CHAPTER 6

The chief of the Ke family was about to sacrifice to the T'ae mountain. The Master said to Yen-yew, "Can you not save him from this?" He answered, "I cannot." Confucius said, "Alas! Will you say that the T'ae mountain is not so discerning as Lin Fang?"

5. THE ANARCHY OF CONFUCIUS' TIME. The 夷 were the barbarians on the east of China, and 狄, those on the north. See 礼记, 王制, iii.14. The two are here used for the barbarous tribes about China generally. 诸夏is a name for China because of the multitude of its people (诸), and its greatness (夏). 华夏, 'The flowery and great', is still a common designation of it. Choo He takes 如 as simply=似, and hence the sentiment in the transl. Ho An's comm. is to this effect:—'The rude tribes with their princes are still not equal to China with its anarchy'. 亡, read as, and=无.

6. ON THE FOLLY OF USURPED SACRIFICES. 旅 is said to be the name appropriate to sacrifices to mountains, but we find it applied also to sacrifices to God. The T'ae mountain is the first of the 'five mountains' (五岳), which are celebrated in Chinese literature, and have always received religious honours. It was in Loo, or rather on the borders between Loo and Ts'e, about 2 miles north of the present district city of T'ae-gan (泰安), in the department of Tse-nan(济南), in Shan-tung. According to the ritual of China, sacrifice could only be offered to these mountains by the emperor, and princes in whose States any of them happened to be. For the chief of the Ke family, therefore, to sacrifice to the T'ae mountain, was a great usurpation. 女 as in II.7,=汝, and 曾 as in II.8=则, or we may take it as=经, 'Have you said', &e. 泰山=泰山之神, 'The spirit of the T'ae mountain'. Lin Fang,—see ch.1 from which the reason of this reference to him may be understood. Yen Yew, named (求), and by designation 子有, was one of the disciples of Conf., and is now third, in the hall, on the west. He entered the service of the Ke family, and was a man of ability and resources.