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III. THE AI_ALECTS. 69
any indication that it was written in his lifetime, indeed tile
internM evidence easily confutes any such theory. The
" History of Literature of the \Vestem Han dynasty " says
that "_he Analects were compiled by the disciples of Con-
fucius, coming together after his death, and digesting the
memorials of his discourses and conversations which they
had severally preserved." That during the years of
mourning for their Master they may have been led to note
down and compare their respective recollections of his
sayings is reasonable, but even this theory does not account
for the book in its present form, for surely at such a period
some last words would have been preserved, or some
reference made to his death and burial, which events are
utterly ignored in the AnaIects. The itlternal evidence
indeed seems to inhibit the idea that the book was compiled,
as we now have it, immediately after the Master's death;
for instance, Chapter XIX refers chiefly to the conduct of
his disciples, in some cases when they themselves were
professors with schools of their own. Not that such
evidence need be final, for the earlier scholars of the Sage
were themselves in the meridian of life when he reached
old age.
The chief argument in favour of a delayed authorship is
that, with one exception XII. 9, where respect for the
personage addressed prohibits the use, the two disciples
Ts&ng Tzfi _" _ and Yu Tzfi ;_ -_ are throughout
recorded with the suffix Tzfi, philosopher, a term the dis-
ciples would hardly apply to each other, unless equally
applied to more than these two. It is chiefly in consequence
of this that the Analeets are generally ascribed not to the