time of Fletcher. 'I have heard,' he says, 'that a minister of state in
the reign of Elizabeth had all manner of books and ballads brought to
him, of what kind soever, and took great notice how they took with the
people; upon which he would, and certainly might, very well judge of
their present dispositions, and of the most proper way of applying them
according to his own purposes [2].'

[1. As in the case of the Shu, Confucius generally speaks of 'the Shih,'
never using the name of 'the Shih King.' In the Analects, IX, xiv,
however, he mentions also the Ya and the Sung; and in XVII, x, he
specifies the Kau Nan and the Shao Nan, the first two books of the Kwo
Fang. Mencius similarly speaks of 'the Shih;' and in III, i, ch. 4, he
specifies 'the Sung of Lu,' Book ii of Part IV. In VI, ii, ch. 3, he
gives his views of the Hsiao Phan, the third ode of decade 5, Part II,
and of the Khai Fung, the seventh ode of Book iii of Part I.

2 This passage from the Spectator is adduced by Sir John Davis in his
treatise on the Poetry of the Chinese, p. 35.]

The theory of the Chinese scholars about a collection of poems for
governmental purposes.

In harmony with the views thus expressed is the theory of the Chinese
scholars, that it was the duty of the ancient kings to make themselves
acquainted with all the poems current in the different states, and to
judge from them of the rule exercised by the several princes, so that
they might minister praise or blame, reward or punishment accordingly.

The rudiments of this theory may be found in the Shu, in the Canon of
Shun; but the one classical passage which is appealed to in support of