No More Learning

Throughout the Book it is mostly religious rites that are spoken of; especially as culminating in the worship of God. And nothing is more fully brought out than that all rites are valueless without truth and reverence.

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BOOK IX. KIÂO THEH SANG.

The name of the Book is made up of the three characters with which it commences, just as the Hebrew name for the Book of Genesis in our Sacred Scriptures is Beraishith ({BeRAShiTh}). From the meaning, however, of Kiâo Theh Sang the reader is led to suppose that he will find the Treatise occupied principally with an account of the great Border Sacrifice. But it is not so.

The main subject of the Book is sacrifice generally; and how that which is most valuable in it is the reverence and sincerity of the worshipper, finding its exhibition in the simplicity of his observances. In the preceding Book different conditions have been mentioned which are of special value in sacrifice and other ceremonies. Among them is the paucity of things (Section i, paragraph 8); and this consideration is most forcibly illustrated by 'the Single Victim' employed in the Border Sacrifice, the greatest of all ceremonies. At the same time various abuses of the ancient sincerity and simplicity are exposed and deplored.

The ceremonies of capping and marriage are dealt with in the third Section; and we are thankful for the information about them which it supplies. In the end the writer returns to the subject of sacrifices; and differences in the different dynasties, from the time of Shun downwards, in the celebration of them are pointed out.

The Khien-lung editors say that this Book was originally one with the last, and 'was separated from it by some later hand. ' I had come to the same conclusion before I noticed their judgment. Books VII, VIII, and IX must have formed, I think, at first one Treatise.

BOOK X. NÊI ZEH.

The title of this book, meaning 'The Pattern of the Family,' rendered by Callery, 'Réglements Intérieurs,' approximates to a description of its contents more than most of the titles in the Lî Kî. It is not taken, moreover, from any part of the text near the commencement or elsewhere. It is difficult to understand why so little of it is retained in the expurgated editions, hardly more than a page of P. Callery's work being sufficient for it.

Kang Hsüan says:--'The Book takes its name of Nêi Zeh, because it records the rules for sons and daughters in serving their parents, and for sons and their wives in serving her parents-in-law in the family-home. Among the other Treatises of the Lî Kî, it may be considered as giving the Rules for Children. And because the observances of the harem are worthy of imitation, it is called Nêi Zeh, "the Pattern of the Interior. "' Kû Hsî says, that 'it is a Book which was taught to the people in the ancient schools, an ancient Classic or Sacred Text. '

Because the name of Zang-dze and a sentence from him occur, the Khien-lung editors are inclined to ascribe the authorship to his disciples; but the premiss is too narrow to support such a conclusion.

The position of the wife, as described in Section i, will appear to western readers very deplorable. Much in this part of the Treatise partakes of the exaggeration that is characteristic of Chinese views of the virtue of filial piety.

The account in Section ii of the attention paid to the aged, and the nourishing of them, is interesting, but goes, as the thing itself did, too much into details. What is it to us at the present time how they made the fry, the bake, the delicacy, and the other dishes to tempt the palate and maintain the strength? The observances in the relation of husband and wife, on the birth of a child, and the education and duties of the young of both sexes, which the Section goes on to detail, however, are not wanting in attraction.

BOOK XI. YÜ ZÂO.

The name of the Book, Yü Zâo, is taken from the first clause of the first paragraph. The two characters denote the pendants of the royal cap worn on great occasions, and on which beads of jade were strung. There were twelve of those pendants hanging down, before and behind, from the ends of the square or rectangular top of the cap, as in the cardinal cap which is the crest of Christ Church, Oxford. But we read nothing more of this cap or its pendants after the first paragraph; and the contents of all the three Sections of the Book are so various, that it is impossible to give an account of them in small compass.

King Hsüan said that the Book was named Yü Zâo, because it recorded the dresses and caps warn by the son of Heaven; but it is not confined to the king, but introduces rulers also and officers generally. It treats also of other matters besides dress, which it would be difficult to speak of in so many categories. Much, moreover, of the second Section seems to consist of disjecta membra, and the paragraphs are differently arranged by different editors. Here and there the careful reader will meet with sentiments and sentences that will remain in his memory, as in reading Book I; but he will only carry away a vague impression of the Book as a whole.

BOOK XII. MING THANG WEI.

Readers will turn to this Book, as I did many years ago, expecting to find in it a full description of the Ming Thang, generally called by sinologists, 'The Brilliant Hall,' and 'The Hall of Light;' but they will find that the subject-matter is very different. I have here translated the name by 'the Hall of Distinction,' according to the meaning of it given in paragraph 5, taking 'distinction' in the sense of separation or discrimination.

