PROLEGOMENA.

CHAPTER I.

OF THE CHINESE CLASSICS GENERALLY.

SECTION I.

BOOKS INCLUDED UNDER THE NAME OF THE CHINESE CLASSICS.

1. The Books now recognised as of highest authority in China are comprehended under the denominations of 'The five Ching1' and The four Sha2 The term Ching is of textile origin, and signifies the warp threads of a web, and their adjustment. An easy application of it is to denote what is regular and insures regularity. As used with reference to books, it indicates their authority on the subjects of which they treat. The five Ching' are the five canonical Works, containing the truth upon the highest subjects from the sages of China, and which should be received as law by all generations. The term Shu simply means Writings or Books, = the Pencil Speaking; it may be used of a single character, or of books containing thousands of characters.

2. 'The five Ching' are: the Y3, or, as it has been styled, 'The Book of Changes;' the Shu, or 'The Book of History;' the Shih3, or 'The Book of Poetry;' the Li Chi, or 'Record of Rites;' and the Ch'un Ch'iû', or 'Spring and Autumn,' a chronicle of events, extending from 722 to 481 B. C. The authorship, or compilation rather, of all these Works is loosely attributed to Confucius. But much of the Li Chî is from later hands. Of the Yî, the Shû, and the Shih, it is only in the first that we find additions attributed to the philosopher himself, in the shape of appendixes. The Ch'un Chiu is the only one of the five Ching which can, with an approximation to correctness, be described as of his own 'making.'

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'五經’四書‘易經‘書經詩經“禮記.’春秋

'The Four Books' is an abbreviation for 'The Books of the Four Philosophers. The first is the Lun Yü2, or Digested Conversations,' being occupied chiefly with the sayings of Confucius. He is the philosopher to whom it belongs. It appears in this Work under the title of 'Confucian Analects.' The second is the Tâ Hsio3, or 'Great Learning,' now commonly attributed to Tsăng Shăn, a disciple of the sage. He is the philosopher of it. The third is the Chung Yung', or 'Doctrine of the Mean,' as the name has often been translated, though it would be better to render it, as in the present edition, by The State of Equilibrium and Harmony.' Its composition is ascribed to K'ung Chî, the grandson of Confucius. He is the philosopher of it. The fourth contains the works of Mencius.

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3. This arrangement of the Classical Books, which is commonly supposed to have originated with the scholars of the Sung dynasty, is defective. The Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean are both found in the Record of Rites, being the thirty-ninth and twenty-eighth Books respectively of that compilation, according to the best arrangement of it.

4. The oldest enumerations of the Classical Books specify only the five Ching. The Yo Chi, or 'Record of Music ',' the remains of which now form one of the Books in the Li Chi, was sometimes added to those, making with them the six Ching. A division was also made into nine Ching, consisting of the Yî, the Shih, the Shû, the Châu Lî', or 'Ritual of Châu,' the Î Lî, or certain Ceremonial Usages,' the Lî Chî, and the three annotated editions of the Ch'un Ch'iû 10, by Tso Ch'iû-ming ", Kung-yang Kâo12, and Kûliang Ch'ih 13. In the famous compilation of the Classical Books, undertaken by order of T'âi-tsung, the second emperor of the Tang dynasty (A. D. 627-649), and which appeared in the reign. of his successor, there are thirteen Ching, viz. the Yi, the Shih, the Shû, the three editions of the Ch'un Ch'iû, the Lî Chî, the Châu Lî, the ↑ Lî, the Confucian Analects, the R Yâ 11, a sort of ancient dictionary, the Hsiâo Ching 15, or 'Classic of Filial Piety,' and the works of Mencius.

5. A distinction, however, was made among the Works thus

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'四子之書論語. 大學. ‘會參‘中庸 ‘孔伋, 【樂記 "樂記 周禮. ·儀禮. 儀禮. “春秋三傳. "左丘明“公羊高“穀梁赤. “爾雅.“孝經

comprehended under the same common name; and Mencius, the Lun Yü, the Tâ Hsio, the Chung Yung, and the Hsiao Ching were spoken of as the Hsiao Ching, or 'Smaller Classics.' It thus appears, contrary to the ordinary opinion on the subject, that the Tâ Hsio and Chung Yung had been published as separate treatises before the Sung dynasty, and that Four Books, as distinguished from the greater Ching, had also previously found a place in the literature of China 1.

SECTION II.

THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHINESE CLASSICS.

1. This subject will be discussed in connexion with each separate Work, and it is only designed here to exhibit generally the evidence on which the Chinese Classics claim to be received as genuine productions of the time to which they are referred.

