and limited aspirations is ill- 
 disposed to take interest in such matters. They remained, 
 as chance permitted, more or less badly preserved in the Royal 
 Archives, and perhaps represented only by a few copies until 
 some circumstances roused the native mind from its slumber 
 and attracted upon them the attention of a few. 
 
 141. About the close of the sixth century B.C., Lao Tan, 
 who was keeper of the Royal Archives of Chou, at Loh, found 
 there a collection of literary remains attributed to Hwang-ti 
 (Hu Nak Kunte) the first leader of the Bak Sings in China, 
 and extracted from it the animal mother cosmogony to which 
 he gave vent in the chapter sixth of his Tao teh King. We 
 have seen some traces of it in the Yh-King (cf. Introduction). 
 Attention began henceforth to be drawn on these long for- 
 gotten documents. 
 
 142. In the East of China around the South of the Shantung 
 peninsula an important movement had begun since the 
 previous century. Foreign traders of the Erythaean Sea, 
 incited by the introduction among them of the Phoenician 
 Navy by Sennacherib in 697-695, had pursued their mari- 
 time enterprises much further than before, and about 675 
 B.C. they had reached the Southern shores of Shantung, 
 where they founded, on the gulf of Kiao-tchou, Lang-ga and 
 Tsi-moh. It was in the latter place that the first coin of 
 China^ was issued by them about 670. These foreigners, 
 Saboeans, Syrians and Hindus introduced new notions, such 
 as astrology and superstitions, and by their sailors' yarns 
 
 zation : Babylonian and Oriental Record, June 1887 ; The Chinese intrudersy 
 par. 197-208 of The Languages of China before the Chinese, 1887 ; The wheat 
 indigenous to Mesopotamia carried to early China, 1883 ; The Tree of Life and 
 the calendar plant of Babylonia and China, 1888 ; The calendar plant of China, 
 the cosmic tree and the date palm of Babylonia, 1890 ; 2 he legendary fishmen of 
 early Babylonia in ancient Chinese fables, 1888 ; The Onomastic similarity of 
 Nai Hwangti of China and Nakhunte of Susiana, 1890 ; The Deluge tradition 
 and its remains in Ancient China, 1890 ; From Ancient Chaldeea and Elam to 
 Early China, an historical loan of culture, 1891 ; The Black-heads of Babylonia 
 and Ancient China, 1892, etc. Cf. also W. St. Chad. Boscawen, Shennung and 
 Sargon : B. and 0. R. August 1888. 
 
 1 Cf T. de L., Catalogue of Chinese coins from the 1th cent. B.C. to a.d. 621, 
 p. xi., Ix., and 214. 
 
116 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 awakened a curiosity for the wonderful. The social and 
 political condition of the country was favourable to a move- 
 ment of this sort. The Chinese princes were anxious of 
 novelty to show their independence from the once respected 
 and now disregarded suzerainty of the Kings of Chou. It 
 was really an age of wonderisra. 
 
 143. The thinkers and philosophers who took the lead of the 
 movement sought eagerly for the old documents of Hwang-ti, 
 and combined the old with the new information in their 
 speculations. But the national mind did not accept easily 
 all these innovations, and found its most complete expression 
 in the teachings of Confucius and his school, who objected to 
 anything that was not tangible and well ascertained. The 
 Taoists of Honan and the Wonderists of Shantung thus 
 opposed could but gradually fuse together, and the result 
 was, what has been well called, the Taoszeism, which like 
 the Confucianism, is still at present existing in China. Now 
 the Confucianism from its closer touch with the national 
 character has generally, with few temporary exceptions, kept 
 the upper hand with the Government and the literati, and 
 thus thrown in disfavour the elucubrations and even the 
 more sober works of the other school, including the old relics 
 of primitive times. These relics, disdained- therefore by the 
 Confucianists, have not received all the attention they 
 deserved and which a wholesome competition between the 
 two schools would have secured to them. They remained at 
 the sole disposal of the Taoseists and of non-Confucianists; 
 the former especially to whom we are indebted for their 
 preservation, have enlarged upon them, and in transmitting 
 them have added wonderful accounts and details foreign to 
 the originals, which Sinologists and modern critics have now 
 the unwieldy task to discriminate. 
 
 V. 
 
 144. The influence of the remarkable evolution of the 
 Chinese writing on the fate of the original Yh-King has 
 been explained to a certain extent in the third chapter of the 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 117 
 
 present volume. A few additional remarks only are neces- 
 sary to complete the demonstration. 
 
