Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 3.djvu/71



Books of Yü is the name of this Part of the Shû, Yü being the dynastic designation of Shun, as Thang was that of Yâo. It does not appear so clearly, however, how it came to be so. Yü must be the name of a state, and is commonly identified with the present district of An-yî, in Kieh Kâu, Shan-hsî. Some think that Yâo, after marrying his two daughters to Shun, appointed him lord of this state; but in the first mention of him to Yâo in the last Book, he is called Shun of Yü. It is generally said that Shun's ancestors had been lords of the principality of Yü up to the time of his father, who lost his patrimony and was reduced to the rank of a private man. But after what has been said, in the Introduction, on the Books in the first two Parts of the Shu, it will not be thought surprising that much in the accounts about Yâo and Shun should be open to suspicion. According to Mencius, IV, Part ii, ch. i, Shun was from the country of the wild tribes on the east. Sze-mâ Khien makes him to have been descended from Hwang-Tî, in which case he and his wives, the daughters of Yâo, would have had the same ancestor. Nothing more injurious to the fame of Yâo and Shun, according to Chinese notions of propriety, could be alleged against them.

Shun is the subject of this Canon, as Yâo was of the former. As it now stands, we may divide it into six chapters:—the first, describing Shun's virtues and gradual advancement; the second, Yâo's satisfaction with his administration of affairs, and associating of Shun with himself on the throne; the third, the acts of Shun in that position; the fourth, the demise of Yâo, and Shun's accession as sole monarch; the fifth, his choice of ministers and complete organization of his government; and the sixth, his death.