308 COBEAN SOCIAL CUSTOMS. is his, and the explanation of the diagrams.* It is, therefore, said that each of the three kinds of divination was originated by a saga Shocking, or Ancient History. In b.c. 140-86, Goong Wang of Loo (south-west of Shantung, birth-place of Confucius) was pulling down the house of Confucius, in order to have no rival to his own establishment, when, in the broken wall, were discovered the Shcmgahoo (or Shocking), the LiJci (Book of Bites), the Lwunyil (or Analects), and the Riaoking (or Book of Filiality) ; all in the ancient or seal character."!* Goong Wang then entered the house, and heard the solemn strains of the ancient music proceeding from the partition wall. In terror he went out and ordered his men to leave the house untouched I The Shuking, or "Book of Odes," was collected, to the number of 305, by Confucius, who arranged them chronologically, from the Yin period (b.c. 1400) downwards to the period of the Loo kingdom (b.c. 7th century). They were originally written on slips of Bamboo, for paper was then undiscovered. They escaped the ravages of Shu, emperor of Tsin, because men committed them to and transmitted them from memory. LiKi (Book of Rites). In the time when Han dynasty was at the summit of its power, there was, in Loo gwo, a man, Gao Jangshung, who wrote seventeen essays x)n the "Proprieties of Literature." Later on, when Han was waning. How Tsang, a man of great understanding, wrote on the same subject. Among his pupils were Dai Duadsai and Shung Chingpoo, who contributed their share. The " Liki " was thus the offspring of the talents of many men. j:
- How far thiB is true it is as unimportant as difficult to know. Wlien the
Chinese are critics enough to distingniRh and extract all the handiwork of Confucius, they will have learned to place less faith in divination by numbers. t ELidden under Tsin emperor, who ordered all the works of Confucius eveiywhere to be burnt. It is unnecessary to say that these statements are made only as » translation.
- ^A fact which accounts for its most fragmentary, irregular, and undigested
character; a character which my colleague and friend, Bev. John Macintyre, is amending.
