withstand you. Yet, when within the enemy's borders, be merciful to those who offer no resistance, and are ready to join us. But above all be bold and energetic, and do not allow yourselves to forget that he who holds back will be sure to receive a befitting punishment.'

Com

In the next chapter Woo-wang, after another long setting forth of the crimes of the tyrannical Chow, gives the result of the great final battle. mencing with the operations leading to it, he says— "On the twenty-eighth day of the first month my troops crossed the river at Mang-tsin,* and on the third day of the second month I drew up my army on the borders of Shang to await the enemy's attack. The next day Chow, at the head of a vast army, advanced at early dawn and drew up in battle array in the desert plains of Muh. My army moved forward to the attack, but before it had come near enough to engage the enemy, the leading divisions. of his force had faced round, and, attacking those in the rear, driven them off the ground with such great slaughter, that it would have been possible for a beam of wood to have floated in the pools of blood with which the field of battle was covered. Thus was the dynasty of Shang overturned, and the government re-established upon its old conditions."

* i.e. the ford of Mang.

REVISION OF THE CRIMINAL CODE.

217

A great number of the sections into which this work is divided are composed of speeches taking the form of admonitions. Amongst these we find one against drunkenness, showing that the great social evil, which we are often inclined to look upon as of modern growth, was causing much solicitude to those who were seeking to elevate the morals of the nation nearly three thousand years ago in China. Then we have a warning against indulging in luxurious ease, and many exhortations with regard to the performance of public duties, and to the just administration of the laws. And in connection with the latter subject there is published, about the middle of the tenth century B.C., a revised code of laws, in which the system of allowing the punishment for minor offences to be commuted by the payment of a fine was extended to crimes punishable by death-an act which has been severely criticized by moralists of a later age, notwithstanding that it had received the sanction of Confucius, through his having allowed it to be recorded in this work.

It is, in fact, to this code, upon which all subsequent ones have been formed, that is to be attributed the widespread official corruption, and the low tone of public morals, with which the Chinese have been so often justly reproached, and that, notwithstanding the high-flown sentiments and exhortations which accompanied its promulgation.

I have devoted more space than I had intended to this book, and yet feel that I have been unable to do it justice, or give a very clear idea of its contents. To those, however, who are desirous of a more exact acquaintance with it, I would advise the perusal of the translation of it by Dr. Legge, which forms the third volume of the "Sacred Books of the East," edited by Max Müller.

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CHAPTER XIV.

The third of the "Five Classics: " the "She-King," or the "Odes." IT is a point open to question whether this book, as it now stands, represents what we should call in modern parlance, a new and revised edition by Confucius of a previously existing work, or a selection by him, put together in a new form, out of a far larger number of lyrical compositions scattered over the empire. Legge, in his translation of the religious portion of the "Odes," included in the third volume of the "Sacred Books of the East," inclines, after much investigation, to the former opinion, and narrows the action of Confucius to a reformation of the music, by which each separate ode was accompanied.

But whether this be so or not, there can be no doubt with respect to the high place occupied by the "Odes" in the sage's estimation. He declared no man's education could be considered complete who had not studied them, and that, as models of purity of thought, they were unequalled; indeed, in the "Dialogues"

he is made to say that the pervading sentiment of the "Odes," and the lessons to be learnt from them, could be compressed into a single sentence, " purify your thoughts." He recommended the study of the "Odes" to his disciples as a means for attaining to mental expansion and refinement, and a knowledge of the true value belonging to harmony as opposed to enmity and strife. In addition to which, it would furnish them with examples of the manner in which filial piety can be best shown to a parent, and faithful service best rendered to a prince.

Taking a somewhat lower ground, he specially directed his son to study them with diligence, not only on account of the above-mentioned advantages, but in order that he might acquire from them materials for conversation; for Confucius had too much practical wisdom to despise the social distinction which belongs to a man who is a good talker.

Amongst all peoples, poetry has ever been one of the earliest modes by which traditions have been preserved and popularized. There can be no doubt but that the memory of words is greatly aided by their rhythmical expression, and that this will be the case in a far higher degree when these words in the form of lyrics are associated with some familiar melody.

The first mention of poetry in the Chinese classics