The Chinese Classics | Page 4

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.'
1 五經.
2 四書.
3 易經.
4 書經.
5 詩經.
6 禮記.
7 春秋.
'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
1 å››å-之書.
2 論語.
3 大å-¸.
4 曾åƒ.
5 ä¸-庸.
6 å-”伋.
7 樂記.
8 周禮.
9 儀禮.

10 春秋三傳
11 左丘明.
12 公羊高.
13 ç©€æ¢èµ¤.
14 爾雅.
15 å-經.
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 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. 202-A.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'iu, four of the Shih, and
several of the Yi. 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