Page:Elementary Chinese - San Tzu Ching (1900).djvu/115

 hence the House of Ch'in and the First Emperor (see ).]

Shih see. [Eitel translates with fatal inaccuracy "Commenced to absorb and to unite etc."]

Chien is composed of a hand (old form) grasping two (= plurality) ears of grain, under which radical it was originally classed, now under 八 pa.

Ping is composed of 从 ts'ung to follow, its old radical, with 幵 ch'ien level as phonetic. It originally meant to follow; hence, two together, united, etc. It is also explained as two 人 jen men grasping two 干 kan shields, q.d. united. [The above union was accomplished in B.C. 221 by the then ruler of the Ch'in State. After vanquishing and absorbing the other States, he succeeded in proclaiming himself 始皇帝 Shih Huang Ti the First Emperor of a united China. He died B.C. 210.]

Ch'uan see.

Erh see.

Shih see. [Erh Shih, or Second Generation, is the title under which is known in history the youngest son of the First Emperor, the latter having declared that the line he founded should endure for ten thousand generations. His elder brother was murdered to clear the way, a fate he himself shared in B.C. 207. Eitel wrongly translates the title, with the following result, "the throne of which was delivered only to the second generation."]