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BOOK XXIX.
THE SPEECH AT PÎ.
269

you shall be dealt with according to the regular punishments.

'When the horses or cattle are seeking one another, or when your followers, male or female, abscond, presume not to leave the ranks to pursue them. But let them be carefully returned. I will reward you (among the people) who return them according to their value. But if you leave your places to pursue them, or if you who find them do not restore them, you shall be dealt with according to the regular punishments.

'And let none of you presume to commit any robbery or detain any creature that comes in your way, to jump over enclosures and walls to steal (people's) horses or oxen, or to decoy away their servants or female attendants. If you do so, you shall be dealt with according to the regular punishments.

'On the day Kiâ-hsü I will take action against the hordes of Hsü;—prepare the roasted grain and other provisions, and presume not to have any deficiency. If you have, you shall suffer the severest punishment. Ye men of , from the three environing territories and the three tracts beyond[1],


  1. Outside the capital city was an environing territory called the Kiâo, and beyond the Kiâo was the Sui. The Kiâo of the royal domain was divided again into six Hsiang, which furnished the six royal hosts, while the Sui beyond furnished subsidiary hosts. The Kiâo and Sui of a large state furnished three hosts, and if need were, subsidiary battalions. The language of the text is equivalent, I conceive, simply to 'ye men of the army of ;' but, as P. Gaubil observes, it is difficult at the present day to get correct ideas of what is meant by the designations, and to account for the mention of three Kiâo and three Sui.