No More Learning

27. When the child of an inferior member of the ruler's harem was about to be born, the mother went to one of the side apartments, and at the end of three months, having washed her head and person, and

[1. See page 78, paragraph 42. ]

put on her court robes, she appeared before the ruler. (One of) her waiting women (also) appeared with the child in her arms. If (the mother) was one to whom the ruler had given special favours, he himself named the son. In the case of such children generally, an officer was employed to name them.

28. Among the common people who had no side chambers, when the month of confinement was come, the husband left his bed-chamber, and occupied a common apartment. In his inquiries for his wife, however, and on his son's being presented to him, there was no difference (from the observances that have been detailed).

29. In all cases though the father is alive, the grandson is presented to the grandfather, who also names him. The ceremonies are the same as when the son is presented to the father; but there is no (interchange of) words (between the mother and him).

30. The nurse of the ruler's boy[1] quitted the palace after three years, and, when she appeared before the ruler, was rewarded for her toilsome work. The son of a Great officer had a nurse. The wife of an ordinary officer nourished her child herself.

31. The son of a commissioned officer and others above him on to the Great officer was presented (to the father once) in ten days. The eldest son of a ruler was presented to him before he had eaten, when he took him by the right hand; his second or any other son by the wife proper[2] was presented after he had eaten, when he laid his hand on his head.

32. When the child was able to take its own food,

[1. See above, par. 17.

2. See above, par. 24. ]

it was taught to use the right hand. When it was able to speak, a boy (was taught to) respond boldly and clearly; a girl, submissively and low. The former was fitted with a girdle of leather; the latter, with one of silk[1].

[1. The account which follows this of the teaching and training of the brothers and sisters is interesting; and we may compare it with what is said in volume iii, p. 350, of the different reception given to sons and daughters in the royal family, though the distinction between them is not accentuated here so strongly. The passage treats of the children in a family of the higher classes, but those of the common people would be dealt with in a corresponding manner according to their circumstances. And even in the early feudal times the way was open for talent and character to rise from the lower ranks in the social scale, and be admitted to official employment. The system of competitive examinations was even then casting a shadow before. To number the days was, and is, a more complicated affair in China than with us, requiring an acquaintance with all the terms of the cycle of sixty, as well as the more compendious method by decades for each month. The education of a boy, it will be seen, comprehended much more than what we call the three R s. The conclusion of paragraph 33 gives the translator some difficulty. Zottoli has--'et petet exerceri lectionibus sermonisque veritate,' and my own first draft was--'he would ask to be exercised in (reading) the tablets, and in truthful speaking. ' But it is making too much of the boys of ancient China to represent them as anxious to be taught to speak the truth. The meaning of the concluding characters, as given in the text, is that assigned to them by Kang Hsüan.

There is nothing in what is said of the daughters to indicate that they received any literary training. They were taught simply the household duties that would devolve on them in their state of society; though among them, be it observed, were the forms and provision for sacrifice and worship. It will be observed, also, at how early an age all close intercourse between them and their brothers came to an end, and that at ten they ceased to go out from the women's apartments. On what is said about the young men marrying at the age of thirty I have spoken in a note on page 65. ]

33. At six years, they were taught the numbers and the names of the cardinal points; at the age of seven, boys and girls did not occupy the same mat nor eat together; at eight, when going out or coming in at a gate or door, and going to their mats to eat and drink, they were required to follow their elders:--the teaching of yielding to others was now begun; at nine, they were taught how to number the days.

At ten, (the boy) went to a master outside, and stayed with him (even) over the night. He learned the (different classes of) characters and calculation; he did not wear his jacket or trousers of silk; in his manners he followed his early lessons; morning and evening he learned the behaviour of a youth; he would ask to be exercised in (reading) the tablets, and in the forms of polite conversation.

34. At thirteen, he learned music, and to repeat the odes, and to dance the ko (of the duke of Kâu)[1]. When a full-grown lad, he danced the hsiang (of king Wû)[1]. He learned archery and chariot-driving. At twenty, he was capped, and first learned the (different classes of) ceremonies, and might wear furs and silk. He danced the tâ hsiâ (of Yü)[1] and attended sedulously to filial and fraternal duties. He might become very learned, but did not teach others;--(his object being still) to receive and not to give out.

