Fourth. We may appeal in this matter to the words of Confucius himself.
Twice in the Analects he speaks of the Shih as a collection consisting
of 300 pieces[1]. That work not being made on any principle of
chronological order, we cannot positively assign those sayings to any
particular years of Confucius' life; but it is, I may say, the unanimous
opinion of Chinese critics that they were spoken before the time to
which Khien and Ku Hsi refer his special labour on the Book of Poetry.

To my own mind the evidence that has been adduced is decisive on the
points which I specified. The Shih, arranged very much as we now have
it, was current in China before the time of Confucius, and its pieces
were in the mouths of statesmen and scholars, constantly quoted by them
on festive and other occasions. Poems not included in it there doubtless
were, but they were comparatively few. Confucius may have made a copy
for the use of himself and his disciples; but it does not appear that he
rejected any pieces which had been previously received into the
collection, or admitted any which had not previously found a place in it.

What Confucius did for the Shih.

4. The question now arises of what Confucius did for the Shih, if,
indeed, he did anything at all. The only thing from which we can hazard
an opinion on the point we have from himself. In the Analects, IX, xiv,
he tells us:--'I returned from Wei to Lu, and then the music was
reformed, and the pieces in

[1. In stating that the odes were 300, Confucius probably preferred to
use the round number. There are, as I said in the 'former chapter,
altogether 305 pieces, which is the number given by Sze-ma Khien. There