the Preface to it, remarkable for the accuracy with which it gives the
meaning of the pieces in the Fang and the Ya, and which is now current
in the world.']

his work. We must take into account, however, on the other hand, the
statement of King Khang-khang, that the Preface existed as a separate
document when Mao appeared with his text, and that he broke it up,
prefixing to each ode the portion belonging to it, The natural
conclusion is, that the Preface had come down from a remote period, and
that Hung merely added to it, and rounded it off. In accordance with
this, scholars generally bold that the first sentences in the
introductory notices formed the original Preface, which Mao distributed,
and that the following portions were subsequently added.

'This view may appear reasonable; but when we examine those first
sentences themselves, we find that some of them do not agree with the
obvious meaning of the odes to which they are prefixed, and give only
rash and baseless expositions. Evidently, from the first, the Preface
was made up of private speculations and conjectures on the
subject-matter of the odes, and constituted a document by itself,
separately appended to the text. Then on its first appearance there were
current the explanations of the odes that were given in connexion with
the texts of Lu, Khi, and Han Ying, so that readers could know that it
was the work of later hands, and not give entire credit to it. But when
Mao no longer published the Preface as a separate document, but each ode
appeared with the introductory notice as a portion of the text, this
seemed to give it the authority of the text itself. Then after the other
texts disappeared and Mao's had the field to itself, this means of
testing the accuracy of its prefatory notices no longer existed. They
appeared as if they were the production of the poets themselves, and the