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!2 THE A_ALECTS: INTRODUCTION.
before _the king he proved to possess a sagacity so eminent,
that Wu Ting on installing him in office addressed
him in the following interesting terms :*_" Suppose me
a sword, and let me use you as my whetstone ; suppose me
crossing a wide stream, let me employ you as my boat
and oars ; suppose me a year of drought, let me use you
as my copious rain ; you shall open your mind and refresh
mine ; you shall be my medicine, which if it do not disturb
will not cure ; you shall treat me as one walking barefoot,
who not looking at the ground will hurt his feet." Wu
Ting's reign lasted for the lengthy period of nearly sixty
years, from B C. I324 to I266.
One of his successors, Wu I _ ___, I I98-I I95 , seventy
years later, is said to have been the first maker of an
image in China, which indeed he made not for worship,
but in order to ridicule all religion. The image he called
the "Spirit of Heaven," and backed himself against it in
play, appointing some one to throw for " Heaven." The
image lost and he disgraced it. Making a leather bag
and filling it with blood, probably also placing the image
within it, he set it up in a high place and pierced it with
arrows, declaring as the blood flowed down that he was
killing Heaven. Ss_-ma Ch'ien records that shortly afterwards
he was killed by lightning.
The dynasty was now fast crumbling to pieces, but another
Chieh was to arise before a succourer came forth
to put an end to a House which, beginning nobly, was to
perish, like its predecessor, in the profligacy of a king and
* vm.