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1If there were a Taoist semblance in the phraseology, it would make us refer the composition of the Treatise to the time of KAin or the early days of Han, when T4oism had taken a place in the national literature which it had not had under the dynasty of K4u. Book XXV. KuNG-Ni YEN XU. 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 Lf, 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, Xung-ni, which we find also two or three times in Book XXVIII, which is received as the composition of his grandson Khung Xi, or 3ze-sze. This Treatise, however, is much shorter than that, and inferior to it. The commentator Wang of Shih-liang?, often quoted by KAin © Hao, 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. ‘A RE KR. BK, XXVII. INTRODUCTION. 41 Book XXVI. KHUNG-8ZE HSIEN KU. 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 ease,’ 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-yze, ‘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 Hsia, Shang, and X4u, 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. Fane Xi.
2From 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. Fane Xi. ‘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 42 THE Lf xf. CH. Itt. 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 uot in his style, and the reasonings are occasionally un- _ worthy 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 Kang of the Sung dynasty has said :—‘ We do not know who wrote the Treatise. Since we find such expressions in it as “The Lun Yii says,” it is plainly not to be ascribed to Confucius. Passages in the Han scholars, Kia f and Tung Kung-shd, 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 Li Xi; and from an early time it asserted a position peculiar to itself. Its place in the general collection of Ritual Treatises was acknowledged by M4 Yung and his disciple Kang Hsiian; but in Lid Hsin’s Catalogue of the Li 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 WA (A. D. 502- 549) of the Liang dynasty. Later on, under the Sung dynasty, the Kung Yung, the Ta Hsio, or ‘Great Learning,’ which is also a portion of the Lt X%, the Confucian Analects, or the Lun Yii, and the works of Mencius, were classed together as ‘ The Four Books,’ BK, XXVIII. INTRODUCTION. 43
3D. 502- 549) of the Liang dynasty. Later on, under the Sung dynasty, the Kung Yung, the Ta Hsio, or ‘Great Learning,’ which is also a portion of the Lt X%, the Confucian Analects, or the Lun Yii, and the works of Mencius, were classed together as ‘ The Four Books,’ BK, XXVIII. INTRODUCTION. 43 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 X( Hst early in A.D. 1189. About 125 years afterwards, the fourth emperor of the Yiian dynasty enacted that K(’s edition and views should be the text-book of the classic at the literary examinations. From that time merely the name of the Aung Yung was retained in editions of the Li Xi, until the appearance of the Imperial edition of the whole collection in the KA/ien-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 Xing’ of the Thang dynasty, followed at the end of each paragraph by the Commentary of Ka. The authorship of the Xung Yung is ascribed to Khung Ki, better known as 3ze-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 450and 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 3ze-sze, transmitter of the Sage.’ I have seen his tomb-mound in the Confucian cemetery, outside the city of A4ii-f 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 f.’ It is not easy to translate the name of the Treatise, Kung Yung. It has been represented by ‘Juste Milieu;’ ‘Medium Constans vel Sempiternum;’ ‘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. 44 THE Li xt. CH. II. 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. Prdo Ki.
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.
1If there were a Taoist semblance in the phraseology, it would make us refer the composition of the Treatise to the time of KAin or the early days of Han, when T4oism had taken a place in the national literature which it had not had under the dynasty of K4u. Book XXV. KuNG-Ni YEN XU. 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 Lf, 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, Xung-ni, which we find also two or three times in Book XXVIII, which is received as the composition of his grandson Khung Xi, or 3ze-sze. This Treatise, however, is much shorter than that, and inferior to it. The commentator Wang of Shih-liang?, often quoted by KAin © Hao, 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. ‘A RE KR. BK, XXVII. INTRODUCTION. 41 Book XXVI. KHUNG-8ZE HSIEN KU. 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 ease,’ 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-yze, ‘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 Hsia, Shang, and X4u, 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. Fane Xi.
2From 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. Fane Xi. ‘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 42 THE Lf xf. CH. Itt. 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 uot in his style, and the reasonings are occasionally un- _ worthy 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 Kang of the Sung dynasty has said :—‘ We do not know who wrote the Treatise. Since we find such expressions in it as “The Lun Yii says,” it is plainly not to be ascribed to Confucius. Passages in the Han scholars, Kia f and Tung Kung-shd, 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 Li Xi; and from an early time it asserted a position peculiar to itself. Its place in the general collection of Ritual Treatises was acknowledged by M4 Yung and his disciple Kang Hsiian; but in Lid Hsin’s Catalogue of the Li 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 WA (A. D. 502- 549) of the Liang dynasty. Later on, under the Sung dynasty, the Kung Yung, the Ta Hsio, or ‘Great Learning,’ which is also a portion of the Lt X%, the Confucian Analects, or the Lun Yii, and the works of Mencius, were classed together as ‘ The Four Books,’ BK, XXVIII. INTRODUCTION. 43
3D. 502- 549) of the Liang dynasty. Later on, under the Sung dynasty, the Kung Yung, the Ta Hsio, or ‘Great Learning,’ which is also a portion of the Lt X%, the Confucian Analects, or the Lun Yii, and the works of Mencius, were classed together as ‘ The Four Books,’ BK, XXVIII. INTRODUCTION. 43 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 X( Hst early in A.D. 1189. About 125 years afterwards, the fourth emperor of the Yiian dynasty enacted that K(’s edition and views should be the text-book of the classic at the literary examinations. From that time merely the name of the Aung Yung was retained in editions of the Li Xi, until the appearance of the Imperial edition of the whole collection in the KA/ien-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 Xing’ of the Thang dynasty, followed at the end of each paragraph by the Commentary of Ka. The authorship of the Xung Yung is ascribed to Khung Ki, better known as 3ze-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 450and 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 3ze-sze, transmitter of the Sage.’ I have seen his tomb-mound in the Confucian cemetery, outside the city of A4ii-f 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 f.’ It is not easy to translate the name of the Treatise, Kung Yung. It has been represented by ‘Juste Milieu;’ ‘Medium Constans vel Sempiternum;’ ‘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. 44 THE Li xt. CH. II. 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. Prdo Ki.
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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