previously compiled a digest of the differences between its text and
those of the other three recensions, at the command of the emperor Ming
(A.D. 58 to 75). The equally celebrated Ma Yung (A.D. 79 to 166)
followed with another commentary;--and we arrive at Kang Hsuean or Kang
Khang-khang (A.D. 127 to 200), who wrote a Supplementary Commentary to
the Shih of Mao, and a Chronological Introduction to the Shih. The
former of these two works complete, and portions of the latter, are
still extant. After the time of King the other three texts were little
heard of, while the name of the commentators on Mao's text speedily
becomes legion. It was inscribed, moreover, on the stone tablets of the
emperor Ling (A.D. 168 to 189). The grave of Mao Kang is still shown
near the village of Zun-fu, in the departmental district of Ho-kien, Kih-li.

The different texts guarantee the genuineness of the recovered Shih.

5. Returning now to what I said in the second paragraph, it will be
granted that the appearance of three different and independent texts,
soon after the rise of the Ha dynasty, affords the most satisfactory a
evidence of the recovery of the Book of Poetry as it had continued from
the time of Confucius. Unfortunately, only fragments of those texts
remain now; but they were, while they were current, diligently compared
with one another, and with the fourth text of Mao, which subsequently
got the field to itself. When a collection is made of their peculiar
readings, so far as it can now be done, it is clear that their
variations from one another and from Mao's text arose from the alleged
fact that the preservation of the odes was owing to their being
transmitted by recitation. The rhyme helped the memory to retain them,
and while wood, bamboo, and silk had all been consumed by the flames of
Khin, when the time of repression ceased, scholars would be eager to
rehearse their stores. It was inevitable, and more so in China than in a