nine divisions was at first made known to Yü, and came at this time to be communicated to king Wû; the second contains the names of the nine divisions of the Plan; and in the third we have a description of the several divisions. 'The whole,' says a Chinese writer, 'exhibits the great model for the government of the nation.' The fifth or middle division on royal perfection is the central one of the whole, about which the Book revolves. The four divisions that precede it show how this royal perfection is to be accomplished, and the four that follow show how it is to be maintained.
1. In the thirteenth year[1], the king went to enquire of the count of Khî, and said to him, 'Oh! count of Khî, Heaven, (working) unseen, secures the tranquillity of the lower people, aiding them to be in harmony with their condition[2]. I do not know how the unvarying principles (of its method in doing so) should be set forth in due order.'
The count of Khî thereupon replied, 'I have heard that in old time Khwăn dammed up the inundating waters, and thereby threw into disorder the arrangement of the five elements. God was consequently roused to anger, and did not give him the Great Plan with its nine divisions, and thus the unvarying principles (of Heaven's method) were allowed to go to ruin.* Khwăn was therefore
- ↑ See the commencement of Book i.
- ↑ Khung Ying-tâ of the Thang dynasty says on this:—'The people have been produced by supreme Heaven, and both body and soul are Heaven's gift. Men have thus the material body and the knowing mind, and Heaven further assists them, helping them to harmonize their lives. The right and the wrong of their language, the correctness and errors of their conduct, their enjoyment of clothing and food, the rightness of their various movements;—all these things are to be harmonized by what they are endowed with by Heaven.'
