to your accomplished ancestor, (and is equal to his.) You have done much to repair my (losses), and defend me in my difficulties, and of you, being such, I am full of admiration,'
2. The king said, 'Uncle Î-ho, return home, survey your multitudes, and tranquillize your state. I reward you with a jar of spirits, distilled from the black millet, and flavoured with odoriferous herbs[1], with a red bow, and a hundred red arrows[2]; with a black bow, and a hundred black arrows; and with four horses. Go, my uncle. Show kindness to those that are far off, and help those who are near at hand; cherish and secure the repose of the inferior people; do not idly seek your ease; exercise an inspection and (benign) compassion in your capital (and all your borders);—thus completing your illustrious virtue.'
Book XXIX. The Speech at Pî.
The Speech at Pî carries us back from the time of Phing to that of king Khăng. In the Preface to the Shû it is attributed to Po-khin, the son of the duke of Kâu; and there is a general acquiescence of tradition and critics in this view. We may account for its position out of the chronological order from
- ↑ Compare king Khăng's gift to the duke of Kâu, in the Announcement concerning Lo, ch. 6.
- ↑ The conferring on a prince of a bow and arrows, invested him with the power of punishing throughout the states within his jurisdiction all who were disobedient to the royal commands, but not of taking life without first reporting to the court. The gift was also a tribute to the merit of the receiver. See the Book of Poetry, II, iii, ode 1.
