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Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1Thus of 250 poems current in China before the supposed compilation of the Shih, 236 are found in it, and only fourteen. are absent. To use the words of K4éo Yi, a scholar of the present dynasty, ‘If the poems existing in 282 THE SHIH KING. Confucius’ time had been more than 3000, the quotations of poems now lost in these two works should have been ten times as numerous as the quotations from the 305 pieces said to have been preserved by him, whereas they are only between a twenty-first and twenty-second part of the existing pieces. This is sufficient to show that Khien’s statement is not worthy of credit.’ ii. Of the existence of the Book of Poetry before Confucius, digested in four Parts, and much in the same order as at present, there may be advanced the following proofs :— First. There is the passage in the Official Book of Ku, quoted and discussed in the last paragraph of the preceding chapter. We have in it a distinct reference to poems, many centuries before the sage, arranged and classified in the same way as those of the existing Shih. Our Shih, no doubt, was then in the process of formation. Second. In the ninth piece of the sixth decade of the Shih, Part II, an ode assigned to the time of king Ya, B.C. 781 to 771, we have the words, ‘They sing the Ya and the Nan, Dancing to their flutes without error.’ So early, therefore, as the eighth century B.C. there was a collection of poems, of which some bore the name of the Nan, which there is much reason to suppose were the K4u Nan and the Sh4o Nan, forming the first two Books of the first Part of the present Shih; and of which others bore the name of the Y4, being, probably, the earlier pieces that now compose a large portion of the second and third Parts. Third. In the narratives of 30 KAit-ming, under the twenty-ninth year of duke Hsiang, B.C. 544, when Confucius was only seven or eight years old, we have an account of a visit to the court of Li by an envoy from WA, an eminent statesman of the time, and a man of great learning. We are told that as he wished to hear the music of KAu, which he could do better in LQ than in any other state, they sang to him the odes of the Kau Nan and the Sh4o Nan; those of Phei, Yung, and Wei; of the Royal Domain; of Kang; of KAt; of Pin; of Kkin; of Wei; of INTRODUCTION. 283 Thang; of KAin; of Kwei; and of 3440. They sang to him also the odes of the Minor YA and the Greater Y4; and they sang finally the pieces of the Sung. We have thus, existing in the boyhood of Confucius, what we may call the present Book of Poetry, with its Fang, its Ya, and its Sung. The only difference discernible is slight,—in the order in which the Books of the Fang followed one another.
2We have thus, existing in the boyhood of Confucius, what we may call the present Book of Poetry, with its Fang, its Ya, and its Sung. The only difference discernible is slight,—in the order in which the Books of the Fang followed one another. Fourth. We may appeal in this matter to the words of Confucius himself. Twice in the Analects he speaks of the Shih as a collection consisting of 300 pieces’, That work not being made on any principle of chronological order, we cannot positively assign those sayings to any particular years of Confucius’ life ; but it is, I may say, the unanimous opinion of Chinese critics that they were spoken before the time to which KAien and K( Hsi refer his special labour on the Book of Poetry. To my own mind the evidence that has been adduced is decisive on the points which I specified. The Shih, arranged very much as we now have it, was current in China before the time of Confucius, and its pieces were in the mouths of statesmen and scholars, constantly quoted by them on festive and other occasions. Poems not included in it there doubtless were, but they were comparatively few. Confucius may have made a copy for the use of himself and his disciples ; but it does not appear that he rejected any pieces which had been previously received into the collection, or admitted any which had not previously found a place in it. 4. The question now arises of what Confucius did for the Shih, if, indeed, he did anything at all. The only thing What Confucius FO which we can hazard an opinion on the did forthe point we have from himself. In the Analects, Shib IX, xiv, he tells us: —‘I returned from Wei to La, and then the music was reformed, and the pieces in ' In stating that the odes were 300, Confucius probably preferred to use the round number. There are, as I said in the former chapter, altogether 305 pieces, which is the number given by Sze-ma Khien. There are also the titles of six others. It is contended by Kd Hst and many other scholars that these titles were only the names of funes. More likely is the view that the text of the pieces so styled was lost after Confucius’ death. 284 THE SHIH KING. the Y4 and the Sung received their proper places.” The return from Wei to Lf took place only five years before the sage’s death. He ceased from that time to take an active part in political affairs, and solaced himself with music, the study of the ancient literature of his nation, the writing of ‘the Spring and Autumn,’ and familiar intercourse with those of his disciples who still kept around him. He reformed the music,—that to which the pieces of the Shih were sung; but wherein the reformation consisted we cannot tell. And he gave to the pieces of the YA and the Sung their proper places. The present order of the Books in the Fang, slightly differing from what was common in his boyhood, may have now been determined by him. More than this we cannot say.
