Learning_, or Learning for Adults; the _Doctrine of the Mean_, another
short philosophical treatise; the _Analects_, or conversations of
Confucius with his disciples, and other details of the sage's daily
life; and lastly, similar conversations of Mencius with his disciples
and with various feudal nobles who sought his advice.

These nine works are practically learned by heart by the Chinese
undergraduate. But there are in addition many commentaries and
exegetical works—the best of which stand in the Cambridge
Library—designed to elucidate the true purport of the Canon; and these
must also be studied. They range from the commentary of K'ung An-kuo of
the second century B.C., a descendant of Confucius in the twelfth
degree, down to that of Yüan Yüan, a well-known scholar who only died so
recently as 1849. These commentaries include both of the two great
schools of interpretation, the earlier of which was accepted until the
twelfth century A.D., when it was set aside by China's most brilliant
scholar, Chu Hsi, who substituted the interpretation still in vogue, and
obligatory at the public competitive examinations which admit to an
official career.

Archæological works referring to the Canon have been published in great
numbers. The very first book in our Catalogue is an account of every
article mentioned in these old records, accompanied in all cases by
woodcuts. Thus the foreign student may see not only the robes and caps
in which ancient worthies of the Confucian epoch appeared, but their
chariots, their banners, their weapons, and general paraphernalia of
everyday life.

Side by side with the sacred books of Confucianism stand the heterodox
writings of the Taoist philosophers, the nominal founder of which