school, known as Lao TzÅ­, flourished at an unknown date before
Confucius. Some of these are deeply interesting; others have not escaped
the suspicion of forgery—a suspicion which attaches more or less to any
works produced before the famous Burning of the Books, in B.C. 211, from
which the Confucian Canon was preserved almost by a miracle. An Emperor
at that date made an attempt to destroy all literature, so that a fresh
start might be made from himself.

But I do not intend to detain you at present over Taoism, about which I
hope to say more on a subsequent occasion. Still less shall I have
anything to say on the few Buddhist works which are also to be found in
the Cambridge collection. It is rather along less well-beaten paths that
I shall ask you to accompany me now.

In Division B, the first thing which catches the eye is a long line of
217 thick volumes, about a foot in height. These are the dynastic
histories of China, in a uniform edition published in the year 1747,
under the auspices of the famous Emperor Ch'ien Lung, who himself
contributed a Preface.

The first of this series, known as _The Historical Record_, was produced
by a very remarkable man, named SsÅ­-ma Ch'ien, sometimes called the
Father of History, the Herodotus of China, who died nearly one hundred
years B.C.; and over his most notable work it may not be unprofitable to
linger awhile.

Starting with the five legendary Emperors, some 2700 years B.C., the
historian begins by giving the annals of each reign under the various
more or less legendary dynasties which succeeded, and thence onward
right down to his own times, the last five or six hundred years, _i.e._