The Treatise commences with, but does not fairly describe, the great scene in the life of the duke of Kâu, when a regent of the kingdom, he received all the feudal lords and the chiefs of the barbarous tribes at the capital, on occasion of a grand audience or durbar. The duke was the ancestor of the lords or marquises of the state of Lû,--part of the present province of Shan-tung. He was himself, indeed, invested with that fief by his nephew, king Khang, though, remaining for reasons of state at the royal court, he never took possession of it in person, but sent his son Po-khin to do so in his room. Because of his great services in the establishment and consolidation of the new dynasty, however, various privileges were conferred on the rulers of Lû above the lords of other states. These are much exaggerated in the Book; and after the sixth paragraph, we hear no more of the Hall of Distinction. All that follows is occupied with the peculiar privileges said to have been claimed, and antiques reported to have been possessed, by the marquises of Lû. What is said has no historical value, and the whole Book is excluded from the expurgated editions.

The Khien-lung editors say that its author must have been an ignorant and vainglorious scholar of Lû in the end of the Kâu dynasty. Some have imagined that it was handed on, with additions of his own, by Mâ Yung to Kang Hsüan; but the latter says nothing about the other in his brief prefatory note.

The Hall of Distinction was a royal structure. Part of it was used as a temple, at the sacrifices in which peculiar honour was done to king Wan (The Shih, IV, i, 7). It was also used for purposes of audience, as on the occasion referred to in this Book; and governmental regulations were promulgated from it (Mencius, I, ii, 5). To this third use of it would belong the various references to it in Book IV of this collection.

The principal Hall was in the capital; but there were smaller ones with the same name at the four points where the kings halted in their tours of inspection to receive the feudal lords of the different quarters of the kingdom. It was one of these which Mencius had in his mind in the passage referred to above.

In the 67th Book of the Lî of the Greater Tâi there, is a description of the building and its various parts; and among the 'Books of Kâu' said to have been found in A. D. 279 in the grave of king Hsiang of Wei, the 55th chapter has the title of Ming Thang, but it is little more than a rifacimento of the first four paragraphs of this Book of the Lî Kî.

In Morrison's Chinese Dictionary, vol. i, p. 512, there is a ground-plan of the Hall according to a common representation of it by Chinese authorities.

BOOK XIII. SANG FÛ HSIÂO KÎ.

This 'Record of Smaller Points in connexion with the Dress of Mourning,' is the first of the many treatises in our collection, devoted expressly to the subject of the mourning rites, and especially of the dress worn by the mourners, according to the degree of their relationship. The expurgated editions do not give any part of it; and it is difficult--I may say impossible--to trace any general plan on which the compiler, who is unknown, put the different portions of it together. Occasionally two or three paragraphs follow one another on the same subject) and I have kept them together after the example of Khung Ying-tâ; but the different notices are put down as if at random, just as they occurred to the writer.

Kû Hsî says that Dze-hsiâ made a supplementary treatise to the 11th Book of the Î Lî, and that we have here an explanation of many points in that Book. It is so; and yet we may not be justified in concluding that this is a remnant of the production of Dze-hsiâ.

BOOK XIV. TÂ KWAN.

This Book, 'the Great Treatise,' has been compared to the Hsî Zhze, the longest and most important of the Appendixes to the Yî King, which is also styled Tâ Kwan.

It is short, however, as compared with that other; nor is it easy to understand, the subjects with which it deals being so different in the conceptions of Chinese and western minds. 'It treats,' said Khan Hsiang-tâo (early in the Sung dynasty), 'of the greatest sacrifice,--that offered by the sovereign to all his ancestors; of the greatest instance of filial piety,--that of carrying back to his forefathers the title gained by the sacrificer; of the greatest principle in the regulation of the family,--that expressed by the arrangement of the names of its members according to their relations to one another; and of the course of humanity as the greatest illustration of propriety and righteousness. On account of this it is called The Great Treatise. '

From this summary of its contents the importance of the Book will be seen. We know nothing either of its author or of the date of its compilation.

BOOK XV. SHÂO Î.

The Shâo Î, or 'Smaller Rules of Conduct,' is akin to much of the first Book in our collection, 'the Summary of the Rules of Ceremony. ' Shâo means 'few,' and often 'few in years,' or 'young;' and hence some have thought that the subject of the Book is 'Rules for the Young. ' So Callery, who gives for the title, 'Règles de Conduite des Jeunes Gens. '

But the contents cannot be so restricted; and since the time of King Hsüan, shâo has been taken by most Chinese commentators as equivalent to hsiâo[1], which occurs in the title of Book XIII. The difference between the two Chinese characters is not so great as that between these alphabetic exhibitions of their names. Lû Teh-ming says, 'Shâo is here equivalent to hsiâo;' and Kang says, that the Book is named Shâo Î 'because it records the small rules of demeanour at interviews and in bringing in the provisions for a feast. ' But the observances described are very various, and enable us to form a life-like picture of manners in those early days.

According to Kû Hsi, the Book was intended to be a branch of the smaller learning, or lessons for youth; but

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was extended to a variety of subjects in daily life and the intercourses of society. When and by whom it was compiled is not known.

