greater Ching, had also previously found a place in the literature
of China [1].

SECTION II.
THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHINESE CLASSICS.

1. This subject will be discussed in connexion with each
separate Work, and it is only designed here to exhibit generally
the evidence on which the Chinese Classics claim to be received
as genuine productions of the time to which they are referred.
2. In the memoirs of the Former Han dynasty (B.C. 202-A.D.
24), we have one chapter which we may call the History of
Literature [2]. It commences thus: 'After the death of Confucius
[3], there was an end of his exquisite words; and when his seventy
disciples had passed away, violence began to be done to their
meaning. It came about that there were five different editions of
the Ch'un Ch'iu, four of the Shih, and several of the Yi. Amid the
disorder and collisions of the warring States (B.C. 481-220),
truth and falsehood were still more in a state of warfare, and a
sad confusion marked the words of the various scholars. Then
came the calamity inflicted under the Ch'in dynasty (B.C. 220-
205), when the literary monuments were destroyed by fire, in
order to keep the people in ignorance. But, by and by, there arose
the Han dynasty, which set itself to remedy the evil wrought by
the Ch'in. Great efforts were made to collect slips and tablets [4],
and the way was thrown wide open for the bringing in of Books. In
the time of the emperor Hsiao-wu [5] (B.C. 140-85), portions of
Books being wanting and tablets lost, so that ceremonies and
music were