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II. THE LXFE AND T_MES OF CON_CIUS. 23
itbarely crossed the banks of the Yangtse, and on the
west itprobably nowhere touched the borders of Kansuh.
The capitalwas at Lo _ near to the modern Honan Fu.
This territorywhich had formerly consistedof I_4 States
of varying size,had now by the absorptionof the weaker
been reduced to a nominal 72, of which the five most
powerful were Ch'i _ Ch'u _ Chin _:_ Ch'in
and Yen ._.., and the seven next in importance, Lu _t,
Chang _. Sung _. Wei _. Ch'_n _. Ts'ai _!_ and
Ts'ao _ The remainder of our present China, as
already shewn, was thinly peopled with tribes of aborigines,
who in later ages were gradually driven across the present
borders, or survive in the mountains of the south and
west to our own day.
Such then was the China into which our Sage was
born. His ancestry is by some traced back to the great
Huang Ti in the 27th century B.C., and at least there
seems reason to believe that he was a descendant of the
Duke of Sung -_, a brother of and successor to Ch'i,
the Viscount of Wei, referred to in An xviii I, who was
half brother to tlae tyraut Chou _-]', One of his ancestors,
Chang K'ao Fu ]t_.. _1_ _t_, was a man of learning and
research, whose son K'ung Chia _L _ an officer of talent
and honour, was murdered by a powerful minister,
who covetdd and carried off his beautiful wife, only to
obtain her as a corpse, for during her abduction she
strangled herself.
In consequence of the undying hatred which resulted
from this outrage, the K'ung family three generations
later were led to remove themselves from Sung to Ltt