Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 3.djvu/110

76 occupied by the tribes of the Man; the (other) two hundred, by criminals undergoing the greater banishment.

On the east, reaching to the sea; on the west, extending to the moving sands; to the utmost limits of the north and south:—his fame and influence filled up (all within) the four seas. Yü presented the dark-coloured symbol of his rank, and announced the completion of his work. 



this Book there commence the documents of the Shû that may be regarded, as I have said in the Introduction, as contemporaneous with the events which they describe. It is the first of the 'Speeches,' which form one class of the documents of the classic.

The text does not say who the king mentioned in it was, but the prevalent tradition has always been that he was Khî, the son and successor of Yü. Its place between the Tribute of Yü and the next Book belonging to the reign of Thâi Khang, Khî's son, corroborates this view.

Kan is taken as the name of a place in the southern border of the principality of Hû, with the lord of which Khî fought. The name of Hû itself still remains in the district so called of the department Hsî-an, in Shen-hsî.

The king, about to engage in battle with a rebellious vassal, assembles his generals and troops, and addresses them. He declares obscurely the grounds of the expedition which he had undertaken, and concludes by stimulating the soldiers to the display of courage and observance of order by promises of reward and threats of punishment.

There was a great battle at Kan. (Previous to it), the king called together the six nobles, (the leaders of his six hosts), and said, 'Ah! all ye who