3And he gave to the pieces of the YA and the Sung their proper places. The present order of the Books in the Fang, slightly differing from what was common in his boyhood, may have now been determined by him. More than this we cannot say. While we cannot discover, therefore, any peculiar and important labours of Confucius on the Shih, and we have it now, as will be shown in the next chapter, substantially as he found it already compiled to his hand, the subsequent preservation of it may reasonably be attributed to the admiration which he expressed for it, and the enthusiasm for it with which he sought to inspire his disciples. It was one of the themes on which he delighted to converse with them'. He taught that it is from the poems that the mind receives its best stimulus?, A man ignorant of them was, in his opinion, like one who stands with his face towards a wall, limited in his view, and unable to advance’. Of the two things that his son could specify as enjoined on him by the sage, the first was that he should learn the odes*. In this way Confucius, probably, contributed largely to the subsequent preservation of the Shih,— the preservation of the tablets on which the odes were inscribed, and the preservation of it in the memory of all who venerated his authority, and looked up to him as their master. 1 Analects, VII, xvii. 2 Analects, VIII, viii, XVII, ix. > Analects, XVII, x. * Analects, XVI, xiii. INTRODUCTION. 285 CHAPTER III. THE SHIH FROM THE TIME OF CONFUCIUS TILL THE GENERAL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE PRESENT TEXT. 1. Of the attention paid to: the study of the Shih from the death of Confucius to the rise of the KAin dynasty, we From Con. ave abundant evidence in the writings of his facius tothe grandson 3ze-sze, of Mencius, and of Hsiin Khin dynasty. Khing. One of the acknowledged distinctions of Mencius is his acquaintance with the odes, his quotations from which are very numerous; and Hsiin Khing survived the extinction of the Kau dynasty, and lived on into the times of KAin. 2. The Shih shared in the calamity which all the other classical works, excepting the Yi, suffered, when the tyrant of Kin issued his edict for their destruction. But I have shown, in the Introduction to the Shi, p. 7, that that edict was in force for less than a quarter of a century. The . odes were all, or very nearly all', recovered ; pene! and the reason assigned for this is, that their after ihe fires preservation depended on the memory of ‘scholars more than on their inscription on tablets of bamboo and on silk. 3. Three different texts of the Shih made their appearance early in the Han dynasty, known as the Shih of La, Three different Of Ai, and of Han; that is, the Book of texts, Poetry was recovered from three different quarters. Lift Hin’s Catalogue of the Books in the Imperial Library of Han (B.C. 6 to 1) commences, on the Shih King, with a collection of the three texts, in twentyeight chapters.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1Thus of 250 poems current in China before the supposed compilation of the Shih, 236 are found in it, and only fourteen. are absent. To use the words of K4éo Yi, a scholar of the present dynasty, ‘If the poems existing in 282 THE SHIH KING. Confucius’ time had been more than 3000, the quotations of poems now lost in these two works should have been ten times as numerous as the quotations from the 305 pieces said to have been preserved by him, whereas they are only between a twenty-first and twenty-second part of the existing pieces. This is sufficient to show that Khien’s statement is not worthy of credit.’ ii. Of the existence of the Book of Poetry before Confucius, digested in four Parts, and much in the same order as at present, there may be advanced the following proofs :— First. There is the passage in the Official Book of Ku, quoted and discussed in the last paragraph of the preceding chapter. We have in it a distinct reference to poems, many centuries before the sage, arranged and classified in the same way as those of the existing Shih. Our Shih, no doubt, was then in the process of formation. Second. In the ninth piece of the sixth decade of the Shih, Part II, an ode assigned to the time of king Ya, B.C. 781 to 771, we have the words, ‘They sing the Ya and the Nan, Dancing to their flutes without error.’ So early, therefore, as the eighth century B.C. there was a collection of poems, of which some bore the name of the Nan, which there is much reason to suppose were the K4u Nan and the Sh4o Nan, forming the first two Books of the first Part of the present Shih; and of which others bore the name of the Y4, being, probably, the earlier pieces that now compose a large portion of the second and third Parts. Third. In the narratives of 30 KAit-ming, under the twenty-ninth year of duke Hsiang, B.C. 544, when Confucius was only seven or eight years old, we have an account of a visit to the court of Li by an envoy from WA, an eminent statesman of the time, and a man of great learning. We are told that as he wished to hear the music of KAu, which he could do better in LQ than in any other state, they sang to him the odes of the Kau Nan and the Sh4o Nan; those of Phei, Yung, and Wei; of the Royal Domain; of Kang; of KAt; of Pin; of Kkin; of Wei; of INTRODUCTION. 283 Thang; of KAin; of Kwei; and of 3440. They sang to him also the odes of the Minor YA and the Greater Y4; and they sang finally the pieces of the Sung. We have thus, existing in the boyhood of Confucius, what we may call the present Book of Poetry, with its Fang, its Ya, and its Sung. The only difference discernible is slight,—in the order in which the Books of the Fang followed one another.
