Page:Elementary Chinese - San Tzu Ching (1900).djvu/107



Ssŭ see.

Pai see.

Tsai4 is composed of 車 ch'ê cart as radical, and an obsolete phonetic, and originally meant to contain, to load, full, complete, etc. Read it means a year, which sense seems to have been derived from full, complete. There are however other and more fanciful explanations. [Four hundred is a round number. The Hsia dynasty lasted from B.C. 2205—1766. Eitel says to 1818, but this was the date of the accession of the last Emperor.]

Ch'ien see.

Hsia see.

Shê is composed of 示 shih divine manifestation as radical, and 土 t'u earth, and originally meant lord or spirit of the earth; hence, sacrifices to such spirits, the sacrificial communion of the Emperor, the Son of Heaven, with the Supreme Being. [Eitel has, "When at last Heaven removed Hia's tutelary altar." But there is no need to supply Heaven as a subject to ch’ien; the root idea is sufficient.]

T'ang see.