Page:China- Its State and Prospects.djvu/31

 the view of encouraging his people to an instant and energetic devotion to business."

Of Ching-tang, the founder of the second dynasty, B.C. 1765, the Chinese write, that "he ruled the people gently, and abolished oppressions, complying with the predilections of the multitude, so that all parties reverted to him. In his days, the seven years' drought occurred; the principal scribe observed, that prayer should be offered up. Ching-tang said, 'I only wish for rain on account of the people. If prayer will avail, I will present it myself!' He then fasted, and cut off his hair and nails, riding in a mourning chariot; and binding white reeds around him, that he might represent a sacrificial animal, he went forth to the wilderness of mulberry-bushes, and invoked, saying, 'Let not the lives of the people be forfeited, on account of the neglect of one individual!' He then acknowledged his six faults, saying, 'Is it that my government is extravagant? or that the people are not properly attended to? or that my palaces are too lofty? or that my ministers are too numerous? or that presents are too frequently sent? or that sycophants abound?' He had scarcely ceased, when the rain fell, to the distance of several thousand furlongs."

At the close of this dynasty, B.C. 1153, the tyrant Chow presided over the empire; he is said to have been endowed with supernatural strength, so as to be able to conquer the fiercest beasts, and yet he was deluded and ruined through the fascinations and extravagances of a wretched woman. It is very remarkable, that the age of this individual should agree so exactly with that assigned, in sacred history, to Samson.

The founders of the third dynasty are described as