tells us how the princes had made away with many of the records
of antiquity, from which their own usurpations and innovations
might have been condemned [3]. Still the times were not
unfruitful, either in scholars or statesmen, to whom the ways and
monuments of antiquity were dear, and the space from the rise of
the Ch'in dynasty to the death of Confucius was not very great. It
only amounted to 258 years. Between these two periods Mencius
stands as a connecting link. Born probably in the year B.C. 371, he
reached, by the intervention of Kung Chi, back to the sage himself,
and as his death happened B.C. 288, we are brought down to within
nearly half a century of the Ch'in dynasty. From all these
considerations we may proceed with confidence to consider each
separate Work, believing that we have in these Classics and Books
what the great sage of China and his disciples gave to their
country more than 2000 years ago.

1 ¹D®aªÌ¬y.
2 ¾¥®aªÌ¬y.
3 See Mencius, V. Pt. II. ii. 2.


CHAPTER II.
OF THE CONFUCIAN ANALECTS.

SECTION I.
FORMATION OF THE TEXT OF THE ANALECTS BY THE SCHOLARS OF
THE HAN DYNASTY.

1. When the work of collecting and editing the remains of
the Classical Books was undertaken by the scholars of Han, there