This is a text from the Classic of History that purports to be from the time of the Duke of Zhou. It is almost certainly a later text, but it is still very important for understanding the Confucian concept of politics. Besides the fact that we get an early description of how requests were made of the ancestors, the text presents some of the key ideas of later political thought. The king is in authority, but it is his official, the duke, who rules due to his greater suitability. The text also gives examples of the roles of slander and poetry in early politics.

    I. Two years after the conquest of the Shang dynasty, the king fell ill, and was quite disconsolate. The two dukes said, "let us reverently consult the torotise concerning the king;" but the duke of Zhou said, "You may not so distress our former kings."
    He then took the business on himself, and made three altars of earth, on the same cleared space; and having made another altar on the south, facing the north, he there took his own position. The convex symbols were put on their altars and he himself held his mace, while he addressed the kings Tai, Ke and Wen.
    The grand historian by his order wrote on tablets his prayer to the following effect:-" A.B., your chief descendant, is suffering from a severe and dangerous sickness;- if you three kings have in heaven the charge of watching over him, Heaven's great son, let me Dan be a substitute for his person. I have been lovingly obedient to my father; I am possessed of many abilities and arts which fit me to serve spiritual beings. Your chief descendand on the other hand has not so many abilites and arts as I, and is not so capable of serving spiritual beings. And moreover he was appointed in the hall of God to extend his aid to the four quarters of the empire so that he might establish your descendents in this lower world. The people of the four quarters stand in reverent awe of him. Oh! do not that precious Heaven-conferred appointment fall to the ground, and all our former kings will also have a perpetual reliance and resort. I will now seek for your orders from the great tortoise.If you grant what I request, I will take these symbols and this mace and return and wait for the issue. If you do not grant it, I will put them by."
    The duke then divined with the three tortoises, and all were favorable. He took a key, opened and looked at the oracular responses, which also were favorable. He said "According to the form of the prognostic, the king will take no injury. I, who am but a child, have got his appointment renewed by the three kings, by whom a long futurity has been consulted for. I have to wait the issue. They can provide for our one man." Having said this, he returned, and placed the tablets in the mtal-bound coffer; and the next day the king got better.
    II. Afterwards, upon the death of king Wu, the duke's elder brother, he of Guan, and his younger brothers, spread a baseless rumour through the kingdom, saying, "The duke will do no good to the king's young son." Upon this the duke of Zhou represented to the two dukes, saying, "If I do not take the law to these men, I shall not be able to make my report to our former kings."
    He resided accordingly in the east for two years, when the criminals were got and brought to justice. Afterwards he made a poem to present to the king and called it 'The Owl.' The king on his part did not dare to blame the duke.1
    In the autumn, when the grain was abundant and ripe, but before it was reaped, Heaven sent a great storm of thunder and lightning, along with wind, by which the grain was all beaten down, and the great trees torn up. The people were greatly terrified; and the king and great officers, all in their caps of state, proceeded to open the metal-bound coffer, and examine the writings, when they found the words of the duke of Zhou when he took on himself the business of taking the place of king Wu. The king and the two dukes asked the grand historian and all the other officers about the thing. They replied, Ah! is was really thus; but the duke charged us that we should not presume to speak about it." The king held the writing and wept, saying "We need not now go on reverently to divine. Formerly the duke was thus earnest for the royal House, but I, being a child, did not know it. Now Heaven has moved its terrors to display the virture of the duke of Zhou. That I meet him a new man, is what the rules of propriety of our empire require."
    The king then went out to the borders, when Heaven sent down a great rain; and by virtue of a contrary wind, the grain all rose up. The two dukes gave orders to the people to take up all the large trees which had fallen, and replace them. The year then turned out very fruitful.
 
 
 

1 The poem is in the Shi Jing

O Owl, O owl,
You have taken my young ones:
Do not also destroy my nest.
I loved them; I labored for them;
I nourished them.-How I am to be pitied.

Lewis suggests that the duke was using the poem to try to clear himself of the charges made against him by the slanderers, but as the king was not bright enough to understand the poem it was not entirely successful.