Texts of Confucianism, Part I: The Shû King, the Religious Portions of the Shih King, the Hsiâo King — SBE Vol. 3 (trans. James Legge, 1879)

The dynasty which he had sought to establish passed away in B.C. 206. That of Han dates from the year B.C. 202, and in 191 the edict against the ancient books was formally repealed. They had been

Recovery of Under the ban for less than a quarter of a the Sha. century. There would probably have been no difficulty in recovering copies of them, but for the sack of the capital in B.C. 206 by the most formidable opponent of the founder of the House of Han. Then the fires blazed, we are told, for three months among the palaces and public buildings, and proved as destructive to the copies that might have been preserved about the court as the edict of AAin had been to those among the people.

Among the scholars of A4in, however, there had been one, of the surname Fd, who, when the edict was issued, hid his tablets of the Shi in a wall. Returning for them, after the rule of Han was established, he found that many were perished or gone. He recovered only twenty-nine of the documents, containing, according to the division of them that has long been followed, thirty-five books in all. About one of them there is some difficulty, on the discussion of which I need not enter. Fa commenced teaching them, and from all parts scholars resorted to him, and sat at his feet. The emperor Wan (B.C. 179-155) heard of him, and sent one of the recorders of the court to visit him, and bring the recovered tablets themselves, or a copy of them, to the capital. They were in the form of the character that was prevalent at that time, different from that which had been used in previous centuries, and are known as ‘the Shd of the modern text.’ The Catalogue of the Imperial Library, prepared by Lid Hin for the emperor Ai (B.C. 6-1), contains an entry of ‘the text of the Shad in twenty-nine portions,—the same, no doubt, which wasp. 8 received from Fd. Fd himself commented on his Sha. The text was engraved on the stone tablets of the emperor Ling (A.D. 168-189). Very many scholars of the Han times laboured on this text, taught it to their disciples, and published their views on it. Not one of their writings, however, survived, in a complete form, the troubles which desolated the empire during the reign of the emperor Hwai (A. D. 307-312) of the western dynasty of Kin.

Not one of their writings, however, survived, in a complete form, the troubles which desolated the empire during the reign of the emperor Hwai (A. D. 307-312) of the western dynasty of Kin.

In the reign of the Han emperor Wd (B.C. 140-85) a discovery was made in the wall of the house of the Khung or Confucian family of the tablets of the Sha, the Spring and Autumn, the classic of Filial Piety, and the Lun-yii or Confucian Analects. How long they had lain there we do not know. It is commonly said that they had been hidden by some one of the Khung family to save them from the fires of KAin. But they were in a form of the character that had long gone into disuse, and which hardly any one could decipher, and must have been deposited towards the beginning of the fifth century B.c. They were committed to the care of Khung An-kwo, who was then one of the ‘ great scholars’ of the empire, and the chief of the Khung family. By means of the current text of Fa and other resources he made out all the tablets of the Sha that were in good preservation, and in addition to Fi’s twenty-nine documents several others. He found also that Fd had in three cases incorporated two different documents under one name, and taken no note of the division of one other into three books or sections. Altogether there were now forty-six documents or different portions of the old Sha brought anew to light. They appear in Lid’ Hin’s Catalogue as ‘the text of the Sha in old characters in forty-six portions.’

When An-kwo had made out the tablets, he presented them to the emperor in B.C. 97, with a transcript of them in the current characters of the time, keeping a second transcript of them for himself; and he received an order to make a commentary on the whole. He did so, but when he was about to lay the result of his labours before the court, troubles had arisen which prevented for several yeafs the paying attention to literary matters. It wasp. 9 owing to these that his commentary was neglected for a time, and the enlarged text which he had deciphered was not officially put in charge of the Board of ‘Great Scholars,’ to which the care of the five King, so far as they had been recovered, had been committed in B.C. 136.

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owing to these that his commentary was neglected for a time, and the enlarged text which he had deciphered was not officially put in charge of the Board of ‘Great Scholars,’ to which the care of the five King, so far as they had been recovered, had been committed in B.C. 136.

An-kwo’s commentary, however, was not lost; but before speaking of it, I must refer to a third recovery of a large. portion of the Shd early in our first century. A scholar and officer, named Td Lin, had been a fugitive, having many wonderful escapes, during the usurpation of Mang (A.D. 9-22). During his wanderings he discovered a portion of the Sha on ‘lacquered’ tablets, or perhaps on lacquered cloth, which he thenceforth guarded as his richest treasure, and kept near his person. When the empire was again settled by the first emperor of the eastern Han, he communicated his text to other scholars. Wei Hung published a commentary on it, and subsequently Xia Khwei, Ma Yung, and Kang Khang-é/ang (all, great names in Chinese literature) did the same. Td Lin’s ‘ lacquered’ books were the same in number as An-kwo’s, but they contained five documents in thirteen books, which were not in the text of the other, and wanted nine documents, also in thirteen books, which An-kwo’s text had. The commentary of Kang Khang-&/ang continued till the Sui dynasty, after which we lose sight of it.

I return to the commentary of An-kwo, which, of course, contained his text. Its transmission from hand to hand down to the close of the western Han dynasty is clearly traced. Less distinctly, but surely, we can discover evidence of its preservation, till we come to the commencement of the eastern dynasty of Kin, when Mei 3eh, a recorder of the Interior, having come into possession of a copy, presented it to the emperor Yiian (A. D. 317-322). The Canon of Shun was wanting in it, and was supplied from the commentary of Ma Yung, based on the text of Td Lin. From this time the text and commentary of An-kwo had their place assigned them in the Imperial College. They are mentioned in the Catalogue of the Imperial Library of Sui. The second emperor of the Thang dynasty gave ordersp. 10 for a grand edition of the Sha, under the superintendence of Khung Ying-t4, assisted by others. They adopted the commentary of An-kwo, and enriched it with profuse annotations. In A.D. 654 their work was ordered to be printed, and happily remains to the present day. The text of the Sha, that is, of all of it that had been recovered by Ankwo, was still further secured, being engraved with that of all the other classics on the Thang tablets of stone which were completed in the year 837, and are still preserved at Khang-an, in Shen-hsi.