Chapter 66

alone; let the others visit our respective capitals." Accordingly it was understood that Tsin and Ts'u should both be Protectors, but that neither Ts'in nor Ts'i should recognize their status to the point of subordinating themselves to the joint hegemons. This was Ts'u's first appearance as effective hegemon, but her official _debut_ alone did not take place till 538. Ts'i and Ts'in had both approved, in principle, the terms of peace, but Ts'in sent no representative, whilst Ts'i sent two. It is very remarkable that Sz-ma Ts'ien (the great historian of 100 B.C., who was castrated) does not mention this important meeting in his great work, either under the heading of Ts'i, or of Tsin, or under the headings of Sung and Ts'u. It seems, however, really to have had good effect for several generations; but there was some thing behind it which shows that love for humanity was not the leading motive of the chief parties. Two years later it was that the philosophical brother of the King of Wu went his rounds among the Chinese princes, and it is evident that Ts'u only desired peace with North China whilst she tackled this formidable new enemy on the coast. Tsin, on the other hand, was in trouble with the "six great families" (the survivors of the "eleven great families" conciliated by the Second Protector), who were gradually undermining the princely authority in Tsin to their own private aggrandisement. In 572 B.C., when the legitimate ruler of Tsin, who had been superseded by irregular successors, was fetched back from the Emperor's court, to which he had gone for a quiet asylum, he drew up a treaty of conditions with his own ministers, and immolated a chicken as sanction; this idea is still occasionally perpetuated in British courts of justice, where Chinese, probably without knowing it, draw upon ancient history when asked by the court how they are accustomed to sanction an oath; cocks are often also carried about by modern Chinese boatmen for purposes of sacrifice. In the year 504, after Wu had captured the Ts'u capital, one of the petty orthodox Chinese states taken by Ts'u-- the first to be so taken by barbarians--in 684, but left by Ts'u internally independent, declined to render any assistance to Wu, unless she could prove her competence to hold permanently the Ts'u territory thus conquered. The King of Ts'u was so grateful for this that he drew some blood from the breast of his own half- brother, and on the spot made a treaty with the vassal prince. It 662, even in a love vow, the ruler of Lu cut his own arm and exchanged drops of blood with his lady-love. In 481 the people of Wei (the small orthodox state on the middle Yellow River between Tsin and Lu) forced one of their politicians to swear allegiance to the desired successor under the sanction of a sacrificial pig.

The great Kwan-tsz insisted on his prince carrying out a treaty which had been extorted in times of stress; but, as a rule, the most opportunistic principles were laid down, even by Confucius himself when he was placed under personal stress: "Treaties obtained by force are of no value, as the spirits could not then have really been present." In 589 Ts'u invaded the state of Wei, just mentioned, and menaced the adjoining state of Lu, compelling the execution of a treaty. Confucius, who once broke a treaty himself, naturally retrospectively considered this ducal treaty of no effect, and he even goes so far as to avoid mentioning in his annals some of the important persons who were present; he especially "burkes" two Chinese ruling princes, who were shameless enough to ride in the same chariot with the King of Ts'u, under whose predominancy they were, and who were therefore themselves under a kind of stress. In 482 one of Confucius' pupils made the following casuistical reply to the government of Wu on their application for renewal of a treaty with her: "It is only fidelity that gives solidity to treaties; they are determined by mutual consent, and it is with sacrifices that they are laid before our ancestors; the written words give expression to them, and the spirits guarantee them. A treaty once concluded cannot be changed: otherwise it were vain to make a new one. Remember the proverb: "What needs warming up more may just as well be eaten cold." The ordinary rough-and-ready form of oath or vow between individuals was: "If I break this, may I be as this river"; or, "may the river god be witness." There were many other similar forms, and it was often customary to throw something valuable into the river as a symbol.