Ancient China Simplified | Page 9

to the Tartars--Chou family's subsequent dealings with the Tartars--How Ts'in replaced Chou as the semi-Tartar or westernmost state of China--Tartars for many centuries in possession of Yellow River north bank--Once extended to Kiang Su province--Confucius' knowledge of the Tartars--Tartar attacks in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C.-- Causes of the Protector system--Incompetence of Emperors to stave off Tartar attacks--Ts'i's extensive relations with the Tartars-- The Second Protector and his adviser--Rude treatment of the Second Protector by the orthodox Chinese states--Ts'u's bluff hospitality-- Second Protector had to check Chinese instead of Tartar ambitions-- Tsin's Tartar admixture--Comparison with Roman adventurers--How Tartars have in modern times ruled China and Asia.
CHAPTER XLII
MUSIC Music in Chinese life--Confucius' present dwelling and the ancient instruments therein--Comparison with Wagner's Ring--Musicians as corrupters of simplicity--Tsin and Ts'in dialects--Music as an adjunct to government--Confucius' views on music--Ts'u music--The effect of music on the mind--Rewards in the shape of right to play certain tunes--The Emperor Muh's music--Music coupled with soothsaying--Lao-tsz on benevolence and justice-Playing the banjo-- Music at sacrifice or worship--Modern abstinence from music-- First August Emperor compared with Saul and his music.
CHAPTER XLIII
_WEALTH, SPORTS, ETC._
Ancient and modern ideas of wealth--Ts'in and Ts'u valuables-- Furniture--Mats and divans--Tea and wine--Tartar couches--Inlaid ivory sofas--State treasure--Wealth in horses-Silks and furs in Tsin and Ts'u--Women as property--Pearls and jade as portable property--A Chinese Crocesus--Escape by sea to Shan Tung--Gold as money--Bribery with "metal"--Iron and gold mines in Wu--Fine Wu swords--"Cash" as coins--Ts'u money--Weight of a gold piece--Cooks important personages--"Meat-eaters" meant the ruling classes-- Silk universal--Poor wore hemp--No cotton--Ts'in custom of wearing swords--Jade marks of rank--Sports--Egret fights-war hunts--Horses in Peking plain--Hunting chariots and "shaft-gates"--_Yamen, ya_, and Turkish encampments--Cockfighting-Lifting heavy weights--Ball games--Women at looms--Little said of family life-- No homely pastimes--No squeezed feet--Helplessness of the people under their taskmasters.
CHAPTER XLIV
CONFUCIUS Confucius--His merits--His imperial and ducal origin--Migration of his family from Sung to Lu--His warrior father--His quaint childish fancies--Lu officer foretells his greatness--His first pupils--His appointment as steward--His visit to Laos--No reason for mentioning this visit in history--Neither philosopher yet "great"--Lu in a quandary--Helplessness of the Emperor under Tsin, Ts'i, and Ts'u pressure--Yen-tsz sees Confucius, and discusses Ts'in's greatness--Studying the Rites at Lu-Date of Confucius' visit to Lao-tsz--Struggle of great families for popular rights-- Confucius offers services to Ts'i--Examines Rites of Hia--Yen- tsz's jealousy of Confucius--Confucius back in Lu--His literary labours--His official posts and his views on law--Ts'i overborne by Wu--Ts'i's attempt at assassination defeated by Confucius' diplomacy--Treaty between Lu and Ts'i--Civil war in Lu--Confucius Premier--Successful administration--Confucius leaves Lu in disgust--His treatment in Wei state--Leaves Wei, but returns to old friend there--Confucius' suspicious visit to a lady--Leaves disgusted via Sung for Ts'ao--Visits to Cheng (mistaken for Tsz-ch'an) and Ch'en--A prey to rival ambitions--Episode of the Manchurian bustard--Revisits Wei--Arrested; solemn promise broken-- Base behaviour--Starts to visit Tsin--Confucius' enemy repents-- Arrangements to get Confucius back to Lu--He first visits Ts'ai- Excursion to Ts'u--Three years more in Ts'ai--T-s'u's literary status--Competition amongst princes for Confucius' services-- Confucius and war--Reaches Lu after fourteen years of wandering-- Confucius' travels the same as the Second Protector's--Consoles himself with literature--Popularizes history-Edits the Changes and the Odes--His history--The Tso Chwan.
CHAPTER XLV
_CONFUCIUS AND LAO-TSZ_
Historians had to be careful--Reverence for rulers--Confucius' feelings--His failings--All on the surface--His concealments--His artful censures--Sanctity of the classes--Confucius' meannesses and indiscretions--Allowances must be made for time and place-- Tsz-ch'an quite as good a man--Reasons for permanency of Confucian system--Reasons for Lao-tsz not being mentioned--All Chinese statesman-philosophers were, or tried to be, practical--First mention of Lao-tsz's new Taoism--Lao-tsz well known 400 B.C.-- State intercourse before Confucius' time--Philosophy taught by word of mouth--Cheapening of books accounts for spread of knowledge--Description of ancient books--Confucius was young when he visited Lao-tsz--Lao-t&s book in ancient character--Meagreness of details evidence of rigid truth--Obscurity of the Emperor-- Difficult questions of fact answered--How Lao-tsz was visited-- Proofs of genuineness--Originals must be studied by foreign critics.
CHAPTER XLVI
ORACLES AND OMENS Consulting the oracles--The Changes, or Book of Diagrams--Ts'u and Ts'i as instructors of Chou--Tortoise augury--Consulting ancestors--Heaven's decree--Heaven's spontaneous, manifestations of favour--Astrology--Prognostication--Text of the Changes survives unmutilated--Ts'in consults oracles about moving capital-- Ts'in's greatness foretold--Omens--Dies n&s--Oracles in the battlefield--Prophecy in Tsin, Ts'u, and Lu--Shuh Hiang's scepticism--Tsz-ch'an and the omen of fighting snakes--Children sing prophetic songs--"Passing on" threatened evil--Tortoise oracles in Ts'o and Wu--High status of diviners-"-Transferring" evil in Ts'u--Rivers as gods--Our own prophecies--Good faith and truth.
CHAPTER XLVII
RULERS AND PEOPLE Personal character of wars--People's interests ignored--Instances-- Comparisons with the Golden Fleece and Naboth's vineyard--Second Protector avenges scurvy treatment--The halt, the maim, and the blind--Jephthah's rash vow-Divinity of kings--Ts'u more tyrannical than China--Responsibility of Chinese before Heaven--The King can do no wrong--Emperors reign under Heaven--Heaven in the confidence of rulers--Sacred person of kings--Distinction between official and private death--Double chivalry of a Tsin general--The gods and Tsz-ch'an's scepticism.
APPENDICES
INDEX

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
[For the illustration of the Wuchuan vase, and the inscription thereon, I am indebted to Dr. S. W. Bushell M.D.,