BOOK XVI. HSIO KÎ

The Hsio Kî, or 'Record of Studies,' is a treatise of very considerable interest and importance. Khang-dze, whom Kû Hsî was accustomed to call his 'Master,' considered it to be, after Books XXVIII and XXXIX, the Kung Yung and Tâ Hsio, the most correct and orthodox Book in the Lî Kî.

The Khien-lung editors say that in paragraphs 4 and 5 we have the institutions of the ancient kings for purposes of education; in 6 to 19, the laws for teachers; and in what follows, those for learners. The summary is on the whole correct, but the compiler (who is unknown) did not always keep his subjects distinct. In the three commencing paragraphs the importance of education to the moral well-being of the people is strikingly exhibited. The whole displays an amount of observation and a maturity of reflection on the subject, which cannot but be deemed remarkable. The information about ancient schools and higher institutions may be found in the earlier Books, but we are glad to have this repetition of it.

BOOK XVII. YO KÎ

The Yo Kî, or 'Record of Music,' will be found to have more interest for general readers than most of the other Books of the Lî. Khang-dze speaks of it in terms similar to those quoted from him in the preceding notice about the Hsio Kî. That, so far as correctness and orthodoxy are concerned, is next to the Kung Yung and Tâ Hsio; this is near to them. Its introduction into our collection is ascribed to Mâ Yung.

The old documents on music that, had been recovered during the earlier Han dynasty, appear in Liû Hsin's Catalogue after those of the Lî, amounting in all to 165 phien, distributed in, six collections. The first of these was the Yo Kî, in 23 phien; the second, the Kî of Wang Yü[1], in 24 phien. Khung Ying-tâ, deriving his information from a note in Hsin's Catalogue and other sources, sums up what he has to say about this Book in the following way:--On the rise of the Han dynasty, the treatises of former times on music, as well as the practice of the art, were in a state of special dilapidation. In the time of the emperor Wû, his brother Teh, with the help of many scholars, copied out all that remained on the subject of music, and made a Yo Kî, or 'Record of Music,' in 24 phien or books, which Wang Yü presented to the court in the time of the emperor Khang (B. C. 32-7);--but it was afterwards hardly heard of. When Liû Hsiang (died B. C. 9) examined the books in the Imperial library, he found a 'Record of Music' in 23 phien, different from that which Wang Yü had presented. Our present Yo Kî contains eleven of those phien, arranged with the names of their subjects. The other twelve are lost, though their names remain.

Most of the present text is found in Sze-mâ Khien's Monograph on Music; and as he was so long before Liû Hsiang (Khien died between B. C. 90 and 80), the Khien-lung editors suppose that it is one of the portions of Khien's work, supplied by Khû Shâo-sun[2], who was a contemporary of Hsiang.

Kû Hsî had a great admiration of many passages in the Yo Kî, and finds in them the germs of the views on the constitution of humanity, and on the action and interaction of principle and passion, reason and force, in the economy of what we call Providence, on which he delighted to dwell in his philosophical speculations. We expect from the title, as Hwang Kan-hsing (Ming dynasty) says, that music will be the chief subject of the Treatise, but everywhere we find ceremonial usages spoken of equally and in their relation to it; for, according to the view of the author, the framework of society is built on the truth

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underlying ceremonies, and music is the necessary expression of satisfaction in the resulting beauty and harmony.

BOOK XVIII. ZÂ KÎ.

Book XVII is given nearly complete in the expurgated edition translated by Callery, while the 18th or 'Miscellaneous Records,' happily rendered by him by the one French word 'Mélanges,' is reduced to about a third of its length in the Chinese text. Notwithstanding its name of 'Miscellanies,' the greater part is occupied with the observances of the Mourning Rites. Interesting questions concerning them are discussed, and information is given on customs which we do not find in such detail elsewhere,--such, for instance, as those relating to the gifts of grave-clothes and other things for the burial of the dead. Towards the end other customs, besides those of the mourning rites, are introduced. It would be a mistake, however, to suppose that this is done to justify the name of Miscellaneous Records given to the whole. It is a peculiarity of many of the other Books that the writer, or writers, seem to get weary of confining themselves to one subject or even to a few subjects, and introduce entries of quite a different nature for no reason that we can discover but their arbitrary pleasure.

The correctness and integrity of many paragraphs have been justly called in question. The authority of the Book does not rank high. It must be classed in this respect with the Than Kung.

BOOK XIX. SANG TÂ KÎ.

