l Comm. x. a.


CHAPTER IV.

THE DOCTRINE OF THE MEAN.

SECTION I. ITS PLACE IN THE LI CHI, AND ITS PUBLICATION
SEPARATELY.

1. The Doctrine of the Mean was one of the treatises which
came to light in connexion with the labors of Liu Hsiang, and its
place as the thirty-first Book in the Li Chi was finally
determined by Ma Yung and Chang Hsuan. In the translation of the
Li Chi in 'The Sacred Books of the East' it is the twenty-eighth
Treatise.
2. But while it was thus made to form a part of the great
collection of Treatises on Ceremonies, it maintained a separate
footing of its own. In Liu Hsin's Catalogue of the Classical Works,
we find 'Two p'ien of Observations on the Chung Yung [l].' In the
Records of the dynasty of Sui (A.D. 589-618), in the chapter on
the History of Literature [2], there are mentioned three Works on
the Chung Yung;-- the first called 'The Record of the Chung Yung,'
in two chuan, attributed to Tai Yung, a scholar who flourished
about the middle of the fifth century; the second, 'A Paraphrase
and Commentary on the Chung Yung,' attributed to the emperor Wu
(A.D. 502-549) of the Liang dynasty, in one chuan ; and the third,
'A Private Record, Determining the Meaning of the Chung Yung,' in
five chuan, the author, or supposed author, of which is not