altogether. The sanction of Imperial approval was given to it during the Yüǎn and Ming dynasties. In the editions of the Five Ching published by them, only the names of the Doctrine of the Mean and the Great Learning were preserved. No text of these Books was given, and Hsî-ho tells us that in the reign of Chia-ching1, the most flourishing period of the Ming dynasty (A.D. 1522-1566), when Wang Wăn-ch'ăng2 published a copy of the Great Learning, taken from the T'ang edition of the Thirteen Ching, all the officers and scholars looked at one another in astonishment, and were inclined to suppose that the Work was a forgery. Besides adopting the reading of sin for ch'in from the Chăng, and modifying their arrangements of the text, Chû Hsî made other innovations. He first divided the whole into one chapter of Classical text, which he assigned to Confucius, and ten chapters of Commentary, which he assigned to the disciple Tsăng. Previous to him, the whole had been published, indeed, without any specification of chapters and paragraphs. He undertook, moreover, to supply one whole chapter, which he supposed, after his master Ch'ăng, to be missing.

Since the time of Chû Hsî, many scholars have exercised their wit on the Great Learning. The work of Mâo Hsî-ho contains four arrangements of the text, proposed respectively by the scholars Wang Lu-châi3, Chi Păng-shan*, Kâo Ching-y1', and Ko Chi-chan The curious student may examine them there.

Under the present dynasty, the tendency has been to depreciate the labours of Chû Hsî. The integrity of the text of Chăng Hsüan is zealously maintained, and the simpler method of interpretation employed by him is advocated in preference to the more refined and ingenious schemes of the Sung scholars. I have referred several times in the notes to a Work published a few years ago, under the title of 'The Old Text of the sacred Ching, with Commentary and Discussions, by Lo Chung-fan of Nan-hâi'.' I knew the man many years ago. He was a fine scholar, and had taken the second degree, or that of Chu-zân. He applied to me in 1843 for Christian baptism, and, offended by my hesitancy, went and enrolled himself among the disciples of another missionary. He soon, however,

withdrew into seclusion, and spent the last years of his life in
literary studies. His family have published the Work on the
Great Learning, and one or two others. He most vehemently
impugns nearly every judgment of Chû Hsi; but in his own
exhibitions of the meaning he blends many ideas of the Supreme
Being and of the condition of human nature, which he had learned
from the Christian Scriptures.

!

SECTION II.

OF THE AUTHORSHIP, AND DISTINCTION OF THE TEXT INTO CLASSICAL
TEXT AND COMMENTARY.

1. The authorship of the Great Learning is a very doubtful
point, and one on which it does not appear possible to come to a
decided conclusion. Chû Hsî, as I have stated in the last section,
determined that so much of it was Ching, or Classic, being the very
words of Confucius, and that all the rest was Chwan, or Com-
mentary, being the views of Tsăng Shăn upon the sage's words,
recorded by his disciples. Thus, he does not expressly attribute the
composition of the Treatise to Tsang, as he is generally supposed to
do. What he says, however, as it is destitute of external support,
is contrary also to the internal evidence. The fourth chapter of
commentary commences with 'The Master said.' Surely, if there
were anything more, directly from Confucius, there would be an
intimation of it in the same way. Or, if we may allow that short
sayings of Confucius might be interwoven with the Work, as in the
fifteenth paragraph of the tenth chapter, without referring them
expressly to him, it is too much to ask us to receive the long chapter
at the beginning as being from him. With regard to the Work
having come from the disciples of Tsăng Shăn, recording their
master's views, the paragraph in chapter sixth, commencing with
'The disciple Tsăng said,' seems to be conclusive against such an
hypothesis. So much we may be sure is Tsăng's, and no more.
Both of Chû Hsî's judgments must be set aside. We cannot admit
either the distinction of the contents into Classical text and Com-
mentary, or that the Work was the production of Tsang's disciples.

2. Who then was the author? An ancient tradition attributes
it to K'ung Chî, the grandson of Confucius. In a notice published,
at the time of their preparation, about the stone slabs of Wei, the

following statement by Chiâ K'wei, a noted scholar of the first century, is found:- 'When K'ung Chî was living, and in straits, in Sung, being afraid lest the lessons of the former sages should become obscure, and the principles of the ancient sovereigns and kings fall to the ground, he therefore made the Great Learning as the warp of them, and the Doctrine of the Mean as the woof1.' This would seem, therefore, to have been the opinion of that early time, and I may say the only difficulty in admitting it is that no mention is made of it by Chăng Hsuan. There certainly is that agreement between the two treatises, which makes their common authorship not at all unlikely.

