" Thus it seems that the
ancient Chou rules had been conveyed to Wu by the first colonists
in 1200 B.C., and that the succession laws differed from those of
Ts'u. Ki-chah's son died whilst he was on his travels, and
Confucius is reported to have said: "He is a man who understands
the rites; let us see what he does." Ki-chah bared his left arm
and shoulder, marched thrice round the grave, and said: "Flesh and
bone back to the earth, as is proper; as to the soul, let it go
anywhere it chooses!" This language was approved by Confucius, who
himself always declined to dogmatize on death and spirits,
maintaining that men knew too little of themselves, when living,
to be justified in groping for facts about the dead. At first
sight it would appear strange that a barbarous country like Wu
should suddenly produce a learned prince who at once captivated by
his culture Yen-tsz of Ts'i, Confucius of Lu, Tsz-ch'an of Cheng,
K'u-peh-yu of Wei, Shuh Hiang of Tsin, and, in short, all the
distinguished statesmen of China; but if we reflect that, within
half a century, the greatest naval, military, and scientific
geniuses have been produced on Western lines in Japan (as we shall
soon see, in some way connected with Wu), at least we find good
modern parallels for the phenomenon.
Pages:
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295