________________
INTRODUCTION.
13
Nor are those of the previous dynasty of Shang open The Books to suspicion. We ascend by means of them
of Shang. to Thang the Successful, its founder, with a confident step. The beginning of his rule is placed chronologically in B.C. 1766.
Of the still earlier dynasty of Hsiâ, there are only four The Books documents, and we have no evidence that
of Hsiâ. there were any more when the collection of the Shû was made in the times of Kâu. The first and longest of the four, though occupied with the great achievement of Yü, the founder of Hsia, whose chronological place is B.C. 2205–2196, really belongs to the reign of Yão, and is out of place among the records of Hsia. The other three documents bring us down only to the reign of Kung Khang (B.C. 2159–2145), and I see no grounds for doubting their genuineness. In the last of them a celestial phenomenon is mentioned, which has always been understood to have been an eclipse of the sun in Fang, a space of about 51° from a to o of Scorpio, on the first day of the last month of autumn. P. Gaubil thought he had determined by calculation that such an eclipse really took place in the fifth year of Kung Khang, B.C. 2155. Doubts, however, have been cast, as will be seen in the next chapter, on the accuracy of his calculation, and therefore I do not avail myself of it here as a confirmation of the truth of the document.
3. We come to the earlier records,-those of the reigns The Ronde of Yâo and Shun, with which must be classed of Thang the Tribute of Yü, the first of the documents and Ya.
of Hsia, and it must be admitted that there is not the same evidence that they existed originally in their present form. i. The Canon of Yao and three of the four still exist
ing books of the time of Yü, all commence They are professedly with the words, 'Examining into antiquity, later compi- we find.' They are therefore, on their own lations.
showing, the compilations of a later age. The writer separates himself from the date of the events which he narrates, and while professing to draw from the records
Digitized by Google