| Successful Completion of the...: |
The king spoke to the following effect: 'Oh! ye host of princes, the first of our kings founded his state, and commenced (the enlargement of) its territory. Gong Liu, was able to consolidate the services of his predecessor. But it was the king Tai who laid the foundations of the royal inheritance. The king Ji was diligent for the royal House; and my deceased father, king Wen, completed his merit, and grandly received the appointment of Heaven, to soothe the regions of our great land. The great states feared his strength; the small states thought fondly of his virtue. In nine years, however, the whole kingdom was not united under his rule, and it fell to me, the little child, to carry out his will. |
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'Detesting the crimes of Shang, I announced to great Heaven and the sovereign Earth, to the famous hill I and the great river by which I passed, saying, "I, Fa, the principled, king of Zhou by a long descent, am about to administer a great correction to Shang. Shou, the present king of Shang, is without principle, cruel and destructive to the creatures of Heaven, injurious and tyrannical to the multitudes of the people, lord of all the vagabonds under heaven, who collect about him as fish in the deep, and beasts in the prairie. I, the little child, having obtained (the help of) virtuous men, presume reverently to comply with (the will of) God, and make an end of his disorderly ways. Our flowery, and great land, and the tribes of the south and north, equally follow and consent with me. Reverently obeying the determinate counsel of Heaven, I pursue my punitive work to the east, to give tranquillity to its men and women. They meet me with their baskets full of dark-coloured and yellow silks, thereby showing (the virtues) of us, the kings of Zhou. Heaven's favours stir them up, so that they come with their allegiance to our great state of Zhou. And now, ye spirits, grant me your aid, that I may relieve the millions of the people, and nothing turn out to your shame."' |
