CHAPTER 23

1. Tsze-chang asked whether the affairs of ten ages after could be known.

2. Confucius said, "The Yin dynasty followed the regulations of the Hea: wherein it took from or added to them may be known. The Chow dynasty has followed the regulations of the Yin: wherein it took from or added to them may be known. Some other may follow the Chow, but though it should be at the distance of a hundred ages, its affairs may be known."

22. THE NECESSITY TO A MAN OF BEING TRUTHFUL AND SINCERE. 輗 and 軏 are explained in the Dict. in the same way – 'the cross bar at the end of the carriage pole'. But there was a difference. Choo He says, 'In the light carriage, the end of the pole cured upwards, and the cross bar was suspended from a hook.' This would give it more elasticity.

23. THE GREAT PRINCIPLES GOVERNING SOCIETY ARE UNCHANGEABLE. 1. 世 may be taken as an age= 'a century', or as a generation=30 years, which is its radical meaning, being formed from three tens and one (卅 and 一). Both meanings are in the Dict. Conf. made no pretension to supernatural powers, and all comm. are agreed that the things here asked about were not what we would call contingent or indifferent events. He merely says that the great principles of morality and relations of society had continued the same and would ever do so. 也=乎 2. The Hea, Yin, and Chow are now spoken of as the 三代, 'The three changes', i.e., the three great dynasties. The first Emperor of the Hea was 'The great Yu', B.C. 2204, of the Yin, T'ang, B.C. 1765, and of Chow, Woo, B.C. 1121.