Most Emperors and vassal princes are spoken of in history by their
posthumous names, that is by the names voted to them after death,
with the view of tersely expressing by that name the essential
features (good or bad) of the deceased's personal character; just
as we say in Europe, officially or unofficially, Louis le
Bienaimé, Albert the Good, or Charles the Fat. The posthumous name
of this Ts'in earl was "the Duke Muh" (no matter whether duke,
marquess, earl, viscount, or baron when living, it was customary
to say "duke" when the ruler was dead), and the posthumous name of
the Emperor who died in 947 B.C. was "the King Muh"; for, as
already stated, the Chou dynasty of Sons of Heaven were called
"King," and not "Emperor" though their supreme position was as
fully imperial as that of previous dynastic monarchs, and they
were, in fact, "Emperors" as we now understand that word in
Europe. At the same time that the Bamboo Annals were unearthed,
there were also found copies of some of the old "classics" or
"Scripture," and a hitherto unknown book called "the Story of the
Son of Heaven Muh," all, of course, written in the same ancient
script. This Son of Heaven (a term applied to all the Emperors of
China, no matter whether they styled themselves Emperor, King, or
August Emperor) was supposed to have travelled far west, and to
have had interviews with a foreign prince, who, as his land too,
was transcribed as _Siwangmu_. The subject will be touched
upon more in detail in another chapter; but, for the present, it
will be useful to say that, in the opinion of one very learned
sinologist, all evidence points clearly to this expedition having
been undertaken by Duke Muh of Ts'in, installed as he was in the
old appanage of the emperors lost to the Tartars (as we have
explained) in 771, and made over at the same time by the Emperor
involved to the ancestors of Duke Muh. This view of the case is
supported by the fact that in 664 B.C. Ts'in and Tsin, for some
unknown reason, forced the Tartars of Kwa Chou to migrate into
China, which migration was subsequently alluded to by a Tartar
chief (when attending a Chinese durbar in 559 B.C.) as a well-
known historical fact. It was undoubtedly the practice of semi-
Chinese states, such as Ts'u, Wu, Yueh, and Shuh (the last is the
modern Sz Ch'wan province, and its history was only discovered
long after Confucius' time), to call themselves "Kings,"
"Emperors," and "Sons of Heaven," in their own country (just as
the tributary King of Annam always did until the French assumed a
protectorate over him; and just as the tributary Japanese did
before they officially announced the fact to China in the seventh
century A.D.); and there are many indications that Ts'in did, or
at least might have done and would like to have done, the same
thing. Hence, when the story of Muh was discovered, the literary
manipulators--even if they did not really believe that it
positively must refer to the Emperor Muh-might well have honestly
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account