are engaged in my six hosts, I have a solemn announcement to make to you.
'The lord of Hû wildly wastes and despises the five elements (that regulate the seasons), and has idly abandoned the three acknowledged commencements of the year[1]. On this account Heaven is about to destroy him, and bring to an end his appointment (to Hû); and I am now reverently executing the punishment appointed by Heaven.*
'If you, (the archers) on the left[2], do not do your work on the left, it will be a disregard of my orders. If you, (the spearmen) on the right[2], do not do your work on the right, it will be a disregard of my orders. If you, charioteers[2], do not observe the rules for the management of your horses, it will be a disregard of my orders. You who obey my orders, shall be rewarded before (the spirits of) my ancestors; and you who disobey my orders, shall be put to death before the altar of the spirits of the land, and I will also put to death your children.'*
- ↑ The crimes of the lord of Hû are here very obscurely stated. With regard to the second of them, we know that Hsiâ commenced its year with the first month of spring, Shang a month earlier, and Kâu about mid-winter. It was understood that every dynasty should fix a new month for the beginning of the year, and the dynasty of Khin actually carried its first month back into our November. If the lord of Hû claimed to begin the year with another month than that which Yü had fixed, he was refusing submission to the new dynasty. No doubt, the object of the expedition was to put down a dangerous rival.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 The chariots were the principal part of an ancient Chinese army; it is long before we read of cavalry. A war-chariot generally carried three. The driver was in the centre; on his left was an archer, and a spearman occupied the place on his right. They all wore mail.