Book XIII deals with smaller points in connexion with the dress of mourning; Book XVIII, with miscellaneous points in mourning; and this Book with the greater points, especially with the two dressings of the dead, the coffining, and the burial. Beginning with the preparations for death in the case of a ruler, a Great officer, or an ordinary officer, it goes methodically over all the observances at and after death, until the burial has taken place. It takes us into the palace, the mansion, and the smaller official residence, and shows us what was done at the different steps that intervened between death and the committing of the coffin to the grave. Some of the observances differ in minor points from details in those other Books, and in the Than Kung or Book II; but taking them all together, we get from them a wonderfully minute account of all the rites of mourning in ancient China. Wû Khang says, 'This Book relates the greater rules observed in each event which it mentions. ' It was not, intended to supplement the information elsewhere given about smaller details; and hence it is named 'The Greater Record of Mourning Rites. '

BOOK XX. KÎ FÂ.

Ki Fâ, so named from the first two characters in the Book, and meaning 'Laws or Rules of Sacrifices,' is the first of three treatises, all on the subject of sacrifices, that come together at this part of the collection of the Lî. They were not, perhaps, the production of the same hand; but the writer of this one evidently had before him the 17th article in the first Part of the Narratives connected with the state of Lû, which form the second Section of 'the Narratives of the States[1]. ' That article contains an exposition of the subject of sacrifices by a Ken Khin, in deprecation of a sacrifice ordered by Zang Wan-kang, who had been for about fifty years one of the ministers of Lû. Zang died in B. C. 617.

Difficulties attach to some of the historical statements in the Book, which cannot be cleared up from our want of sufficient documents. The whole consists of two Parts,--paragraphs 1-8, and paragraph 9. All the former is excluded from the expurgated editions; but in it, as well as in the other, the sacrifices are mainly those to departed worthies. There is no idea of deprecation in them; much less of atonement. They are expressions of gratitude, and commemorative of men whose laws and achievements were

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beneficial to their own times, and helped on the progress of civilisation, so that they would be beneficial also to all ages.

In the conclusion, the sacrifices to the sun, moon, and other parts of nature appear; and it is said that they were instituted because the action of those bodies contributed to promote the comfort and agency of men. So far those sacrifices were a species of nature-worship; but the question arises whether they were not really offered to the spirits under whose guardianship those objects operated.

BOOK XXI. KÎ Î.

The Kî Î, or 'The Meaning of Sacrifices,' 'Sens des Sacrifices' in Callery, embraces a wider extent of subjects than the last Book. It treats first of the sacrifices to Heaven, and to the sun and moon in connexion with it, as well as of those in the ancestral temple, though the latter are the principal subject. The writer, whoever he was, goes fully into the preparations of the sacrificer, and the spirit of reverence in which the services should be conducted.

No idea of deprecation or expiation is expressed as belonging to the sacrifices. It is said, indeed, in Section i, A, that the sacrifice in the suburb of the capital was the great expression of gratitude to Heaven.

In Section ii other subjects besides sacrifice are treated of. It commences with a remarkable conversation between Confucius and his disciple Zâi Wo, on the constitution of man, as comprehending both the Kwei and Shin, the former name denoting the animal soul, which, with the bones and flesh, 'moulders below and becomes the dust of the fields;' while the latter denotes the intelligent soul or spirit, which issues forth at death, and is displayed on high in a condition of glorious brightness.

The ploughing of the special fields by the king and rulers of states, and the regulations for the nourishment of silkworms and the preparation of silk by their wives, are set forth, both operations being to provide the sacrificial grain and robes.

After this we have the views of Zang-dze and one of his disciples on filial piety, which subject again passes into the submission of the younger brother to the elder, and the respect to be paid generally by juniors to their elders.

BOOK XXII. KÎ THUNG.

The 'Summary Account of Sacrifices' is the last and longest, and, it may be added, the most interesting, of the treatises, specially on that subject. We find nothing in it, any -more than in the others, of the idea of propitiation; but it gives many details of the purposes which the institution of sacrifices served in the Chinese state. The old commentators took the character Thung[1] in the sense of 'Root' or 'Origin[2],' and hence some English sinologists have named the book 'The Origin of Sacrifices,' and P. Zottoli gives for the title 'Sacrificii Principium. ' Callery calls it, better, 'Généralités sur les Sacrifices. ' The very able commentator Khan Hsiang tâo compares the Treatise to 'the large rope which controls the meshes of a net,' saying, that it commences with sacrifice as coming from the feeling of the heart, and ends with the display of its influence in the conduct of government.

The concluding. paragraph shows that it was written while the state of Lû still had an existence; and if the whole Book proceeded from the same hand, it must have been composed some time after the death of Confucius and before the extinction of Lû, which was consummated by Khû in B. C. 248. I think we may refer it to the fourth century B. C.

The doctrine of Filial Piety occupies a prominent place in it. Paragraph 13 and the ten that follow, on the connexion between sacrifice and the ten relationships of men, are specially instructive. The author writes forcibly and often subtilely; and can hardly do himself justice in the

[1. ###.