2We have thus, existing in the boyhood of Confucius, what we may call the present Book of Poetry, with its Fang, its Ya, and its Sung. The only difference discernible is slight,—in the order in which the Books of the Fang followed one another. Fourth. We may appeal in this matter to the words of Confucius himself. Twice in the Analects he speaks of the Shih as a collection consisting of 300 pieces’, That work not being made on any principle of chronological order, we cannot positively assign those sayings to any particular years of Confucius’ life ; but it is, I may say, the unanimous opinion of Chinese critics that they were spoken before the time to which KAien and K( Hsi refer his special labour on the Book of Poetry. To my own mind the evidence that has been adduced is decisive on the points which I specified. The Shih, arranged very much as we now have it, was current in China before the time of Confucius, and its pieces were in the mouths of statesmen and scholars, constantly quoted by them on festive and other occasions. Poems not included in it there doubtless were, but they were comparatively few. Confucius may have made a copy for the use of himself and his disciples ; but it does not appear that he rejected any pieces which had been previously received into the collection, or admitted any which had not previously found a place in it. 4. The question now arises of what Confucius did for the Shih, if, indeed, he did anything at all. The only thing What Confucius FO which we can hazard an opinion on the did forthe point we have from himself. In the Analects, Shib IX, xiv, he tells us: —‘I returned from Wei to La, and then the music was reformed, and the pieces in ' In stating that the odes were 300, Confucius probably preferred to use the round number. There are, as I said in the former chapter, altogether 305 pieces, which is the number given by Sze-ma Khien. There are also the titles of six others. It is contended by Kd Hst and many other scholars that these titles were only the names of funes. More likely is the view that the text of the pieces so styled was lost after Confucius’ death. 284 THE SHIH KING. the Y4 and the Sung received their proper places.” The return from Wei to Lf took place only five years before the sage’s death. He ceased from that time to take an active part in political affairs, and solaced himself with music, the study of the ancient literature of his nation, the writing of ‘the Spring and Autumn,’ and familiar intercourse with those of his disciples who still kept around him. He reformed the music,—that to which the pieces of the Shih were sung; but wherein the reformation consisted we cannot tell. And he gave to the pieces of the YA and the Sung their proper places. The present order of the Books in the Fang, slightly differing from what was common in his boyhood, may have now been determined by him. More than this we cannot say.
3And he gave to the pieces of the YA and the Sung their proper places. The present order of the Books in the Fang, slightly differing from what was common in his boyhood, may have now been determined by him. More than this we cannot say. While we cannot discover, therefore, any peculiar and important labours of Confucius on the Shih, and we have it now, as will be shown in the next chapter, substantially as he found it already compiled to his hand, the subsequent preservation of it may reasonably be attributed to the admiration which he expressed for it, and the enthusiasm for it with which he sought to inspire his disciples. It was one of the themes on which he delighted to converse with them'. He taught that it is from the poems that the mind receives its best stimulus?, A man ignorant of them was, in his opinion, like one who stands with his face towards a wall, limited in his view, and unable to advance’. Of the two things that his son could specify as enjoined on him by the sage, the first was that he should learn the odes*. In this way Confucius, probably, contributed largely to the subsequent preservation of the Shih,— the preservation of the tablets on which the odes were inscribed, and the preservation of it in the memory of all who venerated his authority, and looked up to him as their master. 1 Analects, VII, xvii. 2 Analects, VIII, viii, XVII, ix. > Analects, XVII, x. * Analects, XVI, xiii. INTRODUCTION. 285 CHAPTER III. THE SHIH FROM THE TIME OF CONFUCIUS TILL THE GENERAL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE PRESENT TEXT. 1. Of the attention paid to: the study of the Shih from the death of Confucius to the rise of the KAin dynasty, we From Con. ave abundant evidence in the writings of his facius tothe grandson 3ze-sze, of Mencius, and of Hsiin Khin dynasty. Khing. One of the acknowledged distinctions of Mencius is his acquaintance with the odes, his quotations from which are very numerous; and Hsiin Khing survived the extinction of the Kau dynasty, and lived on into the times of KAin. 2. The Shih shared in the calamity which all the other classical works, excepting the Yi, suffered, when the tyrant of Kin issued his edict for their destruction. But I have shown, in the Introduction to the Shi, p. 7, that that edict was in force for less than a quarter of a century. The . odes were all, or very nearly all', recovered ; pene! and the reason assigned for this is, that their after ihe fires preservation depended on the memory of ‘scholars more than on their inscription on tablets of bamboo and on silk. 3. Three different texts of the Shih made their appearance early in the Han dynasty, known as the Shih of La, Three different Of Ai, and of Han; that is, the Book of texts, Poetry was recovered from three different quarters. Lift Hin’s Catalogue of the Books in the Imperial Library of Han (B.C. 6 to 1) commences, on the Shih King, with a collection of the three texts, in twentyeight chapters.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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