35. At thirty, he had a wife, and began to attend

[1. It is difficult to describe exactly, amid the conflict of different views, these several dances. Dances were of two kinds, the civil and military. The ko was, perhaps, the first of the civil dances, ascribed to the duke of Kâu (vol. iii, p. 334); and the hsiang, the first of the martial. The two are said to have been combined in the tâ hsiâ. ]

to the business proper to a man. He extended his learning without confining it to particular subjects. He was deferential to his friends, having regard to the aims (which they displayed). At forty, he was first appointed to office; and according to the business of it brought out his plans and communicated his thoughts. If the ways (which he proposed) were suitable, he followed them out; if they were not, he abandoned them. At fifty, he was appointed a Great officer, and laboured in the administration of his department. At seventy, he retired from his duties. In all salutations of males, the upper place was given to the left hand.

36. A girl at the age of ten ceased to go out (from the women's apartments). Her governess taught her (the arts of pleasing speech and manners, to be docile and obedient, to handle the hempen fibres, to deal with the cocoons, to weave silks and form fillets, to learn (all) woman's work, how to furnish garments, to watch the sacrifices, to supply the liquors and sauces, to fill the various stands and dishes with pickles and brine, and to assist in setting forth the appurtenances for the ceremonies.

37. At fifteen, she assumed the hair-pin; at twenty, she was married, or, if there were occasion (for the delay), at twenty-three. If there were the betrothal rites, she became a wife; and if she went without these, a concubine. In all salutations of females, the upper place was given to the right hand.

Sacred-Texts Sacred-Texts: Confucianism Li Ki Index Next
THE

SACRED BOOKS OF CHINA

THE TEXTS OF CONFUCIANISM

TRANSLATED BY

JAMES LEGGE

PART IV

THE LÎ KÎ, I-X

Sacred Books of the East Volume 27

Originally Published 1885

Scanned at www. sacred-texts. com by J. B. Hare 2000



CONTENTS.

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION.

I. THREE DIFFERENT LÎ KING, OR RITUAL BOOKS, ACKNOWLEDGED IN CHINA. THE RECOVERY OF THE FIRST TWO, AND FORMATION OF THE THIRD, UNDER THE HAN DYNASTY.

How Confucius spoke of the Lî. How Mencius spoke of them. Now there are three Lî King or three Rituals. State of the Lî books at the rise of the Han dynasty. Work of the emperors of Han in recovering the ancient books. i. Recovery of the Î Lî. ii. King Hsien of Ho-kien, and his recovery of the Kâu Lî. iii. Formation of the Lî Kî. Council of B. C. 51. Condition in B. C. 26. Hau Zhang and the two Tâis. Mâ Yung and Kang Hsüan. Zhâi Yung and his manuscript. Lî of the Greater Tâi.

II. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CHINESE CHARACTER CALLED Lî. MEANING OF THE TITLE LÎ KÎ. VALUE OF THE WORK.

Lî is a symbol of religious import, and a symbol for the feeling of propriety. Translation of the title. The value of the Lî Kî. The Lî Kî as one of the five King,

III. BRIEF NOTICES OF THE DIFFERENT BOOKS WHICH MAKE UP THE COLLECTION.

I. Khü Lî

2. Than Kung

3. Wang Kih

4. Yüeh Ling

5. Zang-Dze Wan

6. Wan Wang Shih-Dze

7. Lî Yun

8. Lî Khî

9. Kiâo Theh Sang

10. Nêi Zeh

11. Yü Zâo

12. Ming Thang Wei

13. Sang Fû Hsiâo Kî

14. Ta Kwan

15. Shao Î

16. Hsio Kî

17. Yo Kî

18. Zâ Kî

19. Sang Tâ Kî

20. Kî Fâ

21. Kî Î

22. Kî Thung

23. King Kieh

24. Âi Kung Wan

25. Kung-nî Yen Kû

26. Khung-dze Hsien Kü

27. Fang Kî

28. Kung Yung

29. Piâo Kî

30. Dze Î

31. Pan Sang

32. Wan Sang

33. Fû Wan

34. Kien Kwan

35. San Nien Wan

36. Shan Î

37. Thâu Hû

38. Zû Hsing

39. Tâ Hsio

40. Kwan Î

41. Hwan Î

42. Hsiang Yin Kiû

43. Shê Î

44. Yen Î

45. Phing Î

46. Sang Fû Sze Kih

I. KHÜ LÎ OR SUMMARY OF THE RULES OF PROPRIETY.

SECTION I.

Part 1

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V

SECTION II.

Part I.

Part II.

Part III.

II. THE THAN KUNG.

SECTION I.

Part I

Part II

Part III.