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expression of his ideas. What he says on the subject of Inscriptions towards the conclusion is interesting.
He was a true Lû man, and his views on the sacrifices of his state are contrary to the standard of Chinese orthodoxy about them.

BOOK XXIII. KING KIEH.

King Kieh has been translated 'Explanations of the Classics,' and Callery gives for the title 'Sens Général des Livres Canoniques. ' A slight attention to the few paragraphs which compose the Book, however, will satisfy the reader that these translations of the name are incorrect. No explanation is attempted of passages in the different King. The true meaning of King Kieh was given by Hwang Khan in A. D. 538. 'Kieh,' he says, 'is to be taken in the sense of "separation" or "division;" and the Treatise describes the difference between the subjects dealt with in the different King. '

The Book, though ingenious, is not entitled to much attention. The first two paragraphs, assigned to Confucius, could not have come from him. They assume that there were six King; but that enumeration of the ancient writings originated with the scholars of the Han dynasty. And among the six is the Khun Khiû "the work of Confucius himself, which he compiled only a year or two before his death. It was for posterity, and not for him, to raise it to the rank of a King, and place it on the same level with the Shû, the Shih, and the Yî. It may be doubted, moreover, if there were ever a Yo King, or 'Classic of Music. ' Treatises on music, no doubt, existed under the Kâu dynasty, but it does not appear that there was any collection of them made till the attempts that have been referred to in the introductory notice to Book XVII.

Who the ingenious, but uncritical, compiler of the King Kieh was is unknown.

BOOK XXIV. ÂI KUNG WAN.

'Questions of Duke Âi' is a translation of the three characters with which the Book commences, and which mean there 'Duke Âi asked;' and the title is so far descriptive of the contents of the Book,--two conversations on ceremonies and the practice of government between the marquis Ziang of Lû, posthumously called duke Âi, and Confucius. The sage died in the sixteenth year of Ziang's marquisate. As an old minister of the state, after he had retired from public. life, he had a right of entrance to the court, which, we know, he sometimes exercised. He may have conversed with the marquis on the subjects discussed in this Treatise; but whether he held the particular conversations here related can only be determined by the consideration of their style and matter. I am myself disposed to question their genuineness.

There are other recensions of the Treatise. It forms the third of the Books in the current editions of 'the Lî of the Greater Tâi,' purporting to be the forty-first of those which were in his larger collection; and is the same as in our Lî Kî, with hardly a variation. The second conversation, again, appears . as the fourth article in the collection called the 'Narratives of the School[1],' but with considerable and important variations, under the title of Tâ Hwan, 'The Grand Marriage. ' The first conversation is found also in the same collection, as part of the sixth article, called Wan Lî, or 'Questions about Ceremonies. ' There are also variations in, it; but the questioner in both articles is duke Âi.

The most remarkable passages of the Book are some paragraphs of the second conversation towards its conclusion. P. Callery translates Thien Tâo, 'the Way of Heaven,' in paragraph 16, by 'La Vérité Céleste,' and

says in a note that Confucius speaks of this Tâo in a way not unlike Lâo-dze in the Tâo Teh King, adding that 'these two fathers of Chinese philosophy had on this mysterious Being ideas nearly similar. ' But a close examination of the passage, which is itself remarkable, shows that this resemblance between it and passages of the Tâoist classic does not exist. See my concluding note on the Book. If there were a Tâoist semblance in the phraseology, it would make us refer the composition of the Treatise to the time of Khin or the early days of Han, when Tâoism had taken a place in the national literature which it had not had under the dynasty of Kâu.

BOOK XXV. KUNG-NÎ YEN KÜ.

The title of this Book is taken from the four characters with which it commences. Confucius has returned from his attendance at the court of Lû, and is at home in his own house. Three of his disciples are sitting by him, and his conversation with them flows on till it has reached the subject of ceremonial usages. In reply to their questions, he discourses on it at length, diverging also to the subjects of music and the practice of government in connexion with ceremonies, in a familiar and practical manner.

He appears in the title by his designation, or name as married, Kung-nî, which we find also two or three times in Book XXVIII, which is received as the composition of his grandson Khung Kî, or Dze-sze. This Treatise, however, is much shorter than that, and inferior to it. The commentator Wang of Shih-liang[1], often quoted by Khan Hâo, says, that though this Treatise has a beginning and end, the style and ideas are so disjected and loose, that many of the utterances attributed to Confucius cannot be accepted as really his.

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BOOK XXVI. KHUNG-DZE HSIEN KÜ.

