Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 3.djvu/289

 reverence with which punishments should be employed; and the sixth and last is addressed to future generations, and directs them to the ancient models, in order that punishments may never be but a blessing to the kingdom.

A Chinese critic says that throughout the Book 'virtue' and 'exact adaptation' are the terms that carry the weight of the meaning. must underlie the use of punishments, of which their  will be the manifestation.

In reference to the charge to (the marquis of) Lü:—When the king had occupied the throne till he reached the age of a hundred years, he gave great consideration to the appointment of punishments, in order to deal with (the people of) the four quarters.

The king said, 'According to the teachings of ancient times, Khih Yû was the first to produce disorder, which spread among the quiet, orderly people, till all became robbers and murderers, owl-like and yet self-complacent in their conduct, traitors and villains, snatching and filching, dissemblers and oppressors .'

'Among the people of Miâo, they did not use the power of goodness, but the restraint of punishments. They made the five punishments engines of oppression, calling them the laws. They