and let loose his oxen in the open country of Thâo-lin[1], showing to all under heaven that he would not use them (again).
On the day Ting-wei, he sacrificed in the ancestral temple of Kâu, when (the princes) of the royal domain, and of the Tien, Hâu, and Wei domains, all hurried about, carrying the dishes.* The third day after was Kăng-hsü, when he presented a burnt-offering to Heaven, and worshipped towards the hills and rivers, solemnly announcing the successful completion of the war.*
After the moon began to wane, the hereditary princes of the various states, and all the officers, received their appointments from Kâu[2].
2. The king spoke to the following effect:—'Oh! ye host of princes, the first of our kings[3] founded his state, and commenced (the enlargement of) its territory. Kung Liû[4] was able to consolidate the services of his predecessor. But it was the king Thâi who laid the foundations of the royal inheritance. The king Kî was diligent for the royal House; and my deceased father, king Wăn, completed his merit, and grandly received the appoint-
- ↑ The country about the hill of Mû-niû or Khwâ-fû, in the southeast of the present department of Thung-kâu. Thâo-lin may be translated 'Peach-forest.'
- ↑ The new dynasty of Kâu was now fully inaugurated.
- ↑ By 'the first of our kings,' we must understand Khî, Shun's Minister of Agriculture; and his state was that of Thâi.
- ↑ Kung Liû, perhaps 'duke Liû,' appears in Pin, the present Pin Kâu of Shen-hsî, about the beginning of the eighteenth century B.C., reviving the fallen fortunes of the House of Khî. History is then silent about the family for more than four centuries, when we find Than-fû, called here 'king Thâi,' founding the state of Kâu.