Appendix to Book II

Plates I-VI

III. THE ROYAL REGULATIONS.

Section I

Section II

Section III

Section IV

Section V

IV. YÜEH LING OR PROCEEDINGS OF GOVERNMENT IN THE DIFFERENT MONTHS.

SECTION I

Part I

Part II

Part III

SECTION II

Part I

Part II

Part III

Supplementary Section

SECTION III.

Part I

Part II

Part III

SECTION IV.

Part I

Part II

Part III

V. THE QUESTIONS OF ZANG-DZE

Section I

Section II

VI. WAN WANG SHIH-DZE OR KING WAN AS SON AND HEIR.

Section I

Section II

VII. THE LÎ YUN OR CEREMONIAL USAGES;--THEIR ORIGIN, DEVELOPMENT, AND INTENTION.

Section I

Section II

Section III

Section IV

VIII. THE LÎ KHÎ OR RITES IN THE FORMATION OF CHARACTER.

Section I

Section II

Section III

IX. THE KIÂO THEH SANG OR THE SINGLE VICTIM AT THE BORDER SACRIFICES.

Section I

Section II

Section III

X. THE NÊI ZEH OR THE PATTERN OF THE FAMILY.

Section I

Section II

PREFACE.

I MAY be permitted to express my satisfaction that, with the two volumes of the Lî Kî now published, I have done, so far as translation is concerned, all and more than all which I undertook to do on the Chinese Classics more than twenty-five years ago. When the first volume was published in 1891, my friend, the late Stanislas Julien, wrote to me, asking if I had duly considered the voluminousness of the Lî Kî, and expressing his doubts whether I should be able to complete my undertaking. Having begun the task, however, I have pursued it to the end, working on with some unavoidable interruptions, and amidst not a few other engagements.

The present is the first translation that has been published in any European language of the whole of the Lî Kî. In 1853 the late J. M.
Callery published at the Imprimerie Royale, Turin, what he called 'Lî Kî, ou Mémorial des Rites, traduit pour la première fois du Chinois, et accompagné de Notes, de Commentaires, et du Texte Original. ' But in fact the text which P. Callery adopted was only an expurgated edition, published by Fan Sze-tang, a scholar of the Yüan dynasty, as commented on and annotated by Kâu Kih, whose well-known work appeared in 1711, the 50th year of the Khang-hsî reign or period[1]. Callery has himself called attention to this in his introduction, and it is to be regretted that he did not indicate it in the title-page of his book. Fan's text omits entirely the 5th, 12th, 13th, 19th, 28th, 31st, 32nd, 33rd, 34th, 35th, 37th, and 39th Books in my translation, while of most of the others,

[1. The {(###} for which Callery gives--Combinaison des Commentaires Ta Tsüen (le Grand Complet) et Chu (I'explication), d'apris le sens original du Mémorial des rites. ' Kâu Kih *(###) has the alias of Kâu Tan-lin (###). ]

'a good third' has been expurgated. I do not think that Callery's version contains above one half of the Lî Kî, as it is found in the great editions of the Thang and present dynasties. The latter of these was commanded in an imperial rescript in 1748, the 13th year of the Khien-lung period. The committee charged with its execution consisted of 85 dignitaries and scholars, who used the previous labours of 244 authors, besides adding, on many of the most difficult passages, their own remarks and decisions, which are generally very valuable.

My own version is based on a study of these two imperial collections, and on an extensive compilation, made specially for my use by my Chinese friend and former helper, the graduate Wang Thâo, gathered mostly from more recent writers of the last 250 years. The Khien-lung editors make frequent reference to the work of Khan Hâo, which appeared in 1322 under the modest title of, 'A Collection of Remarks on the Lî Kî[1]. ' This acquired so great a celebrity under the Ming dynasty, that, as Callery tells us, an edict was issued in 1403 appointing it the standard for the interpretation of the Classic at the public examinations; and this pre-eminence was accorded to it on to the Khien-lung period. The whole of the Lî Kî is given and expounded by Khan, excepting the 28th and 39th Books, which had long been current as portions of 'The Four Books. ' I may say that I have read over and over, and with much benefit, every sentence in his comments. Forming my own judgment on every passage, now agreeing with him and now differing, and frequently finding reason to attach a higher value to the views of the Khien-lung editors, I must say that 'he deserves well' of the Lî Kî. His volumes are characterised by a painstaking study of the original text, and an honest attempt to exhibit the logical connexion of thought in its several parts.

