THE SHE KING; OR, THE BOOK OF ANCIENT POETRY

48 THE CHINA OF THE BOOK OF POETEY. THE CHINA OF THE BOOK OF POETEY. 49
departed men. A belief in the continued existence of the
dead in a spirit-state, and in the duty of their descendants
to maintain by religious worship a connection with them,
have been characteristics of the Chinese people from their
first appearance in history. The first and third Books of
the last Part of the She profess to consist of sacrificial
odes used in the temple services of the kings of Chow and
Shang. Some of them are songs of praise and thanks
giving ; some are songs of supplication ; and others relate
to the circumstances of the service, describing the occasion
of it, or the parties present and engaging in it. The
ancestors worshipped are invited to come and accept the
homage and offerings presented; and in one (IV. i. [i.]
VII.) it is said that "king Wan, the Blesser," has
descended, and accepted the offerings.
The first stanza of III. i. I. describes king Wan after
his death as being " on high, bright in heaven, ascending
and descending on the left and the right of God," and
the 9th ode of the same Book affirms that Wan, his father,
and grandfather, were associated in heaven. The early
Chinese, as I have just said, did not suppose that man
ceased all to be, when his mortal life terminated. We
know, indeed, from the Tso-cliuen, that scepticism on this
point had begun to spread among the higher classes
before the time of Confucius, and we know that the sage
himself would neither affirm nor deny it; but that their
dead lived on in another state was certainly the belief of
the early ages with which we have now to do, as it is still
the belief of the great majority of the Chinese people.
But the She is as silent as tho Shoo-king as to any puni
tive retribution hereafter. There are rewards and dignity
for the good after death, but nothing is said of any
punishment for the bad. In one ode, indeed (II. v. VI.
6), a vague feeling betrays itself in the writer, that after
every other method to deal with proud slanderers had
failed, Heaven might execute justice upon them;—but it
may be that he had only their temporal punishment in
view. The system of ancestral worship prevented the
development of a different view on this subject. The
tyrant-oppressor took his place in the temple, there to be
feasted, and worshipped, and prayed to, in his proper order,
as much as the greatest benefactor of his people. I have
pointed out, on III. iii. IV. 5, how king Seuen, in his
distress in consequence of the long-continued drought,
prays to his parents, though his father king Le had been
notoriously wicked and worthless; and how endeavours
have been made to explain away the simple text, from a
wish, probably, to escape from the honour which it would
seem to give to one so undeserving of it.
4. The odes do not speak of the worship which was paid
to God, unless it be incidentally. There were two grand
occasions on which it was rendered by the Beiigious cere-
sovereign,—the summer and winter solstices. momes-
The winter sacrifice is often described as offered to Heaven,
and the summer one to earth; but we have the testimony
of Confucius, in the Doctrine of the Mean, ch. XIX., that
I, the object of them both was to serve Shang Te. Of the
ceremonies used on those occasions I do not here speak,
as there is nothing said about them in the She. Whether
besides these two there were other sacrifices to God, at
stated periods in the course of the year, is a point on which
the opinions of the Chinese scholars themselves are very
much divided. I think that there were, and that we have
some intimation of two of them. IV. i. [i.] X. is addressed
to How-tseih, as having proved himself the correlate to
Heaven, in teaching men to cultivate the grain which God
appointed for the nourishment of all. This was appro
priate to a sacrifice in spring, which was offered to God,
to seek His blessing on the agricultural labours of the
year, How-tseih, as the ancestor of the House of Chow,
and the great improver of agriculture, being associated
with Him in it. IV. i. [i.] VII., again, was appropriate
to a sacrifice to God in autumn, in the Hall of Light, at
a great audience to the feudal princes, when king Wan
was associated with Him, as being the founder of the
dynasty of Chow.
Of the ceremonies at the sacrifices in the royal temple
of ancestors, in the first months of the four seasons of
the year, we have much information in several odes.
They were preceded by fasting and various purifications
on the part of the king and the parties who were to
assist in the performance of them. 1 There was a great
concourse of the feudal princes, 2 and much importance
1 III. ii. I. 7.
VOL. III.
IV. i. [i.] I., IV.; et al.