Ancient China Simplified | Page 7

compared with Chinese--The historical honour of "naming"--Vagueness of testimony and the way to test evidence.
CHAPTER XXVIII
BARBARIANS The state of Wu--First Chinese princely emigrants adopted barbarian usages--The Jungle country and Wu--Wu's way of doing the hair and Wu's confession of barbarism--Federal China uses Wu against Ts'u--Wu the same language and manners as Yueh--Native Wu words--Wu's ignorance of war--Wu's early isolation--Ts'i enters into marriage relations with Wu--Mencius objects retrospectively-- Wu ruling caste--The Wu language--Succession laws of Wu--A Wu prince's views on the soul--Confucius' views on ghosts--Ki-chah's intimacy with orthodox statesmen--Rumours of Early Japan--Japan and Wu tattooing customs alike--Japanese traditions of a connection with Wu--Dangers of etymological guess-work--Doubts about racial matters in Wu--Small value of Japanese history and tradition--General conclusions.
CHAPTER XXIX
CURIOUS CUSTOMS Small size of ancient China--Description of ancient nucleus and surrounding barbarians--Amount of foreign element in each vassal state--Policy of the Ts'i and Lu administrations--The savage tribes of the eastern coasts--Persistency of some down to 970 A.D.--Ts'in's unliterary quality--Her human sacrifices--Her Turkish blood--Late influence of the Emperors over Ts'in--Ts'in's gradual civilization--Ki-chah on Ts'in music--Ts'u treats Ts'in as barbarian still in 361 B.C.--Ts'in's isolation previous to 326 B.C.--Tartar rule of succession at one time in Ts'in--Yiieh's barbarism--Its able king--Native name--Mushroom existence as a power--The various branches of the Yiieh race in Foochow, W&chow, and Tonquin--Wu and Yiieh spoke the same language--Ruling caste of Wu--Stern military discipline in Wu and Yiieh--Neither state proved to have had human sacrifices--Crawling customs--Ancient Chinese descent of rulers--Yiieh's later capital in the German sphere--Her power always marine.
CHAPTER XXX
LITERARY RELATIONS Literary relations between vassal states--Confucius set the ball of philosophy a-rolling--The fourfold "Bible" of China--Odes were generally known by heart--Comparison with President Kruger and his texts--Quotations from Odes and Book enable us to fix dates--Books were heavy weights in those days--People trusted to memory--The Rites more exclusively understood by the ruling classes-- Comparison with Johnsonian wits--Instances cited, with side proofs--History and Classics corroborate each other-Evidences-- Confucius' ancestor composes odes--Political song by the children of Tsin--Another still-existing ode in reference to the Second Protector--Ts'u's early literary knowledge--General knowledge of Odes and History--Ignorance of Ts'in-Ts'in ancient documents the only ones now remaining--First definite notion of abolishing the feudal system--The pivot point 403 B.C.--Ts'in's conquests in north, south, east, and west--The First August Emperor's travels-- Lao-tsz's Taoist philosophy becomes fashionable--Ts'in's hatred of orthodox literature, and of the Odes and Book in particular--The Book of Changes escapes his hatred--Revolutionary decree of the First August Emperor-Lost annals of all feudal states but Ts'in-- Learned Tartars of Tsin-Confucius used Tsin annals too--Origin of the name _Shi-ki,_ or "Historical Annals"--Further evidence of lost histories--Curious name for Ts'u Annals--Ts'u poetry- Ts'u's knowledge of past history--The term "Springs and Autumns"-- Baldness of early Chinese annals.
CHAPTER XXXI
ORIGIN OF THE CHINESE Whence did the Chinese come?--All men of equal age and ancestry-- Records make civilization and nobility--Evidences of antiquity-- China and the West totally unknown to each other in ancient times-- Tartars the connecting link--Though tamed by religion they are not much changed now--Traders then, as now, but no through travellers--Chinese probably in China for myriads of years before their records began--Tonic peculiarities of all tribes near China except the Tartars--Chinese followed lines of least resistance-- Tartars driven back, but difficult to absorb--So with Coreans and Japanese-Indo-China not so favourable for Chinese absorption-- Records decided the direction taken by culture--Southern half- Chinese have equal claims with orthodox Chinese--Traditions of ancient emperors in north, coast, and south parts--Suggestions as to how the most ancient Chinese spread themselves--No hint of immigration from anywhere--The old suggestion of immigration from the Tarim Valley and Babylonia--Suggested compromise with Western religious views--Creation and Nature--Compromise with the supernatural and imaginative--Summing up.
CHAPTER XXXII
THE CALENDAR The Chinese calendar--Confucius and eclipses--Proclaiming the new moon--Celestial observations in different states--Chinese year is luni-Solar--Difficulty with the exact length of a moon--Ingenious devices for bringing the solar and lunar years, the seasons, solstices, and equinoxes into harmony with agricultural needs--The sixty-year cycle--Various reforms of the calendar, and various changes in the month beginning the year--Effect of calendar changes on Confucius' birthday--All is evidence in favour of accuracy of the Chinese records.
CHAPTER XXXIII
NAMES The difficulty of proper names--Instances-Clans and detached families--Surnames and personal names--Strange personal appellations--Interchange of names by all states--Eunuchs and priests-Minute rules about "naming" individuals--Confucius conveys praise or censure by "naming" persons--The principles upon which several names are applied to one person--Tabu-Instances, and Roman parallel--The Duke of Chou virtual founder of posthumous name system--Dying king and posthumous choice of name--Incestuous marriages in own clan--Hushing up incest in high places-- Complication of names connected--Bearing of names upon the political events connected therewith.
CHAPTER XXXIV
_EUNUCHS, HUMAN SACRIFICES, FOOD_
Eunuchs and their origin--criminals with feet chopped off as keepers--Noseless criminals for isolated picket duty--The branded were gate-keepers--Eunuchs for the harem--"Purified men"-- Comparative antiquity of Persia and China--Eunuchs in Tsin--Ts'i eunuchs and Confucius--Eunuchs in Wu--Ts'u's uses for eunuchs-- Eunuch intrigues