 The writing learned by the Bak families in the West^ was 
 in a hieratic stage of semi-phonetism and semi-id eographism; 
 their faded hieroglyphism lost in some cases was in others 
 concealed only by the stiffness of the lapidary and conven- 
 tional cuneiform style ; when written with the rounded 
 strokes allowed by a soft and vegetable material as that used 
 by the Baks, many of the symbols still preserved a distinctive 
 appearance of their alleged or original object. The cuneiform 
 style was not unknown to the early Chinese by tradition and 
 also probably by some material evidence, as shown by the 
 various traditions and monumental data (isolate survivals), 
 which we have been able to adduce together on the subject.^ 
 
 145. The old age of this writing, not so much however as 
 its former (though not primitive) heterogeneous ambients 
 Kushite, Akkadian and Semitic, had caused its characters to 
 be used much beyond the scope of their original purposes. 
 And many symbols, even among those whose semi-pictorial 
 appearance was not extinct, had acquired some acceptations 
 which could be learned but by experience and long practice. 
 These conditions made imperative the use of explanatory 
 lists, ideographical and phonetical, giving the various accep- 
 tations of the written characters in Assyro- Babylonia, whence 
 the so-called syllabaries in Cuneiform characters. Now the 
 leaders of the Bak families were under that respect, in still 
 more stringent conditions, when they introduced this same 
 writing in the Flowery Land. They could not help making 
 similar lists for the teaching of their followers and new 
 people, and some of these lists have found their way into the 
 Yh'King, a contention we have held since the beginnings of 
 
 1 Apparently for the first time under the reign of the Akkadian King Dungi. 
 Cf. T. de L., The Old Babylonian Characters and their Chinese derivates, 1888, 
 § 30. Also The Babylonian origin of the Chinese characters, J.R.A.S. 1888, 
 XX. 312-315 ; Chips of Babylonian and Chinese palaeography, 1888. — And the 
 approhative paper of Prof. A. H. Sayce, The Old Babylonian characters and their 
 Chinese derivates, Nature, 7 June, 1888, and B. and 6. R., August, 1888. 
 
 2 The old Babylonian characters, § 29 ; From Ancient Chaldcea and JElam to 
 early China, § 19. 
 
118 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 our decipherment of this oldest book of the Chinese. Their 
 lists made soon after their arrival in China, could not, 
 especially in the case of certain symbols, particularly difficult 
 and extensively used, but contain many of the acceptations 
 that were current for the same symbols in the West. 
 
 146. In the pp. 77-80 of the present volume, we have given 
 a translation of the xxxth chapter of the Yh-King which is 
 one of these lists concerning the symbol Li :^, and p. 98 a pro- 
 vincial list of the acceptations hitherto ascertained for the 
 antecedent of the same symbol in the Babylonian world, Luy 
 JglJ The provisory list was short and covered but one part 
 of the meanings indicated in the Yh. We had, however, 
 been able to show as one of the original meanings, that of 
 " Cow," which a distinguished Assyriologist had been able 
 subsequently to find also in the Cuneiform documents at his 
 disposal. Since then Assyriology has made some progresses, 
 more materials have come to hand, and extensive lists have 
 been published. It is therefore a great satisfaction for me, as 
 it cannot fail to strengthen the confidence of our readers in 
 our mode of dealing with the Yh^ to give now the following 
 comparative lists of the acceptations of this symbol in the 
 cuneiform texts, and of those which attributed to its 
 derivate by the leaders of the Bak families in China have 
 found their way into the Yh. 
 
 147. The sources referred to are for the Babylonian side 
 the most useful Classified List of all simple and compound 
 Cuneiform Ideographs^ published in 1889 by Dr. Rudolph 
 E. Briinnow. It contains no less that 27 entries for the 
 character in question alone with as many different Assyro- 
 Babylonian equivalents,^ some of which are duplicate mean- 
 ings. I subjoin the numero of the entry to each quotation. 
 For the Chinese I have taken the 22 meanings of the chapter 
 30th of the Yh above, reducible to 16 because of six 
 duplicates, and I subjoin also the serial number for reference 
 in every case. 
 
 1 As the translations are not given in this work, I have referred for them to 
 the vocabularies of F. Delitzsch, J. Halevy, P. Haupt, F. Lenormant, J. Oppert, 
 T. G. Pinches, A. H. Sayce, and special information from Prof. Fritz Hommel. 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 119 
 
 Babylonian. Chinese. 
 
 10678, bulu, cattle; 10697, senu, sheep; 
 
 p. 98 cow. 1. A domestic cow. 
 
 10675, alaku to walk. 2. To shoe. 
 
 10676, ia'w to seek. 3. Confused. 
 
 10688, wM^t* to die. 4. Burn away ; 7. Brightness fading ; 
 
 12. Burning like ; 13. Dying. 
 10699, tamuhu, to hold ; 10687, lamvt, 
 to surround; 10700, ^ulluhc, 
 
 to protect. 6. Attentive; 17. Lucky omen. 
 
