Ancient China Simplified | Page 6

so honourable: instances
given--Casuistry backed up by a proverb.
CHAPTER XIX
CONFUCIUS AND LITERATURE Life-time of Confucius--Secret of
his influence--Visit of the Wu prince to Confucius' state--Lu's
"powerful" family plague--Lu's position between Tsin and Ts'u
influences--Ts'i studies the ritual in Lu: Yen-tsz goes thither--Sketch of
Lu history in its connection with Confucius--What were his practical
objects?-- Authorities in support of what Confucius' Annals tell
us--Original conception of natural religion--Spread of the earliest
patriarchal Chinese state--No other people near them possessed
letters--The way in which the Chinese spread--Lines of least
resistance--The spiritual emperor compared with some of the
Popes--Lu's spiritual position--Confucius of Sung descent, and at first
not an influential official in Lu--Lu's humiliation--Ts'i's intrigues to
counteract Confucius' genius--Travels of Confucius and his
history--His edited works.

CHAPTER XX
LAW Original notion of law--War and punishment on a
level--Secondary punishments--Judgment given as each breach
occurs--No distinction between legislative and judicial--Private rights
ignored by the State--Public weal is Nature's law--First law reform for
the Hundred Families--Dr. Legge's translation of the Code--
Proclamation of the Emperor's laws--Themistes or decisions--
Capricious instances: boiling alive by Emperor--Interference of
Emperor in Lu succession--Tsang Wen-chung's coat--Barbarity of the
Ts'u laws--Lu's influence with the Emperor--Tsin's engraved
laws--Tsz-ch'an's laws on metal in Cheng--Confucius disapproves of
published law--English judge-made law--All rulers accepted Chou
law--Reading law over sacrificial victim--Laconic ancient laws--
Command emanates from the north--Definition of imperial power--The
laws of Li K'wei in Ngwei state (part of old Tsin)--Direct influence on
modern law.
CHAPTER XXI
PUBLIC WORKS Engineering works of old Emperors--Marvellous
chiselled gorge above Tch'ang--Pa and Shuh kingdoms (= Sz
Ch'wan)--The engineer Li Ping in Sz Ch'wan: his sluices still in
working order after 2200 years of use--Chinese ideas about the sources
of the Yang-tsz--The Lolo country and its independence--The Yellow
River and its vagaries--Substitution of the Chou dynasty for the Shang
dynasty-- First rulers of Wu make a canal--Origin of the Grand Canal--
Explanation of the old riverine system of Shan Tung--Extension of the
Canal by the First August Emperor--Kublai Khan's share in it-- The old
Wu capital--Soochow and its ancient arsenals--No bridges in old clays:
fords used--Instances--Limited navigability of northern rivers--Various
Great Walls--Enormous waste of human life--New Ts'in
metropolis--Forced labour and eunuchs.
CHAPTER XXII
CITIES AND TOWNS Ancient cities mere hovels--Soul, the capital of

modern Corea-- Modern cities still poor affairs--Want of unity causes
downfall of Ts'in and China--Magnificence of Ts'i capital--Ts'u's
palaces imitated in Lu--The capital of Wu--Modern Soochow--Nothing
known of early Ts'in towns--Reforms of Wei Yang in Ts'in--Probable
population--Magnificent buildings at new Ts'in metropolis-- Facility
with which vassal states shifted their capitals-- Insignificant size of
ancient principalities--Walled cities.
CHAPTER XXIII
_BREAK-UP OF CHINA_
Collapse of Wu, flight in boats to Japan--Ground to believe that the
ruling caste of Japan was influenced by Chinese colonists in the fifth
century B.C.--Rise of Yueh, and action in China as Protector--Changes
in the Hwai River system--Last days of the Chou dynasty--The year
403 B.C. is the second great pivot point in history--Undermining of Ts'i
state by the T'ien or Ch'en family-- Confucius shocked at the murder of
a Ts'i prince--Sudden rise of Ts'in after two centuries of
stagnation--The reforms of Wei Yang lead to the conquest of
China--Orthodox China compared with Greece--The "Fighting State"
Period.
CHAPTER XXIV
KINGS AND NOBLES Titles of the Emperors of the Chou
dynasty--The word "King" in modern times--Posthumous names--The
title "Emperor" and the word "Imperial"--"God" confused with
"Emperor"--Lao-tsz's view-- Comparison with Babylonia, Egypt,
etc.--No feudal prince was recognized by the Emperor as possessing the
same title as the Emperor--The Roman Emperors--The five ranks of
nobles--The Emperor's private "dukes" compared with cardinals--The
state of Lu--The state of Ts'i--The state of Tsin--No race hatreds in
China--The state of Wei--Clanship between dynasties--Sacrificial
rights--The state of Cheng: a fighting ground for all--The state of
Ch'en--Explanation of the term "duke" as applied to all sovereign
princes.

CHAPTER XXV
VASSALS AND EMPEROR The vassal princes of the Chou and
previous dynasties--Vassal princes and their relations with the
Emperors--Protectors make great show of defending the Emperors
rights--The Emperor's sacrifices to God--Rules and rights concerning
fees--All China belongs to the Emperor--Peculiar notions about the
Emperor's territory--Respect due to imperial envoys--Direct and
indirect vassals--Ts'u's group of vassals--Ts'u compared with
Macedon-- Never subject to the Emperors--Right of passage for
armies-- Special complimentary use of the term "viscount"--Titles not
inherited during mourning--Forms of address--Rival Protectors and
their respective subordinate states--Tribute from the states to the
Emperor, and presents from the Emperor to the vassal states-- The
Emperor accepts faits accomplis, and takes what he can get.
CHAPTER XXVI
FIGHTING STATE PERIOD Period of fighting states--Tsin divided
into Han, Ngwei, and Chao- Ts'in developing herself in Tartary and in
Sz Ch'wan--Want of orderly method in Chinese history--How the
statesmen of each vassal state developed resources--Ts'in's military
development compared with that of Prussia from 1815 to
1870--"Perpendicular and Horizontal" period--Object to