The title of this Book is akin to that of the last, the characters of that leading us to think of Confucius as having returned from court to 'his case,' and those of this suggesting nothing of his immediate antecedents, but simply saying that he was 'at home and at leisure. ' Instead of being called, as there, by his designation, he appears here as Khung-dze, 'the philosopher Khung,' or' Mr. Khung. '

The Book also relates a conversation, but only one disciple is present, and to him the Master discourses on the description of a sovereign as 'the parent of the people,' and on the virtue of the founders of the three dynasties of Hsiâ, Shang, and Kâu, illustrating his views by quotations from the Book of Poetry. His language is sometimes strange and startling, while the ideas underlying it are subtle and ingenious. And the poetical quotations are inapplicable to the subjects in connexion with which they are introduced. If the commentator Wang could not adopt the speeches attributed to Confucius in the last Book as really his, much less can we receive those in this as such.

From their internal analogies in form and sentiment, I suppose that the two Books were made by the same writer; but I have met with no guess even as to who he was.

BOOK XXVII. FANG KÎ.

'The Dykes,' which is the meaning of the title of this Book, is suggestive of its subject-matter. We have in it the rules or usages of ceremony presented to us under the figure of dykes, dams, or barriers; defensive structures made to secure what is inside them from escaping or dispersion, and to defend it against inundation or other injurious assault and invasion from without. The character, called fang, is used for the most part with verbal force, 'acting as a dyke or barrier;' and it would often be difficult to say whether the writer was thinking of the particular institution or usage spoken of as fulfilling the purpose of defence against peril from within, or violence from without.

The illustrations are numerous, and they are all given as if they came from the lips of Confucius himself; but we cannot suppose that they were really from him. They are not in his style, and the reasonings are occasionally unworthy of him. Many paragraphs carry on their front a protest against our receiving them as really his. Nevertheless, the Book, though sometimes tedious, is on the whole interesting, and we like the idea of looking on the usages as 'dykes. ' We do not know to whom we are indebted for it. One of the famous brothers Khang of the Sung dynasty has said:-We do not know who wrote the Treatise. Since we find such expressions in it As "The Lun Yü says," it is plainly not to be ascribed to Confucius. Passages in the Han scholars, Kiâ Î and Tung Kung-shû, are to the same effect as what we find here; and perhaps this memoir was their production. '

BOOK XXVIII. KUNG YUNG.

The Kung Yung would be pronounced, I think, by Chinese scholars to be the most valuable of all the Treatises in the Lî Kî; and from an early time it asserted a position peculiar to itself. Its place in the general collection of Ritual Treatises was acknowledged by Mâ Yung and his disciple Kang Hsüan; but in Liû Hsin's Catalogue of the Lî Books, we find an entry of 'Observations on the Kung Yung, in two phien;' so early was the work thought to be deserving of special treatment by itself. In the records of the Sui dynasty (A. D. 589-617), in the Catalogue of its Imperial library, there are the names of three other special works upon it, one of them by the emperor Wû (A. D. 502-549) of the Liang dynasty.

Later on, under the Sung dynasty, the Kung Yung, the Tâ Hsio, or 'Great Learning,' which is also a portion of the Lî Kî, the Confucian Analects, or the Lun Yü, and the works of Mencius, were classed together as 'The Four Books,' which have since that time formed so important a division of Chinese literature; and ' the Kung Yung, in chapters and sentences, with a digest of commentaries on it,' was published by Kû Hsî early in A. D. 1189. About 125 years afterwards, the fourth emperor of the Yüan dynasty enacted that Kû's edition and views should be the text-book of the classic at the literary examinations. From that time merely the name of the Kung Yung was retained in editions of the Lî Kî, until the appearance of the Imperial edition of the whole collection in the Khien-lung period of the present dynasty. There the text is given in two Sections according to the old division of it, with the ancient commentaries from the edition of 'The Thirteen King' of the Thang dynasty, followed at the end of each paragraph by the Commentary of Kû.

The authorship of the Kung Yung is ascribed to Khung Kî, better known as Dze-sze, the grandson of Confucius. There is no statement to this effect, indeed, in the work itself; but the tradition need not be called in question. It certainly existed in the Khung family. The Book must have been written in the fifth century B. C. , some time, I suppose, between 450 and 400. Since A. D. 1267, the author has had a place in the temples of Confucius as one of 'The Four Assessors,' with the title of 'The Philosopher Dze-sze, transmitter of the Sage. ' I have seen his tomb-mound in the Confucian cemetery, outside the city of Khü-fû in Shantung, in front of those of his father and grandfather. There is a statue of him on it, bearing the inscription, 'Duke (or Prince) of the State of Î. '

It is not easy to translate the name of the Treatise, Kung Yung. It has been represented by 'Juste Milieu;' 'Medium Constans vel Sempiternurn;' 'L'Invariable Milieu;' 'The Constant Medium. ' 'The Golden Medium;' 'The True Medium,' and otherwise. I called it, in 1861, 'The Doctrine of the Mean,' which I have now changed for 'The State of Equilibrium and Harmony,' the reasons for which will be found in the notes on the first chapter of the present version.

