The sovereign without the people has none whom he can employ; and the people without the sovereign have none whom they can serve. Do not think yourself so large as to deem others small. If ordinary men and women do not find the opportunity to give full development to their ability, the people's lord will be without the proper aids to complete his merit.'
Book VII. The Pan-kăng.
Pan-kăng was the seventeenth sovereign in the line of Thang. From Thâi Kiâ to him, therefore, there was a space of 321 years, which are a gap in the history of the Shang dynasty, so far as the existing documents of the Shû are concerned. When the collection was complete, there were seven other documents between 'the Common Possession of Pure Virtue' and 'the Pan-kang,' but the latest of them belonged to the reign of Zû-yî, B.C. 1525–1507.
The reign of Pan-kăng extended from B.C. 1401 to 1374, and is remarkable as that in which the dynasty began to be called Yin, instead of Shang. The Book belongs to the class of 'Announcements,' and is divided into three sections.
The contents centre round the removal of the capital from the north of the Ho to Yin on the south of it. The king saw that the removal was necessary, but had to contend with the unwillingness of the people to adopt such a step, and the opposition of the great families. The first section relates how he endeavoured to vindicate the measure, and contains two addresses, to the people and to those in high places, respectively, designed to secure their cordial co-operation. The second section brings before us the removal in progress, but there continue to be dissatisfactions, which the king endeavours to remove by a long and earnest defence of his course. The third section opens with the removal accomplished. The new city has been founded, and the plan of it laid out. The king makes a fresh appeal to the people and chiefs, to forget all their heart-burnings, and join with him in building up in the new capital a great destiny for the dynasty.
