you presumptuously oppose the decision of the tortoise-shell;—so we are here to enlarge our great inheritance.'*
2. 'Oh! ye chiefs of regions, ye heads of departments, all ye, the hundreds of officers, would that ye had a sympathy (with my people)! I will exert myself in the choice and guiding of you;—do ye think reverently of my multitudes. I will not employ those who are fond of enriching themselves; but will use and revere those who are vigorously, yet reverently, labouring for the lives and increase of the people, nourishing them and planning for their enduring settlement.
'I have now brought forward and announced to you my mind, whom I approve and whom I disallow;—let none of you but reverence (my will). Do not seek to accumulate wealth and precious things, but in fostering the life of the people, seek to find your merit. Reverently display your virtue in behalf of the people. For ever maintain this one purpose in your hearts.'
Book VIII. The Charge to Yüeh.
After Pan-kăng came the reigns of Hsiâo-hsin and Hsiâo-yî, of which we have no accounts in the Shû. Hsiâo-yî was followed by Wû-ting (B.C. 1324–1264), to the commencement of whose reign this Book, in three sections, belongs. His name is not in it, but that he is the king intended appears from the prefatory notice, and the Confucian Analects, XIV, xliii. The Book is the first of the 'Charges' of the Shû. They relate the designation by the king of some officer to a particular charge or to some fief, with the address delivered by him on the occasion. Here the charge is to Yüeh, in the first section, on his appointment to be
