preservation of the tablets on which the odes were inscribed, and the
preservation of it in the memory of all who venerated his authority, and
looked up to him as their master.

[1. Analects, VII, xvii.

2 Analects, VIII, viii, XVII, ix.

3. Analects, XVII, x.

4. Analects, XVI, xiii.]


CHAPTER III.


THE SHIH FROM THE TIME OF CONFUCIUS TILL THE GENERAL
ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE PRESENT TEXT.

From Confucius to rise of the Khin dynasty.

1. Of the attention paid to the study of the Shih from the death of
Confucius to the rise -of the Khin dynasty, we have abundant evidence in
the writings of his the grandson Dze-sze, of Mencius, and of Hsuen Khing.
One of the acknowledged distinctions of Mencius is his acquaintance with
the odes, his quotations from which are very numerous; and Hsuen Khing
survived the extinction of the Kau dynasty, and lived on into the times
of Khin.

The Shih was all recovered, after the fires of Khin.