CHAPTER XXXVI.

Statements Corrected (Cheng-shuo).

The researches of the Literati into the Five Canons for the most part miss the truth. The former scholars, unable to distinguish between essential and accidental points, indulged in fanciful inventions, and their successors, relying on the words of old teachers, stuck to the old traditions and walked in the old grooves. Soon well versed in quibbling, they would thoughtlessly uphold the doctrine of one master and follow the teachings of their professor. When the time had come, they quickly took office, and in their eagerness for promotion, they had no time left to devote their faculties to the handling of such problems. Consequently an unbroken chain of false theories has been handed down, and truth has hid her face.

The truth about the Five Canons has been equally obscured, but compared with the Yiking, the statements about the Shuking and the "Spring and Autumn" are still tolerably correct.

This rough theme may serve as an introduction into the minor details of this essay.

Some of the critics of the Shuking are of opinion that originally it consisted of one hundred and two chapters, and that afterwards, when Ch'in burned the books of poetry and history, twenty-nine chapters were preserved. The statement that Ch'in burned the books of poetry and history is correct, but the assertion that originally there were one hundred and two chapters is erroneous.

The Shuking consisted of one hundred chapters first, which were transmitted by Confucius. When, by the advice of Li Sse, Chin burned the Five Canons, Fu Sheng2 of Chi-nan3 took the hundred chapters and concealed them in a mountain. Under the

1 The Five King or ancient Classics: Yiking, Shiking, Shuking, Liki, and Chun-ch'iu.

2 A scholar of great learning.

3 The capital of Shantung.

The Shi-chi chap. 121, p. 8 says "in a wall."

reign of the Emperor Hsiao Ching Ti1 the Shuking was saved. Fu Sheng had taken it out from the mountain. Ching Ti sent Chao Tso to him. He received from Fu Sheng twenty odd chapters of the Shuking. Fu Shêng died as a very old man. His book was greatly damaged. Chao Tso handed it over to Ni Kuan.

During the time of the Emperor Hsiao Hsüan Ti2 a young woman in Ho-nei,3 while opening an old room, discovered a chapter of a preserved Yiking, Liki, and Shuking. The books were presented to the emperor, who communicated them to the principal men of learning. Subsequently the Yiking, the Liki, and the Shuking had each one chapter added. It was then that the number of the chapters of the Shuking was brought up to twenty-nine.

5

When Hsiao Ching Ti had ascended the throne, Prince Kung of Lu, while demolishing the school of Confucius for the purpose of building a palace there, found a copy of the Shuking in one hundred chapters in the wall. The Emperor Wu Ti sent messengers to fetch the books for him to see, but there was nobody who could read them, whereupon he stored them away in the palace, so that no one outside could see them.

Under the Emperor Hsiao Chêng Ti the study of the Shuking in ancient characters received a new impetus. Chang Pa of Tung-hai concocted a Shuking of one hundred and two chapters, following the order of the hundred chapters, and presented it to the emperor. The emperor produced the concealed hundred chapters for comparison, but it was found out that they did not agree at all. Upon this the emperor handed Chang Pa over to the court. The judges declared that his crime deserved death, but the emperor, who had a very high opinion of his talents, did not put him to death, nor did he destroy his writings, for which he had a certain weakness. Thus the one hundred and two chapters were handed down to posterity, and people who saw them imagined that the Shuking had one hundred and two chapters first.

1 156-141 B.C.

2 73-49 B.C.

3 A city in Huai-ching-fu (Honan).

4 In 156 B.C.

5 A son of the Emperor Ching Ti, who in 154 B.C. was made Prince of Lu. 6 In addition to these hundred chapters of the Shuking, a Li(ki) in 300 chapters, a Chun-chiu in 300 chapters and a Lun-yü in 21 chapters were brought to light. Cf. Lun-heng XX, 4v. (Yi-wên).

7 32-7 B.C.

8 A place in Huai-an-fu (Kiangsu).

Some hold that, when Chin Shih Huang Ti burned the "poetry (and the) books," he burned the Book of Poetry, but not the Canons. Thus the Shiking would alone have been committed to the flames. However, the term "poetry and the books" is a general designation of the Five Canons.

There is a common saying to the effect that a lad who does not read the Canons is bent on plays and amusements. "Tse Lu got Tse Kao appointed governor of Pi.3 The Master said, 'You are injuring a man's son.-Tse Lu replied, "There are the people, and there are the spirits of the land and grain. Why must one read books, before he can be considered to have learned?"4

A general term for the Five Canons is "the hooks." Those who have recorded the burning of the books by Ch'in do not know the reason for this measure, therefore they do not understand its meaning. 5

7

6

In the 24th year of Chin Shih Huang Ti's reign, a banquet was given in the Hsien-yang palace. Seventy great scholars wished the emperor long life, and the Pu-yeh Chou Ching Chên made a eulogistic speech. When the emperor had gathered all the people around him, Shun Yü Yüch remonstrated with him. He was of opinion that, because the emperor did not grant fiefs to the sons of the nobility, a catastrophe like that of Tien Chang and the six ministers was unavoidable. Besides he stigmatised Chou Ching Chên's panegyric as a flattery of the emperor.

