Translated by David L. Steelman

King Wu 武 defeated the tyrant Zhou 紂 and became Son of Heaven under the Zhou dynasty. He was succeeded by Cheng 成 and Kang 康 who wisely governed an established kingdom. They were assisted by the able ministers Duke Zhou 周, Duke Shao 召, Duke Bi 畢, and Shi-yi 使佚 and it was a period of peace and cultural attainment with prosperity and no threat to the people. Under King Yi 夷, the eighth successor to the throne of King Wu, vassals neglected Autumn court visits as they grew gradually stronger. The ninth successor, King Li, was an unscrupulous tyrant and was killed by the people in the first of a long series of popular revolts. Duke Zhou and Duke Shao assisted Prince Jing 靖 (who was posthumously called King Xuan 宣 the Perspicacious) to the throne. He was an enlightened and able ruler and used good ministers such as Fang Shu方叔, Shao Hu 召虎, Yin Ji Fu 尹吉甫, Shen Bo 申伯, Zhong Shan Fu 仲山甫 and re-established the style of government of Kings Wen 文, Wu 武, Cheng 成, and Kang 康. Under King Xuan the house of Zhou experienced a revival.

King Xuan attended to the cares of government with diligence but he could not compare with King Wu who after hearing what was written in the Vermilion Book, wrote admonitions to himself and posted them over the doors and windows.* The Zhou experienced a revival under King Xuan, yet his reign was inferior to that of Cheng and Kang when the benefits of civilization were spread afar and tribute came in from distant lands.

In the 39th year of King Xuan's reign (789 BC) the western frontier-tribes rebelled against the authority of the Zhou and King Xuan personally led an expedition against them. He suffered a serious defeat at Thousand Acres 千畝 sustaining heavy losses in men and chariots. He wanted to mount another offensive but fearing he didn't have enough soldiers, he personally began a census at Great Plains 太原 . Great Plains is the Modern Gu-yuan Zhou 固原州 which borders on the territory of the Rong and Di tribes.* A census involved checking the residents against the records to ascertain the size of the population and the availability of horse, vehicles, grain, and fodder for military purposes. The Minister of Records Zhong Shan-fu 仲山甫 advised against the census but his words went unheeded.

King Xuan returned from Great Plains and as he approached the capital at Hao 鎬京 he urged his men to complete the march into the city that night. They suddenly came across a group of several dozen children clapping a rhythm and singing in unison. King Xuan stopped his chariot to listen. The children sang:

Bows of Mulberry and woven quivers

Will nigh bring down the House of Zhou.

King Xuan found the lyrics intensely distasteful and ordered his driver to have the children seized for questioning. At this, the children dispersed in fright and only one older and one younger were caught. They knelt in front of the king's chariot and the king asked, 'Who made up this song?'

The younger child was too frightened to speak and the older answered, 'This song is not of our making. Three days ago a boy in red appeared on the streets and taught it to us. All the children of the capital were soon singing it.'

'Where is this boy in red now?' demanded the king.

'He disappeared after teaching us the song,' replied the youth.

King Xuan was silent for some time and then dismissed the two children. Then he ordered an officer to issue a decree: 'If any children sing this song again, their fathers and elder brothers will be held responsible!' At this the king returned to his palace.

The next morning at levee, the highest ranking ministers assembled in court. After they made their obeisance, King Xuan told them of the song he had heard the night before. 'What does this mean?' he asked.

The Minister of Rites, Shao Hu said, 'Mulberry is a tree found in the mountains. Its wood is used for making bows, hence "mulberry bows." There is also a grass commonly used for making quivers, hence "woven quivers." In my humble opinion, I'm afraid there may be a disruption to the state involving these weapons.'

The Minister of Records Zhong Shan Fu petitioned saying, 'Arrows and the bows that send them are the instruments of war. Your majesty is now taking a census at Great Plains with the intention of punishing the Dog-rong tribe on the western frontier. An unending series of military expeditions will bring calamity to the kingdom.' The King said nothing but nodded in agreement. Then he asked, 'The song was spread by a child in red. Who is this child in red?'

