3. Tang said, "I, the child Le, presume to use a darkcoloured victim, and presume to announce to Thee, O most great and sovereign God, that the sinner I dare not pardon, and thy ministers, O God, I do not keep in obscurity. The examination of them is by thy mind, O God. If, in my person, I commit offences, they are not to be attributed to you, the people of the myriad regions. If you in the myriad regions commit offences, these offences must rest on my person."

4. Chow conferred great gifts, and the good were

enriched.

5. "Although he has his near relatives, they are not equal to my virtuous men. The people are throwing blame upon me, the one man.'

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6. He carefully attended to the weights and measures, examined the body of the laws, restored the discarded officers, and the good government of the empire took its

course.

7. He revived States that had been extinguished, restored families whose line of succession had been broken, and called to office those who had retired into obscurity, so that throughout the empire the hearts of the people turned towards him.

or, possibly, the Shoo-king, as it was in his days, may have contained the passages as he gives them, and the variations be owing to the burning of most of the classical books by the founder of the Ts'in dynasty, and their recovery and restoration in a mutilated state. 1. We do not find this address of Yaou to Shun in the Shoo-king, Pt I., but the different sentences may be gathered from Pt II. Bk II. 14, 15, 17, where we have the charge of Shun to Yu. Yaou's reign commenced B.C. 2356, and after reigning 73 years, he resigned the administration to Shun. He died, B.C. 2256, and, two years after, Shun occupied the throne, in obedience to the will of the people. "The Heaven-determined order of succession " is, literally, "the represented and calculated numbers of heaven," i.e., the divisions of the year, its terms, months, and days, all described in a calendar, as they succeed one another with determined regularity. Here, ancient and modern interpreters agree in giving to the expression the meaning which appears in the translation. I may observe here, that Choo He differs often from the old interpreters in explaining these passages of the Shoo-king, but I have followed him, leaving the correctness or incorrectness of his views to be considered in the annot

ations on the Shoo-king. 3. At the commencement of this paragraph we must understand Tang, the founder of the Shang dynasty. The sentences here may in substance be collected in a measure from the Shooking, Pt IV. Bk III. 4, 8. The sinner is Këě, the tyrant, and last emperor

8. What he attached chief importance to, were the food of the people, the duties of mourning, and sacrifices.

9. By his generosity, he won all. By his sincerity, he made the people repose trust in him. By his earnest activity, his achievements were great. By his justice, all were delighted.

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II. 1. Tsze-chang asked Confucius, saying, "In what way should a person in authority act, in order that he may conduct government properly? The Master replied, "Let him honour the five excellent, and banish away the four bad, things ;-then may he conduct government properly." Tsze-chang said, "What are meant by the five excellent things?" The Master said, "When the person in authority is beneficent without great expenditure; when he lays tasks on the people without their repining; when he pursues what he desires without being covetous; when he maintains a dignified ease without being proud; when he is majestic without being fierce."

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2. Tsze-chang said, "What is meant by being beneficent without great expenditure? The Master replied, "When the person in authority makes more beneficial to the people the things from which they naturally derive benefit; is not this being beneficent without great expenditure? When he chooses the labours which are proper, and makes them labour on them, who will repine? When his desires are set on benevolent government, and he realizes it, who will accuse him of covetousness? Whether he has to do with many people or few, or with things great or small, he does not dare to indicate any disrespect; is not this to maintain a dignified ease with

of the Hea dynasty. "The ministers of God" are the able and virtuous men, whom Tang had called, or would call, to office. 4. In the Shooking, Pt V. Bk III. 9, we find King Woo saying, "He distributed great rewards through the empire, and all the people were pleased and submitted." 5. See the Shoo-king, Pt V. Bk I. sect. ii. 6, 7. The subject is Chow, the tyrant of the Yin dynasty. The people found fault with King Woo, because he did not come to save them from their sufferings, by destroying their oppressor. The remaining paragraphs are descriptive of the policy of King Woo, but cannot, excepting the eighth one, be traced in the present Shoo-king.

2. HOW GOVERNMENT MAY BE CONDUCTED WITH EFFICIENCY, BY HONOURING FIVE EXCELLENT THINGS, AND PUTTING AWAY FOUR BAD THINGS:-A CONVERSATION WITH TSZE-CHANG. It is understood that

out any pride? He adjusts his clothes and cap, and throws a dignity into his looks, so that, thus dignified, he is looked at with awe; is not this to be majestic without being fierce?"

3. Tsze-chang then asked, "What are meant by the four bad things?" The Master said, "To put the people to death without having instructed them ;-this is called cruelty. To require from them, suddenly, the full tale of work, without having given them warning;-this is called oppression. To issue orders as if without urgency, at first, and, when the time comes, to insist on them with severity; -this is called injury. And, generally speaking, to give pay or rewards to men, and yet to do it in a stingy way; -this is called acting the part of a mere official.'

