Viewing page 14 of 45

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

[[underlined]] APPENDIX II. [[underlined]]
11.

original fief in the Yangtze Gorges, which appears instead to have gone by the name of its capital, Tan-yang, said to have been situated among the Man of Ch'u.  [[superscript]] (31) [[/superscript]] Moreover the relevant passages in our oldest accounts seem invariably to maintain a definite and consistent distinction between the people of Ch'un (or perhaps its ruling class) and their subjects the conquered portions of the Ching Man. [[superscript]] (32) [[/superscript]]
------------------
(30)
 These names mean "North of the Lake" and "South of the Lake" respectively, the point of reference being the Tungting 洞庭 Lake, just south of the Yangtze River.
In regard further to the ancient district of Ching, see [[underlined]] supra [[/underlined]], note 17 (page 7 of this Appendix).
------------------
(31)
 [[underlined]] Shih chi [[/underlined]], chapt. XL, fol. 2-b.
-------------------
(32)
 The Ching Man were, as we have seen, almost certainly of the T'ai (Shan) linguistic family in the main, though the term probably covered enclaves of other groups, such, for example, as the Miao 苗, in hilly and isolated areas. A similar commingling of peoples of various stocks still subsists in western China and parts of Indo-China.
This distinction between the two chief classes of society in Ch'u of rulers and subjects, seems to have been kept up for centuries; see, [[underlined]] E.g. [[/underlined]], the [[underlined]] Tso chuan [[/underlined]], III, ii, 3 (referring to the year 595 B.C.).
----------------------------
In respect to the first two or three centuries of its existence as a state, our information concerning Ch'u is regrettably scanty.  Its continuous and fairly detailed history seems indeed not to commence until about the same period as does that of the more properly "Chinese" states to the north of it, in the Yellow River valley---[[underlined]] viz. [[/underlined]], in the 9th century B.C. [[superscript]] (33) [[/superscript]]
-------------------------------
(33)
 As is well known, the great Chinese historian Ssŭ-ma Ch'ien (fl. [[underlined]] ca. [[/underlined]] 100 B.C.) regarded the year 841 B.C. as the earliest dependable date in his country's history.
The art of writing, or at least the systematic keeping of records, seems indeed to have received some notable stimulus about that time. The (legendary) account of the origin of the script known as the Ta Chuan 大篆 or "Greater Seal" (in reality not a new invention but a gradual development of the system of writing previously used in China) also refers to the 9th century B.C.
------------------------------
For some generations after its founding, Ch'u (or Ching, as for some time longer it continued to be called in the Confucian "Classics" ^[[,]] [[strikethrough]] (34) [[/strikethrough]]