together. Lung superintended the foreign department, and men from afar arrived. The twelve governors did their duty, and the people of the nine provinces did not dare to rebel. But Yü's labours consisted in making great cuttings. through the nine hills, making thoroughfares through the nine swamps, deepening the nine rivers, and regulating the nine provinces, each of which by their officials sent tribute, and did not lose their rightful dues. In a square of 5000 li he reached the wild domain. To the south he governed Annam; on the north he reduced the western Jung tribes, Hsichih, Chüsou,' and the Ch'iang of Ti; on the north the hill Jung tribes and the Hsichên; and on the east the tall island barbarians. All within the four seas were grateful for Emperor Shun's labours; and Yü then "performed the nine tunes," and the result was that strange creatures and "phoenixes flew to and fro."2 Men of illustrious virtue in the empire began from the days of Emperor Shun of Yü. When Shun was twenty years of age he was noted for his filial piety, at thirty Yao raised him to office, at fifty he assisted in the administration of Imperial affairs, when he was fifty-eight Yao died, and when he was sixty-one he sat on the Imperial throne in Yao's stead. After he had occupied the Imperial throne thirty-nine years, he went on a hunting expedition to the south, died in the desert of Ts'angwu, and was buried at a place called Lingling (broken hillocks) in the Chiuyi range in Chiangnan province. After Shun had come to the throne, and was flying the Imperial flag, he went to pay a visit to his father, Chüsou, and addressed him in a grave and respectful manner, as a son should do. He raised his brother Hsiang to the rank of prince. Shun's son Shangchün was also degenerate, so that Shun, being prepared, recommended Yü to the notice of Heaven, and seventeen years later he died. When the three years' mourning was over, Yü also yielded to Shun's son just as Shun had yielded

3

1 References to passages in 'Tribute of Yü' (L. C. III. pp. 147, 127). Reference to a passage in Yi and Tseih' (L. C. III. 88).

3 Reference to a passage in 'Counsels of the Great Yü' (L. C. III. 66).

to Yao's son, but the princes gave their allegiance to Yü, and he thereupon came to the Imperial throne. Yao's son Tanchu, and Shun's son Shangchün, both held territory so that they might be enabled to perform sacrifices to their ancestors; they paid the due observances, such as religious ceremonies and music, and they went to the audiences as the Emperor's guests. The Emperor did not dare, without due notification from his ministers, to act on his own responsibility. From Huangti to Shun and Yü all the sovereigns had the same surname, but different dynastic appellations, and so displayed their illustrious virtue. So Huangti was called Yuhsiung (possessor of bears); Emperor Ch'uanhsü was Kaoyang; Emperor Ku was Kaohsin; Emperor Yao, Taot'ang; Emperor Shun was Yuyü (possessor of foresters); and Emperor Yü was Hsiahou (prince of Hsia); and he had also the name Ssu (sister-in-law); Hsieh had the family name of Shang with the personal name Tzu (son); and Ch'i had the family name Chou with the personal name Chi (queen).

The historian has to remark on this as follows:1 Most scholars say that the five gods are deserving of honour, but the Book of History only refers to Yao, and those who come after him, while the book of the 'hundred families' speaks of the Yellow god. The style of the latter work is not, however, very refined, and the officials and gentry hardly ever refer to it. Confucius handed down these works, viz. Tsai yü's questions,' the 'virtues of the five gods,' and 'the genealogies and names of the gods,' but the literati doubt that they have been so handed down. I have travelled westward as far as hollow cave' hill, northward beyond Cholu, eastward I have crossed the sea, while

1 In the historian's observation which concludes the chapter, we find a remark to the effect that all the old men he met in his travels spoke to him about Huangti, Yao, and Shun, mentioning where they lived, etc. Most sinologists of the present day are agreed in stating that these worthies were not historical characters, and so if they were emanations from Ssuma's own brain, he probably tried to persuade the old men that they really did exist, which would account for their repeatedly referring to them. At any rate, one cannot help suspecting that the historian did invent these characters, and also that he is the author of parts of the Book of Mencius.

southward I have floated on rafts along the Yangtzŭ and Huai rivers, and all the elders whom I met again and again talked of the places where the Yellow god, Yao, and Shun dwelt, and how very different their customs and teachings were. In short, those who are attached to the ancient literature must be familiar with their sayings. I have looked at the 'Spring and Autumn' classic, and the 'Narratives of the States,' which make the virtues of the five gods' and the 'genealogies and names of the gods' very clear. I have inspected these works, but not thoroughly examined them, and the portions I have quoted are none of them unimportant. There are defects in the book, and occasionally the views of others may be noted. Scholars should not think too deeply over the book, but take the general drift of it, when it can hardly be called superficial. There are a few investigations into doctrine, which I have discussed. in the concrete, and then selected some of the more elegant sentences for quotation. Thus I have compiled the first chapter of the Original Records.'

6

[To be continued.]

ART. XI.—Manicūḍāvadāna, as related in the fourth chapter of the Svayambhūpurāņa [Paris, dev. 78]. By LOUIS DE LA VALLÉE POUSSIN, M.R.A.S.

THE Svayambhupurāņa [Paris, dev. 78] is probably a literary recast of the Svayambhupurāņa named by copyists Vṛhat and Mahās vayambhūpurāṇa, and existing in many copies in the Paris, Cambridge, and London (A. S.) Libraries, and also in India. The topics of this work are identical, but the language is, to some extent, different, and the treatment of the matter fairly independent. The same can be said, so far as I am acquainted with the facts, about the Madhyama recension of the S. P. [London A. S. Library and Cambridge]. The number of chapters differs in the S. P. [Paris, dev. 78], and other redactions (being respectively 12, 20, and 8); prose1 and verse of very varied rhythm occur intermingled throughout the book, whilst, on the contrary, the Vṛhat and the Mahasvayambhūpurāņa are both, from beginning to end, written in classic çlokas. The Maha, as noticed in Bendall's Buddhist MSS. Catalogue, is only a second recension of the Vṛhat: all the verses of the Maha, together with the prologue itself, are faithfully reproduced in the Vṛhat edition, the distinctive mark of the two redactions being the separation between the first and the second chapters.

The chief purpose of the work is the glorification of Nepal, of the tirthas, hills and rivers which have been sanctified by some holy manifestation of Svayambhu. As has been already pointed out by Bendall, the Svayambhūpurāņa seems to be the Buddhist counterpart of the Hindu

1 In the second, third, fourth, and twelfth chapters.