[1. ### The author has the aliases for Hâo of Kho Tâ (###) Yün-wang and Tung Hui (###); the last, I suppose, from his having lived near the lake so called. ]

P. Callery's translation of his expurgated text is for the most part well executed, and his notes, of which I have often made use, are admirable. I have also enjoyed the benefit of the more recent work, 'Cursus Litteratura o Sinicae,' by P. Angelo Zottoli, in whom the scholarship of earlier Jesuit missionaries has revived. In his third the earlier volume, published at Shang-hâi in 1880, there are good translations of the 1st, 5th, 10th, 20th, 21st, and 22nd Books; while the 28th and 39th are in his second volume. In the Latin which he employs, according to the traditions of his church and what is still a practice of some scholars, he is able to be more brief in his renderings than Callery and myself, but perhaps not so satisfactory to readers generally. I also referred occasionally to Signor Carlo Puini's 'Lî-Kî: Instituzioni, Usi e Costumanze della Cina antica; Traduzione. Commento e Note (Fascicolo Primo; Firenze, i883Y

The present translation is, as I said above, the first published in any European language of the whole of the Lî Kî; but another had existed in manuscript for several years, the work of Mr. Alexander Wylie, now unhappily, by loss of eye-sight and otherwise failing health, laid aside from his important Chinese labours. I was fortunate enough to obtain possession of this when I had got to the 35th Book in my own version, and, in carrying the sheets through the press, I have constantly made reference to it. It was written at an early period of Mr. Wylie's Chinese studies, and is not such as a Sinologist of his attainments and research would have produced later on. Still I have been glad to have it by me, though I may venture to say that, in construing the paragraphs and translating the characters, I have not been indebted in a single instance to him or P. Callery. The first six Books, and portions of several others, had been written out, more than once, before I finally left China in 1873; but I began again at the beginning, early in 1883, in preparing the present version. I can hardly hope that, in translating so extensive and peculiar a work. descriptive of customs and things at so remote a period of time, and without the assistance of any Chinese graduate with whom I could have talked over complicated and perplexing paragraphs, I may not have fallen into some mistakes; but I trust they will be found to be very few. My simple and only aim has been, first, to understand the text for myself and then to render it in English, fairly and as well a I could in the time attain to, for my readers.

J. L.

OXFORD,

July 10, 1885.

THE Lî Kî

OR

COLLECTION OF TREATISES ON THE RULES OF PROPRIETY OR CEREMONIAL USAGES.

INTRODUCTION.

CHAPTER I.

THREE DIFFERENT LÎ KING, OR RITUAL BOOKS, ACKNOWLEDGED IN CHINA. THE RECOVERY OF THE FIRST TWO, AND FORMATION OF THE THIRD, UNDER THE HAN DYNASTY.

How Confucius spoke of the Lî.

1. Confucius said, 'It is by the Odes that the mind is aroused; by the Rules of Propriety that the character is established; from Music that the finish is received[1]. ' On another occasion he said, 'Without the Rules of Propriety, respectfulness becomes laborious bustle; carefulness, timidity; boldness, insubordination; and straightforwardness, rudeness[1]. '

These are two specimens of the manner in which Confucius expressed himself about the Lî, the Rules of Propriety or Ceremonial Usages, recognised in his time. It is a natural inference from his language that there were Collections of such Rules which could be read and studied; but he does not expressly say so.

How Mencius spoke of them.

The language of Mencius was more definite. In at least two passages of his works we find the usual form of quotation Lî Yüeh, 'The Lî says[2],' which, according to the analogy of Shih Yüeh, 'The Shih King, or Book of Poetry, says,' might be rendered,

[1. Confucian Analects, Book VIII, 8 and 2.

2. Works of Mencius, II, Part ii, 2. 5; III, Part ii, 3. 3. ]

'The Lî. King says. ' In another passage, he says to a Mr. King Khun, 'Have you not read the Lî? ' It does not appear that Mencius was always referring to one and the same collection of Lî; but it is clear that in his time there were one or more such collections current and well known among his countrymen.

Now there are three Lî King, or three Rituals.

There are now three Chinese classics into which the name Lî enters:--the Î Lî, the Kâu Lî, and the Lî Kî, frequently styled, both by the Chinese themselves and by sinologists, 'The Three Rituals[2]. ' The first two are books of the Kâu dynasty (B. C. 1122-225). The third, of which a complete translation is given in the present work, may contain passages of an earlier date than either of the others; but as a collection in its present form, it does not go higher than the Han dynasty, and was not completed till our second century. It has, however, taken a higher position than those others, and is ranked with the Shû, the Shih, the Yî, and the Khun Khiû, forming one of 'The Five King,' which are acknowledged as the books of greatest authority in China. Other considerations besides antiquity have given, we shall see, its eminence to the Lî Kî.

