C., to try and effect the assassination of Confucius'
master. Six hundred years before that, these same barbarians were
among the first to give in their submission to the founder of
Ts'i; and in 602 B.C. both Ts'i and Lu had endeavoured to crush
them.
As to the state of Ts'in, there is not a single instance given of
any literary conversation or correspondence held by an orthodox
high functionary with a Ts'in statesman. While it is not yet quite
clear that orthodox China can shake herself entirely free of the
reproach of human sacrifices in all senses, it is quite certain
that Ts'in had a barbarous and exclusive notoriety in this
regard'; and, as the Hiung-nu Tartars also practised it, and Ts'in
was at least half Tartar in blood, it is probable that she derived
her sanguinary notions from this blood connection with the Turko-
Scythian tribes. On the death of the Ts'in ruler in 678 B.C., the
first recorded human sacrifices were made, "sixty-six individuals
following the dead." In 621, on the death of the celebrated Duke
Muh, 177 persons lost their lives, and the people of Ts'in, in
pity, "composed the Yellow Bird Ode" (of these popular Chinese
odes more anon).
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