The Chinese Classics (Prolegomena) | Page 4

CONFUCIAN ANALECTS THE GREAT LEARNING THE DOCTRINE OF THE
MEAN

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 Ching [1]' and 'The four Shu [2].' 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 Yi [3], or, as it has been styled, 'The Book of Changes;' the
Shu [4], or 'The Book of History;' the Shih [5], or 'The Book of Poetry;' the Li Chi [6], or
'Record of Rites;' and the Ch'un Ch'iu [7], 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 Chi is from later hands. Of the Yi,
the Shu, 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 Ch'iu 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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'The Four Books' is an abbreviation for 'The Books of the Four Philosophers [1].' The

first is the Lun Yu [2], 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 Ta Hsio [3], or 'Great Learning,'
now commonly attributed to Tsang Shan [4], a disciple of the sage. He is he philosopher
of it. The third is the Chung Yung [5], 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 Chi [6], the
grandson of Confucius. He is the philosopher of it. The fourth contains the works of
Mencius.
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 [7],' 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 Yi, the Shih, the Shu, the Chau Li [8], or 'Ritual
of Chau,' the I Li [9], or certain 'Ceremonial Usages,' the Li Chi, and the annotated
editions of the Ch'un Ch'iu [10], by Tso Ch'iu-ming [11], Kung-yang Kao [12], and
Ku-liang Ch'ih [13]. In the famous compilation of the Classical Books, undertaken by
order of T'ai-tsung, the second emperor of the T'ang dynasty (A.D. 627-649), and which
appeared in the reign of his successor, there are thirteen Ching, viz. the Yi, the Shih, the
Shu, the three editions of the Ch'un Ch'iu, the Li Chi, the Chau Li, the I Li, the Confucian
Analects, the R Ya [14], a sort of ancient dictionary, the Hsiao 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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comprehended under the same common name; and Mencius, the Lun Yu, the Ta 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 Ta Hsio
and Chung Yung had been published as separate treatises before the Sung dynasty, and
that Four