3. Though we cannot positively assign the authorship of the Great Learning, there can be no hesitation in receiving it as a genuine monument of the Confucian school. There are not many words in it from the sage himself, but it is a faithful reflection of his teachings, written by some of his followers, not far removed from him by lapse of time. It must synchronize pretty nearly with the Analects, and may be safely referred to the fifth century before our era.

SECTION III.

ITS SCOPE AND VALUE.

1. The worth of the Great Learning has been celebrated in most extravagant terms by Chinese writers, and there have been foreigners who have not yielded to them in their estimation of it. Pauthier, in the 'Argument Philosophique,' prefixed to his translation of the Work, says :-'It is evident that the aim of the Chinese philosopher is to exhibit the duties of political government as those of the perfecting of self, and of the practice of virtue by all He felt that he had a higher mission than that with which the greater part of ancient and modern philosophers have contented themselves; and his immense love for the happiness of humanity, which dominated over all his other sentiments, has made of his

men.

唐氏奏疏有日,虞松校刻石經于魏表,引漢 賈逵之言, 曰,孔伋窮居于宋, 懼先聖之學不明, 而帝王之道墜,故作大學以經之,中庸以緯之: the 大學證文一, P. 5.

philosophy a system of social perfectionating, which, we venture to say, has never been equalled.'

Very different is the judgment passed upon the treatise by a writer in the Chinese Repository: 'The Ta Hsio is a short politico-moral discourse. Tá Hsio, or "Superior Learning," is at the same time both the name and the subject of the discourse; it is the summum bonum of the Chinese. In opening this Book, compiled by a disciple of Confucius, and containing his doctrines, we might expect to find a Work like Cicero's De Officiis; but we find a very different production, consisting of a few commonplace rules for the maintenance of a good government'.'

My readers will perhaps think, after reading the present section, that the truth lies between these two representations.

2. I believe that the Book should be styled T'ai Hsio 2, and not Tá Hsio, and that it was so named as setting forth the higher and more extensive principles of moral science, which come into use and manifestation in the conduct of government. When Chû Hsî endeavours to make the title mean- The principles of Learning, which were taught in the higher schools of antiquity,' and tells us how at the age of fifteen, all the sons of the sovereign, with the legitimate sons of the nobles, and high officers, down to the more promising scions of the common people, all entered these seminaries, and were taught the difficult lessons here inculcated, we pity the ancient youth of China. Such strong meat' is not adapted for the nourishment of youthful minds. But the evidence adduced for the existence of such educational institutions in ancient times is unsatisfactory, and from the older interpretation of the title we advance more easily to contemplate the object and method of the Work.

6

3. The object is stated definitely enough in the opening paragraph: What the Great Learning teaches, is-to illustrate illustrious virtue; to love the people; and to rest in the highest excellence.' The political aim of the writer is here at once evident. He has before him on one side, the people, the masses of the empire, and over against them are those whose work and duty, delegated by Heaven, is to govern them, culminating, as a class, in 'the son of Heaven3,' 'the One man',' the sovereign. From the fourth and

fifth paragraphis, we see that if the lessons of the treatise be learned and carried into practice, the result will be that illustrious virtue will be illustrated throughout the nation,' which will be brought, through all its length and breadth, to a condition of happy tranquillity. This object is certainly both grand and good; and if a reasonable and likely method to secure it were proposed in the Work, language would hardly supply terms adequate to express its value.

4. But the above account of the object of the Great Learning leads us to the conclusion that the student of it should be a sovereign. What interest can an ordinary man have in it? It is high up in the clouds, far beyond his reach. This is a serious objection to it, and quite unfits it for a place in schools, such as Chû Hsî contends it once had. Intelligent Chinese, whose minds were somewhat quickened by Christianity, have spoken to me of this defect, and complained of the difficulty they felt in making the book a practical directory for their conduct. 'It is so vague and vast,' was the observation of one man. The writer, however, has made some provision for the general application of his instructions. He tells us that, from the sovereign down to the mass of the people, all must consider the cultivation of the person to be the root, that is, the first thing to be attended to'. As in his method, moreover, he reaches from the cultivation of the person to the tranquillization of the kingdom, through the intermediate steps of the regulation of the family, and the government of the State, there is room for setting forth principles that parents and rulers generally may find adapted for their guidance.

5. The method which is laid down for the attainment of the great object proposed, consists of seven steps:-the investigation of things; the completion of knowledge; the sincerity of the thoughts; the rectifying of the heart; the cultivation of the person; the regulation of the family; and the government of the State. These form the steps of a climax, the end of which is the kingdom tranquillized. Pauthier calls the paragraphs where they occur instances of the sorites, or abridged syllogism. But they belong to rhetoric, and not to logic.

6. In offering some observations on these steps, and the writer's treatment of them, it will be well to separate them into those preceding the cultivation of the person, and those following it; and to

1 Cl. Text, par. 6.

2 Cl. Text, pars. 4. 5.