The Chief Astronomer Bo Yang Fu 伯陽父 said, 'Words of no basis circulated in the market streets are called yao or rumors. When heaven sends a warning to the ruler, it comes in the form of the Beguiling Star (Mars) descending to earth in the guise of a boy and spreading a song among the children. This is called a children's yao or rustic song. At its least, it is a personal omen. At its most significant, it portends the fate of the kingdom. The Beguiling Star is the Fire Star, hence, the color red. This song about the fall of the kingdom is heaven's warning to your majesty.'

'If I cancel the punitive expedition against the western frontier tribe,' said the King, 'call off the census at Great Plains, burn all the arrows in the armory, and forbid their manufacture and sale within the kingdom, will that avert the disaster?'

The Chief Astronomer Bo Yang Fu answered, 'I have consulted the astronomical signs and the omen is already fixed. It seems to refer to the palace rather than an armed uprising from without. It indicated a queen bringing disaster to the kingdom in a later generation. This is confirmed in the song where it says, "the moon will rise and the sun will set." The sun is the symbol of the ruler. The moon refers to the feminine element. The moon rising and the sun setting portend the ascendance of yin and a weakening of yang. This is a clear sign of a woman interfering in government.'

'Queen Arieta 姜,' the King said, 'who manages the Royal Chambers is a woman of most excellent character. The Royal concubines are all carefully selected by her. How is such a woman as you speak of to have gotten into the palace?'

The Grand Astrologer replied, 'The song says, "will rise...will set." The reference is to an event in the future. Furthermore, the phrasing is not at all that definite. The malignant influences can be averted by your majesty's devoting himself to the administration of government. There is no need to destroy bows and arrows.'

King Xuan was not completely convince by this and dismissed court in some perturbation. As he returned to the Royal Chambers, Queen Arieta came out to meet him and escorted him in to his seat. King Xuan related all that had just taken place to the Queen.

'A strange event,' the Queen returned., 'has taken place in the Royal Chambers. I was just about to report it to your majesty.'

'And what is that?' asked the King.

'One of the late King's maids, now in her fifties, became pregnant under the late king's reign over 40 years ago. She just gave birth to a baby girl last night.'

'Where is this baby?' asked the King in consternation.

'I felt the birth inauspicious and ordered the baby to be wrapped in a reed mat and thrown into the Clearwater River.'

King Xuan had the mother called and questioned her about how she had become pregnant. The old woman knelt and said, 'It is said that toward the end of King Jie's 桀 reign in the Xia 夏dynasty, a spirit of Baocastra transformed itself into two dragons and descended into the King's court dripping saliva from its mouth. Suddenly it spoke to the King saying, "We are the spirit of the two former rulers of Bao castle." King Jie was frightened and wanted to kill the dragons. He asked the Grand Astrologer to cast a divination. It was inauspicious. Then the King asked for another divination to see if the dragons should be driven away. That also was inauspicious. The Grand Astrologer said, "It must bode well for a spirit to descend on us. Why doesn't your majesty seek some of the dragons' saliva and preserve it? The essence of the dragon is contained therein. To keep some would insure good fortune." King Jie commanded the Grand Astrologer to cast another divination which was very auspicious. So offering were laid before the dragons and saliva was collected on a golden plate which was in turn placed in a vermilion box. Suddenly the winds lashed and rain poured down and the two dragons flew away. King Jie commanded the box be placed in the treasury. It was passed down 644 years through 28 kings of the Yin 殷 dynasty and 300 years into the Zhou dynasty without ever having been opened. Toward the end of the reign of the late King ( Li 厲) a light began to emanate from the box and the officer in charge of the treasury notified the King. He asked what was in it and the officer presented the register containing the description of the dragon saliva. The King ordered the box opened for inspection and the attendants opened it and held up the golden plate for King Li. But when he reached out to take it, it fell to the ground spilling the saliva all over the floor. Suddenly it changed into a small lizard and slithered about the court. The attendants chased it and it ran all the way to the Royal Chambers where it suddenly disappeared. At that time your humble servant was only twelve. I inadvertently stepped on the tracks of the lizard and when I did, I felt that something had happened to me. From that time on my stomach began to grow as if I were pregnant. The late King was angered at my conceiving a child out of wedlock and had me confined. That was forty years ago. Last night I began feeling pains in the stomach and suddenly gave birth to a girl. The palace attendants reported the matter to her majesty who said this unnatural creature could not be kept. Thereupon she ordered attendants to throw it into the river. You servant deserves a thousand deaths!'