State of the Lî books at the rise of the Han an dynasty.

2. The monuments of the ancient literature, with the exception, perhaps, of the Yi King, were in a condition of disorder and incompleteness at the rise of the Han dynasty. (B. C. 206). This was the case especially with the Î Lî and Kâu Lî. They had suffered, with the other books, from the fires and proscription of the short-lived dynasty of Khin, the founder of which was bent especially on their destruction[3]; and during the closing centuries of Kâu, in all the period of 'The Warring Kingdoms,' they had been variously mutilated by the contending princess[4].

[1. Works of Mencius, III, ii, 2. 2.

2. See Wylie's Notes on Chinese Literature, p. 4, and Mayers' Chinese Reader's Manual, p. 300.

3. Sze-mâ Khien's Biographies, Book 61 (###), p. 5b. Other testimonies to the fact could be adduced.

4. Mencius V, ii, 2. 2. See also the note of Liû Hsin, appended to his catalogue of Lî works, in the Imperial library of Han. ]

Work of the ancient emperors of Han in recovering the books.

The sovereigns of Han undertook the task of gathering up and arranging the fragments of the ancient books, and executed it well. . In B. C. 213 Shih Hwang Tî of Khin had promulgated his edict forbidding any one to hide and keep in his possession the old writings. This was repealed in B. C. 191 by the emperor Hui, so that it had been in existence only twenty-two years, during most of which, we may presume, it had been inoperative. Arrangements were also made to receive and preserve old tablets which might be presented[1], and to take down in writing what scholars might be able to repeat. In B. C. 164, the emperor Wan ordered 'the Great Scholars' of his court to compile 'the Royal Ordinances,' the fifth of the Books in our Lî Kî[2].

Recovery of the Î Lî.

i. Internal evidence shows that when this treatise was made, the Î Lî, or portions of it at least, had been recovered; and with this agrees the testimony of Sze-mâ Khien, who was born perhaps in that very year[3], and lived to between B. C. 90 and 80. In the 61st Book of his Biographies, referred to in a note above, Khien says, 'Many of the scholars repeated (parts of) the Lî; but no other of them so much as Kâo Thang of Lû; and now we have only the Shih Lî, which he was able to recite. ' In harmony with this statement of the great historian, is the first entry in Liû Hsin's Catalogue of Lî books in the Imperial library of Han:--'56 küan or sections of Lî in the old text, and 17 phien in the (current) text (of the time);' forming, as is universally believed, the present Î Lî, for which the Shih Lî of Khien is merely another name.

That Kâo Thang should have been able to dictate so much of the work will not be thought wonderful by those who

[1. Such was the 'Stone-Conduit Gallery,' which Mayers (Manual, p. 18,5) describes as a building erected by Hsiâo Ho at Khang-an for the reception of the records of the extinct Khin dynasty, about B. C. 200, adding that 'in B. C. 51, the emperor Hsüan appointed a commission of scholars to assemble in this building, and complete the revision of the classical writings. ' But it had also been' intended from the first as a repository for those writings as they were recovered.

2. See the General Mirror of History under that year.

3. Mayers puts his birth 'about B. C. 163,' and his death 'about 86. ']

are familiar with the power of memory displayed by many Chinese scholars even at the present day. The sections in the old text were found in the reign of the emperor Wû (B. C. 140-87), and came into the possession of his brother, known as king Hsien of Ho-kien. We do not know how much this mass of tablets added to the Î Lî, as we now have it, but they confirmed the genuineness of the portion obtained from Kâo.

King Hsien of Ho-kien, and his recovery of the Kâu Lî.

ii. The recovery of the Kâu Lî came not long after, and through the agency of the same king Hsien. No one did so much as he in the restoration of the ancient of literature. By name Teh, and one of the fourteen sons of the emperor King (B. C. 156-141), he was appointed by his father, in B. C. 155, king of Ho-kien, which is still the name of one of the departments of Kih-lî, and there he continued till his death, in 129, the patron of all literary men, and unceasingly pursuing his quest for old books dating from before the Khin dynasty. Multitudes came to him from all quarters, bringing to him the precious tablets which had been preserved in their families or found by them elsewhere. The originals he kept in his own library, and had a copy taken, which he gave to the donor with a valuable gift. We are indebted to him in this way for the preservation of the Tâo Teh King, the works of Mencius, and other precious treasures; but I have only to notice here his services in connexion with the Lî books[1].