I do not here enter on an exhibition of the scope and value of the Book. It gives the best account that we have of the Confucian philosophy and morals, and will amply repay careful study, and hold its place not only in China, but in the wider sphere beyond it. The writer had an exaggerated conception of the sage; but he deserves well of his own country and of the world.

BOOK XXIX. PIÂO KÎ.

The character called Piâo is the symbol for the outer garments, and is used to indicate whatever is external in opposition to what is internal; the outside of things, what serves to mark them out and call attention to them. Hence comes its use in the sense which it bears in the title of this Book, for what serves as an exàmple or model. Callery renders that title by 'Mémoire sur l'Exemple;' Wylie, by 'The Exemplar Record. '

Piâo is also used for the gnomon of a dial; and the Khien-lung editors fix on this application of the character in explaining the name of the Book. 'Piâo,' they say, 'is the gnomon of a dial, by which the movement of the sun is measured; it rises up in the Centre, and all round is regulated by it. The Fang Kî shows men what they ought to be on their guard against; the Piâo Kî, what they should take as their pattern. ' Then they add--'Of patterns there is none so honourable as benevolence (or humanity proper), and to aid that there is righteousness, while, to complete it, there is sincerity or good faith, and reverence is that by which the quest for humanity is pursued. ' This second sentence may be considered a summary of the contents of the Book, which they conclude by saying, they have divided into eight chapters after the example of the scholar Hwang; meaning, I suppose, Hwang Khan, who has been already mentioned as having published his work on our classic in A. D. 538.

That division into eight chapters lies on the face of the Treatise. We have eight paragraphs commencing with the characters which I have rendered by 'These were the words of the Master;' and these are followed by a number of others, more or fewer as the case may be, in which the words of the Master ('The Master said') are adduced to substantiate what has been stated in that introductory passage. The arrangement is uniform, excepting in one instance to which I have called attention in a note, and suitably divides the whole into eight chapters.

But no one supposes that 'the words of the Master' are really those of Confucius, or were used by him in the connexion which is here given to them. They were invented by the author of the Treatise, or applied by him, to suit his own purpose; and scholars object to many of them as contrary to the sentiments of the sage, and betraying a tendency to the views of Tâoism. This appears, most strikingly perhaps, in the fifth chapter. On the statement, for instance', in paragraph 32, that the methods of Yin and Kâu were not equal to the correction of the errors produced by those of Shun and Hsîa, the Khien-lung editors say:--'How could these words have come from the mouth of the Master? The disciples of Lâo-dze despised forms and prized the unadorned simplicity, commended what was ancient, and condemned all that was of their own time. In the beginning of the Han dynasty, the principles of Hwang and Lâo were widely circulated; students lost themselves in the stream of what they heard, could not decide upon its erroneousness, and ascribed it to the Master. Such cases were numerous, and even in several paragraphs of the Lî Yun (Book VII) we seem to have some of them. What we find there was the utterance, probably, of some disciple of Lâo-dze. '

No one, so far as I have noticed, has ventured to assign the authorship of this Book on example. I would identify him, myself, with the Kung-sun Nî-dze, to whom the next is ascribed.

BOOK XXX. DZE Î

It is a disappointment to the reader, when he finds after reading the title of this Book, that it has nothing to do with the Black Robes of which he expects it to be an account. That phrase occurs in the second paragraph, in a note to which its origin is explained; but the other name Hsiang Po, which is found in the same paragraph, might with equal appropriateness, or rather inappropriateness, have been adopted for the Treatise.

It is really of the same nature as the preceding, and contains twenty-four paragraphs, all attributed to 'the Master,' and each of which may be considered to afford a pattern for rulers and their people. It ought to form one Book with XXIX under the title of 'Pattern Lessons. ' I have pointed out in the notes some instances of the agreement in their style and phraseology, and the intelligent reader who consults the translation with reference to the Chinese text will discover more. Lû Teh-ming (early in the Thang dynasty) tells us, on the authority of Liû Hsien, that the Dze Î was made by a Kung-sun Ni-dze. Liû Hsien was a distinguished scholar of the early Sung dynasty, and died about A. D. 500; but on what evidence he assigned the authorship of the Book to Kung-sun Ni-dze does not, in the present state of our knowledge, appear. The name of that individual is found twice in Liû Hsin's Catalogue, as belonging to the learned school, and among 'the Miscellaneous writers,' with a note that he was 'a disciple of the seventy disciples of the Master. ' The first entry about him precedes that about Mencius, so that he must be referred to the closing period of the Kâu dynasty, the third century B. C. He may, therefore, have been the author of 'The Black Robes,' and of the preceding Book as well, giving his own views, but attributing them, after the fashion of the time, to Confucius; but, as the commentator Fang Î (? Ming dynasty) observes:--'Many passages in the Book are made to resemble the sayings of a sage; but the style is not good and the meaning is inferior. '

BOOK XXXI. PAN SANG.