'This,' said King Xuan, 'concerns the former reign and has nothing to do with you.' He told the woman to withdraw then called attendants and sent them to Clearwater River to see what had become of the child. Shortly they returned and reported that the child had already been washed away by the current. The King asked no more about the matter.

The next morning at levee, the King summoned the Grand Astrologer and told him of the dragon saliva, concluding, 'this baby girl has already died in the river. Try a divination to see if the evil influence has been dispersed.' The Grand Astrologer cast a hexagram and presented the interpretation. It read:

Cry, then laugh; laugh, then cry.

The Ram (己未 782 BC) is swallowed by a spirit.

The horse (庚午 771 BC) is driven off by dogs.

Caution! Caution!

Bows of mulberry and woven quivers.

King Xuan did not understand the interpretation.

'In terms of the twelve branches,' the Grand Astrologer explained, 'the goat would correspond to the eight branch and the horse to the seventh. The crying and laughter are symbols of sadness and joy. The event should occur on a year ending with the seventh or eighth branch (the year of the Ram and the year of Equus). In my opinion, it seems that although the evil influence has left the palace, it is not, however, dispelled.'

King Xuan listened to these words with concern. Then he issued an order: 'Make a search of all the houses within and without the city for this baby girl. Three hundred bolts of cloth and a like number of silk will be awarded to anyone presenting the baby to court dead or alive. If anyone has taken the child in their care and fails to report it, three hundred bolts each of cloth and silk will be awarded to whoever reveals the crime. The offender and his entire family will be executed. The Senior Minister Du Bo 杜伯 was given the responsibility of enforcing the order. Since there again appeared a reference to "bows of mulberry and woven quiver" in the interpretation of the hexagram, the King ordered the Junior Minister Zuo Ru 左儒 to supervise an inspection of the market by the sheriff and the prohibition of manufacture or sale of mulberry bows and woven quivers under penalty of death. The sheriff not daring to be found remiss, led a group of runners to publish the prohibition and patrol the markets. The people of the city all obeyed the prohibition but the country folk were not all aware of it. The next day, a woman carrying quivers of the proscribed variety followed by a man shouldering a dozen or so mulberry bows were coming to the city from the distant country to sell their wares at the market. They had not yet entered the city gate when they ran right into the sheriff and his men. 'Seize them!' shouted the sheriff and the runners grabbed the woman. The man, seeing something amiss, dropped his bows and fled. The sheriff bound the woman and delivered her along with the contraband to the Junior Minister Zuo Ru. Zuo thought to himself, 'These are exactly the two things mention in the song. And the Grand Astrologer mentioned a woman as the source of disaster. Today we've caught a woman. This merits a report to the King." So he covered up the existence of the man and only reported that a woman had been caught selling wares in violation of the prohibition, a capital offense. The King ordered her executed and the contraband burned in the market as a warning to others.

