the accuracy with which it gives the meaning of the pieces in the Fung and the Ya, and which is now current in the world.'19 A testimony like this cannot be gainsayed. If we allow that, when Maou first made public his text, there were prefatory notes accompanying it, yet Hwang must have made large additions to these, as Maou himself, in the opinion of Ch'ing K'ang-shing, had previously done.

Since the time of Choo He, many eminent scholars, such as Yen Ts'an in the Sung dynasty, and Këang Ping-chang in the present, adopt the first sentence in the introduction to each ode as what constituted the original preface, and which they do not feel at liberty to dispute. They think that so much was prefixed to the odes by the historiographers of the kingdom or of the States, when they were first collected, and they would maintain likewise, I suppose, that it bore the stamp of Tsze-hëa. Këang calls these brief sentences 'the Old preface' and 'the Great preface,' and the fuller explanation which is often appended to them, and which he feels at liberty to question, he calls 'the Appended preface,' and 'the Little preface.'

After long and extensive investigation of the subject, I have no hesitation in adopting the freer views of Choo He, with a condensed account of which I conclude this

Choo He's views on the Preface.

chapter:

'Opinions of scholars are much divided as to the authorship of the Preface. Some ascribe it to Confucius;20 some to Tsze-hëa; and some to the historiographers of the States. In the absence of clear testimony it is impossible to decide the point; but the notice about Wei Hwang, in the literary Biographies of the Han dynasties, 21 would seem to make it clear that the Preface was his work. We must take into account, however, on the other hand, the statement of Ch'ing Heuen,22 that the Preface existed as a separate document when

19 九江謝曼卿善毛詩乃為其訓宏從受學因作毛 詩序,善得風雅之於今傳於世; 於今傳於世; see the 後漢書七十 九下儒林傳第六十九下 20 This is too broadly stated. No one has

affirmed that the Preface as a whole was from the hand of Confucius. Ching E-ch'uen (A.D ̧ 1,033—1,107) held that the Great preface was made by him. The style, he says, is like that of the appendixes to the Yih, and the ideas are beyond what Tsze-hea could have enunciated

(詩大序其文似繫辭非子夏所能言也分明是聖人 作此以教學者)! Wang Tih-shin (王得臣; later on in the Sung dynasty) ascribed

to Confucius the first sentence of all the introductory notices, and called them the Great preface. 21 Adduced above. 22 Also adduced above.

Maou appeared with his text, and that he broke it up, prefixing to each ode the portion belonging to it. The natural conclusion is that the Preface had come down from a remote period, and that Hwang merely added to it and rounded it off. In accordance with. this, scholars generally hold that the first sentences in the introductory notices formed the original Preface which Maou distributed, and that the following portions were subsequently added.

This view may appear reasonable; but when we examine those first sentences themselves, we find some of them which do not agree with the obvious meaning of the odes to which they are prefixed, and give merely the rash and baseless expositions of the writers. Evidently, from the first, the Preface was made up of private speculations and conjectures as to the subject-matter of the odes, and constituted a document by itself, separately appended to the text. Then on its first appearance there were current the explanations of the odes which were given in connexion with the texts of Ts'e, Loo, and Han, so that readers could know that it was the work of later hands, and not give entire credit to it.23 But when Maou no longer published the Preface as a separate document, but each ode appeared with the introductory notice as a portion of the text, this seemed to give to it the authority of the text itself. Then after the other texts disappeared and Maou's had the field to itself, this means of testing the accuracy of its prefatory notices no longer existed. They appeared as if they were the production of the poets themselves, and the odes seemed to be made from them as so many themes. Scholars handed down a faith in them from one to another, and no one ventured to express a doubt of their authority. The text was twisted and chiseled to bring it into accordance with them, and nobody would undertake to say plainly that they were the work of the scholars of the Han dynasty.'

23 On the important fact that the other texts, as Maou's, all had their prefaces, often differing from the views of the odes given in that, see Choo E-tsun's note, concluding his chapter on the Preface to the She.

APPENDIX. I.

[i] THE GREAT PREFACE.

1. Poetry is the product of earnest thought. Thought [cherished] in the mind becomes earnest; exhibited in words, it becomes poetry.

