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lO THE ANALECTS: INTRODUCTION,
this time so established file recognition of the divine right
of kings that T'ang, while expressing confidence that he
had been divinely appointed as the scourge of God against
art evil sovereign, was not left with unruffled conscience
over the part he had taken in destroying the great Yii's
succession.* But if history interpret truly, there was no
one as well qualified for, or justified in, accomplishing this
epoch-making dynastic revolution, for not only was Chieh
a criminal against the Empire's welfare, but T'ang himself
was no rank outsider, since, equally with Chieh, he traced
his ancestry back to Huang Ti, that root whence all his
predecessor on the throne are believed to have sprung.
His " Announcement " on ascending the "throne,t referred
to in An. xx, is a manly statement, one of the best in
the Shu, revealing along with a transparent humility, a
readiness to bear his own and the sins of his people, and a
devotion to their interests that were worthy of a more enlightened
age. It is atso recorded of him that once when a
terrible drought wasted the land and a human victim was
deemed necessary, he himself went clad in white to the
Altar of Heaven, and there offered to immolate himself as
a victim to God on behalf of his people. The Shu goes
on to say that copious rain immediately fell which saved
the country.
He changed rite Imperial colour, which was black under
the Hsla dynasty to white, took the last month of the Hsia
year for his first month, and employed sagacious men as
his co-adjutora, with whose aid he reduced the Empire to