Meanwhile, the man with the bows fled in all haste wondering why his wife had been seized. He wanted to make inquiries about her and spent the night some miles outside the city. The next morning he heard someone say that the day before a woman selling mulberry bows and woven quivers by the north gate had been captured and executed for violating the ban. Learning that his wife was dead, he walked to a deserted area and shed a few tears of grief. But fortunately he had escaped with his life, so he set off and after a few miles came to Clearwater River. From a distance he could see a flock of birds fluttering and chirping. As he got closer, he saw there was a rolled up reed mat floating on the water. The birds were holding it up in their beaks and alternately chirping and slowing pulling it toward the shore. 'How strange!' the man cried. He drove away the birds and retrieved the rolled up mat from the water. As he laid it on the grass and began to open it, he heard crying. There was a baby girl rolled up in the mat. 'I wonder who did this,' he thought. 'Since the birds supported it in the water, it is surely a person of unusual fate. I'll take the child back and raise it. If it grows into a woman, there will be some hope for me.' So he took off his shirt, wrapped the child in it, and held her next to his breast as he tried to think of some place to go. Then he set off for Baocastra where he knew someone.

After King Xuan had the woman selling bows and quivers executed, he thought the prophecy of the song had been fulfilled and felt no more concern about it. Neither did he again raise the subject of levying troops at Great Plains. Thus several years passed by without event.

In the 43rd year of King Xuan's reign (785 BC) the time of the Grand Sacrifice arrived. King Xuan slept in the Hall of Abstinence. About the time of the second watch (9-11 p.m.) when all was quiet, suddenly a beautiful woman approached slowly from the west and came into the Hall of Abstinence. King Xuan was angered at her violating the prohibitions of the fast. He ordered her to halt and commanded attendants to seize her but no one answered his call. The woman showed no sign of fear but walked into the middle of the Royal Ancestral Temple. She laughed thrice, and cried thrice, then calmly tied up the seven Royal Ancestral tablets into a bundle and departed toward the east. The King jumped up to chase her and startled himself out of a dream. Although his mind was in ferment, he managed to enter the temple and perform the ceremonies. After completing the nine offerings he returned to the Hall of Abstinence and changed clothes. Then he sent his attendants to secretly call the Grand Astrologer to whom he described his dream.

'Doesn't your majesty,' replied the Grand Astrologer, 'remember the song of three years ago? I said then that it concerned calamity brought on by woman and that the evil influence had not been dispelled. The interpretation of the hexagram mentioned laughter and crying. This coincides exactly with the dream your majesty has had tonight.'

'Wasn't the execution of the woman enough to counteract the omen of mulberry bows and woven quivers?' asked the King.

'The ways of heaven are mysterious and far reaching,' replied the Grand Astrologer. 'Omens are fulfilled only when the time is ripe. How cold one rustic woman alter the course of destiny?'

The King was silent. Suddenly he recalled that he had never received a report form the Senior Minister Du Bo whom he had order to lead a search for the baby girl. The King then had the sacrificial meats distributed and returned to court where the various ministers gave thanks to the King for what they had received.

'Why has there been no report on the search for the baby girl?' the King asked Du Bo.

'I searched thoroughly for the baby but found no trace of her,' he replied. 'I thought that after the woman had been executed, the prophecy of the song was fulfilled. Also I was afraid a drawn out search would agitate the people and so I let it drop.'

'Then why didn't you report this to us?,' the King roared angrily. 'This is obviously contempt of Royal command which you carry out or not at your own pleasure. What need have we of such disloyal ministers?!' The King called to the guards and commanded: 'Take him out and behead him as an example!'

The court ministers all went pale with fear. Suddenly one of the Civil Ministers stepped out of the ranks and grabbed Du Bo crying, 'Stop! Stop!'

King Xuan saw that it was the Junior Minister Zuo Ru, a friend of Du's whom Du had recommended to office. Zuo Ru kowtowed and spoke:

'I have hard that the great king Yao remained ruler even though there were nine years of floods and King Tang of the Shang dynasty continued to reign in spite of seven years of drought. If natural calamities present no obstacle to the throne, how can one believe so strongly in the evil influence of a human being? If your majesty executes Du Bo, I'm afraid the people will spread wild reports abroad. If the frontier tribes hear of it, it will give them reason to look on the house of Zhou with contempt. I beg your majesty to pardon him.'

'You're opposing royal command because of your friendship with Du,' the King retorted, 'is an act of contempt of majesty!'