2. The feelings move inwardly, and are embodied in words. When words are insufficient for them, recourse is had to sighs and exclamations. When sighs and exclamations are insufficient for them, recourse is had to the prolonged utterances of song. When those prolonged utterances of song are insufficient for them, unconsciously the hands begin to move and the feet to dance.

3. The feelings go forth in sounds. When those sounds are artistically combined, we have what is called musical pieces. The style of such pieces in an age of good order is quiet, going on to be joyful;-the government is then a harmony. Their style in an age of disorder is resentful, going on to the expression of anger;— the government is then a discord. Their style, when a State is going to ruin, ismournful, with the expression of [retrospective] thought; the people are then in distress. 4. Therefore, correctly to set forth the successes and failures [of government], to move Heaven and Earth, and to excite spiritual Beings to action, there is no readier instrument than poetry.

5. The former kings by this regulated the duties of husband and wife, effectually inculcated filial obedience and reverence, secured attention to all the relations of society, adorned the transforming influence of instruction, and transformed manners and customs.

6. Thus it is that in the [Book of] Poems there are six classes:first, the Fung; second, descriptive pieces; third, metaphorical pieces; fourth, allusive pieces; fifth, the Ya; and sixth, the Sung.1

大序

1.詩者志之所之也在心為志發言為詩

2. 情動於

足故永歌

3. 情發於聲

和亂世之

4. 故正得失

5先王 以是

所而永聲怨動經義

言言之 不足故嗟歎之嗟歎之不 不足不 手之舞之足之蹈之也 文謂之 世之音安以樂其政

政乖

國之音哀思其民困

地感鬼神莫近於詩

夫婦成孝敬厚人倫美教化移風俗 一日風二日賦三日比四日興五

6. 故詩有六義焉 日雅六日頌

1 This paragrapli has been referred to in Ch. I. more than once, as taken from the Official Book of Chow. If we had not the Book of Poetry to help us in determining its meaning, we should never be able to make it out from the text itself. We should conclude that anciently there were six classes of poems, called the Fung, the Foo, the Pe, the Hing, the Ya, and the Sung.

7. Superiors, by the Fung, transformed their inferiors, and inferiors, by them, satirized their superiors. The principal thing in them was their style, and reproof was cunningly insinuated. They might be spoken without giving offence, and the hearing of them was sufficient to make men careful of their conduct; hence they are called Fung, [or Lessons of manners].

8. When the administration of the kings fell into decay, the rules of propriety and righteousness were neglected, the instructions of government failed of effect, different methods of government obtained in different States, and the customs of the [great] Families in them had come to vary;-then the changed (or inferior) Fung, and the inferior Ya, were made.2

7.上以風化下下以風刺上主文而譎諫言之者無 罪聞之者足以戒故曰風

8. 至於王道衰禮義廢政教失國異政家殊俗而變 風變雅作矣

applied to those pieces, intended to denote the form or style of their composition. They may, all of them, be found equally in all the Parts. As Kea Kung-yen (A; Tang dyn.) says: :一風雅頌詩之名也但 就三者之中有賦比興故 總謂之詩. The Fung, Ya, and

Sung are, in Chinese phraseology, the warp of

harem. Ode 2 of Pt. I. Bk. XV. is another purely metaphorical piece, where we seem to hear only the plaint of a bird, whose young, reared by her with toil, have been destroyed by an owl, and who is afraid that her nest also will be destroyed; but we know from the Shoo that and that he wished in the piece to vindicate the

the duke of Chow intended himself by the bird,

stern course which he had adopted to put down rebellion. As Choo He says:-

the Book of Poetry, and the Foo, Pe, and Hing Him H†2¥❀

are its woof.

I have entered sufficiently on the meaning of the terms Fung, Ya, and Sung in the notes on the titles of the different Parts; but it may be well to discuss here the significance of the terms Foo, Pe, and Hing more fully than I have elsewhere done.

The term Foo needs little explanation. It is descriptive of a narrative piece, in which the poet says what he has to say right out, writing it down in a simple straightforward manner, without any hidden object. There is no meaning intended beyond what the words express, excepting in so far as we may infer from what is said the state of mind or the circumstances of the writer or subject. Odes 2 and 3 of Pt. I., Bk. I., are of this class, according to the view of them taken by Choo He, which I have followed; and other instances of the Foo, about which there can be no doubt, are to be found everywhere.