8

Chin Shih Huang Ti handed over his memorial to the premier. The premier, Li Sse, regarded the remarks of Shun Yü Yüch as quite unfit to be taken into consideration. For this reason he denounced the speeches of the literati as inveigling the black haired people.

Then the officials were ordered to completely destroy the Five

P.

1

詩書

2 Tse Lu and Tse Kao were both disciples of Confucius.

3 A place in Shantung.

4 Analects XI, 24.

5 On the burning of the books cf. p. 490.

This is a misprint. It was the 34th year (213 B.C.). See the Shi-chi chap. 6,

21v. and p. 490.

7 An official title under the Chin and Han dynasties.

8 A noble of the State of Chi, who in 481 B.c. put to death the reigning sovereign Duke Chien, and usurped the government of the State with the title of chief minister.

The chiefs of the six powerful families in Chin who struggled for supremacy. Three of these families were destroyed during these struggles, the remaining three: Chao, Han and Wei in 403 B.C. divided the Chin State among them.

Lun - Hêng,

29

Canons by fire. Those who dared to conceal books or writings of the hundred authors' should be severely dealt with. Only members of the academy were allowed to keep books. Thus the Five Canons were all burned, and not merely the books of the various schools of thought. In this the writers on this epoch believe. Seeing that poetry and "books" are mentioned we can only say that the

Canons are here termed "books."

Some writers on the Shuking are aware of the fact that it was burned by Chin, but urge that twenty-nine chapters were saved and left unscathed.. If this was the case, then were the twenty-nine chapters of the Shuking left by the fire, and did the seventy-one chapters become coal and ashes, whereas the twentynine remained?

When Fu Sheng was old, Chao T'so studied under him and just, when he had received twenty odd chapters, Fu Sheng died. Therefore these twenty-nine chapters alone came forth, and the seventy-one had been saved. Seventy-one chapters had been saved, and they conversely state that twenty-nine chapters were saved.

Some say that the twenty-nine chapters of the Shuking are an imitation of the Dipper and seven zodiacal constellations. 2 Four times seven gives twenty-eight chapters, and the one is the Dipper, so that there would be the number of twenty-nine. However, when the Shuking was destroyed in Chin, only twenty-nine chapters remained, how could there be any imitation? During the reign of the emperor Hsüan Ti one chapter was found of the lost Shuking, the Yiking, and the Liki each. The number of the chapters of the Yiking and the Liki became complete then. How could any imitation find its way? Out of the series of the hundred chapters of the Shuking, seventy-one were missing, and no more than twentynine still extant. How should the imitation have taken place then? Others hold that Confucius selected twenty-nine chapters, and that these alone were up to the standard. Only common scholars can speak so, and it does not show much wisdom in the writers

1 Writers on philosophy and science.

2 There are 28 stellar mansions in all, 7 for each quadrant.

on these subjects. The twenty-nine chapters were a fragment and incomplete, and just on account of this difficiency the writers conceived the idea of the imitation. They misunderstand the sage, and their opinion disagrees with the facts now and formerly.

The chapters of a Classic correspond to the periods and clauses. Periods and clauses still consist of words. Words giving a sense form a clause, and a certain number of clauses is combined into a period. A complex of periods gives a chapter. A chapter therefore is a combination of periods and clauses. If one maintains that the chapters imitate something, then he must admit that periods and clauses have their prototype likewise.

In ancient times the Shiking also consisted of several thousand chapters. Confucius expunged a great many and made a revised edition, retaining but three hundred chapters. They are like the twenty-nine chapters of the Shuking. Provided that the letter had their model, the three hundred and five chapters must have had theirs likewise.

Some one might suggest that the Chun Chiu is a reproduction of the twelve months. The twelve dukes of the Chun Ch'iu1 are like the hundred chapters of the Shuking. Since these chapters are not modelled after anything, the twelve dukes cannot be such an imitation either.

Discussing the "Spring and Autumn," people have put forward the following theory. During the two hundred and forty-two years of the "Spring and Autumn" period, the people had excellent principles, and those of the emperor were perfect. The good were liked, and the wicked detested. Revolutionists were led back to the right path. Nothing could be like the "Spring and Autumn” period in this respect. Thus the principles of the people and of the emperor just happened to be perfect.

Three armies forming six divisions, of 12,000 men, suffice to crush an enemy, to defeat brigands, and to put a stop to their attacks on the empire, but it is not necessary that they should be an imitation of any standard.

When Confucius composed the "Spring and Autumn," the chronicle of the twelve dukes of Lu, it was like the three armies forming six divisions. The number of soldiers, 12,000 in all, would correspond to the two-hundred and forty-two years. Six divisions consisting of 12,000 soldiers would suffice to form an army, and twelve dukes comprising two hundred and forty-two years would

The twelve dukes of Lu, whose history is given in the Chun-ch'iu.