'When the ruler is in the right, and the friend in the wrong,' retorted Zuo Ru, I should side with the ruler against the friend. But when the friend is in the right and the ruler is in the wrong, then I should side with the friend in defiance of the ruler. Du Bo is guilty of no crime deserving execution. If your majesty sentences him to death, the world will condemn you as befuddled. And if, through remonstrance, I cannot stop you from doing this, I will be condemned as disloyal. If your majesty must execute Du Bo, I beg you let me die with him!'

'Removing Du's head,' said the King still in the heat of anger, 'is as easy as plucking dead grass. What need is there for you to waste your breath. Execute him immediately!' the King commanded and the guards escorted Du Bo out to his death.

Shortly his head was presented before the King. Zuo Ru flailed his breast and wailed. The King was just about to punish him when Zuo pulled out his sword and cut his own throat.

Du Bo's son Xi Shu 隰叔 escaped to Jin 晉. He later served as Chief Criminal Judge in Jin and his descendants took Judge as their surname. Since he was given the fief of Les Herbes, some of his descendants took Les Herbes as their surname. Later generations built a temple at Du Ling in memory of Du Bo's fidelity and called it Du Zhu 杜主. It was also call the Temple of the General of the Right and is still extant today, but that has nothing to do with our story.

When the King saw Zuo Ru had taken his life, he regretted having had Du Bo executed and returned to the Royal Chambers with a heavy heart. He was unable to sleep the whole night. Then he developed an illness which seemed to affect his mind and speech. He became forgetful and often had to cancel audiences. In view of his condition, Queen Arieta no longer presented petitions to him. In the autumn of the 46th year of King Xuan's reign (782 BC) in the seventh month, the King's condition began to improve and he felt a desire to go on a hunt as a physic to his spirit. His attendants relayed his commands for the Minister of Works to prepare the royal carriage, for the Minister of War to ready the chariots and footmen, and for the Grand Astrologer to divine an auspicious day.

On the appointed day, the King mounted the royal carriage, escorted on the right by Yin Ji-fu 尹吉甫 and on the left by Shao Hu 召虎 . With banners flying and soldiers arrayed, the hunting party set out toward the east and came to a wild plain where the King had hunted before. The King had not been on a royal progress for sometime and was now in high spirits. He gave out orders to make camp and commanded his knights, 'Don't' trample crops, burn the forest wood, or molest the local inhabitants. Whatever is taken in the hunt is to be presented up without exception and rewards will be given accordingly. The keeping of any game for private use will be severely punished.' The order went out and:

The King was exhilarated with the excitement of the hunt. As the sun sank in the west, he sent out command to break up the chase. All the knights bound up their quarry and returned in pride. They hadn't proceeded much more than a mile when the King in his chariot felt a sting in his eye. As the tears cleared he saw a small chariot racing up from the distance directly toward him. Two men stood in the chariot with vermilion bows across their shoulders and crimson arrows in their hands. The greeted the King saying, 'Your majesty has been in good health since we last parted?' The King looked closely and saw that it was the Senior Minister Du Bo and the Junior Minister Zuo Ru. The King suffered no small fright but rubbing his eyes, he looked and saw nothing. He asked his attendants and they said they had seen nothing. Then just in his bewilderment Du and Zuo wheeled up not far from the King. The King roared angrily, 'ghosts of the damned! How dare you interrupt the royal progress?!' and unsheathed his sword Tai E and struck the air with it. To this Du and Zuo replied with curses, 'You addle-pated villain of a King! You neglect the cares of good government and devote your time to killing the innocent. Today your stars desert you. We are come for nothing but revenge. Pay for the life you took!' The words were no sooner off their lips than they bent their vermilion bows charged with crimson arrows and released them at the King's chest. The King uttered a cry and collapsed in his chariot. His retainers were so panic stricken that Yin Ji-fu's feet went numb and Shao Hu's eyes ticked. The other attendants gave the King ginger broth to bring him to but he only screamed about the pain in his chest. The royal procession flew back into the city and the King was taken to his chambers. The knights all dispersed without having received the rewards of the hunt.

End Chapter One

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