I have called the Pe metaphorical pieces.

They must be translated as we translate th

The Hing, or allusive piece, commences with a couple of lines, which are repeated often through all the stanzas, as a sort of refrain. They are generally descriptive of something in the animal or the vegetable world; and after them the writer proceeds to his proper subject. Often the allusive lines convey a meaning harmonizing with that of the lines which follow, as in I. i. IV.; where an English poet would begin the verses with a Like or As. They are in fact metaphorical. But the difference between an allusive and a metaphorical piece is, that in the lines following the allusive lines the author states directly the theme he is occupied with, whereas the lines of the metaphorical piece are all of the same character. After the sentence on the Pe which I quoted above from Choo He, he goes on to say

on the Hiny:-興是借彼一物以引 Often, 起此事,而其事常在下句.

Where there is a

Foo; but the writer has under the language a different meaning altogether from what it expresses, element in the allusive lines, and can only dea! however, we cannot discover any metaphorical -a meaning which there should be nothing in the language to indicate. The metaphorical with them as a refrain. piece in the She may thus be compared to the metaphorical element, the piece is described as Æsopic fable; but while it is the object of the ; where there is no such fable to enforce the virtues of morality and

prudence, an historical interpretation is to be sought for the pe. There is, e. g., ode 5 of Part. I. Bk. I., in the letter of which we find only locusts and their wonderful increase; while we are taught that the poet had in his mind the wife of king Wan and the fruitfulness of his

element, it is

sionally the three styles all come together in one ode.

2 I do not know when the distinction of the odes of Parts I., II., and III., into Correct and Changed, or Pieces of an age of good government,

9. The historiographers of the States, understanding the indications of success and failure, pained by the changes in the observance of the relations of society, and lamenting the severity of punishments and of [the general] government, gave expression in mournful song to their feelings, to condemn their superiors;-they were intelligent as to the changes of circumstances, and cherished [the recollection of] the ancient customs.3

10. Thus it is that the Fung of a state of change, though produced by the feel. ings, do not go beyond the rules of propriety and righteousness. That they should be produced by the feelings was in the nature of the people; that they should not go beyond those rules was from the beneficent influence of the former kings.

11. Therefore, the pieces in which the affairs of one State are connected with the person of one man, are called the Fung.

12. The pieces which speak of the matters of the kingdom, and represent the customs of its whole extent, are called the Ya. Ya means correct. They tell the causes why royal government decays or flourishes. In government there are great matters and small, and hence there are the small Ya and the great Ya.

13. The Sung are so called, because they praise the embodied forms of complete virtue, and announce to spiritual Beings its grand achievements.4

14. These are called the four primary [divisions of the Book of Poems]; [in them we have] the perfection of poetry.

9. 國史明乎得失之迹傷人倫之變哀刑政之苛吟 (風其上達於事變而懷其舊俗者也

10. 故變風發乎情止乎禮義發乎情民之性也止乎 禮義先王之澤也

11. 是以一國之事繫一人之本謂之風

12. 言天 之事形四方之風謂之雅雅者正也言王政

之所由 興也政有小大,故有小雅焉有大雅焉

13. 頌者美盛德之形容,以其成功告於神明者也

14. 是謂四始詩之至也

other courts;–a view which is maintained nowhere else.

and Pieces of a degenerate age, took its rise. We find it here in the Preface; but the age of the Preface is uncertain. The distinction is misleading. There are both in the Fung and 4 This is a very incomplete account of the the Ya many odes of a changed character, which Sung, and leaves the anomaly of the Sung of by their spirit and style are equal to any of those Loo, as placed along with those of Chow and that are ranked in the better class.

3 This paragraph would seem to attribute | Shang, unaccounted for. See on the title of Pt. the odes to the historiographers of the royal and IV., Bk. II.

ww

[iii.] THE LITTLE PREFACE.

ODES OF CHOW AND THE SOUTH.

1. The Kwan ts'eu celebrates the virtue of the queen.

This is the first of the Lessons of manners. By means of it the manners of all under heaven were intended to be formed, and the relation of husband and wife to be regulated; and therefore it was used at meetings in villages, and at the assemblies of princes.