THE PROLEGOMENA. CHAPTER I. OF THE WORKS OF MENCIUS. SECTION I. THEIR RECOGNITION UNDER THE HAN DYNASTY, AND BEFORE IT. 1. In the third of the catalogues of Liû Hsin1, containing a list of the Works of Scholars which had been collected up to his time (about A.D. 1), and in the first subdivision, devoted to authors of the classical or orthodox School, we have the entry-'The Works of Mencius, in eleven Books. At that date, therefore, Mencius's writings were known and registered as a part of the literature of China. 2. A hundred years before Hsin, we have the testimony of the historian Sze-mâ Ch'ien. In the seventy-fourth Book of his 'Historical Records,' there is a brief memoir of Mencius, where he says that the philosopher, having withdrawn into private life, 'along with the disciples of Wan Chang, prefaced the Shih and the Sha, unfolded the views of Confucius, and made "The Works of Mencius, in seven Books".", The discrepancy that appears between these testimonies, in regard to the number of the Books which went by the common name of Mencius, will be considered in the sequel. In the meanwhile it is shown that the writings of Mencius were recognised by scholars a hundred years before the Christian era, which takes us back to little more than a century and a half from the date assigned to his death. 諸子略,孟子十一篇‘史記, 1 See vol. i. proleg. pp. 4, 5. 七十四, 列傳, 第十四‘與萬章之徒序詩書,述仲尼 3. Among writers of the Han dynasty earlier than Sze-mâ Ch'ien, there were Han Ying' and Tung Chung-shu3, contemporaries, in the reigns of the emperors Wăn, Ching, and Wa3 (B. C. 179-87). Portions of their Works remain, and in them are found quotations from Mencius*. 4. But we find references to Mencius and his Works anterior to the dynasty of Han. In the literary remains of Kung Fu, to whose concealment of many of the classical Works on the issuing of the edict for their destruction posterity is so much indebted", there are accounts of Mencius, and many details of his history. Between Mencius and the rise of the Ch'in dynasty flourished the philosopher Hsün Ch'ing", of whose writings enough is still preserved to form a large volume. By many he is regarded as the ablest of all the followers of Confucius. He several times makes mention of Mencius, and one of his most important chapters, 'That Human Nature is Evil, seems to have been written expressly against Mencius's doctrine of its goodness. He quotes his arguments, and endeavours to set them aside. 5. I have used the term recognition in the heading of this section, because the scholars of the Han dynasty do not seem to have had any trouble in forming or settling the text of Mencius such as we have seen they had with the Confucian Analects. And here a statement made by Châo Ch'i, whose labours upon our philosopher I shall notice in the next section, deserves to be considered. He says:- When Ch'in sought by its fires to destroy the Classical Books, and put the scholars to death in pits, there was an end of the School of Mencius. His Works, however, were included under the common name of "Philosophical," and so the tablets containing them escaped destruction'. Må Twan-lin does not hesitate to say that the statement is incorrect 10; and it seems strange that Mencius should have been exempted from the sweep of a measure intended to extinguish the memory of the most ancient and illustrious ·韓嬰. ‘董仲舒‘太宗孝文皇帝;孝景皇帝;世 宗孝武皇帝 * See 四書拓餘說,孟子, art. I, and 焦孝廉 FE, notes to Chão Ch'i's preface. 6 * See vol. i. proleg. p. 36. • I have not been able to refer to the writings of K'ung Fû themselves, but extracts from them are given in the notes to Chû Hsi's preface to Mencius in the US. '†). '荀子,性惡篇,其書號爲諸子,故篇籍得不泯絶 see Chão Ch't's preface to Mencius.", Bk. clxxxiv, upon Mencius. |