Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 3.djvu/72

There is a remarkable document of the Shu, called "The Establishment of Government," in which the consolidator and legislator of the Chou dynasty gives a summary of the history of the feudal kingdom down to his own time. Yu the Great, the founder of the Hsia dynasty, dating from B. C. 2205, "sought for able men who should honour God (in the discharge of their duties)." But the way of Chieh, the last of his line, was different. Those whom he employed were cruel men and he had no successor. The kingdom was given to Tang the successful, the founder of the Shang or Yin dynasty, who "grandly administered the bright ordinances of God." His reign dates from B. C. 1766; but Shou, the last of his line, came to the throne in 1254, and was cruel as Chieh had been. God in consequence "sovereignly punished him." The throne was transferred to the house of Chou, whose chiefs showed their fitness for their charge by "employing men to serve God with reverence, and appointed them as presidents and chiefs of the people," while all their other ministers, such as their officers of law, their treasurers and historiographers, were "men of constant virtue."

From the twelfth century before Christ it is found that the single object of worship hitherto spoken of, Ti or Tien, is replaced by a dualistic phrase, "heaven and earth," and the Emperor is seen sacrificing at a round altar to heaven on the day of the winter solstice and at a square altar to earth on the day of the summer solstice. Such is still the practice. It has led to misconceptions. Confucius seems to have appreciated the confusing character of the change, for he took care to explain that the "ceremonies of the sacrifices to