2. In the memoirs of the Former Han dynasty (B. C. 202A.D. 24), we have one chapter which we may call the History of Literature 2. It commences thus: After the death of Confucius 3, there was an end of his exquisite words; and when his seventy disciples had passed away, violence began to be done to their meaning. It came about that there were five different editions of the Ch'un Ch'iû, four of the Shih, and several of the Yî. Amid the disorder and collisions of the warring States (B. C. 481-220), truth and falsehood were still more in a state of warfare, and a sad confusion marked the words of the various scholars. Then came the calamity inflicted under the Ch'in dynasty (B. C. 220-205), when the literary monuments were destroyed by fire, in order to keep the people in ignorance. But, by and by, there arose the Han dynasty, which set itself to remedy the evil wrought by the Ch'in. Great efforts were made to collect slips and tablets, and the way was thrown wide open for the bringing in of Books. In the time of the emperor Hsiâo-wû (B. C. 140-85), portions of Books being wanting and tablets lost, so that ceremonies and music were

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1 For the statements in the two last paragraphs, see 西河合集大學證文,

卷一. ●前漢書本志第十卷,藝文志 ‘仲尼.

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-slips and tablets of bamboo, which supplied in those days the place of paper.

世宗孝武皇帝

suffering great damage, he was moved to sorrow, and said, "I am very sad for this." He therefore formed the plan of Repositories, in which the Books might be stored, and appointed officers to transcribe Books on an extensive scale, embracing the works of the various scholars, that they might all be placed in the Repositories. The emperor Ch'ăng1 (B. C. 32-5), finding that a portion of the Books still continued dispersed or missing, commissioned Chăn Năng, the Superintendent of Guests 2, to search for undiscovered Books throughout the empire, and by special edict ordered the chief of the Banqueting House, Liû Hsiang3, to examine the Classical Works, along with the commentaries on them, the writings of the scholars, and all poetical productions; the Master-controller of Infantry, Zăn Hwang, to examine the Books on the art of war ; the Grand Historiographer, Yin Hsien, to examine the Books treating of the art of numbers (i. e. divination); and the imperial Physician, Lî Chû-kwo, to examine the Books on medicine. Whenever any book was done with, Hsiang forthwith arranged it, indexed it, and made a digest of it, which was presented to the emperor. While this work was in progress, Hsiang died, and the emperor Âi (B.c. 6-A. D. 1) appointed his son, Hsin 7, a Master of the imperial carriages, to complete his father's work. On this, Hsin collected all the Books, and presented a report of them, under seven divisions.'

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The first of these divisions seems to have been a general catalogue containing perhaps only the titles of the works included in the other six. The second embraced the Classical Works". From the abstract of it, which is preserved in the chapter referred to, we find that there were 294 collections of the Yi-ching from thirteen different individuals or editors 10; 412 collections of the Shu-ching, from nine different individuals; 416 volumes of the Shih-ching, from six different individuals "; of the Books of Rites, 555 collec

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'孝成皇帝. 謁者陳農 ‘光祿大夫劉向. 步兵校尉任宏太史令尹咸‘侍醫李柱國. 侍中奉車都尉歆輯略 *輯略. 六藝略. “凡易, 十三家, 二百九十四篇. How much of the whole work was contained

in each, it is impossible for us to ascertain. P. Regis says: 'Pien, quemadmodum Gallice dicimus "des pieces d'éloquence, de poésie."' 詩, 六家, 四百一十六卷

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The collections of the Shih-ching are mentioned under the name of chuan, 'sections,' 'portions.' Had p'ien been used, it might have been understood of individual odes. This change of terms shows that by p'ien in the other summaries, we are not to understand single blocks or chapters.

tions, from thirteen different individuals; of the Books on Music, 165 collections, from six different editors; 948 collections of History, under the heading of the Ch'un Ch'iû, from twenty-three different individuals; 229 collections of the Lun Yü, including the Analects and kindred fragments, from twelve different individuals; of the Hsiao-ching, embracing also the R Yâ, and some other portions of the ancient literature, 59 collections, from eleven different individuals; and finally of the lesser Learning, being works on the form of the characters, 45 collections, from eleven different individuals. The works of Mencius were included in the second division', among the writings of what were deemed orthodox scholars, of which there were 836 collections, from fifty-three different individuals.

3. The above important document is sufficient to show how the emperors of the Han dynasty, as soon as they had made good their possession of the empire, turned their attention to recover the ancient literature of the nation, the Classical Books engaging their first care, and how earnestly and effectively the scholars of the time responded to the wishes of their rulers. In addition to the facts specified in the preface to it, I may relate that the ordinance of the Ch'in dynasty against possessing the Classical Books (with the exception, as it will appear in its proper place, of the Yî-ching) was repealed by the second sovereign of the Han, the emperor Hsiâo Hûi3, in the fourth year of his reign, B. C. 191, and that a large portion of the Shu-ching was recovered in the time of the third emperor, B. C. 179-157, while in the year B.C. 136 a special Board was constituted, consisting of literati, who were put in charge of the five Ching*.

4. The collections reported on by Liû Hsin suffered damage in the troubles which began A. D. 8, and continued till the rise of the second or eastern Han dynasty in the year 25. The founder of it (A.D. 25-57) zealously promoted the undertaking of his predecessors, and additional repositories were required for the Books which were collected. His successors, the emperors Hsiao-ming (58-75), Hsiao-chango (76–88), and Hsiâo-hwo7 (89-105), took a part themselves in the studies and discussions of the literary tribunal, and

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諸子略.‘儒家者流,‘孝惠皇帝‘武帝 建元五年初置五經博士. *顯宗孝明皇帝.

*肅宗孝章皇帝. ་孝和皇帝.