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III. 1. The Master said, "Without recognizing the ordinances of Heaven, it is impossible to be a superior

man.

2. “Without an acquaintance with the rules of Propriety, it is impossible for the character to be established. 3. "Without knowing the force of words, it is impossible to know men."

this chapter, and the next, give the ideas of Confucius on government, as a sequel to those of the ancient sages and emperors, whose principles are set forth in the last chapter, to show how Confucius was their proper

successor.

3. THE ORDINANCES OF HEAVEN, THE RULES OF PROPRIETY, AND THE FORCE OF WORDS, ALL NECESSARY TO BE KNOWN.

THE GREAT LEARNING.

My master, the philosopher Ch'ing, says :-"The Great Learning is a book left by Confucius, and forms the gate by which first learners enter into virtue. That we can now perceive the order in which the ancients pursued their learning, is solely owing to the preservation of this work, the Analects and Mencius coming after it. Learners must commence their course with this, and then it may be hoped they will be kept from error.”

THE TEXT OF CONFUCIUS.

1. WHAT the Great Learning teaches, is-to illustrate illustrious virtue; to renovate the people; and to rest in the highest excellence.

TITLE OF THE WORK.-"The Great Learning." I have pointed out, in the prolegomena, the great differences which are found among Chinese commentators on this Work, on almost every point connected with the criticism and interpretation of it. We encounter them here on the very threshold. The name itself is simply the adoption of the two commencing characters of the treatise, according to the custom noticed at the beginning of the Analects; but in explaining those two characters, the old and new schools differ widely. I have contented myself with the title—“The Great Learning," which is a literal translation of the characters.

THE INTRODUCTORY NOTE.-I have thought it well to translate this, and all the other notes and supplements appended by Choo He to the original text, because they appear in nearly all the editions of the work which fall into the hands of students, and his view of the classics is what must be regarded as the orthodox one. The translation, which is here given, is also, for the most part, according to his views, though my own differing opinion will be found freely expressed in the notes. Another version, following the order of the text, before it was transposed by him and his masters, the Ch'ing, and without reference to its interpretations, will be found in the translation of the Le-ke. The Ch'ing here is the

2. The point where to rest being known, the object of pursuit is then determined; and, that being determined, a calm unperturbedness may be attained. To that calmness there will succeed a tranquil repose. In that repose there may be careful deliberation, and that deliberation will be followed by the attainment of the desired end.

3. Things have their root and their completion. Affairs have their end and their beginning. To know what is first and what is last will lead near to what is taught in the Great Learning.

second of the two brothers, to whom reference is made in the prolegomena. But how can we say that "The Great Learning" is a work left by Confucius? Even Choo He ascribes only a small portion of it to the Master, and makes the rest to be the production of the disciple Tsång, and before his time, the whole work was attributed generally to the sage's grandson. CHAPTER I. THE TEXT OF CONFUCIUS. Such Choo He, as will be seen from his concluding note, determines this chapter to be, and it has been divided into two sections, the first containing three paragraphs, occupied with the heads of " the Great Learning," and the second containing four paragraphs, occupied with the particulars of those.

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Par. 1. The heads of the Great Learning.-"To illustrate illustrious virtue," the illustrious virtue is the virtuous nature which man derives from Heaven. This is perverted as man grows up, through defects of the physical constitution, through inward lusts, and through outward seductions; and the great business of life should be, to bring the nature back to its original purity.-" To renovate the people,”—this object of "the Great Learning" is made out, by changing the character in the text, which means to love," into another signifying "to renovate." The Ch'ing first proposed the alteration, and Choo He approved of it. When a man has entirely illustrated his own illustrious nature, he has to proceed to bring about the same result in every other man, till "under heaven" there be not an individual, who is not in the same condition as himself." The highest excellence" is understood of the two previous matters. It is not a third and different object of pursuit, but indicates a perseverance in the two others, till they are perfectly accomplished.—According to these explanations, the objects contemplated in "the Great Learning," are not three, but two. Suppose them realized, and we should have the whole world of mankind perfectly good, every individual what he ought to be!

Against the above interpretation, we have to consider the older and simpler. "Virtue" is there not the nature, but simply virtue, or virtuous conduct, and the first object in "the Great Learning " is the making of one's self more and more illustrious in virtue, or in the practice of benevolence, reverence, filial piety, kindness, and sincerity. There is nothing, of course, of the renovating of the people, in this interpretation. The second object of "the Great Learning" is "to love the people."-The third object is said by Ying-tă to be "in resting in conduct which is perfectly good," and here, also, there would seem to be only two objects, for what essential distinction can we make between the first and third? "To love the people" is,