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followed, B.C. 908, by a younger brother, leaving, however, two
sons, Fu-fu Ho [1] and Fang-sze [2]. Fu Ho [3] resigned his right to
the dukedom in favour of Fang-sze, who put his uncle to death in
B.C. 893, and became master of the State. He is known as the duke
Li [4], and to his elder brother belongs the honour of having the
sage among his descendants.
Three descents from Fu Ho, we find Chang K'ao-fu [5], who
was a distinguished officer under the dukes Tai, Wu, and Hsuan [6]
(B.C. 799-728). He is still celebrated for his humility, and for his
literary tastes. We have accounts of him as being in
communication with the Grand-historiographer of the kingdom,
and engaged in researches about its ancient poetry, thus setting
an example of one of the works to which Confucius gave himself
[7]. K'ao gave birth to K'ung-fu Chia [8], from whom the surname of
K'ung took its rise. Five generations had now elapsed since the
dukedom was held in the direct line of his ancestry, and it was
according to the rule in such cases that the branch should cease
its connexion with the ducal stem, and merge among the people
under a new surname. K'ung Chia was Master of the Horse in Sung,
and an officer of well-known loyalty and probity. Unfortunately
for himself, he had a wife of surpassing beauty, of whom the
chief minister of the State, by name Hwa Tu [9], happened on one
occasion to get a glimpse. Determined to possess her, he
commenced a series of intrigues, which ended, B.C. 710, in the
murder of Chia and of the ruling duke Shang [10]. At the same
time, Tu secured the person of the lady, and hastened to his
palace with the prize, but on the way she had strangled herself