OF CHINA. 



appellatives further on (§§40-45), so far as they cenfirtn or weaken the 

 veracity of the legend, and we shall see that it is nothing more than an 

 instance of mythology caused by the ideographism of the written charac- 

 ters. 



5. The first reference to silk or better silk-cloth in historical documents 

 is that which occurs in the second chapter of the Book of History 12 , 

 the Canon of Shun, where the Chinese ruler is said to have made a tour 

 of inspection among the fiefs eastward as far as the mountain of Tai, 

 otherwise the Tai shan in Shantung W., the most famous of the sacred 

 hills of China. Shun made there a certain number of regulations, in- 

 cluding one concerning the san p eh or three sorts of silks. The 

 text there is apparently corrupted and contains a difficulty which has not 

 been cleared off either by the natiye commentators or the Sinologists who 

 have translated it. But this does not affect the san peh, as they are 

 mentioned at the same time as the five classes of rites to be observed, the 

 five orders of gem-tokens, and the other articles which prepared the way to 

 the princes for their audience from the Chinese ruler. The oldest sons of 

 chiefs were bound to hold silk of a deep red, the sons of the three highest 

 officers silks of a reddish black, and the chieftains of small attached terri- 

 tories yellow silks. There is perhaps in this explanation much of later 

 rites, although a distinction of some sort was then and there established 

 for three sorts of plain silk cloth as articles of introduction, and the un- 

 paralleled stableness of the rites and institutions of the Kingdom Be- 

 neath- Heaven allows the explanation of many ancient manners and 

 customs by the peculiarities of the later ones. An interesting character- 

 istic of the foregoing statement of the Shu King is that the regulation 

 concerning the three classes of silk's presents was made when the Chinese 

 ruler went to the East of his dominion, in the modern province of 

 Shantung which has always been known for its silk industry, as we shall 

 see further on. 



6. An older reference to peh or plain silk, if no substitution of 

 character has been made in|the text since antiquity, would be that which 

 occurs in the Book ofChanges, Chapter XXII 13 , concerning the 

 symbol Pi and Fen, where it is spoken of shuh peh, bundle of silk 

 cloth, 



7. The Yu Kung, or Tribute of Yii, the oldest geographical document 

 of Chinese literature, describes the chief products of the country accord- 

 ing to its divisions under and outside the Chinese rule. This distinction 

 which has not as yet received the attention it deserves is somewhat con- 



