Notes

1. Wei (尾) comprehends {epsilon}, {mu} Scorpio; Wei (危, as on page 272) corresponds to stars in Aquarius and Pegasus. Khih Hsing (as on p. 262) corresponds to stars in Hydra.

2. Kwan-hsü is the dynastic designation of the grandson of Hwang Tî, the commencement of whose reign is assigned in B.C. 2510. He is known also by the personal designation of Kâo-yang, from the name of his second capital. Among the elements his reign is assigned to water, and thence to the north; and hence the designation of his minister as Hsüan-ming, 'the dark and mysterious,' who was called Hsiû (脩) and Hsî (熙), and is said to have been a son of Shâo Hâo.

3. Yü is the fifth of the notes of the scale; and Ying Kung, 'the responsive tube,' the name of the last of the tubes giving the six lower musical accords.

4. This altar was outside the gate leading to the ancestral temple, on the, west of it. Many say that here was the 'well' supplying the water used for the temple, and would read zang (井) for hsing (行).

5. The 'great water' here is said in the 'Narratives of the States' (Book XV) to be the Hwâi. The khan is said to be a large species of the ko, into which small birds are transformed (p. 292). Of course the transmutation of the pheasants into these is absurd. Professor Douglas has found in a Chinese Encyclopædia a statement that khan is sometimes an equivalent of phû lû (蒲蘆), 'sweet flags and rushes.' The lû, however, is sometimes read lo, and said to have the same sound and meaning as 螺 'a spiral univalve;' but the great objection to Professor Douglas' view is the meaning he puts on the 為, as pointed out on p. 292. The text cannot be construed as he proposes.

6. See in Mencius, I, 7, 4, on the consecration of a bell by smearing parts of it with blood.

7. Wang Thâo understands this paragraph as meaning that at this season all, both high and low, feast in expression and augmentation of their joy. The characters will bear this interpretation. The kang, of the text however, has also the meaning which appears in the translation; though on that view the statement is not so general. See the 'Narratives of the States,' I, ii. 8.

8. The most common view seems to be that we have here the various parts of one sacrificial service, three days after the winter solstice, called kâ (蜡), in the time of Kâu, and lâ (臘), in that of Khin. While the son of Heaven performed these services, it must have been at different places in the capital I suppose, analogous and modified services were celebrated generally throughout the kingdom.

There is no agreement as to who are intended by 'the Honoured ones of heaven.' Many hold that they are 'the six Honoured ones,' to whom Shun is said to have sacrificed in the second part of the Shû King. But the Khien-lung editors contend that the want of 'six' is a fatal objection to this view. Kâo Yû, supposing the six Honoured ones to be meant, argued that 'heaven, earth, and the four seasons' were intended by them,--those seasons co-operating with heaven and earth in the production of all things; but the same editors show, from the passages in the Shû, that heaven can in no sense be included among the six Honoured ones. They do not say, however, who or what is intended by the designation in the text. The lâ in the paragraph is taken in a pregnant sense, as if it were lieh ( 獵, and not 臘), meaning 'to sacrifice with the spoils of the chase.'

9. Tâu comprehends {zeta}, {lambda}, {mu}, {sigma}, {tau}, {phi} of Sagittarius; the eastern Pî, the fourteenth of the Chinese constellations, consists of Algenib or {gamma} Pegasus, and {alpha} of Andromeda; Kan is the last of the constellations, and contains {beta}, {gamma}, {delta}, and {epsilon} of Corvus.

10. See page 281, paragraph 5.

11. 'The earth begins to crack;' some say from the increasing intensity of the cold; others from the warmth which has begun to return. The returning warmth is indicated by the undivided line with which Fu, the hexagram of the eleventh month, commences-- ---- --- ---- --- ---- --- ---- --- ---- --- -------- 'The night bird' sings during the night till the dawn; 'a hill bird, like a fowl.'

12. See paragraph 16, page 299. The paragraph may be inadvertently introduced here.

13. 'The proper officer' here is said to be 'the minister of Instruction,' or 'the officer of the People.'

14. Winter is the season in which the element of water predominates, and it was in virtue of this that the dynasty of Zhin professed to rule. The Khwan-lun mountains (Koulkun), between the desert of Gobi and Thibet, are the source of the Hwang Ho; Yüan-min, the source of the Kiang; Thung-po, that of the Hwâi; the Kî grew out of the Yen, rising from the hill of Wang-wu. See Chinese Classics, vol. iii, pp. 127-140.

15. Hazel-nuts and chestnuts are given as examples of the former; and the water-caltrops and Euryale ferox, or 'cock's head,' of the latter.

16. This description of the month is well illustrated by the lines of Fû, the hexagram of it referred to above,-- ---- --- ---- --- ---- --- ---- --- ---- --- -------- the lowest line representing the principle of light and growth, which just found readmission in the year, and is seeking to develop itself.

17. This is called by Dr. Williams 'a species of iris.' The roots are made into brooms.

18. This is a fancy. The commentators say that the worms curl and twist, with their heads turned downwards, as if seeking to return to the warmth beneath the surface.

19. The shedding of the horns in winter shows that the mî here, (麋), is a species of the elk or moose-deer, and different from the lû (鹿), which sheds its horns in the sixth month. The mî is described as being fond of the water, and as large as a small ox.

20. Wû-nü, as in paragraph 1, page 269. Lâu corresponds to {alpha}, {beta}, {gamma}, {iota} in the head of Aries; Tî, to {alpha}, {beta}, {delta}, {iota}, {mu}, {nu} Libra.

21. Tâ Lü is the first of the tubes giving the six lower musical accords.

22. As is said in the Shih, II, v, 3, 5:-- 'Crows the pheasant at the dawn, And his mate is to him drawn.'

23. Compare par. 16, p. 266. The 'ox of earth' is still seen in China.

24. This evidently is one of the natural phenomena of the season, and should belong to paragraph 4. The translation of the first two characters by 'Birds of prey' is sufficiently close and exact.

25. The Khien-lung editors point out the difficulties in explaining the three sacrifices here referred to, and seem to think they were practices of Khin, about which we have little information. 'The great ministers of the Tî' in the second member were probably those mentioned at the commencement of each season. They supplement the concluding member, as I have done, from Lü's Khun Khiû.

26. Compare paragraphs 7, p. 263; 17, p. 271. In paragraph 7, p. 263, the sovereign gets himself into a boat, a thing now impossible through the ice. Fish are in their prime condition in winter and spring.

27. Compare paragraph 16, p. 261, et al. Wind instruments were supposed to suit the quiet and meditativeness of autumn and winter, better than the drums and dances of the other seasons.

28. 'The four Inspectors' Compare paragraph 8, p. 277. Some read thien (田) for sze (四), 'Inspectors of the fields.'

29. As being of the same surname as the royal house, or otherwise; the degree of their rank; the size of their territory.

30. This is the proper force of the characters. Wang Thâo interprets them as meaning that the creatures would bore through dykes and boats, so that the former would let the water through and the latter sink.