As to Ts'u, its Annals were known by the curious name of "Stinking
Wood," by which it is supposed that the evil recorded of men upon
wooden tablets was meant. That Ts'u subsequently developed a high
literary capacity is evident, for the anniversary of the suicide
of the celebrated Ts'u poet K'üh Yiian (envoy to Ts'i during the
fierce diplomatic intrigues of 31 B.C.) has been kept up as the
annual "dragon festival" down to our own times, in memory of his
suicide by drowning in the Tung-t'ing Lake district; and his poems
are amongst the most beautiful in the Chinese language. In 656
B.C. the dictatorial First Protector tried to play the _rôle_
of the wolf, with Ts'u in the character of the lamb: he said: "How
is it you have not for so many generations past sent your tribute
of sedge to the Emperor? How about the other Emperor who visited
(modern) Hankow in 1003 B.C. and was never heard of again?" The
King replied: "As to our failure to send tribute, we admit it; as
to the supposed murder of the Emperor 350 years ago, you had
better ask the people of Hankow themselves what they know of it."
(Ts'u had hardly yet permanently advanced so far east.)
In 496 B.C. it is recorded of a scholar at the Emperor's court
that, being anxious to see his own name in the "Springs and
Autumns," he suggested to the Emperor that for a long time no
complimentary mission had been sent to Lu. The result was that he
was sent himself, and is thus immortalized: it does not follow
from this that the knowledge of Confucius' coming book had
penetrated to the Chou court, because "Springs and Autumns" was
already the accepted term in Lu for "Annals," long before
Confucius adopted the already existing general name for his own
particular work. In 496 Confucius had left Lu in disgust, and had
gone to Wei--the capital of Wei was then on, or near, the then
Yellow River (now the River Wei), between the two towns marked
"Hwa" and "K'ai" on modern maps--where he collected materials for
his History; but he did not begin it until the year 481; so
probably the ambitious scholar simply hoped to appear in the
"Springs and Autumns" of Lu, as they had already been called
before Confucius borrowed the name, just as Sz-ma Ts'ien borrowed
the name _Shi-ki_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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