millet" (still existing), meaning that Ch'ung-êrh was the gay young stalk fertilized by the presents and assistance of the ruler of Ts'in: he was, by the way, not so young, then well over sixty. He had married the younger of two Tartar sisters, and had given her elder sister as wife to the henchman in question. (One account reverses the order.) [Illustration: Original inscription on the Sacrificial Tripod, together with (1) transcription in modern Chinese character (to the right), and (2) an account of its history (to the left). Taken from Dr. Bushell's "Chinese Art."] Ts'u seems to have possessed a knowledge of ancient history and of literature at a very early date. In 597 B.C., after his victory over Tsin, the King of Ts'u had, as previously narrated, declined to rear a barrow over the corpses slain, and had said: "No! the written or pictograph character for 'soldierly' is made up of two parts, one signifying 'stop,' and the other 'weapons.'" By this he meant to say what the great philosopher Lao-tsz, himself a Ts'u man, over and over again inculcated; namely, that the true soldier does not glory in war, but mournfully aims at victory with the sole view of attaining rightful ends. Not only was this half- barbarian king thus capable of making a pun which from the pictograph point of view still holds good to-day, but he goes on in the same speech to cite the "peace-loving war" of Wu Wang, or the Martial King, founder of the Chou dynasty, and to cite several standard odes in allusion to it. These examples might be multiplied a hundredfold, For instance, in the year 589 a Ts'u minister cites the Odes; in 575 a Tsin officer quotes the Book; in 569 another makes allusion to the ancient attempt made by the ruler of the then vassal Chou state, the father of the imperial Chou founder, and who was at the same time adviser at the imperial court, to reconcile the vassal princes to the legitimate Shang dynasty Emperor (who had already imprisoned him once out of pique at his remonstrances), before finally deciding to dethrone him. In 546 a Sung envoy cites the Odes to the Ts'u government, and also quotes from that section of the "Book" called the Book of the Hia Dynasty, In connection with the year 582 an ode is cited for the benefit of the King of Ts'u, which is not in Confucius' collection. In 541 a Ts'u envoy, who was being entertained in Tsin at a convivial wine party, indulges in apt quotations from the Odes.