This Book refers to a special case in connexion with the mourning rites, that of an individual who has been prevented, from taking part with the other relatives in the usual observances at the proper time. It might be that he was absent from the state, charged by his ruler with public business, or he might be in the same state but at a distance, and so occupied that he had been unable to take part in the mourning services.

But they were too sacred to be entirely neglected, and we have here the rules applicable to such a case, in a variety of circumstances and different degrees of consanguinity. Some other matter, more or less analogous, is introduced towards the end.

We have seen how the first of the 'Three Rituals' recovered in the Han dynasty was seventeen Books that now form the Î Lî. Kang Hsüan supposed that the Pan Sang had been another Book of that collection, and was afterwards obtained from the tablets found in the village of Yen-kung in Lû. It has been decided, however, that the style determines it to be from another hand than the Î Lî.

Here it is, and we have only to make the best of it that we can, without knowing who wrote it or when it came to light. The Khien-lung editors say :--'Anciently, in cases of mourning for a year or shorter period even, officers left their charges and hurried to the rites. In consequence of the inconvenience arising. from this, it was enacted that officers should leave their charge only on the death of a parent. It was found difficult, however, to enforce this. The rule is that a charge cannot be left, without leave asked and obtained. '

BOOK XXXII. WAN SANG.

The Wan Sang, or 'Questions about Mourning Rites,' is a short Treatise, which derives its name from inquiries about the dressing of the corpse, the putting off the cap and replacing it by the cincture, and the use of the staff in mourning. Along with those inquiries there are accounts of some of the rites, condensed and imperfect. The Book should be read in connexion with the other Books of a similar character, especially XIII.

Much cannot be said in favour of the style, or of the satisfactoriness of the replies to the questions that arc propounded. The principal idea indeed in the mind of the author, whoever he was, was that the rites were the outcome of the natural feelings of men, and that mourning was a manifestation of filial piety. The most remarkable passage is that with which the Treatise concludes, that the use of the staff was not to be sought in any revelation from heaven or earth, but was simply from the good son's filial affection. The way in which the sentiment is expressed has often brought to my mind the question of the Apostle Paul about faith, in Romans x. 6-8.

BOOK XXXIII. FÛ WAN.

Like the last two Books and the two that follow, the Fû Wan is omitted in the expurgated editions. It is still shorter than the Wan Sang, and treats also of the mourning rites, and specially of the dress in it, and changes in it, which naturally gave rise to questioning.

The writer, or compiler, often quotes from what he calls the Kwan, a name which has sometimes been translated by 'Tradition. ' But the Chinese term, standing alone, may mean what is transmitted by writings, as well as what is handed down by oral communication. It is used several times in Mencius in the sense of 'Record' and 'Records. ' I have called it here 'The Directory of Mourning. ' Wû Khang says rightly that the Book is of the same character as XIII; that the mourning rites were so many, and some of them so peculiar, that collisions between different rites must have been of frequent occurrence. The Fû Wan takes up several such cases and tells us how they were met satisfactorily, or, as we may think, unsatisfactorily.

BOOK XXXIV. KIEN KWAN.

The Kien Kwan is a Treatise on subsidiary points in the mourning rites, It is not easy to render the name happily in English. I have met with it as 'The Intermediate Record. ' Kwan is the character spoken of in the preceding notice; Kien is the symbol for the space between two things, suggesting the idea of distinction or difference. Kang Hsüan says that 'the name has reference to the distinctions suitably made in mourning, according as it was lighter or more important. '

However we translate or explain the name, we find the Book occupied with the manifestations of grief in the bearing of the mourners; in the modulation of their voices; in their eating and drinking; in their places; in the texture of their dress; and in the various changes which were made in it till it was finally put off. Some points in it are difficult to understand at this distance of time, and while we are still imperfectly acquainted with the mourning usages of the people at the present day.

BOOK XXXV. SAN NIEN WAN.

The 'Questions about the Mourning for three years' is occupied principally with the mourning for parents for that period, but it touches on all the other periods of mourning as well, explaining why one period differs in its duration from the others.

Mourning, it is said, is the outcome of the relative feeling proper to man; the materials of the dress, the duration of the rites, and other forms are from the ancient sages and legislators, to regulate and direct the expression of the feeling.

What is said in paragraph 4 about the mourning of birds and beasts is interesting, but fantastical. Though the mourning for a parent is said to last for three years, the western reader is not to suppose that it continues to the end of that time, but simply that it extends into the third year. Virtually it terminates with the twenty-fifth month, and positively with the twenty-seventh. It is the eastern mode in speaking of time to say that it lasts for three years. Similarly, I have often been told that a child, evidently not more than six months, was two years old, when a little cross-questioning has brought out the fact that it had been born towards the end of the previous year, that it had. lived in two years, and was, therefore, spoken of as two years old.

BOOK XXXVI. SHAN Î.

The Shan Î is what we should expect from the name, a description of the dress so-called.