Some one [2] brought to him the tablets of the Kâu Lî, then called Kâu Kwan, 'The Official Book of Kâu,' and purporting to contain a complete account of the organised government of the dynasty of Kâu in six sections. The sixth section, however, which should have supplied a list of the officers in the department of the minister of Works,

[1. See the account of king Hsien in the twenty-third chapter of the Biographies in the History of the first Han dynasty. Hsien was the king's posthumous title (###), denoting 'The Profound and Intelligent. '

2 The Catalogue of the Sui Dynasty's (A. D. 589-618) Imperial library says this was a scholar of the surname Lî (###). I have been unable to trace the authority for the statement farther back. ]

with their functions, was wanting, and the king offered to pay 1000 pieces of gold to any one who should supply the missing tablets, but in vain[1]. He presented the tablets which he had obtained at the court of his half-brother, the emperor Wû; but the treasure remained uncared for in one of the imperial repositories till the next century; when it came into the charge of Liû Hsin. Hsin replaced the missing portion from another old work, called Khâo Kun Kî, which Wylie renders by 'The Artificers' Record. ' This has ever since continued to appear as the sixth section of the whole work, for the charge of which Hsin obtained the appointment of a special board of scholars, such as had from the first been entrusted with the care of the Î Lî. The Kâu Lî is a constitutional and not a ritual work. The last entry in Hsin's Catalogue of Lî Books is:--'The Kâu Kwan in six sections; and a treatise on the Kâu Kwan in four sections. ' That is the proper name for it. It was not called the Kâu Lî till the Thang dynasty[2].

Formation of the Lî Kî.

iii. We come to the formation of the text of the Lî Kî, in which we are more particularly interested. We cannot speak of its recovery, for though parts of it had been in existence during the Kâu dynasty, many of its Books cannot claim a higher antiquity than the period of the Han. All that is known about the authorship of them all will be found in the notices which form the last chapter of this Introduction;

After the entry in Lia Hsin's Catalogue about the recovered

[1. This is related in the Catalogue of the Sui dynasty, It could not be in Khien's sixty-first chapter of Biographies, because the Kâu Kwan was not known, or, at least, not made public, in Khien's time. The Sui writers, no doubt, took it from some biography of the Han, which has escaped me.

2. A complete translation of the Kâu Lî appeared at Paris in 1851, the work of Edward Biot, who had died himself before its publication, before his fiftieth year. According to a note in Callery's 'Memorial des Rites' (p. 191), the labour of its preparation hastened Biot's death. There are some errors in the version, but they are few. I have had occasion to refer to hundreds of passages in it, and always with an increasing admiration of the author's general resources and knowledge of Chinese. His early death was the greatest loss which the cause of sinology has sustained. His labours, chiefly on Chinese subjects, had been incessant from 1835. The perusal of them has often brought to my memory the words of Newton, 'If Mr. Cotes had lived, we should have known something. ' Is there no sinologist who will now undertake a complete translation of the Î Lî? ]

text of the Î Lî, 'there follows--'131 phien of Kî,' that is, so many different records or treatises on the subject of Lî. These had also been collected by king Hsien, and Kû Hsî's note about them is that they were 'Treatises composed by the disciples of the seventy disciples,' meaning by 'the seventy disciples' those of Confucius' followers who had been most in his society and, profited most from his instructions. These 131 phien contained, no doubt, the germ of our Lî Kî; but there they remained for about a century in the imperial repositories, undigested and uncared for, and constantly having other treatises of a similar nature added to them.

Council of B. C. 511.

At last, in B. C. 51, the emperor Hsüan (B. C. 71-47) convoked a large assembly of Great Scholars to meet in the Stone-Conduit Gallery, and discuss the text of the recovered classics[1]. A prominent member of this assembly, the president of it I suppose, was Liû Hsiang, himself a celebrated writer and a scion of the imperial house, who appears to have had the principal charge of all the repositories. Among the other members, and in special connexion with the Lî works, we find the name of Tâi Shang, who will again come before us[2].

B. C. 26.

We do not know what the deliberations of the Great Scholars resulted in, but twenty-five years later the emperor Khang caused another search to be made throughout the empire for books that might hitherto have escaped notice; and, when it was completed, he ordered Hsiang to examine all the contents of the repositories, and collate the various copies of the classics. From this came the preparation of a catalogue; and Hsiang dying at the age of seventy-two, in B. C. 9, before it was completed, the work was delegated to his third and youngest son Hsin.