略論殷遺民的遭遇與地位

The Status of the Survivors of the Yin Dynasty after the Chou Gonquest

五十多年前，胡適先生作「說儒」，以所謂儒的本質和其來歷互相發明，認為最初的儒者都是殷遺民，穿戴殷時的衣冠，習行殷人的古禮。他們是周人所征服、統治和鎮壓的下層民族，飽嚐亡國的慘痛，因此養成柔懦謙遜的人生觀。在動輒得咎的環境裏，不敢進取，只好等待，故「儒」字從「需」。

The idea that the survivors of the Yin 殷 dynasty were oppressed by the Chou conquerors has been popularly accepted by historians for the last half-century. The most important articulation of this theory was published by Dr. Hu Shih 胡適 in his 1934 article Shuo-ju 說儒 (On the Origins of Ju), in which he proposed that the original meaning of the term ju is ''coward.'' According to Dr. Hu, this term was applied to the survivors of the Yin dynasty, who were so subjugated by the Chou people after their conquest that a prophetic myth spread among them to the effect that they would be emancipated after five hundred years by a Sage, a kind of Chinese Messiah.