decadence and confusion. It was probably in the latter part of his reign
that King-khao, an ancestor of Confucius, obtained from the Grand
Music-Master at the court of Kau twelve of the sacrificial odes of the
previous dynasty, as will be related under the Sacrificial Odes of
Shang, with which he returned to Sung,

[1. See Mencius, IV, ii, ch. 21.]

which was held by representatives of the line of Shang. They were used
there in sacrificing to the old Shang kings; yet seven of the twelve
were lost before the time of the sage.

The general conclusion to which we come is, that the existing Shih is
the fragment of various collections made during the early reigns of the
kings of Kau, and added to at intervals, especially on the occurrence of
a prosperous rule, in accordance with the regulation that has been
preserved in the Li Ki. How it is that we have in Part I odes of
comparatively few of the states into which the kingdom was divided, and
that the odes of those states extend only over a short period of their
history:--for these things we cannot account further than by saying that
such were the ravages of time arid the results of disorder. We can only
accept the collection as it is, and be thankful for it. How long before
Confucius the collection was closed we cannot tell.

Bearing of these views on the interpretation of particular pieces.

3. The conclusions which I have thus sought to establish concerning the
formation of the Shih as a collection have an important bearing on the
interpretation of many of the pieces. The remark of Sze-ma Khien that
Confucius selected those pieces which would be service able for the