70 THE INTELLECTUAL RISE IN ELECTRICITY. 



that u the officers who accompanied the ambassadors to 

 their country then returned. They came back in the same 

 carnages in a direction opposite to that which they 

 pointed, and occupied a year as the journey out had done. 

 The axles and protruding axle-ends were originally of 

 iron, which was completely rusted away when they re- 

 turned. The chariots were entrusted to officers to be kept 

 for use of the envoys of subject states located at a dis- 

 tance." This was written centuries after the events de- 

 scribed, and is probably wholly imaginary. 



But in the Shoo-king itself, in the account given of the 

 funeral of the King of Chow, which occurred at about the 

 same time (1102 B. C.), there is described the placing of 

 the royal vehicles about the palace and "the great or 

 pearly carriage is to be on the visitors' or western stairs 

 facing the south: the succeeding or golden carriage on the 

 eastern stairs facing the south" and so on for the cate- 

 gory of chariots, each successive one being made of less 

 valuable material, and the last being of wood. It will be 

 noted here, that the chariots were merely placed or in- 

 stalled so as to face the south, and the south in China has 

 always been regarded as the honorable quarter. The em- 

 peror takes his position facing that point, and all import- 

 ant buildings are similarly placed. Whether the south- 

 pointing chariots of the legend (as the commentaries and 

 alleged translations, made many centuries later, assert) 

 actually indicated the south by some contrivance contained 

 in them, though not described; or whether they were 

 merely chariots of honor, which, like those of the King of 

 Chow, were placed ceremonially facing the south, is thus 

 a debateable question. It is a noteworthy fact that the 

 commentary on the Shoo-king, written in 1200 A. D., 

 is elaborate on astronomical, musical and geographical 

 topics, even to the details of the armillary sphere and the 

 minute proportioning of cords for producing musical 

 tones. It is, therefore, exceedingly significant that both 

 text and commentary the latter written long before the 



