4. THE CLASSICS.--The first five canonical books are "The Book of
Transformations," "The Book of History," "The Book of Rites," "The Spring
and Autumn Annals," and "The Book of Odes"

"The Book of Transformations" consists of sixty-four short essays on
important themes, symbolically and enigmatically expressed, based on
linear figures and diagrams. These cabala are held in high esteem by the
learned, and the hundreds of fortune-tellers in the streets of Chinese
towns practice their art on the basis of these mysteries.

"The Book of History" was compiled by Confucius, 551-470 B. C., from the
earliest records of the Empire, and in the estimation of the Chinese it
contains the seeds of all that is valuable in their political system,
their history, and their religious rites, and is the basis of their
tactics, music, and astronomy. It consists mainly of conversations between
kings and their ministers, in which are traced the same patriarchal
principles of government that guide the rulers of the present day.

"The Book of Rites" is still the rule by which the Chinese regulate all
the relations of life. No every-day ceremony is too insignificant to
escape notice, and no social or domestic duty is beyond its scope. No work
of the classics has left such an impression on the manners and customs of
the people. Its rules are still minutely observed, and the office of the
Board of Rites, one of the six governing boards of Peking, is to see that
its precepts are carried out throughout the Empire. According to this
system, all the relations of man to the family, society, the state, to
morals, and to religion, are reduced to ceremonial, but this includes not
only the external conduct, but it involves those right principles from
which all true politeness and etiquette spring.