 ? 6. Bird. 
 
 10690, nigti music. 8. Special music. 
 
 10685, kissu .... multitude. 9. Perpetual chatter. 
 10680, hdtu, trespass; 10679, eteku, 
 
 to go forward. 10. Oppose, rushing against. 
 
 10677, ba'dru to hunt. 11. To meet. 
 
 10694, sahdtu; 10695, sibtu ; 10683, 14. Throwing of; 16. to split wood; 
 
 kamu to seize. 19. to cut oflf. 
 
 10698, tabaku .... Outpouring. 15. Falling drops. 
 
 10694, ahazu . . to possess, to take 18. To have something. 
 10684, kirdibbu ? ; 10685, kirru, ani- 
 
 • mal ; 10681, immeru . . beast. 20. Ravenous beast. 
 
 10692, kababu a cover. 21. Bamboo basket. 
 
 10696, subburu ... to oppress. 22. Abominable (Bogie). 
 
 148. So that, with the exception of " Bird " (which may- 
 be recovered in future decipherments) all the meanings 
 ascribed to the symbol in the Yh-King have been found in 
 the documents belonging to the fountain head of the 
 civilisation imported into China by the Bak families. 
 
 Considering the extraordinary difficulties under which 
 these lists of meanings can be studied, scholars will appreciate 
 how remarkable and how conclusive is the proof which we 
 have just quoted, and which has come as an accessory after 
 the fact. 
 
 YI. 
 
 149. When Yu Nai Hwang-ti and his followers introduced 
 in China the system of writing they had learned in the West, 
 the Pre-Chinese populations of the country were in possession 
 of three sorts of embryo-writings : cup-marks, knotted-cords, 
 and notched sticks, and there is no evidence whatever that 
 they should have used any system of pictograph except, 
 perhaps, as isolate symbols, but not as a body of written 
 characters from which additional signs might have been 
 borrowed by the scribes of the Bak families. This is shown 
 by the simple fact, that besides the absence of any traditional 
 
120 THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 
 
 or monumental relics to the contrary, the objects of Chinese 
 origin which were unknown to new comers, such as silk, 
 cocoon, silkworm, iron, &c., had to be named with characters 
 simple or compound of the imported writing. In course of 
 time certain characters from the system imported by the Bak 
 families, were attributed to these objects, either as descriptive 
 symbols, or because of their outside appearance, pictograph 
 like, of the objects, however foreign to their original purpose.^ 
 150. As all the ideographical writings, the written charac- 
 ters of Ancient China increased in number in course of time, 
 from their internal system, because of the wanted additions 
 required by the progress of knowledge. But their increase 
 took place in peculiar conditions which it is important for 
 Sinologists to remember, because of the false inferences which 
 the appearance of the writing would seem otherwise to justify, 
 if not thoroughly investigated. Therefore it is highly 
 necessary to remark that, should the writing introduced by 
 the Baks have contained no traces of hieratic pictographs, 
 it would have been a bar to any addition of new characters 
 similarly made ; such as it was, the contrary was the result, 
 as the standard characters could not object to the introduction 
 among them of new symbols distinctly framed on the prin- 
 ciple of sketched pictographs for fresh purposes, or for clearer 
 meaning in substitution of older and more conventional 
 characters. Besides these voluntary additions the writing 
 has increased from the three following sources : (1) variants 
 resulting from the gradual neglect of the primary rules of 
 spelling and composition, and the actual ignorance and care- 
 lessness of the scribes; (2) local variants of the standard 
 forms, entered into the vocabulary with an acquired shade of 
 meaning ; (3) pictorial equivalents of diflScult or little known 
 standard characters, actually created among the less cultivated 
 part of the Chinese dominion. These various causes of 
 alterations and increase of the written vocabulary continued 
 
 1 The Bak families knew gold, copper, silver and tin (or antimony) from 
 their western residence ; they did not know bronze which reached them from the 
 west in the eighteenth century, nor iron which they learned from the Pre- 
 Chinese, and which they called for that reason the barbarian metal. Cf. Cata- 
 logue of Chinese Coins, pp. viii. and xxii. 
 
THE YH-KING AND ITS AUTHORS. 121 
 
 to act even after the famous ideographical renovation of the 
 writing of 820 B.C. which we have described, p. 21, and 
 which was certainly not calculated to put a stop to them. 
 
 We hope that the foregoing statements of facts and 
 explanations will dissipate the illusions of those who might 
 be inclined to believe in a self-grown and hieroglyphical 
 origin of the Chinese writing, and therefore refuse to study 
 our explanation of the not uncomplicated problem hitherto 
 unsolvable of the Yh-King. 
 
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