d
the goodwill of the King into mortal enmity. He allowed himself to
go so far as to suggest to the King that he should break off his
relations with this infamous woman, the source of all the woes which
were desolating the kingdom, and when Ta Chi on this account grossly
insulted him he struck her with his lute.

For this offence Ta Chi caused him to be crucified in the palace. Large
nails were driven through his hands and feet, and his flesh was cut
off in pieces. Not content with ruining Po I-k'ao, this wretched
woman wished also to ruin Wen Wang. She therefore advised the King to
have the flesh of the murdered man made up into rissoles and sent as
a present to his father. If he refused to eat the flesh of his own
son he was to be accused of contempt for the King, and there would
thus be a pretext for having him executed. Wen Wang, being versed in
divination and the science of the _pa kua_, Eight Trigrams, knew that
these rissoles contained the flesh of his son, and to avoid the snare
spread for him he ate three of the rissoles in the presence of the
royal envoys. On their return the latter reported this to the King,
who found himself helpless on learning of Wen Wang's conduct.

Po I-k'ao was canonized by Chiang Tzu-ya, and appointed ruler of the
constellation Tzu-wei of the North Polar heavens.

Myths of Time

T'ai Sui is the celestial spirit who presides over the year. He
is the President of the Ministry of Time. This god is much to
be feared. Whoever offends against him is sure to be destroyed. He
strikes when least expected to. T'ai Sui is also the Ministry itself,
whose members, numbering a hundred and twenty, are set over time,
years, months, and days. The conception is held by some writers to
be of Chaldeo-Assyrian origin.

The god T'ai Sui is not mentioned in the T'ang and Sung rituals, but in
the Yuean dynasty (A.D. 1280-1368) sacrifices were offered to him in the
College of the Grand Historiographer whenever any work of importance
was about to be undertaken. Under this dynasty the sacrifices were
offered to T'ai Sui and to the ruling gods of the months and of the
days. But these sacrifices were not offered at regular times: it
was only at the beginning of the Ch'ing (Manchu) dynasty (1644-1912)
that it was decided to offer the sacrifices at fixed periods.

The Planet Jupiter

T'ai Sui corresponds to the planet Jupiter. He travels across the
sky, passing through the twelve sidereal mansions. He i