{"collection":"cfu","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/cfu/sbe03/sbe03015.htm","path":"cfu/sbe03/sbe03015.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/cfu/sbe03/sbe03015.htm","text":"This Book ranks in that class of the documents of the Sh\u00fb which goes by the name of 'Instructions.' Though the form of it be poetical, the subject-matter is derived from the Lessons left by Y\u00fc for the guidance of his posterity.\nTh\u00e2i Khang succeeded to his father in B.C. 2188, and his reign continues in chronology to 2160. His character is given here in the introductory chapter. Khiung, the principality of \u00ce who took the field against him, is identified with the sub-department of T\u00ea-K\u00e2u, department K\u00ee-nan, Shan-tung. There is a tradition that \u00ce, at an early period of his life, was lord of a state in the present Ho-nan. This would make his movement against Th\u00e2i Khang, 'south of the Ho,' more easy for him. The name of Th\u00e2i Khang remains in the district so called of the department Kh\u0103n-k\u00e2u, Ho-nan. There, it is said, he died, having never been able to recross the Ho.\nIn his song the king's first brother deplores how he had lost the affections of the people; the second speaks of his dissolute extravagance; the third mourns his loss of the throne; the fourth deplores his departure from the principles of Y\u00fc, and its disastrous consequences; and the fifth is a wail over the miserable condition of them all.\n1. Th\u00e2i Khang occupied the throne like a personator of the dead 1. By idleness and dissipation he extinguished his virtue, till the black-haired people all wavered in their allegiance. He, however, pursued his pleasure and wanderings without any\nself-restraint. He went out to hunt beyond the Lo, and a hundred days elapsed without his returning. (On this) \u00ce, the prince of Khiung, taking advantage of the discontent of the people, resisted (his return) on (the south of) the Ho. The (king's) five brothers had attended their mother in following him, and were waiting for him on the north of the Lo; and (when they heard of \u00ce's movement), all full of dissatisfaction, they related the Cautions of the great Y\u00fc in the form of songs.\n2. The first said,\nThe second said,\n It is in the Lessons:--\n When the palace is a wild of lust,\n And the country is a wild for hunting; p. 80\n When spirits are liked, and music is the delight;\n When there are lofty roofs and carved walls;--\n The existence of any one of these things\n Has never been but the prelude to ruin.'\nThe third said,\n 'There was. the lord of Th\u00e2o and Thang\u00a01\n Who possessed this region of K\u00ee.\n Now we have fallen from his ways,\n And thrown into confusion his rules and laws;--\n The consequence is extinction and ruin.'\nThe fourth said,\n Brightly intelligent was our ancestor,\n Sovereign of the myriad regions.\n He had canons, he had patterns,\n Which he transmitted to his posterity.\n The standard stone and the equalizing quarter\n Were in the royal treasury.\n Wildly have we dropt the clue he gave us,\n Overturning our temple, and extinguishing our sacrifices.'*\nThe fifth said,\n 'Oh! whither shall we turn?\n The thoughts in my breast make me sad\n All the people are hostile to us;\n On whom can we rely?\n Anxieties crowd together in our hearts;\n Thick as are our faces, they are covered with blushes.\n We have not been careful of our virtue;\n And though we repent, we cannot over-take the past.'\n78:1 The character that here as a verb governs the character signifying 'throne' means properly 'a corpse,' and is often used for the personator of the dead, in the sacrificial services to the dead which formed a large part of the religious ceremonies of the ancient Chinese. A common definition of it is 'the semblance of the spirit,' = the image into which the spirit entered. Th\u00e2i Khang was but a personator on the throne, no better than a sham sovereign.\n79:1 Any king, in the person of Y\u00fc, may be understood to be the speaker.\n80:1 The lord of Th\u00e2o and Thang is Y\u00e2o, who was lord of the principalities of Th\u00e2o and Thang, but of which first and which last is uncertain, before his accession to the throne. K\u00ee is the K\u00ee K\u00e2u of the Tribute of Y\u00fc.","title":"SBE 3: Part III: The Books of Hsi\u00e2: Book III. The Songs of the Five Sons","type":"page"}